Horrible, corrupt experience with an incompetent staff.
Referred to the office by my insurance for a wisdom tooth extraction last summer. Was charged upfront for the full amount before the appointment began, but when going back and talking to the oral surgeon he decided that there would have been complications with the extraction and it wasn't worth the risk to go forward. Upon checking out, the office staff member explained that the charge would be refunded to my card minus a consultation fee, which was fair and understandable.
It took approximately two weeks for the refund to be processed, and every time I called the Parma office for an explanation or at least an update I was always given a new, increasingly convoluted story: "oh, we're waiting for our payment center to process it," "oh, the office manager is at another location today," "oh, your insurance has to approve the refund first." And every time I would call I would get some brand new supposed manager who had no idea what was going on and couldn't put me in touch with anyone who did. Again, this was all over a simple refund that the office itself offered. They certainly didn't take several weeks to *charge* me. I ended up having to contact my bank to investigate it.
Finally, about a month later I received the refund as a check in the mail, the amount minus the aforementioned consultation fee. Shorty after, though, I began receiving bills in the mail from the Parma office requesting payment for the full, original amount...for a procedure that never took place, mind you.
Again I began calling the Parma location for an explanation, and every time I called there was nobody on staff who could explain it to me. One office staffer had me on the phone while looking up my account and saying, "Yeah, I see the refund. You don't owe us anything." And yet, the bills continued, now with threats of collection. A further call to the office revealed that someone there had created a "second" account under my name that this bill is being categorized under. Whether this person had their wisdom tooth removed, I couldn't say.
I proceeded to write to Dental Works' home office in Texas for an explanation, and received no response. I then opened up a dispute through the Better Business Bureau, and Dental Works refused to respond to them. Let me reiterate that: this company refused to respond to a request from the Better Business Bureau. Nobody reached out to me, and now the bill has been sent to a collection agency which has started harassing me, now going on to almost a year as of this review.
And once again, this was for a procedure THEY cancelled.
Ultimately I don't care that the extraction didn't go through. I interacted with the oral surgeon for maybe ten minutes, so I couldn't begin to critique how well of a job they do professionaly. I have instead spent more time dealing with what I can only describe as a thoroughly incompetent office staff who apparently cannot manage a single patient's account, a staff that cannot answer simple questions about where charges come from and why they regenerated, and a staff that gleefully has no accountability because their corporate headquarters only exist as a rumor.
I am in the process of communicating with my insurance about them looking into dropping Dental Works from their list of providers. Nobody should have to deal with such a headache, especially when also suffering from dental issues. read more
