A funny thing happened to me today (as in funny, but not “ha ha” funny).
I renewed my passport at the BTCO. Within like 2 minutes, we (my wife, son and I) were seen by a very nice, helpful girl. She checked my documents and gave me a bill to pay. She said “Pay over there at the cashier, and then wait till we call you”.
I paid at the cashier, and just to make sure, I asked her if we had to wait. She said yes.
So we waited… and waited. An hour and a half passed and I rang that special bell that only English speakers are allowed to ring. I was told the girl was busy on the phone but that she would come out and see me ASAP. About 10 minutes later she appeared. I said to her that she had asked us to wait and we were still waiting. She said “No… we’ll call you.” Suddenly my brain starts to hurt as I realise what has happened. “We’ll call you… on the phone.”
I say to her… "But we both thought you meant wait here, till you called us (you know for an interview or to say that the papers are in order or whatever).
“Sorry”, she says.
Now I admit this was my fault too. It was an ambiguous thing to say, and both my wife and I understood her to have meant “wait” as in “don’t leave” and “call” as in “call you to the window”.
What a waste of a morning.
The real pity is that if this hadn’t happened, the whole process would have taken about 5 minutes in total. 
Does anyone know the best way I can communicate this to the BTCO?
Maybe encourage them to use a phrase like “Just pay over there, then we’ll phone you when the new passport arrives”?
