Wellness.com Inc

On July 19 of this year, my 18 year old daughter went to see Dr. Delilah Alonso for the first time because her dermatologist was booked and had no appointments. She was concerned about a pink spot on her nose that appeared in March. She was seen by the doctor herself, not the PA. She spent a rushed amount of time with her. She pointed out her concern to her and her diagnosis was acne vulgaris. She prescribed Ximino and Aczone for her face. She squeezed it and mentioned that it was now irritated and recommended she return for a chemical peel. She tried to get her to buy some products from her office that cost around $300. Since she is only 18 she called me and I told her to hold off on the products and the chemical peel. In August, she went away to college and this month she followed up with a dermatologist in New Orleans because the pink spot would not go away. She right away suggested doing a biopsy. Last week I was called and told that she has Basal Cell Carcinoma and she needs to have surgery. In other words, Dr. Alonso MISDIAGNOSED my daughter. Dr. Alonso charged BCBS $462 for her consult and I was responsible for $131 out of my pocket. I called Dr Alonso and spoke with the PA. She was extremely apologetic and compassionate when she spoke to me. Unfortunately, when I spoke with Dr. Alonso she was the total opposite. She was arrogant and defensive. She targeted me and my daughter by stating "IF SHE WAS SO CONCERNED ABOUT THE SPOT WHY DIDNT SHE OR I ASK HER TO DO A BIOPSY" I told her because we did not go to medical school! I requested my out of pocket of $131 be returned. Dr. Alonso had her payroll department call me to advise that she would not refund any money. I would never recommend Dr. Delilah Alonso to anyone and I am notifying BCBS to advise them of what happened. I have never written a review like this in my life but I felt I needed to warn others due to my horrible experience.

We are sorry that this provider did not contact us first, we could have easily explained things to them
As far as the complaints about inaccurate information about their practice and services, on Synergy's profile page on wellness.com,
http://www.wellness.com/dir/6019534/chiropractor/co/thornton/synergy-health-part...⇄ below the area where the photo would appear, is a link called "Click here to claim or update your profile." Anyone in their office can simply click that link and edit that page so it reflects as much accurate information as they wish to share with the world about their practiceWe encourage all providers on our site to do this; the more information on their profile page the better it is for them and for us
Much of the information that appears on our web pages is from public records and sometimes those records are inaccurateThat is why we have a link that the provider can easily click on to make their desired editsWe hope they do this as soon as possibleAlmost million unique visitors visit our website every month and the more information a providers have about themselves on their profile pages the better those profile pages serve them
As far as the "ads" that were mentioned in this complaint, yes, there are some ads on wellness.com, just as their are ads on many websites nowadaysThose ads help pay the bills and are what allow us to offer a website and service like wellness.com completely free to providers and prospective patientsHowever, those ads are absolutely NOT intentionally designed to mislead anyone into thinking anything about Synergy Health PartnersThose ads are served up by Google and have nothing to do with any specific profile page on our site, they are simply health and wellness related becuase most visitors on our site are interested in health and wellness matters
We regret that this provider did not email us directly to discuss these concerns before posting a complaint to the Revdex.com as we would gladly guide them through our process and will still do so if they choose to communicate with us
Thank you very much

Review: The website Wellness.com, owned and operated by Wellness.com, Inc., hosts a page which advertises incorrect information and partial truths about our medical clinics, Synergy Health Partners of Colorado.

The page is well designed to be intentionally misleading. On the top of the page, it shows our company name, Synergy Health Partners, with the address to one of our satellite locations below (Thornton, CO). Below the address is a small link in 8-10 pt font stating: "Get Phone Number and Directions".

Directly below that in larger, more prominent font are local phone numbers to "Chiropractic" and "Dr. [redacted]l [redacted], D.C." - both numbers of which do not connect with us, nor are associated with us in any way.

Directly below this is the statement, "Synergy Health Partners is a Chiropractic facility at (our Thornton, CO address)." This is in accurate, as our facilities have a wide range of multidisciplinary care including: Medical Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, Podiatrists, Neurologists, Physical Therapists, Massage Therapists, Psychologists, Optometrists, Acupuncturists, and Chiropractors -- the web page distorts our clinics services to better align them with ads to intentionally mislead site users.

Worst of all, directly below is a banner add which says at the top of the banner, "Primary Specialty: Chiropractor" and "Practice: Synergy Health Partners" with a link to "Get Answers: Video Chat with a Doctor" and a "Connect" button. This ad uses our company name which expressly implies that if you click on the banner ad, you will be connected to chat with a Doctor from Synergy Health Partners. This is entirely untrue and directs users to a link for downloading a mobile app.

Finally, below that is an incomplete description of our practice with our Aurora clinic phone number listed as the Thornton clinic, as well a a place for customers to leave "feedback".Desired Settlement: We would like one of two possible outcomes:

1) (The more preferable outcome) That Wellness.com work with us and communicate with us so that we can modify their page to be completely and wholly accurate about our practice, its services, and correct contact information. We would also request that ad placement and selection be better considered to not show, expressly or by implication, a distinction between what is Synergy Health Partners and what is not.

2) If the above cannot be accomplished, then we request any and all information about Synergy Health Partners and affiliates, our clinics, our practices, and our contact information be removed from display and be purged from Wellness.com, it's databases, storage devices, and NAS/Cloud/Backup systems.

Business

Response:

We are sorry that this provider did not contact us first, we could have easily explained things to them.

As far as the complaints about inaccurate information about their practice and services, on Synergy's profile page on wellness.com, http://www.wellness.com/dir/6019534/chiropractor/co/thornton/synergy-health-part...⇄ below the area where the photo would appear, is a link called "Click here to claim or update your profile." Anyone in their office can simply click that link and edit that page so it reflects as much accurate information as they wish to share with the world about their practice. We encourage all providers on our site to do this; the more information on their profile page the better it is for them and for us.

Much of the information that appears on our web pages is from public records and sometimes those records are inaccurate. That is why we have a link that the provider can easily click on to make their desired edits. We hope they do this as soon as possible. Almost 3 million unique visitors visit our website every month and the more information a providers have about themselves on their profile pages the better those profile pages serve them.

As far as the "ads" that were mentioned in this complaint, yes, there are some ads on wellness.com, just as their are ads on many websites nowadays. Those ads help pay the bills and are what allow us to offer a website and service like wellness.com completely free to providers and prospective patients. However, those ads are absolutely NOT intentionally designed to mislead anyone into thinking anything about Synergy Health Partners. Those ads are served up by Google and have nothing to do with any specific profile page on our site, they are simply health and wellness related becuase most visitors on our site are interested in health and wellness matters.

We regret that this provider did not email us directly to discuss these concerns before posting a complaint to the Revdex.com as we would gladly guide them through our process and will still do so if they choose to communicate with us.

Thank you very much.

Review: Wellness.com is a 3rd party online review service, posting reviews and info about healthcare practitioners. It is also a data-mining operation. There is no opting out for the service by the practitioner listed for review. In 2011, a very negative review of my service was posted; one that I believe to be malicious and untrue. I contacted wellness.com about this, and they removed it after persistent disputing. This same review has re-appeared in May 2014, and I have had no response from wellness.com, since my reporting of it in June 2014, and after several emails and phone calls requesting that this item be removed after reporting it. I feel that the review is untrue because the complainant/reviewer had not attempted to contact me or my office to express his/her problem. Also, the complaint that the reviewer expressed does not accurately describe the type of service I provide (I don't prescribe "liver medications", and since chiropractors in TX cannot dispense or Rx prescription medications, anyway) The language used was rather strong "...He tried to poison me with liver meds...". I feel that this review was posted by an angry person, spuriously, a competitor, or a person who has a personal issue with me; I don't know which, or why.Desired Settlement: A return communication from an authorized wellness.com superior to discuss the situation at hand. Removal of the reported negative review, as requested. Removal of my information from the website and service.

Business

Response:

We have removed the negative review on the wellness.com profile page that Dr. [redacted] has with us, as per his request. The content of the review was a violation of our policy. We also apologized to Dr. [redacted] for the delay in taking action as we never received his requests to dispute that review. Our only knowledge of his dispute was when we heard from the Revdex.com. We emailed Dr. [redacted] and called him to let him know we have accommodated his request to remove the review. We got his voicemail when we called and asked him to call us back so we could apologize in person and see if we could help him further with anything else. As of today we still have not heard back from him. We will continue to try to contact his office by phone for the next few days.

Sincerely,

Wellness.com

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I do accept that Wellness.com removed the negative listing from their website as a violation of their policy. However, moving forward, I do not accept Mr. [redacted]'s statement regarding attempts from Wellness.com to respond to my numerous requests and missives. As far as I can determine, nobody from Wellness.com had made any attempts to resolve this matter or to respond to my direct communications by either phone, email, or website inquiry (I'd attempted all of these modalities, each, at least twice). I check my spam filter at least 2 x week, and I've received no voicemail messages from Wellness.com, and have not received any replies via email (I've received only a couple of marketing emails from Wellness.com) At this point, I feel that they need to be investigated. It is my understanding that Wellness.com is no more than a data-mining business, using its "Wellness Practitioner" review site as a front to appear to be legitimate business. In 2011, I'd emailed Wellness.com and communicated with a "representative" in China, while attempting to request removal of the same negative review that was posted recently in 2014. Carlsbad, CA? China? Maybe it's legal, but I certainly question the integrity and ethics of this company, especially considering the deceptive statements regarding having communicated with me, and deceptively appealing to the idea that they'd attempted to contact me. They hadn't, and haven't. I am extremely suspicious of this company's activities, and again, I am recommending an investigation.

Review: I have retired and sold my dental practice in October of 2013. The new owner and I informed all of our patients of this change. In November of 2013, this website allowed a post from a "patient" complaining about showing up for his/her follow up appointment with me only to find out that I have retired and failed to notify my patients. Since early September, my office did not take in any new patients or start any new treatments, therefore there was no follow up appointment for the month of October forward. All patients were notified. We contacted Wellness asking them to take off the post due to untrue facts, they ignored our request. We also asked them to remove my business listing since I have retired, they ignored the request. On January 16th, 2014 after 4 months since I have retired and have moved to Italy, a post with malicious intention, name calling, false accusation against my wife who was not my employee and was posted disguised as a patient. This particular post has the same words and name calling that was used by a former employee. We informed Wellness that this was from a disgruntled employee who was under investigation for fraud, and asked them to remove the post. We also asked them to remove the business listing under my name since I have retired. Again, they ignored our request.It is unacceptable for a company to allow a public posting when the facts are not true and posted by a non client. This company allowed damage to my name, failed to regulate or even check the content of the post, they also ignored my request that the business was no longer in existence since October of 2013.Desired Settlement: Malicious to be taken down immediately. Punitive damage to my name an reputation. We were informed by several loyal patients regarding this post. Both my wife and I had to return to the U.S. to seek legal action to protect our names . We ask that Wellness to refund our legal fee paid to our attorney since they have failed to remove the listing when I retired in October 2013 and allowed slander and libel post against my name as well as my wife's who was not an employee at my practice.

Business

Response:

Dr. [redacted],

We are in receipt of your follow-up message. I can explain the process to your attorney to subpoena Wellness.com for its records of the reviewer. However, I've looked and it may not be worth the trouble in this case as the reviewer seems to have used a fake gmail.com address by the look of it. That would also require additionally filing a subpoena for Google to release user account information---which is likely fake or will not be provided. The IP address of the user is often a dead end as well as they are not a reliable way to identify a user. But you can try---it just gets costly.