I called the business department and asked them for some basic information. The staff over the phone told me to come down to their office around 4 pm and meet someone who could answer all my questions and give me some advice also. I went down to the place and couldn’t find any parking for more than an hour. I parked in a 30-minute parking about 30 minutes away from the business department building and had to walk over to the building, hoping to get some answers to my questions.

I took the elevator to the required floor and waited for a while for someone to come over to the front desk; apparently everyone was sleeping inside or sniffing on something. Someone finally came out of one of the rooms after I kept making noises. I was led to a room where a senior staff was working very hard on some paperwork. She looked up, greeted me and asked me about the reasons behind my visit. I told her about the things I was looking for, and she listened attentively. After I was done talking, she opened her drawer, gave me her business card and told me to email her the questions and she would answer them over the email right away. I looked at the card, looked at her and thanked her for her time. On the way out, I asked for the staff member who had told me over the phone to come and get “all the questions answered.” She had left for the day and would be back tomorrow, I was told. I left the building, walked back to the car and found a parking ticket placed nicely under the driver-side windshield wiper.

I had just spent around two hours trying to find parking and then walking back and forth from the business department, and in the end had nothing but a business card and a $45 parking violation ticket. I’m sure the business department couldn’t give out a work email address and a work phone number of a staff member over the phone, even though that information is published publicly on their website. It would be interesting for me to call back and ask the department as to why it was necessary for them to make me come all the way down just to get a business card and not have any of my questions answered. In fact, I had more questions after I left the building than when I walked in.

What do you think about this? What would you do or think if you went through something similar? As for me, I’ll probably be calling or going back to the office tomorrow to talk to that nice lady who was desperate enough to tell me over the phone to come over to the department. She probably wanted to see me, and didn’t. I’m sure she would love to see me tomorrow.