Dr. Schneider is a good guy and a rather caring doctor. However, the staff there is extremely unhelpful. I felt like they were trying to up-sell me on using their advanced equipment. There are hidden fees that they don't tell you about until they give you your bill before you leave. Oh yeah, and they charged my credit card TWICE and would NOT do anything about it! I had to call my bank on a 3-way call with the Doctor's office just so that my bank representative could tell them that they were fraudulently charging my card an extra $230!
I went in for contact lenses. I had never been here before, but CVC was recommended through my insurance company's website. My insurance co-pay is $10. I asked them on the phone before I made an appointment if that was the only charge and of course the answer was yes. 'Your insurance will cover it' they said. Of course I knew that I was going to pay for the contacts as well, but I was just making sure that they accepted my insurance.
I go in for my visit and after they call me to the back, the first thing they ask me is 'do I want to upgrade my exam.' Upgrade my exam? I did not want my eyes dilated, so it was going to cost an extra $35 for them to turn on their "Special" machine that does the same thing without dilating the eye. (Mind you, this is part of the reason why they were ranked high on the recommendation list, due to their advanced machinery that was supposedly provided to all of their patients. Truth is, no special advanced machinery on your eye exam unless they pay an extra $35.
I said no, and left it at that. After the doctor came in and had the exam, I go to pay my $10 co-pay and the lady bluntly says, "That'l be $52.50." I had to ask her to repeat herself literally 3 times. I asked her numerous times what the extra amount was for and she repeatedly answered that it was for the contact lens exam. I said 'isn't that part of the insurance co-pay?' She replied, "No. Your insurance pays for the the eye exam, but there is a $42.50 charge for a contact exam. I wanted to scream: THAT'S THE SAME THING!
So I left there a little ticked off. I even had my wife call the next day to make sure that they weren't trying to scam me. She got the same reply. So even my wife asked, what is the insurance for if you are just going to charge your patients an extra $42.50? If I wore glasses then I wouldn't be charged the $42.50? The girl actually didn't even know how to answer that. She just kept repeating herself over and over. It's for the contact exam. It's for the contact exam.
After all that, I still ordered my contacts from them. I ordered a year's worth. The day after my order, I checked my balance and noticed that the doctor's office had charged my card TWICE for $230. (My year's worth of contacts were $230). I called them and asked them if they could please refund me the $230 due to an accounting error. They tried to assure me that there was no error and I was mistaken. I told them that the charge literally already came out of my account and that I am not mistaken.
The next thing that came out of this woman's mouth is the entire reason that I am writing this review. She said: "Well, that's happened before. Sometimes our machine charges people twice. It might work itself out in about 3-5 business days. Call your bank and work it out with them because we cannot do anything for you."
I was in shock!
I called my bank and had to patch in the doctor's office on a 3-way call just to get the bank representative to explain that they were indeed charging me twice and that they were performing fraudulent activity if this is a repeating offense, as the woman stated to me. They cannot expect to charge people twice and then "Hope it works itself out in 3-5 business days." That's absolutely UNACCEPTABLE.
For those of you thinking of going there, let me save you the hassle. There are MANY other places that are MUCH BETTER. It's just an ugly feeling knowing that the office just doesn't care about its patients. I am a business man and understand the strategic ways to make a sale; however, hidden fees, unexpected charges and charging people twice and not telling them are not strategies for sales. They are fraudulent activities and a sure way to lose all of your patients and never gain any new ones. read more