Most awful experience I have ever had when visiting the dentist--felt like being at a stereotypical used car dealership where they're trying to sell you everything you don't want with a complete lack of shame and all the while fixed on her face stands an utterly insincere smile.
Before arriving at the office I was told (by the dentist herself) that they accepted the type of dental plan I had (by the way--the dentist often answers the phone herself, and was even in her doctor garb at the front desk when I arrived--already disconcerting signs, not to mention unsanitary). Once I had already begun filling out the paperwork after arriving at the office, she told me they do indeed accept the plan I had (uni-care 200), but then tried to convince me to switch to another she accepts--she kept claiming, everything will cheaper, and most things free with this new plan.
To make a long story short--cutting out the part where I find out on the phone that she is lying and they don't accept the uni-care 200 I have--I switch plans, but only after first verifying with Boppana how much the checkup, xrays and oral evaluation will cost.
5 mins later, after it seems that all that has been settled, it turns out there is a cost I have to pay out of pocket for today's visit, in fact for the very things she just told me would be free, what a surprise!! It also goes without saying that it'sa lot more than my initial plan would have been!
Still trying to maintain some sense of civility, I call her out on it. (She often makes nonsensical arguments and points, often using her accent and slightly broken English to her advantage--making one feel as though they might just not get what she is trying to say, but she keeps swearing ""I've been doing this for 14 year,"" ""I can tell you how it works,"" ""I wouldn't lie to you"".)
After showing her my frustration at the new price of the plan she just talked me into switching into, she asks how much it would have been with the other plan that I originally had and so I estimate the costs for her.
She argues against the numbers I tell her, says she has the actual figures, gets them, reads them to me (without showing me)--it all adds up to about the same with both plans, she explains.
Unluckily for her, but lucky for me, I came well prepared. I grab the paperwork from my bag that shows how much it would have cost with the other plan. She is shocked--claims there must have been some oversight on the part of the insurace--probably just that the payment chart she has is out of date.
At this point, it's clear she's been caught trying to rip me off. She unapolegetically, but nonetheless guiltily, proceeds to say that she can do the checkup, evaluation, and xrays at the cost of my initial dental plan. Then why did she go through all the hassle of making me switch?!?! By the way, I looked up what she was even trying to charge me for the new plan (a Signa Plan) when I got home--even those numbers were extraordinarily inflated.
I decide: it's time to go home! Hard to get your teeth looked at by somebody who spent a good half an hour trying to rip you off.
Moral of the story: Go somewhere else! And do your research before visiting a dentist or other type of doctor. The very few exist who lack scruples and will do anything for an extra buck. They get you to their office, normally one has little information about the insurace and costs, then they try to talk you into what you don't need in the waiting room.
Like the waiting rooms in an used-car dealership. The longer you're stuck there helpless, the more chance you'll give in to their tactics, pay the price, and just get it over with.
Completely lack of morals and ethics, what a doctor...
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