I was driving my grandfather 80 miles to Traverse City from West Branch, and we figured that we would be about 15 minutes late to his appoinment for a melanoma. We called ahead and informed the office of the delay, and the receptionist said that the doctor may not see him because we projected being 15 minutes late. The receptionist basically was arguing with my elderly grandfather saying that there was no guarantee that the doctor would see him because of the lateness, and he should reschedule the appointment. We ended up being 7 minutes late, and he had to use the restroom after the hour-and-a-half trip there. My grandfather said to the receptionist that we were early, meaning we were earlier than the 15 minutes that we expected to be late, and the receptionist proceeded to directly correct him saying that we were 10 minutes late (even though we were only 7 minutes late). My grandfather was upset that they were giving him grief for being marginally late to the office. There was nobody waiting to see the doctor either. The doctor also gave him grief for needing to use the restroom and not seeing him until 11 minutes after the scheduled appointment. I could not believe that the customer service was this poor, or that they stay in business when they clearly have no empathy for their patients. It's Northern Michigan for heaven's sake; there happened to be a single lane road due to construction and both directions of traffic have to wait for an extended period of time. I still cannot believe that after 20+ years of being Dr. Saunders' patient that he would be treated with such disregard and a lack of understanding for our situation. I found it incredible that Dr. Saunders was included in a Top 20 Dermatologist article hanging in his waiting room, albeit the article was from 1998, nearly 20 years ago. I don't care how educated you are in medicine and dermatology, you shouldn't treat your patients like garbage. Do not waste your time with this doctor or his office staff.
P.S. I later realized how pretentious this doctor is when the name of his practice is M.D. Saunders, M.D. read more