Being an existing patient of theirs, I called the office to schedule a routine teeth cleaning (after about a little over a year of not having gone in) and was told it would be $78. I went over this with the receptionist on the phone to make SURE that the amount she quoted me was the amount I was to pay at the time of my appointment because I didn't have a lot of money and didn't have dental insurance - hence my year-plus hiatus.
When I got there for my appointment, the receptionist tells me that it will be $78 PLUS A 50 DOLLAR EXAM FEE to bring my total up to $128. She mentioned that X-rays would also be another $50 dollars on top of that should I choose to have them done. This brought my cost to $178.
Granted she said that I could sign a waiver, skip the X-rays for now and just get the teeth cleaning I was scheduled for, but that still brought my cost to $128 dollars as opposed to the quoted amount I was given over the phone that was $50 less. I should have walked right then and there ...
My response was "I really don't want to have to dip into my 401K here to pay for this now ... hold on! I'm gonna make a phone call here." and I proceeded to call another dentist right then and there - about 3 feet away from her while I sat in the chair in the lobby area. And here's where it puts the icing on the cake ...
When I told her that I just found a guy who could give me the cleaning and the X-rays for $120 she could have said something like: "I understand that you don't have a lot of money and because of that you've been away a while, but we really can't do anything about the price unfortunately."
Now, what she DID say was the following: "Well, we're not a bargain-basement office here. We do quality work!" which not only ignores the whole false-advertising-thingy but also implied that the dentist I just called (who a family member goes to) was some Honduran witch-doctor that yanks teeth out of people's heads after sacrificing an animal.
Pretty professional eh?
At this point I told her that she should have been honest about the cost up front and I wouldn't have had to call anybody else in the first place and she just kept saying (right over me in her condescending "Goodbye!" voice) "Thank you!" .. Thank You!"
So after calling her an idiot (rather LOUDLY I might add), I did what I should have done earlier and walked out the door.
Like Mary T. said ... stay far away from that place! read more
