"I wish I could give zero stars. This was one of the most upsetting customer-service experiences I have ever had, particularly because it involved my 91-year-old mother."
I made an appointment for my 91-year-old mother, who has severe arthritis and significant mobility issues, with Vincent Campbell on July 16. Getting her to an appointment is no small undertaking. It requires considerable effort to get her out of the house, transport her, and bring her into the office in a wheelchair.
When I made the appointment, my mother was not yet in the system. Vincent Campbell was at the desk, so I called my mother on my phone and had her provide him directly with her insurance information and the other information needed to create her patient record. He then returned my phone and gave me an appointment card for 2:00 p.m.
When we arrived for the appointment, I was told that the office had checked my mother's insurance and determined that she did not have eye coverage through Humana. I asked whether anyone had contacted her for additional information. The doctor, who overheard the conversation, said that she had called multiple times. When I asked what number she had called, she read back my phone number. I checked my phone records, and there were no calls from Chen Optical.
After I pointed this out, Vincent said he would send an email to Eye Care to establish that my mother did have coverage. Shortly afterward, the situation was somehow resolved and my mother was determined to have eye coverage after all.
By that point, however, her 2:00 p.m. appointment had been given away. I asked whether there was any possibility of fitting her in. Vincent said he would try to see her between the next two patients and indicated it would take approximately half an hour.
Because getting my mother to the office is such a tremendous physical effort, we decided to wait. We waited. And waited. At approximately 3:15 p.m.--more than an hour after her scheduled appointment and after at least four other patients had been seen--my mother said she thought we should make another appointment.
I commented to her that since we had already gone through so much effort to get there, perhaps we should wait a little longer. Vincent overheard me and responded rudely, even though we were not speaking to him. My mother, understandably upset, said, "Excuse me, sir, we were not talking to you."
At that point, Vincent became enraged and ordered us to leave the office. He told us that we should never come back again.
This was my 91-year-old mother--an elderly woman with severe arthritis and mobility issues who had already endured the considerable physical ordeal of getting to the appointment. The appointment was mishandled because of an insurance issue that was apparently resolved only after I questioned it. Her appointment was then given away, we waited for more than an hour, and when my mother finally expressed that she wanted to reschedule, we were treated with hostility and thrown out.
I am sharing this so that other families--particularly those caring for elderly, disabled, or mobility-impaired relatives--can make an informed decision before choosing this office.
Professionalism, patience, and basic courtesy should not be too much to expect from an optical office. Unfortunately, that was not our experience at Chen Optical. read more