That's not helpful

I work in a courthouse. My desk is in the hallway on the third floor so that I can assist people who get lost in the building. This actually happens a lot. There are actually 3 courthouse on this same intersection. The County Courthouse (where I work), the Historic County Courthouse (where we have some offices and Small Claims Court) and City Hall where they hold their own court for the tickets they write. The court rooms in the other two buildings all happen to be on the 3rd floor while in my building we have no courtrooms on the third floor, they start on the 4th floor and go up to the 10th.

I've realized over the past couple of years why I need to be in the hallway to help people. Because nobody else is helpful, or if they try to be, they don't know enough to actually be helpful.

I've had so many people show up on my floor and when I tell them they need to be in a different building, they tell me that the people down stairs (information desk and security) told them it was on the third floor. Well, it is, but in a different building.

All of this happens on a daily basis. But what just happened this morning blew my mind.

A young lady exits the elevator on my floor and I ask if I can help her. She lets me know that she has been to every floor already, has no idea where she needs to be and that she is late for her court date. I ask if I can look at her paper work which she gladly hands me. A quick look tells me that she needs to be across the street at City Hall. I apologize and inform her of where she needs to be. What she tells me next is what left me stunned. She said that she went to the 9th floor first and a lady there looked at her paper work and informed her that she had no idea where she needs to be and that she'll need to just check every floor. So the poor lady had wondered to every floor, asking if she was in the right place and everyone just kept sending her away even after looking at the paperwork that said Municipal Court and had the address for City Hall written on it plain as day. 5 seconds of looking was all it took me to determine she was in the wrong building, but the lazy asses at the courts couldn't be bothered to let her know and just sent her wondering around until she ended up late.

That is just horrible. It's terrible customer service and just flat out rude. Stuff like this is what makes people hate government workers.