I had an appointment with my advisor today. I am on scholarship probation and am required to meet with my advisor several times over the course of the semester to evaluate where I stand and how I'm doing with my semester's workload. I walk into the advising office and look for the sign-in sheet for my particular advisor. I don't see it, so I ask the secretary where it is.
"Oh, Dr. ______ is on vacation."
At this point, my jaw drops. This was actually the advisor I liked. My previous advisor either was fired or quit in the middle of last semester, so everyone under her wing was split between the remaining advisors, and I got this one who I ended up loving. She's normally very nice, very informative, very encouraging, etc. But I just cannot believe this because she scheduled my appointment herself , and she seemed to be the one who had her act together. I didn't get a phone call or an email informing me that she was out of the office. Nothing. On top of that, I have to get my meetings in before a certain due date, or they will assume that I don't care about my scholarship and take that into consideration as to whether or not it will be revoked.
I tell the secretary that I had an appointment that Dr. ______ scheduled me for herself, and the secretary looks at me in disbelief. I told her to check the calendar, and she finds that I do indeed have an appointment. She doesn't know what to do, so she asks the other advisors what to do, and they decide to move me to next week. She ended up being very helpful and apologized repeatedly to me about what happened, to which I smile, thank her, and tell her not to worry because it wasn't her mistake at all.
There are a bunch of other things wrong with that advising department, but those stories all belong to my friends who share my pain.