Case Closed

Every once in a while I have a case that drags on and on and takes on a nightmarish quality. The kind of situation when a customer will call in ( in this case, a customer’s son) and I dreaded the call because I have to tell them there has not been any progress on their case.

Over the past couple of years we(our office) has had the opportunity to giveaway wheelchairs to people who need them. No questions asked, nothing to fill out and not strings attached. The wheelchair is brand new, fairly light weight with a small back pack. In fact these chairs tend to fall apart fairly quickly, I believe they are temporary at best but it is amazing how fast these chair go when we have them in stock. It’s a good chair for someone with a broken leg or maybe an older person who will not put too much stress on it, or a chair to use until a more heavy duty chair can be ordered. We them office has had access to a pick-up truck we have been able to pick up a pallet of chair at a time about five chairs come to a pallet. I don’t know how word gets round be we start getting calls for the chairs as soon as they arrive and are gone with in two weeks. Well, we lost the truck and so we have not had any chairs for some time. But people continue to call needing the chairs. These chairs are provided by the Wheelchair Foundation, a national project providing wheelchairs to those who need.

About two months ago I got a call from a women who just would not take the explanation that we did not have any more chairs. This kid was searching for a choir for his mother and he was dedicated to this project. He called every week and sometimes got pretty hot under the collar—I would tell him this is not what our office does. We have been doing this only because these chairs were available. It did not matter. Realizing the kid was not going to give up I figured better see what I could do. I called the foundation I described the problem and the sent me a chair or a pick up notice for where the chair was being sent. I got the email this morning: the wheelchair had been delivered. I got on the phone when I got back to the office from my meetings, and called the consumer’s kid who sounded ecstatic. He was could not wait to get over to Welfare Square to take possession of his mother’s new. Mom was in the background yelling thanks. I apologized for how long this event took to arrange and they both let me off the hook saying it as not a problem. It was a problem they should not have had to wait so long. I was part of that problem—I just did not know how to do it. I do now and if I ever have to do this again I think it will run a lot smoother.

So the consumer seems happy, she has her chair, the kid is happy the mother is off his back and I am pleased to have a warm feeling and a case closed.