Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:01/24/2024

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  To whom it may concern,
  I am writing to express my deep concern and frustration regarding an outstanding balance on my account, specifically the cancellation fee that was unexpectedly added to my invoice dated 9/8.
  
  On 4/5, I had informed your office about our absence due to spring break, ensuring that communication was established before the scheduled appointment. It is disconcerting that, despite this prior notification, a cancellation fee surfaced five months later. Such a delay raises questions about the transparency and fairness of your business practices.
  
  I acknowledge the financial responsibility agreement I signed, but it is important to emphasize that this fee appeared well after our services had concluded in April 2023. The lack of timely communication and the sudden addition of charges cast doubt on the integrity of the billing process.
  
  Moreover, the difficulties I have encountered in reaching someone directly to address this matter, coupled with unanswered messages, contribute to the overall frustration in resolving this issue amicably.
  
  I urge you to reconsider this cancellation fee, given the circumstances surrounding our notification and the extended period between the service termination and the fee imposition. I am willing to settle the remaining balance promptly upon the resolution of this matter. I trust that your commitment to fair and ethical business practices will prevail in this situation.
  
  Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to a timely and satisfactory resolution.
  
  Sincerely,
  ******** *****

  Business Response

  Date: 02/14/2024

  I apologize that we did not provide a response in a timely manner. This is our response to the complaint against us:
  
  Mr. ***** had signed all the Attendance/Cancellation/Financial agreements our company requires. In that agreement it says that if their child No-shows/no-call an appointment there is a $60 fee. A 24 hours advance notice is required for all cancellations. (see attached agreement initialed by Mr. *****.)
  
  Mr. *****'s son did not show up for an appointment and we were never made aware of this until after the appointment was supposed to start. We called the *****'s and they said they were in Florida and forgot to let us know. (See attached activity log notes.) The appointment was on 4/5/23 and Mr. ***** did NOT call us - WE called him and that is when his wife told us they were out of town. 
  
  *********************************************************************************************************************************************************
   
  Activity Log notes:
  On 04/04/2023 : tried to call mom to see if she can change her session times for tomorrow to be earlier (at the therapists request) mom didn't answer. I left a message asking if she would call me back
  
  On 04/05/2023 : called mom and someone else answered and then gave the phone to mom. Mom said she forgot to inform us that they were not in town and that they were in florida. I followed up with an email letting her know if she does not reschedule we will charge her the 60$ cancellation fee.
  
  On 12/27/2023 : I left ******** a message letting him know that I found record of when they no-showed an appointment which was in early April. The *****'s went to Florida and forgot to let us know. I told ******** in the message that he could call me back and we could discuss the incident. They do owe us a $60 no-show fee. 
  
  ************************************************************************************************************************************************************
  
  
  I am also attaching the emails between Alycen D****** (Owner) and Mr. *****:
  
  
  '******** *****' via Billing
  Jan 24, 2024, 11:13 AM
  
  to billing
  
  Hi there, 
  
  I’m hing an ongoing issue with this balance. I’ve called before and left messages and it hasn’t resolved (whenever I call I never speak with someone, I always have to leave a message which doesn’t help) 
  
  So we were doing services up until April 2023 for Ezra. Months went by and I received an invoice dated 8/8 showing a balance of 51.84 ( attached) however the next month invoice dated 9/8 show a cancellation fee was added for 4/5. This isn’t right, how could a late fee show up 5 months later after we stopped services. What details do you have showing we didn’t show? What evidence? As far as I know we never missed appointments and shouldn’t have been charged a fee. 
  
  If this isn’t resolved I will make a complaint with the BBB. 
  
  
  Thanks,
  ******** ***** 
  
  
  Alycen D******
  Attachments
  Jan 24, 2024, 11:37 AM
  
  to ********, billing
  
  Hi ********, I know this is frustrating, but this is agreeance to the financial responsibility agreement you signed.  I have attached a screen shot that we contacted you the day before this appointment and the day of.  Cancellations less than 24 hours result in a $60 charge so that I can pay my staff for the time your child took up that we were unable to fill because no communication came from you.  As far as I can tell this invoice is the last one and your account will be completed with us.  
  I've included your signature pages which include both our financial responsibility agreement and our attendance policy.  If you need to set up a payment plan we are happy to do that, just keep in mind interest does accrue monthly on unpaid balances.  Let me know if you have any other questions.  
  
  ******** *****' via Billing
  Jan 24, 2024, 12:16 PM
  
  to Alycen
  
  Hi there Alycen, 
  
  Yeah so I’m not paying a fee when we talked to your office on 4/5 letting them know we were out of town because it was spring break. Please make an exception to your cancellation policy because we did speak on 4/5 prior to the appointment. Also because this was spring break week it should be expected that people are out of town, and I’m sure we would have let know the front desk at the week prior that we would not be there. 
  
  Again it is a super shady business practice for the cancel fee to show up 5 months later after we stopped services. That in itself shows something is right here. Surely you can see that. 
  
  Again please take care of this fee, and if not taken care of I’ll make a complaint with BBB about your shady business practices with charging fees months later after services have stopped. 
  
  In addition if the fee isn’t waived you can expect no additional payment from us for the remaining amount. However if the fee is waived I’ll happily pay the remaining balance. 
  
  Thanks,
  ******** ***** 
  
  Alycen D******
  Jan 24, 2024, 12:28 PM
  
  to ********, billing
  
  I'm sorry that you are frustrated about this.  Again we can set up a payment plan.  After 90 days we send it to collections.  Feel free to call me if you have more questions.  ###-###-####
  ******** *****' via Billing
  Jan 24, 2024, 1:49 PM
  
  to contactus, Alycen
  
  It’s no longer of my concern, you can deal with the negative google review and BBB complaint. 
  
  I hope things improve for the sake of future clients of your company.
  
  Thanks,
  ******** ***** 
  
  *****************************************************************************************************************
  
  Even after we showed Mr. ***** all of the evidence (which he asked for in the first email) we had showing his son missed an appointment and that they had not let us know with a 24 hour notice he refused to pay us and then threatened us with being reported to the BBB and leaving us a negative Google review. 
  
  Please let me know if you need anything else.
  
  Thank you,
  
  --
  Emily B******
  Office Manager
  
  Whole Child Therapy
  Speech, OT, Mental Health, and ABA
  Specializing in Autism Services
  
  PH: ###-###-####
  FX: ###-###-####
  ****************************