dentist lied - advice needed!!

Author:
phar
Posted:
di, 09/04/2007 - 19:30
A while ago, I was told by my dentist (a young female Belgian dentist in the center of Maastricht working together with / under the name of another dutch male dentist) that I need 2 fillings. As I need a tooth extraction at hospital, by chance I asked the doctor whether there is any hole in my teeth. After examining my x-ray photos, the doctor said he saw no cavity in my teeth. So I called the dentist to cancel the appointment which was due 1 week later. (on the appointment card, it says cancellation is possible 24 hours in advance of appointment.)

But now the dentist sent me bill charging me 50 euros for not showing up for the appointment. I called her and she simply lied that I never called for cancellation! I was completely shocked by such a big lie from a well-educated and supposing decent dentist! I do not think I am going to make any compromise to such lie.

After refusing to pay the 50 euros now I got a new bill attached with a letter threatening that they will ask a special debt collecting company to ask me to pay the 50 euro together with all the resulting cost if I do not pay them within 1 week.

I definitely will not pay them as justice is in my hand. The dentist is a big cheater. On the other hand, I am going to take some precaution measures to avoid unnecessary problems that might arise only because I want to withhold justice. Any advice would be so much appreciated. Thanks in advance!!
mecánico para …

just write down what's already been done here. send it and ask for reply within a fortnight.
Tell exactly the day and time you called the office. Tell her why you cancelled. And then make a point by mentioning that they probably forgot to delete the appointment. You don't want to and certainly not going to pay for a mistake you did not make i.e. canceling long before the actual date.
Every baillif will have to see that you are not the one that made the mistake, so send the letter in, and make it "signed for".
then, sit back and relax and find another denstist.

by the way, most of the time the caries found in the mouth on the occlusal side cannot be seen on the bigger Xrays, that's why I wouldnt be so happy with that statement of the dental surgeon.
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di, 09/04/2007 - 21:41 Permalink
phar

Thanks for your advice, I will certainly do that. Meanwhile, I am going to file a formal complain if the letter does not work. Is English one of the court lauguages next to Dutch in the Netherlands by the way? Because if English is allowed, as a foreign lawyer I certainly do have right to defend myself in court.

P.s. I had two appointments at hospital for the tooth extraction. The first is examination when the doctor checked on my x-ray photo. The second is for operation. During second visit, the doctor did examine my teeth and saw no cavity on the teeth that I particularly asked to check.
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wo, 09/05/2007 - 13:21 Permalink
mecánico para …

to be honoust, I dont know wheter you must be thinking in terms of being in court right away. firts steps are talking, maybe mediation and if nothing works out you can think of something as a "kort geding" a civil lawsuit. But knowing that a denstist has almost no chance of winning in cases where people have to pay for not showing, and the height of the amount of money its not likely that one goes to court. Knowing the odds, knowing that one hour of siiting in court will cost you a half days wages......... that dentsist must be either very stubborn or very stupid. or both.

about the language in court? well, you're here, in the netherlands, and you can expect the court will be willing to try but I would not push my luck on that one. Try mediation, that will give you a one on one oppotunity and look her/him in the eye. You'll know wheter he/she is telling the truth or not. fa shizzle
:smt020
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wo, 09/05/2007 - 14:00 Permalink
phar

Ha, you are right. But, I think she is both, stubborn and stupid. Surely I would prefer a peaceful solution. Right in the beginning I had already tried to communicate with her on the phone and let her know that I won't make any compromise to a lie and I should not be the one who is responsible for their (surposing) administrative mistake. But now she chose to continue with her mistake.

I have sent an email to her and requesting a reply within 14 days.

The bill was sent by Kesteren Medical Factoring (guess it is an incasso bureau) and require me to pay in 8 days. And I saw the date of the bill was already on 30 August but I recieved only yesterday on 4 September. I wonder this 8 days is counting from the date of the bill or the date when I receive the bill and what would be the next step they are going to take if I refuse to pay?
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wo, 09/05/2007 - 14:54 Permalink
mecánico para …

maybe you can send a copy or the printed version of the e-mail you've send to Kesteren.
Because if you think the bill is not correct, you should inform Kesteren of this. Then SHE will be the one to respond and so on.
In that case she'll always get 50% of the amount on the bill, and they will probably after your reply not send the bailliff to sell your belongings. not for that money and not after you have clearly said that you were not the one that made a mistake in the first place.

cheers
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wo, 09/05/2007 - 16:00 Permalink
mecánico para …

forgot to mention: you can get a printout of all the calls you made. on the home number and on a cell phone too. sometimes the phonecompany will charge for that, but then again: time line can be made:

visit at denal office
making of the appointment
visit dental surgeon Xray
second visit dental surgeon
the call to cancel the appointment
the actual appointment
the he said she said thing

if this line is a solid one. dont worry, it's going to take some time for this lady to see that her "not erasing the appointment from her book" is the problem.

good luck
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wo, 09/05/2007 - 17:26 Permalink
phar

Thanks for your advice. I will keep it in mind. I have just called the incasso bureau and explained everything. They are going to send a letter to the dentist. I will see.

I feel it is like trouble out of nowhere. It should not be my job to take all these effort to make things right, because I did nothing wrong except I refuse to let the dentist try to work on my teeth which turned out to be nothing wrong. It is the dentist who should feel guilty. I think probably it is not bad idea to just do nothing and unless she dares to bother the court which she know more than anybody that she doesnot have any winning chance.

God, I am so angry about the derogated professional morality of this dentist.
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do, 09/06/2007 - 11:40 Permalink
phar

I have written emails, letters to the dentist with a good hope that it was simply because of their administrative mistake. But here is a stubborn one. She just put all responsibility on her assistant that she knew nothing about this and she only knew from her assistant that I never called to cancel the appointment.

So it seems there is no way to resolve it in a peaceful way. Shall I just block my bankaccount from them taking money forcefully, and then wait for them to sue me in court?

Any advice appreciated.
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vr, 09/28/2007 - 13:50 Permalink
mecánico para …

1) Just because the assistent doesnt remember it doesnt say "it didnt happen"
2) she sends the bill she is responsible, hiding behind the assistant is childish
3) She cant force the bank to send money from your account in anyway without you knowing
4) Say no more and let her do the talking
5) reply, if you want it to go further, I'll take my chance on "the klachtencommissie" and well talk about office management, bills for no reason and tell her why: timepath on which you did decide to skip the restauration part.

If nothing happens and shell send the baillif............hand him over the prints of the mails and the starting of the procedure you started yourself

6) Tell her to go f**k herself in the most polite and eloquent way you can and find yourself another dentist
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vr, 09/28/2007 - 18:55 Permalink
phar

"6) Tell her to go f**k herself in the most polite and eloquent way you can and find yourself another dentist"

aha, that is a good one. The most suitable one for that f**king dentist. :lol:

Thanks mecánico para!

Anyway, I am the one who believes in truth and justice. Let's hope those unqualified dentists in the sense of both morality and professionality out of the market!
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ma, 10/01/2007 - 10:06 Permalink