I spoke to my dad this weekend about his crown to find out what happened. He went back to the dentist to get his crown cemented in late last week for the second time. I was curious to know how it all went.
My dad told me after the assistant seated him, and just after the doctor greeted him, he said to the doctor that he did some reading on the web, and saw on Wikipedia that gold crowns were on average 20% less than porcelain crowns. My dad asked why he did not get a reduction in price (when the doctor at the ninth hour had changed the order from porcelain to gold)?
Read moreThe dentist said did you come here today to chew the price down? Is that your goal?
My dad politely said no. I want you to do what you think is fair. I’ll leave that decision up to you on how you want to handle this.
My dad said the dentist immediately said he was going to have that information on Wikipedia removed at once, and that if my dad didn’t trust him to make the appropriate choices for him as a professional then he wasn’t interested to do business with my dad.
My dad immediately pipped up and said that it wasn’t that he didn’t trust him because he had. My dad reminded the dentist of a recent referral my dad had sent to him–a woman who was getting three crowns, and who was also in the middle of her procedure a few weeks behind my dad. My dad said “If I didn’t trust you, I would have never sent you a recommendation.”
The doctor retorted back in an angry voice, “I don’t pay for my recommendations.”
My dad saw things were going well. The dentist was mad, indignant and simply wanted my dad to go away. The dentist left the room and said he had an emergency, but that he would be back.
My dad guesses that the dentist went to check out Wikipedia. He then came back, cemented in my dad’s crown, and told him never to come back.
My dad asked him if he was sure he wanted to do this , and the dentist angrily said yes!
My dad then walked out to pay his bill not knowing what he’d find. He was shocked. There was an additional $200 bill waiting for him–on top of the full price they had agreed upon originally. It was a $200 charge to cement in the crown! Can you believe it? I used to work in a dental office and this is beyond outrageous.
During the last visit, my dad specifically asked if there were any additional charges if they switched to the gold crown from the full priced they had agreed upon, and the dentist said no. Worse, my dad endured extra drilling and pain because of this man’s oversight, or mistake, and now this dentist wanted to charge him more on top of that!
As my dad looked closer, it said “Fee waived”.
Clearly, this dentist thought my dad was an easy take, or at least he had thought that before my dad spoke up. I suspect when the dentist left the room, he went to check out Wikipedia, and then went and corrected his outrageous billing tactics. He should have pulled it, but instead came into the room when my dad was paying his bill, and said I am not charging you for cementing the crown. Instead, I will write off as a loss!
What nonsense. Did he think my dad would think he was honorable? He is an absolute crook!
He not only was dishonest with my dad the first time when his work was rejected by the lab –now he wanted to over-charge my dad on top of it!
This only makes me wonder how often he gets away with this. He is quite arrogant in the face of questionable practices.
When my dad looked at the remaining bill he was prepared to pay, the dentist had reduced the total due by 10%. I guess that was his way of conceding there were valid complaints.
He never provided my dad any explanations, and Wikipedia nearly five days later still shows the cost of a gold crown is on average 20% less than a porcelain crown. He never got that removed. I wonder why?
When money changes hands, I can’t say it enough–be careful. An honest professional should always be willing to explain things if they don’t make sense to you. That’s part of their job as a professional.
