No one likes having to wait to see a doctor. That frustration compounds when the office has a policy of cancelling appointments if the patient is late, but not even bothering to apologize if a patient has to wait on the doctor.

OP knows that her doctor is thorough and often runs late on appointments. She was still hoping that if she got there early, she would be able to make a dentist’s appointment an hour and a half later.

I just had an embarrassing situation happen at my doctor’s office just now, and I need to know AITA?

I had a doctor’s appointment today at 10am and an urgent dentist appointment at 11:30am. My dentist is located about 45 minutes from where my doctor is (relevant to the story).

It’s also important to note that if you are even five minutes late for your doctor’s appointment at this office, they won’t see you. You have to be on time. This is common for most clinics though.

I showed up for my doctor’s appointment at 9:50am. I pay my copay, the medical assistant showed me back to a room, took my weight, BP, heart rate, and temperature, let me know my doctor would be in shortly, and closed the door.

My doctor is a good doctor and she’s thorough and sometimes she goes over on her appointments. It’s not uncommon for her to show up to the room 15 or 20 minutes late.

It’s not ideal, but I’m aware of it and tried to plan accordingly.

However, this time was different…

I waited 45 minutes for her to come in, but she never did.

As I said above, I had a dentist appointment, so I decided to leave.

I tried to open the door, but the doorknob is broken. It turns, but the latch doesn’t move.

So I’m literally stuck in the room. I try the knob again, nothing.

I tap on the door, and no one comes. I jiggle the knob, nothing. I knock on the door, no one hears.

So, I try to get it to unlatch on my end by trying to push up on the knob and turn it at the same time, by trying to turn it quickly, and by trying to turn the knob while pulling the door towards me and also pushing it away from me.

The staff yelled at her to knock it off before opening the door from the outside. They all treated her like she had lost her mind while OP asked for her copay back and left for the dentist.

This made a lot of noise, and somebody started yelling at me to stop from the other side of the door.

They opened the door, and there are four of the staff there looking at me like I’m unhinged.

I apologized, said I had tried getting their attention by knocking but no one heard. All I got was “oh, we heard, we ALL heard, that was so unnecessary”.

Went to the front desk to ask for a refund for the copay since I wasn’t seen, and they’re all still looking at me like I’m some crazy person.

She’s embarrassed and wondering if she should try to go back and explain.

I don’t know. It was very embarrassing. Yes, I was irritated that I waited for so long and no one came. I feel like that’s a normal and natural reaction to a situation like this.

And this is a known issue with that doorknob. I’ve been trapped in that room before, but only for a minute. It needs to be fixed or replaced. Seems like a safety issue to me on top of everything else.

And not just that, it’s triggering for me to be locked in a room from the outside. But was I acting crazy or yelling or pounding on the door or trying to break it down? No.

I don’t know what I could have done differently. Wait a few more minutes? Try knocking louder?

I’m embarrassed and angry now, and I tried to talk to them when I was there but I really had to get to my dentist appt and I feel like trying to go back and explain myself as just going to be weird and awkward.

So yeah, AITA?

Reddit is weighing in!

The top comment confirmed for OP that the staff’s behavior was super rude.

They say OP’s reaction was totally normal.

This person says they would have reacted even worse, probably.

And this commenter even drafted a complaint email on OP’s behalf.

Plenty of people think a new doctor is in order.

I’m not afraid of being locked in places.

But I would have been plenty heated about having to wait so long!

Thought that was a crazy story? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were travelling for business.