Just When You Think You've Heard It All

This is not a joke....I just received this phone call at work. I wanted to tweet, but it's too long.....

Man: "Do you do amputations?"

Me: "Yes we perform surgical procedures. Can you please explain your situation?" (Meaning is this a routine procedure or trauma?)

Man: "My cat got out this weekend and came home with a trap on it's leg. I removed the trap but the paw was dead, so I cut off the paw above the knee. There's a bone sticking out and it's all dry and crusty."

Me: (Thinking WHAT?!) "Ok. Let me get to a computer..." "I can see you at 1pm today."

Man: "Oh, I can't do today. It would have to be tomorrow. I'm at work."

Me: "This is something that is urgent and should be seen immediately."

Man: "Well, I'm just calling around to get prices. I need an estimate."

Me: "Unfortunately this isn't something I can give an estimate over the phone, not having seen the cat. I can tell you it's $45 for an examination."

Man: "I thought I was quit clear. I cut off the paw above the knee...."

Me: "Sir, I understand what you did however this is something that we don't know what we're getting into. I'm a technician, not the doctor. However, the doctor would be unable to get an estimate over the phone either."

Man: "This isn't a human or anything. I don't want to put $45 into it for an exam only to find out it'd be $300 to fix, so I'd just put it down. I'd be out $45."

Me: (Thinking, yeah, it's going to be a hell of a lot more than $300 to fix. And trying not to sound like a broken record, I let silence take over.)

Man: "Well, since you can't give me a price I guess I'll go elsewhere."

He hangs up and then continues down the list of veterinarians in the phone book because we get another call in a few minutes (we have a couple numbers listed due to various names/vets). Thankfully I had already told the office manager about the problem and she received the second call. She told him the same thing.

I can understand calling around for prices for certain things (i.e. vaccines), but think about this....do you call the hospital to see how much it's going to cost to have an ACL repaired? Or even more, would you attempt to perform the procedure on yourself? But hey, it's not a human or anything, it's just an animal ;)

I could write a book on the phone calls and individuals I come in contact with.