I got a message from my Mother's doctor's office on my answering machine. It said that her appointment had to be pushed back a week and that I should call to acknowledge the new appointment date. I called and was told to call back another day because the computer was down. At first I said okay, then called right back and told them to take a note if they had to, but I could not call back. I was upset that they asked me for a courtesy call, but would not extend the courtesy of dealing with the situation at the time. I notice that many times that people say they can't do something it is because they just don't want to do it.
I keep reading this and thinking that there's a good chance that they couldn't do anything at the time except write it down on paper, and with the volume of things they had to do sans computer, it very well would have gotten lost in the shuffle. Modern day offices are crippled without computers. I imagine you would have been more pissed off if when you went to the new appointment and the paper they wrote it down on had gotten lost in the shuffle and they gave the appointment to someone else. Having you call back was probably the best they could do, which is all you can ask of anyone. Unfortunately, most places don't have a paper backup system to work from because it's not practical or cost effective.
Regarding the bigger issue, I pretty much created the customer service system for a friend's business and spent a couple years doing the absolute best that I could for every customer we had. Unfortunately, I couldn't fix everything right that minute, which is what some people expected. Still, I found that the more polite I was and the more I did even though it may have been outside of what I was supposed to do, the better reviews we got. In business, that's what is important-- making people happy.
In my business now, I've taken it on the chin for various customer service issues, but that's just What You Do when you're in business if you're smart. Recently I had to take down my entire website because of a customer complaint. With that said, there are customers who demand too much that I can't possibly make happy. Sometimes I have to say no. Some people seem to live for finding every little problem and demanding things for free. It's a fine line to walk.
I do agree that bad customer service is reprehensible-- I've had to deal with some people and companies whose reps are rude, can't do anything, don't care, the works. It drives me insane. Sometimes it matters more to me if the rep tries hard to get something done and can't over whether they are able to actually do something.
In the end, it's just good business savvy if you provide customer service that goes above and beyond. Sometimes it's surprising that companies don't invest more money in that. In that vein, the best way to promote good customer service is to praise it when it's there and not give money to companies whose service is bad.
With all that said, mem, I think that you may be on the verge of being a "bad customer" to the doctor's office. I fail to see how calling them back when their system came back up was any skin off of your ass. The office was probably complete chaos to deal with for the people who worked there and you've got to be sensitive to that.