Bad AME

OK - so I was all ready to take my PP-ASEL checkride (in part, thanks
to all
the great posts here), and went to register for IACRA. Couldn't do it.
Called the web folks at FAA. Turns out the number on the
medical/student pilot certificate in my physical posession (the one
with my endorsements on it) has a different number than the the medical
form that the FAA has on file.

What happened? After canceling my checkride last Tuesday and talking
to the AME's office several times, including talking with the
unsympathetic-sounding doctor, I have yet to get a straight answer, let
alone a solution. Here's my educated guess: When I did my exam in
February of this year, I had to get some follow-up from my primary
medical doctor due to a medication I was taking. After submitting that
to the AME's office in person, I still never received my certificate.
I called several times over three weeks and didn't get any explanation.
The office assistant repeatedly told me she would call me back when my
certificate was "ready," but she never did. Eventually, I sort of
insisted that I get my certificate, and she told me to come in and pick
it up. I speculate that she lost it, and to appease me, she just
filled out my part of another one, tore it off, and gave it to me, not
caring that it didn't match the medical exam form she sent to the FAA.

When I spoke to the doctor upon first discovering this, he treated it
like an annoyance (hey, he cashed the check already, right?) and didn't
seem to care that I had to cancel my checkride. By contrast, the FAA
was very helpful - gave me a fax number so the doctor could fax a note
straightening it out (which he hasn't done -- last week the doc said
they would call me the next Monday, I called on Monday when they didn't
and the new office assistant said she would check into it and to call
Tuesday, called today (today) and she isn't in...)

I rescheduled my checkride from December 2 to December 20, my next
available date. May not have the opportunity to fly in the meantime,
so that's 18 days of rust building up...

Contact me off list if you are looking for an AME in the Washington, DC
area, and want to know who to avoid. Sorry to sound so critical, but
under the circumstances, I think I'm justified.

Wiz