Connie Garnell, manager of AZ Elderly Care 7848 North 4th Place, Phoenix, AZ 85020 agreed to admit my family member into her facility on 06/11/24. It was an oral contract. I gave Connie a check for the full month of June on 06/01/24. She cashed my check on 06/06/24, evidence by check cashed by the bank. The next day 06/07/24 she informed me that she did not want my family member saying she required too much care and she would refund my check. On 06/12/24, she called me to say she was charging 5 days worth of inpatient stay. I had to wait until 06/18/24 to get my check. Connie does not have a checking account, so if you write her a check and she cashes it, and if you are entitled to a refund, don't expect to get your refund right away, she will give a long story why she does not have a checking account, she says everything is done through Gina, her office manager and there will be a long delay before you are ever reimbursed...When I suggested she write a money order from the bank, she hung up on me. I had to wait until her office manager wrote out the check. The check was not mailed to my address, but to Connie's and therefore had to be picked up there. I feel it was wrong for Connie to have charged me any penalty since she backed out after agreeing to take my family member. She was unreasonable. I had every intention of moving my family member into this facility. She broke the oral contract and she arbitrarily and capriciously took $473.35. Connie justifies the penalty because she says "I argued with her about how to give the medications". I offered to help her with the meds at her convenience since my family member was on a lot of them and frequent nebulizers. This was ironic as we never went over the meds in the first place. Then, according to Connie, another reason for the charge was that I held the room that could have been used for someone else. One placement advisor informed me at the time of this incident that Connie had 3 patients and had capacity for 10! It was difficult to communicate verbally with Connie by phone and by text. She did not respond or communicate back to me with messages that I had left her. She appeared very friendly at the onset. She got angry with me and hung up the phone when I questioned about the penalty. She was rude and terminated several of my calls. She has a front gate, she kept it locked, and therefore at times it was impossible to gain access to her front door..
I am filing this complaint to expose Connie's unethical business practices. She may have done this before and gotten away with it. We need to stop her. She could allow the family to move family member's items in, then deny admission and charge them a penalty. She used intimidation and justified taking money inappropriately and unnecessarily from me. I wrote this review to prevent other families and/or family members from going through what I went through at this facility and spare them the potential for unnecessary financial loss. Connie put me in a dilemma! My family member was to be discharged in 4 days on Tuesday 06/11/24 and be transferred to Connie's facility. The admission to Connie's facility never happened and I had to find a replacement immediately! I was in a state of panic! I had to put a deposit on the new place and then the next month's rent. A placement advisor from "A Place for Mom recommended AZ Elderly Care (Connie Garnell, Manager, 7848 North 4th Place, Phoenix, AZ 85020). Unfortunately, the placement advisor from A Place for Mom and the placement advisor's supervisor (Southwest Regional Sales Manager at "A Place for Mom" in the Greater Phoenix Area") ...neither of them advocated on my behalf or helped me get a refund after I explained the situation to them and asked for help. I asked for a follow-up call, left several voice messages but they are not returning my calls.
I wrote this review to prevent other families and/or family members from going through what I went through at this facility and spare them the potential for unnecessary financial loss. I would not recommend this facility to anyone! read more
