Nodelay,
Your help is of course appreciated and please don't tar everyone with the same brush. Slot coordination is on occasion best served by managing it locally and that we do appreciate, on the other hand, it can often be better managed by the airline's Ops depatments, particularly if there is going to be a lengthly delay.
Standard Noise
I think you need to spend some time in an Ops room to get a feel for the job they do. You'll find most understand the system just as well, if not better, that you do. Sound to me like you're assuming incompetence when a comms delay or perhaps a simple mistake is most likely to be the answer.