Stonehaven Dental Horrible Experience
Preemptive Strike?
A girl at their office has already threatened to accuse me of slander for saying I am going to tell everyone about this… (maybe she was trying to scare me into not telling people.. WTF?!) (I have her name and all that, but don’t need to post it since I think they know who it is)
They used to rock
So, here goes. I really, really liked stonehaven dental, so much so that I actually paid out of pocket for my father’s emergency tooth removal for him (before he had dental insurance). I have referred several families there. [I'm going to start un referring them now]
Office Mixup
Well now my father has dental insurance (and the same name as me). Somehow they got our insurance mixed up (we pay all our dental work out of pocket, always have) and got his insurance on my file. It was a mistake, mistakes happen.
WTF?
Fast forward who knows how many months later, we all come in for checkups, etc. The bill was over $600 for the four of us. (I was expecting $200, maybe $300 or so). At one point during my examination I even asked how much something was going to cost because I am paying out of pocket. The lady said she didn’t know and that I should just get that information from the desk when I leave.
When we finally get out or start checking out, I am plenty annoyed that it is about twice what I was expecting to pay. It takes them a while to adjust things by about a hundred bucks (Xray’s are suddenly free). Turns out that they still have us as having insurance in their system. WTF?!
The lies
Here is the kicker, they said my wife told them we have insurance. (Completely untrue). In fact a few months ago my wife even called (when they mixed it up the first time) after her appointment to make sure they knew we pay out of pocket and don’t have dental insurance. This is when I am visibly upset. They are lying to me and my wife. That is when they pull us into a room with a door and repeat the same lie. At which point I try to stop them, she then tells me that she isn’t talking to me, she is talking to my wife. Ok… I think to myself. You can talk to your kids that way, even your subordinates, but not my wife, or me. So now they are lying to me, then they are rude about it when I call them out on it.
What really upset me
The thing that upsets me is *not* the extra hundred or so dollars I ended up paying. It is the lying and talking down to us.
Moral of the story
There are plenty of other dentists who have office staff that are not going to lie to you and talk down to you.
I love it that they tell you what your wife said as if they know what your wife saidbetter than you know what your wife said. Health care is a racket. They charge $188 to insurance and insurance pays $70. Usually you can talk the office down to a lower price if you pay actual cash. The only experience that I have had that was close to this was with EXIT realty. Our house was on the market. I’m naked in the shower and some realtor shows up to show the house. Wrapped in a towel, the realtor states that he “spoke to the lady of the house” who said it was OK to show the house now. I retorted that I was the lady of the house and not one made the call in the past 15 minutes because I was in the shower. The realtor increduously looked at me and asked for the real lady of the house. Needless to say, we got a lousy apology later with the excuse that the realtor’s secretary told the realtor that I had been called. We took the house off the market.
Utah Statute 45-2-2. Libel and slander defined.
As used in this chapter:
(1) “Libel” means a malicious defamation, expressed either by printing or by signs or pictures or the like, tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue or reputation, or publish the natural defects of one who is alive, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule.
(2) “Slander” means any libel communicated by spoken words.
Amended by Chapter 134, 1975 General Session
45-2-1.5. Actual damages — Broadcast in good faith — Retraction — Time — Candidate for public office.
(1) If it shall appear on the trial of any action brought for any alleged libel or slander on any radio or television broadcast originating in this state that the alleged libel or slander was broadcast in good faith, the broadcast thereof was due to mistake or misapprehension of the facts, and that a full and fair retraction of any statement therein alleged to be erroneous was broadcast on the same station and approximately the same time of day as was the alleged libel or slander, within three days after learning of the mistake or within three days after service upon the person broadcasting that libel or slander, by the party aggrieved, of a written notice specifying the statement alleged to be erroneous or, in case such notice is not served, in the manner and within the time above specified after the filing of the complaint and service of the summons in said action, then the plaintiff shall recover only actual damages.
(2) This section shall not apply in the case of any libel or slander against any candidate for a public office at any general or primary election, or any avowed candidate for nomination to any office before any political convention, unless the retraction of the charge was made in the same manner as provided for other retractions under this section within 24 hours of the time the person broadcasting that libel or slander became aware of the mistake, but in no case later than three days before the holding of such general or primary election or political convention. A written text of the retraction shall be made available to the candidate immediately after it has been broadcast. This retraction shall be in lieu of any other retraction herein provided for.
Enacted by Chapter 134, 1975 General Session
Although I am NOT an attorney (yet) it’s pretty safe to say that if it’s true, the it’s not slander.
I love it when people stick up for themselves and being treated like an adult. Business that think that customer services is a thing of the past have it all wrong. We go to Lehi Dental the dentists and the staff there are great. I think that spreading the word about negative and positive experiences is a must!!!
If you really know SEO, you’ll be able to rank on Google for “Stonehaven Dental,” but considering there are many authoritative sites on the SERPs – such as an ABC site (http://www.abc4.com/mostpopular/story/Utahs-Real-Deals-Stonehaven-Dental/0ldBIG0NBkeVcgINHC80pA.cspx)... It might be a little more difficult.
Certainly feasible if you’re determined.
@Shock Yeah.. I’m not *that* determined. I just need a good place I can point people too so I don’t end up retelling the story over and over.
@Kelley
Wow, sounds like you had a real “classy” agent.
@Raegan
You know it is funny, I thought the recession was supposed to improve customer service, etc. I guess for some places it hasn’t hit home yet.
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May I suggest you send them a link to this page. I don’t live any where near you, but I must say this is only common in uppidty dentist offices. My dentist gives a huge discount to me because I pay out of pocket. They never play this he said she said stuff, I mean like you’re going to believe someone you’ve know for a few years over your life partner. That alone is grounds for never going. I had a gynecologist try this once. Needless to say, 8 months pregnant I fired him. I think sometimes those in the health care profession OVER ESTIMATE the trust of authority the naturally render. When it comes to ones family, you could be the damned president, and I STILL wouldn’t believe you over my husband.
Dear John,
This is Dr Bret Tobler. I am soooo sorry that our service disappointed you. Thanks for your honest review. Unfortunately, you caught our team on a extremely stressful moment, but I won’t make excuses. The dental insurance issue and the mix up with your father’s information never should have happened, even though you have the same names. We have systems in place to handle these situations and they just weren’t followed. I am very thankful for the feedback and you have been a long time patients and we have enjoyed seeing you in our office, at the Flash games and at our office pool party. You have also referred your friends and family. Customer service has always been important to us and always will be. We receive many positive reviews, but if we “drop the ball” it reminds us to try harder. We will make the proper corrections with our team. thanks again— Dr. Bret Tobler
@ Bret
Thanks for the comment. I suppose if they hadn’t been trying to blame the entire mixup on my wife (making false claims, etc.) instead of just saying “sorry, we messed up” and fixing it, I wouldn’t be posting this. But your staff made a different choice.
I used to think that anyone in the hospitality industry (which includes any department dealing with customers who come to the business) would know better than to blame the customer for something that obviously just needed to be fixed. Even if they were clearly at fault, it’s still a bad idea to say so. Even if you were 100% sure that it was totally the customer’s fault but it was still something that needed to be fixed, the answer is simply “I’m so sorry about that, let me take care of that right now.”
I mean, what was she shooting for with that? Did she want your wife to go into the computer system and fix the account information? Simply put, the only motivation for saying your wife was to blame was to lay blame on someone. And who cares about blame?!?! The fact is there was a problem that needed to be fixed and could only be fixed by a dental office employee. Mistakes are understandable and often an exccellent opportunity to show great customer service. But this wasn’t even bad customer service. Just sad customer abuse.
Thanks for the tip, John. I’ll not be giving them my business.
An excellent story John. One of the perils of dental insurance is dentists maximum bill what they can knowing they will get less. This also inflates artificially the cost of insurance. The reason for insurance is to help people manage your risks and cover catastrophies.You are wise to pay cash and ask for a discount -you rae doing the practioner a favour. Your dentist was wise to respond with the truth.
Here in the Great White North we have online real time dental insurance, it protects us all.
I also have had a horrible experience with this Dentist!!!! Far worse than your story- nightmare. Stay away from this guy!!!
WOW!!! I was looking to send in my resume and cover letter with the 3 references this office is asking for.(NOT now!!) I always look up the office and see if there is comments posted from patients…. Have to say this is the first bad bad I have seen. Thanks I do not wish to be part of a team that when they have “a stressful moment ” they can’t deal with it. If they act like that to patients how would they be to me ??????? Thanks!!!!
This is becoming a common theme at Stonehaven. They advertise like crazy, even free dentistry at such a nice office, why?
NEVER GO TO THIS OFFICE!!!! It is horrible, and I mean horrible!!! I haved worked for a wonderful doctor for the last 4 years and have had MANY of their patinets come into our office with 1 year old crowns needing to be replaced because they were not prep’d properly and got decay under them and retreats on root canals that had just been done because they were done poorley, I’ve been told more than once that the doctors are rude and do NOT care about their patients, only the $$$$. I would not feel safe at all being sedated for my dental work when the dentist does not specilize in those areas, :S I’ve heard this office puts on a really good show to the patients but behind the act the brand new “state of the art” office is dirty and unorganized, I mean how clean and organized can it really be when they are seeing 40+ patients in one day? Being in the dental field for over 10 years I can tell you there is NOT enough time to properly disinfect all of the materials and rooms used during proceedures when seeing the number of patients do in one day… but you can make your own choice.