Well after about a total of around 2-3 hours of sleep finally this morning, from my nerves being so zinged out, trying to decide wither to go through with the surgery or not. I yank my restless run-dead body from the soft sheets around 7am; tired and millions of “what-ifs” are blasting through my brain. I figure I have about 4 hours to calmly unwind and attempt a short-shot of relaxing. Not a chance…

Ok so the time from 7am to the dreaded 11am swiftly blew right on by. At around 11:30am I give Zone Care Transportation a ring to confirm that a driver would be at my place at 11:45am so that we could positively make my 1:30pm appointment in Palatka; which from my apartment is roughly about an hour and a half to get there. With a brief hold the dispatcher, I assume that’s what she was, gets my driver on the phone to say, “I’m on the way now,” How incorrect could that be from the truth, I was yet to discover; 12:15pm rolls around and still no show. By now. at 12:30pm, if they arrived I’d be late for my appointment due to the travel time to the doctor’s office. 12:40pm…. knock-knock… doorbell. Wow, an hour late. I ask the driver if the appointment should just be re-scheduled because we weren’t making a 1:30pm appointment with an hour and a half drive and it was already 12:40pm; just wouldn’t happen captain. The driver’s supervisor advises the driver to “try and make it still”; I simply say… that’s just not a possibility and I will call in to re-schedule.

Aggravation along with my fried nerves now…

I immediately go inside to call my lawyer to express my frustration and aggravation. The paralegal is out to lunch that handles my case. I leave a descriptive voice-mail with the gist of the scenario: they were late by an hour, plan and precise. That message was left at 12:43pm. I get to talk to her at around 1:30pm after she had returned from her lunch, I was able to easily get her on the line to discuss what had happened. It is now, my paralegal flattens me with what was said, that I somehow very cleverly hold my composure and don’t blow open my mouth with obscenities galore. She tells me that Zone Care Transportation people notified the insurance company and the case worker that they arrived at my place at 11:40am and I stated I would just re-schedule!! My mind spontaneously thought “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” I mean these dip-shits first have the audacity to arrive an hour late to pick me up then were ballsy enough to claim they were here at 11:40am and I refused! Funny thing was I had my girl and my roommate here that both know that they weren’t here. So after explaining the truth to my lawyer they now were agitated. She instructed me to call Zone Care and get the drivers name and and the supervisor that handle this situation. So I did and after I got the very same supervisor that had said “try and make it still”; well needless to say I asked the first most obvious question: “What time was it when your driver called you to ask what to do for the appointment. and what time was logged as his arrival?” He said 12:30pm. Amazing how that got translated to the insurance company as 11:40am… I then requested that he promptly call the insurance company to correct the misunderstanding.

Now I my mind was picking the whole ordeal apart piece by piece. I called my lawyer back to verify my claim as to when they arrived and the supervisor admitted to the hour lateness as well. Then I ran across one simple fact that even further proved my honesty: I called my lawyer at precisely 12:43pm and left the message that they had just then showed up. While coincidently within a 5 minute interval from 12:40pm, an hour after my schedule pick-up, Zone Care notified the insurance company. Why would they wait a whole hour to report it? Furthermore, after analyzing deeper I realized the Zone Care’s policy of canceling and scheduling: you must call 48 hours prior to the cancellation of a pick-up to avoid a penalty fee that the insurance companies won’t cover.

What does this all amount up to? You ask…
Well they now realized that they screwed themselves from being an hour late. So not only did they probably alter and disturb other schedules, but also were going to suffer monetary loss. If they advised the insurance company which wouldn’t cover the penalty fee, it would be sent to me. Which by then would be too late to dispute. I caught it from the get go and rectified their asses smoothly!

I Win!