Just a really disappointing experience with this dental office, overall. One that would make me uncomfortable relying on and trusting them enough to want to go there again in the future. It seems like getting basic dental care shouldn't be so convoluted.
I was seen here once before, months ago. I just called in and set up an appointment as a new patient for the following week. Just a check-up with x-rays, and a cleaning. I try to take care of my teeth, and fortunately no real issues were found, making for as uneventful a trip to the dentist as you could ever hope to have. While checking out, I made an appointment for my next cleaning, around 6 months from then.
Due to my schedule on the day of that next cleaning recently changing, to the point that it'd be difficult to make it work, I called the office 2 weeks ahead to see what other days they might have available. We ended up finding one that happened to be a bit sooner, less than a week away, which worked for me just fine. Seemed like a simple enough process. Not unlike the countless times I've made an appointment at various business over the years, including this one for that very first visit.
However when I arrived a few days later, I was told straight-away that my appointment had been canceled, because I didn't 'confirm' it with them more than 48 hours in advance. They said a text message had been previously sent out for this purpose, including the detail about a confirmation being required in order to not lose the appointment.
Stunned, having no recollection of this, I dug through my phone and eventually found the text, sent a day after I'd called to reschedule. It's just a typical message you'd get from just about any Dr's office these days. A reminder of the date and time of the appointment, with a link (or option to reply with a 'C') to confirm, but absolutely nothing about a confirmation being required in order to not lose the appointment, or anything about a confirmation deadline.
Never in my life have I had any kind of issue with being seen for an already scheduled Dr's appointment, let alone one being automatically canceled days in advance because I didn't reply to a reminder for the appointment with a confirmation, regardless of whether it included the ability to do so.
The person then hedged, saying that well, actually it may not have included anything about a confirmation being required, and that the office had been trying to fix that for a while now.
I was then told that if you don't reply to the text that's sent, they'll also call you, just to double-check. The thing is, I've had their number saved in my phone (like you should for any of your healthcare providers) since the first time I was seen by them months earlier, primarily to make sure I wouldn't miss a call or voicemail from their office. But there's no call to be found in my phone's call history from that number, or voicemail left by them (VM hasn't been full). Nor did the person I originally spoke with over the phone mention anything. You'd think they'd say something about it, if it's indeed a vital requirement to ensure a scheduled visit, like the one we'd just made an appointment for, can actually occur.
Up to this point things had being getting weirder by the second, with it being pretty hard to believe that whatever kind of system this is that they're using, wouldn't in reality lead to nonsense like this happening fairly often. That, and/or there was perhaps something to a growing sense that whoever was supposed to be in the office for the appointment, just ended up not feeling like it, and this was some kind of ham-fisted form of damage control. I dunno. It's all still pretty mind-boggling.
To cap it all off, the next available appointment for just a cleaning was more than 2 months out, which happens to be when I'll likely be out of town. I took that as a loud and clear cue to just cut my loses (time/energy/gas/sanity), and instead be on my way, in search of what's hopefully a smoother, or at the very least more dependable operation. read more