Bruff and flustrated

I dreamt the other night that one of the people in my dream was described as being “bruff”.  I knew exactly what it meant in the dream.

Then I woke up, and puzzled for five or ten minutes.  I could not remember whether or not “bruff” is a real word.  

It’s not, but I think that it could be.  We should use it to describe someone who is both “brusque” and “rough”.

The dream reminded me of a woman I knew who often said that she was “flustrated”.  It was nice combination of “flustered” and “frustrated”.

I got a bit flustrated last week when at the Doctor’s office a clerk told me (in a loud voice which could be heard by other patients) that my account was in arrears in the princely sum of $13 and unless I paid it immediately the delinquent amount would be handed over to a bill collection agency.

I was not in the least bit bruff, but I reminded her that my track record is to pay bills promptly, usually within a week or receipt.

I was bothered, so I wrote a very polite letter to my Doctor, letting her know of my displeasure.  The Doctor handed my letter on to an administrator.  

I received a reply today.

It read in part “Let me start by apologising to you. It is never our intention to make our patient’s feel uncomfortable when they come into our office.  You are not in collection status and she should not have stated that you were. She misread the information on the computer.  What she read was your date of service... and not the statement date.  She has since been put through more training”.


It was a good and thoughtful reply to my letter, and it restored my good feelings about the Group Practice which I use. 


I am glad that I complained, and I like to think that my complaint and the administrator’s response will help ensure that other patients will not be given “duff” information”.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shoe insults

The background, the couple, my friends, the wedding ceremony, the Shaykh, the Priest,

It began in Bristol U.K. "A man dies" and "Jesus Christ Superstar"