Business ProfileforFamily Dental Group of Northborough, LLC

I was unable to make my appoinment scheduled for Tuesday at 4PM due to my appoinment being at the same time my son has to be picked up from an after school student council meeting. (which I was unaware of at the time when I originally scheduled my appoinement) I was on vacation the week prior, and as soon as I landed on Monday afternoon I called to reschedule. Jessica answered the phone and had a rude tone from the beginning, I explained my situation and she proceeded to tell me that they will be charging me a cancellation fee because they needed 48hr notice. I told her 1. I was on vacation and 2. the day prior was a Sunday, before I could finish my sentence she asks "did your phone not work on vacation" she also complained about their time being valuable which I understood but her disgusting attitude was completely unnecessary and I would not recommend a place of business with employees that are difficult to work with. I also had prior situations where I dIdn't agree with the decisions made at this location. For example they scheduled my son to have his tooth removed and when we showed up the dentist that was supposed to perform the procedure decided against it. My time is just as valuable as theirs. So for those reasons I would not recommend this location.

In general our office policy is 48 hour notice for cancellation of an appointment. We obviously use that more as a deterrent and are very lenient with the policy. If someone calls in at the last moment because of sickness or any other kind of genuine emergency or valid reason, we definitely do not impose that cancellation policy.

******* had called to cancel her appointment with less than our required 48 hour notice. However this was an appointment which was just rescheduled from the week prior as at that time she had called saying she had the flu virus. So at this point, I informed her we do generally require the 48 hour notice and asked her why she couldn't make it. She became defensive to this question . First her reason for cancellation was 'She was on vacation last week so she couldn't take any more time off', so I then explained there would be a late cancellation fee. At this point, ******* was very short and rude. She said 'Sorry, but you are not a top priority in my life and I was on vacation so, no I couldn't call sooner'. I did ask her in a normal tone if her phone worked on vacation. ( this was simply out of curiosity because if she was overseas and really couldn't have called us I would have made a note of that and not charged.) However, she became more aggressive at this point -  'You know what, I'll come in tomorrow just to show my face so you can't charge me then I'll leave so I can go get my son from his student counsel meeting at 4.' I explained if she couldn't stay for her appointment there would still be a charge. This is when she hung up on me.

I called back to try and talk with her again to resolve the issue but she did not  answer at that time.

She called and left a voicemail stating she will be canceling all of her and her families appointments and not coming back to the office due to the fact I asked her if her phone worked on vacation. 

As I mentioned earlier, I would again like to note that she had an appointment scheduled on the week prior to this week January 16,2024 when she called and canceled short notice she told me she was flu positive (not vacation), and that is why she couldn't make it. So that short notice cancel was excused and not charged. She had had prior cancellations/reschedules which have been excused.

Regarding change in treatment plan with her son at a prior appointment was the right decision. Taking a tooth out is an irreversible procedure/step and if that can be avoided, is a good thing. Treatment plans can sometimes change at the last minute but that is for the benefit of the patient. 

Anytime a patient decides to leave, we as an office are devastated. But in this case, even though we are devastated, we do not feel we did anything inappropriate. 

Thank you.