North Coast Dental Care

Review: The dentist installed faulty partials, and when I attempted to have the defective items replaced, or obtain reimbursement for services not rendered, they refused. They were extremely rude and uncaring. I am a senior on social security and can ill afford to pay for dental services.Desired Settlement: I need to be made whole by them reimbursing what I paid for dental care. I have been left to being seen in public with missing teeth.

Business

Response:

Mr. [redacted] had appointments to be seen. He called to cancel his appointments and chose to throw his denture in an envelope, push it through our mail slot in our door with a demand note stating, " Send this to your lab and Fix it" without being seen.

Upon calling him to explain that we cannot just send partials to the lab without him being seen, he became angry, and hostile on the phone telling our office manager to "F" herself if she could not guarantee that there would not

be any subsequent charges. At no time before this were we not willing to see this patient. Without seeing someone, we cannot adequately analyze the costs or what was needed to correct the situation.

Mr. [redacted] then began to threaten our staff indicating that he was relentless and we were not aware of what he was capable of doing to us. He then, proceeded to repeatedly call our office harassing our staff to the point

that the Oceanside Police Department had to be called. When the officer was here at the office taking the police report, the phone rang and again it was Mr. [redacted] calling to harass. The officer got on the phone and spoke to Mr. [redacted]

telling him that he cannot continue to call our practice and harass us. The officer was even willing to bring the denture back to Mr. [redacted] that day, however Mr. [redacted], for some reason was fearful of having the police officer arrive at his home and

told the officer that he didn't want him to come there. Our office promptly returned Mr. [redacted]'s denture to him via certified mail as we told Mr. [redacted] that we would no longer see him due to his abhorrent behavior. We also discovered that Mr. [redacted] had

previously elected to chose another provider and was no longer even assigned to our office through his dental insurance since last October. Therefore, Mr. [redacted] has been a free agent able to

seek dental care at a multitude of other dental providers, but he has chosen not to and only wants to harass our office and seek reimbursement for dentures that were completed properly. Since we were not given the opportunity to examine Mr. [redacted]

we have no idea why he was having the problem he was having. There could be a multitude of reasons why he was having a problem with his denture, but he robbed us of the opportunity to see him and continues to state that we did faulty work. He threw his lower denture through the mail slot

and at no time has he ever indicated anything was wrong with his upper partial (stayplate) that he has also commented on in his complaint here, so this is new news and his upper partial has been fine, unless he recently has done something to it.

Mr. [redacted] is an angry volatile person who is only seeking to harm and cause duress to a quality, professional dental establishment with his despicable behavior.

He is just trying to make our lives as miserable as possible so we will refund him money (he is trying to extort us) for exceptional quality and service we provided. He signed consent forms that he was pleased with his stay plates upon

delivery which was back sometime ago last year. He sure doesn't understand that threats and harassments are not going to get anyone to work with him no matter what. He has chosen to put himself in this predicament himself.

We have provided quality dental services to Mr. [redacted]. Upon his most recent call he did not call to apologize for any of his wrong doing, just called to further indicate that he will stop at nothing to ruin our practice and has continued to harass, post

posters on our building to disparage our practice, go on [redacted], [redacted] and now the Revdex.com to disparage us. However, the fact remains we are a reputable practice that WAS willing to see him until he chose to turn this into an

unacceptable situation that no one should have to tolerate.

However, the fact remains we are a reputable practice that was willing to see him until he chose to turn this into an intolerable situation for our practice to deal with him.

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.

Regards,

First of all, I never disrupted the staff as the dentist contends. The whole situation took place over a 15 minute phone call with the receptionist. At no time did I see or talk to anyone else, including the doctor, so she is getting second hand information. As they say, there are two sides to every story. How can someone feel that threatened over a phone call that she has to call the police? She overreacted.

Everything I did was within my rights as a citizen and a customer. I explained to Robin, the receptionist that I needed this taken care of immediately since I had embarrassing gaps in my teeth. They advertise on their telephone message that if clients need immediate attention, call the emergency phone number, which I also did.

Prior to my speaking to Robin, I had stopped by the office to tell her about my problem with the partials they put in, but no one was there. So I was thinking outside the box, if you will, to save time. So I put the broken product in an envelope so they could send it back to the lab to have another partial made from the mold they must have on file with the lab. Robin called me to tell me how ridiculous this was, and this is what started the whole argument. She wanted to make an appointment for days from that time, but I told her it was an emergency, since my teeth had gaps and it would be very embarrassing to be seen in public without correcting the situation. She refused to book it immediately. I was appalled by this, since any dentist I had ever been to would have taken me right away.

Yes, we had a heated discussion, but the rude receptionist Robin would not allow me any slack. As far as changing dentists through the network, I had done this even before this situation took place to save money with someone else who would charge less for the same services, since I would need additional work. I also had called to change it back to Dr. [redacted].

Regardless of any of the above, the dentist refuses to refund my money for the faulty work which was done, nor not make good in any way to correct this. I am senior on social security, and had to save up just to have this work done, and now I cannot afford to have it redone. Unless I contributed to the negligence by biting on a piece of steel, which I did not, she is responsible to make me whole.

Her attitude is the the customer is wrong and she and Robin are right, and as a result they are cutting off their noses to spite their face. She is definitely going to lose customers over this, since I have notified all of the social networks, as well as the Revdex.com. She already has several one star ratings on [redacted], and I suspect she has planted the two good ratings she has. Overall she has a two star rating out of seven people who wrote in. I have told her just to pay me what she owes me and I will stop complaining.

Business

Response:

You would think one would keep his appointment if it were such an "Emergency".

Robin is the Office manager who has been in the dental field for over 20 years and knows how to respond properly to patients as she is very gracious and kind to my patients and they love her.

She did not "over-react" as Mr. [redacted] claims. Mr. [redacted] became belligerent when he could not be seen immediately AND at a "guaranteed" no cost. How can we guarantee such, without seeing someone?

He then harassed our office manager with repetitive phone calls that we have saved as evidence, told her to go [redacted] herself

amongst all the other profanity and disparaging remarks he used. Not only that, he also threatened her with his comment, "You don't know what I am capable of and I will not stop at anything to cause problems for you and

your doctor". That is not just a "heated" conversation, that is a threat, thus the police were called. The police were also here (as I mentioned before in the first response) upon one of Mr. [redacted]'s continued harassing phone calls

as they did not stop all day long. If you don't call that being unreasonable and threatening then, I don't know what is? The police felt it was a legitimate call and wrote a police report and also spoke to Mr. [redacted] and told

him to stop calling here as it was harassing our practice and to seek legal recourse, if he felt he needed to but to stop calling and harassing the practice. The officer outlined what his "legal" remedies would be, so

Mr. [redacted] is fully aware of what he is doing and knows he is overstepping his boundaries just to cause harm to me and my practice. It has been over a month and Mr. [redacted] continues to harass us in a variety of ways (all of which have been

documented by the police department). Mr. [redacted] was also never re-assigned to our office and upon calling the insurance company to discuss his behavior with them, we found he had transferred out many months

ago, therefore Mr. [redacted] if this is such an emergency there are many dental offices that take your dental insurance why have you not immediately taken care of your problem with them? You don't even know what

the problem is with your stay plate (as you have not let any dentist examine you) therefore, you have no idea if the cost is $10 or $100 you are just assuming it will be a great expense and possibly it is not, but have not

even sought assistance elsewhere, doesn't sound like an emergency to me. You are just hell-bent on ruining my practices reputation instead. You have threatened to sue us, why have you not done so? We have not done

anything wrong and were always here to help you and provide you with great dental care.

You continue to refer to biting on a "piece of steel" in order for a stay plate to break or lose a tooth, however stay plates as with all dentures can need replacement teeth depending

upon many things, one of which would be biting down and eating something that damaged the denture. These are not your own natural teeth, therefore need to be cared for in an appropriate fashion.

It is a very common thing to have that occur, so without an examination we were not able to provide you with the possible reasons why you had trouble with your stay plate and what it would take to fix it.

We have a photograph of your stay plate, it did not break or fall apart into pieces. It was not a "faulty" appliance. We also do not keep prior impressions, if we did our office would need three storage rooms to hold all the impressions we take

for our patients. Therefore, you were told what to do by our office manager and chose to act in the manner you did. As I stated before, it is YOU that put yourself in this position, we were willing to see you prior to your volatile actions. We will not tolerate your

abusive and harassing actions and therefore told you to seek dental treatment elsewhere. Additionally, YOU transferred out of our office prior to this whole situation, so we could not even see you on your dental plan, but were willing to STILL see you to

resolve your problem prior to your abhorrent behavior. I am sure the public will see that you were given many opportunities to take care of your problem and you chose to take matters to this low level. One last thing as well regarding [redacted], [redacted] is a scam

unless you advertise with them. There are currently class action law suits pending against [redacted] for just this reason. They take negative reviews and post those and take positive reviews and put them on the "non recommended" second page. We have VERY many good

reviews by our patients that have been allocated to the second page by [redacted]. Most of our patients are also too busy to spend their time "[redacted]" and that is their other way to scam by saying the post was posted by someone who never [redacted]s. Yes, I know you don't

[redacted] and your review stuck, case in point. Just goes to show that people shouldn't believe everything they read as much of [redacted] is not that legitimate....they actually prefer the negative reviews vs. positive ones encourages business's to advertise with them. We

have been in practice for many years and have many grateful and appreciative patients who would not choose any other dental practice other than ours for their dental care. Thank you for letting us tell the public the accurate account of your situation.

Review: I had a tooth pulled on June 6, 2013 after a very brief consultation with the periodontist and I was charged $416 as a co-pay for a bone graft. The claim was subsequently submitted to my insurance. When the Explanation of Benefits was received, it stated that my co-pay was only $216 and NOT $416.I have contacted [redacted] at the office multiple times requesting a refund of the overcharge. she has stated that I will not be eligible for a refund until all claims have been processed. They have one outstanding charge that was billed incorrectly to my insurance for $172 that was denied. I have contacted my insurance company and they said they can't do anything until notes are received for the denied charge of $172. They informed me that if payment is made to the dentist office, I will have a co-pay of zero. This has been dragging on for 3 1/2 months now and I had to go into debt to pay the $416 and I should be refunded $200. When I asked for a statement of my charges they do not correspond to what was submitted to my insurance company. It seems very unfair that I am making payments to a credit company ([redacted]), so my credit is not affected, on something that was fraudulently charged to my insurance company.I feel I have been patient enough and have waited over 3 months to get my money back. Please advise.Sincerely,[redacted]Desired Settlement: I would like a refund of $200 ASAP

Business

Response:

Thank you forwarding on a concern this patient had with our pratice. It has all been resolved upon receiving the necessary claim fromher dental insurance. An agreed upon refund has been made back to our patient, [redacted]. She indicated she would contact you as well to inform you that the situation had been resolved.If you need any further assistance, don't hesitate to contact me.Thank you, [redacted] Office Manager

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.

Regards,

Review: On 6/10/13 and 6/13/13, I had deep cleaning done by the dentist. I was told that the total charge allowed by my insurance was $616. I paid that amount. The dentist signed a contract with my HMO insurance company, so I thought that the dentist knew better than I did the contract allowed amount by the insurance company. When I later saw the Explanation of Benefits from the insurance company, I saw the allowed amount should have been $300. I was overcharged $316.

I had a perio maintenance cleaning on 9/16/13. I was charged $94 when the charge should have been $55 with the insurance company allowed amount. I was overcharged by $39.

After quoting these inflated costs to me, they suggested that I get a different insurance which seemed to be cheaper in costs to me. They gave me the name of this new insurance. I got the new insurance at a premium of $106. I then found out they had been quoting inflated charges which made my first insurance seem more expensive. The new insurance was not cheaper than the costs that should have been charged with my first insurance. I paid $106 for the new insurance when I did not need it.

When I questioned them on 9/23/13 about the overcharges, they gave excuses about an "antimicrobial wash" that was added. This was not itemized or explained to me at the time of service nor anytime except when I questioned it. They had quoted the costs saying that they were the costs per my insurance company.

The total of all the overcharges and unnecessary insurance is $461.Desired Settlement: Refund $461 in overcharges.

Business

Response:

November 4, 2013

Revdex.com

4747 Viewridge Avenue #200

San Diego, CA 92123-1688

Re: Response to Complaint issued by [redacted]

North Coast Dental Care- offices of [redacted]

Dear Revdex.com,

In regards to Ms. [redacted]'s complaint to the Revdex.com we have followed all appropriate

protocols for treating Ms. [redacted] as outlined by her dental insurance company; therefore

her letter to you is an inaccurate assessment of the situation.

We submitted all documents relating to this case upon her dental insurance's request and

they responded back with the enclosed letter which indicates that the only over charge

was a $39.00 amount due back to the patient.

We have sent Ms. [redacted] her refund of $39.00 and also a copy of her letter from her

dental insurance provider to substantiate the discrepancy. Ms. [redacted] is responsible for

understanding her insurance plan and benefits provided to her by her insurance company.

In addition, consent forms and treatment plans were signed by Ms. [redacted] prior to any

dental work being performed. Treatment plan and diagnosis was completely explained to

patient prior to her treatment as well and all insurance guidelines were met as evidenced

by the letter written by her dental insurance provider.

We hope you can see that this was a misunderstanding of coverage and that our office

followed all insurance guidelines and provided Ms. [redacted] with exceptional care for her

necessary dental work. On many occasions patients are upset with their dental insurance

coverage and inappropriately blame the dental office for it.

Thank you,

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.

The dentist did send a payment of $39 to me, however that

leaves a balance of $422 that this dentist did not pay. The only reason I

received the $39 was due to my insurance company making a determination that I

was overcharged for one of the procedures after I made a complaint to them. The

only statement that the insurance company made about the other charges was that

they were not covered by insurance. We all know that. This dentist agreed by

contract with the insurance company to charge $75 (times 4) for a procedure

that I had. The dentist dumped a $4 bottle of mouth wash into the scaling

machine water and charged $79 extra (times 4), more than the procedure itself. I

was told about the price that I would be charged for this procedure when I was

in the dentist’s chair, hardly a time that I could find out the correct price

that should be charged per my insurance contract. I was told that this

procedure was $154 (times 4) per my insurance. I was not told that the

actual cost was $75, and they were adding $79 for irrigation which was not

covered by my insurance. I had no reason at that point not to believe them.

I find the statement that I don’t understand my insurance

insulting and patronizing. I understand my insurance and am not upset with it.

This dentist purposely found a way to charge more than the contract amount for

a procedure, combined the charges, and quoted the charge like that was the

approved charge from the insurance company. In addition, the irrigation should

have been included in the procedure cost. It is like a hospital agreeing to

charge $100 per day with the insurance company, and then when the patient gets

the bill, it is $225 per day. The hospital says the extra charge was for the

bed. A patient trusts their dentist the same as their doctor. I had no reason

to disbelieve them in the beginning.

Regards,