Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Chutzpah

I couldn’t believe the chutzpah, the nerves, the unmitigated gall when I received a bill from the dental office I recently left in my rear view.

After Dr. C scammed me into $2,974.40 worth of work — which I paid for up front, in yesterday’s mail was a statement detailing all the work performed and a bill for an additional $74.40 for something called "Limited Oral Eval Prob Focused".

I’ve no idea what "limited oral eval prob focused" is but it looks like greed.

Seventy-five dollars is not worth going to war with these people, so I dropped a check off in the mail this morning, along with a note … "Take me off your patient list because, like other long-time patients leaving the practice have commented in Yelp and Google reviews, I realize this is no longer a dental office but a machinery to make money through questionable business practices and misleading us patients".

I seriously doubt this will have an impact on their continuing to scam patients into expensive unnecessarily invasive dental work. They'll keep taking advantage unless and until they run out of suckers. I’ll just have to take pleasure in knowing I'm no longer one of those suckers. Dr. C will not be getting the additional $5,000 he’d expected from the Proposed Treatment Plan he’d tried to ram down my throat.

So, that's that.

I’ll probably get audited by the IRS next year when I submit my taxes because, after years of just a few hundred dollars for x-rays and cleanings, they’ll never believe I’ve paid as much in dental procedures as the 2022 tax return will show.

As I was walking out of this morning’s workout, Beverly Hills was walking in.

If you will recall, she’s a recent transplant to the Rancho Cucamonga area, having relocated from Beverly Hills; and, seeing homeless people for the first time, was worried about her safety at the Pain Cave.

She must have overcome that fear because she's working out regularly; and actually, needn’t have worried about her safety inasmuch as she’s enrolled in the Group Kickboxing Class, with Trainer's badass guys and gals, which makes Miss Beverly Hills a badass. Well-equipped to defend herself.

Besides, watching news of the wave of what’s going on in her old hood — follow home burglaries and daytime robberies along the exclusive Rodeo Drive area, Miss Beverly Hills is probably safer here than there.

Seeing Beverly Hills walk in caused me to realize I’ve not seen any of the homeless people around. Not only have I not seen the regulars who live on the streets, hang around the Pain Cave and the shopping center for some time, I’ve not seen any even walking through the area.

Where did everyone go, thought I.

THEN I remembered something I’d seen on Monday, when I was leaving the Pain Cave and took to be a quasi-medication deal — if you know what I mean.

Checking the Garmin Drive to see what the camera had picked up on Monday, it showed two men standing under the tree where the homeless usually hang out.

A white car pulled up at the curb, a man got out, walked to the two men. There was an exchange of words, THEN the man gave one of the guys at the tree something, that guy in turn reached into his pocket, gave the man something, whereupon the man quickly turned around and walked back to his car.

It looked like a you-know-what buy to me and may explain why the homeless have left the area …. dealers chased them away.

Never a dull moment around here. Always something interesting going on.

I've often thought what I'd do were I fortunate enough to win the Powerball. Would I move? Buy a home or a condo?

Believe it or not, I'd try to remain where I am because I can’t imagine living in some upscale neighborhood where I’m bored to tears because nothing interesting ever happens.

19 comments:

  1. Hi Shirley,

    I hope you leave some 'juicy' comments on Yelp regarding that swindler dentist. Let us know! LOL!

    Love your blog and look forward to it. It more than often makes my day. I love hearing about the 'Karen with a cane' (cane sometimes). She sounds like a borderline personality disorder! Someone to hightail it from as quickly as possible! I feel sorry for her poor cat.

    Thanks again for your great blog and keep 'em coming!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I figure the first thing they'll do after receiving my note is to check Yelp and Google. So I thought I'd give it a little time before I post my review. Not sure what to say that hasn't already been said. I'm open to suggestions. I'm so glad you enjoy Karen. It pisses me off that Talker humors her, talks to her, even after she called the cops on Talker. I think Talker is making a BIG mistake and sooner or later something's gonna happen.

      Delete
  2. Glad you're leaving that dentist in the rear view mirror, as you say. Good riddance!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wish I could have awakened to their tactics sooner, but I guess I had to experience it in order to know.

      Delete
  3. Upscale Neighborhoods are overrated and you probably would Hate it... we did... couldn't wait to get back to familiar territory and our old Community! Glad Ms. Beverly Hills has found ways to feel safer in her new Community. I hadn't heard about the Rodeo Drive Crimes, but my Brother lives in Cali in a very nice area and used to Love Cali, now he's become critical and said if they could move, they would. But, both have Health problems and good Doctors and Friends there, so it would be tough for them to try to do a big relocation and his Partner isn't fond of how Hot Arizona gets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The whole of Beverly Hills is no longer safe. Criminals are targeting the seemingly rich. Anyone living in a nice home or driving an expensive car or walking down the street wearing an expensive watch is now a target and they're going down Rodeo Drive smashing jewelry store windows, taking what they want. It's the wild wild west.

      Delete
  4. Oh, and I'm glad you not only ditched that Dental Office, but will put them on blast and enclosed a written message giving the reason why you are never going back so that they are aware Yelp has bad Reviews and their PR is going to shit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They'll probably have their friends, who are not real patients, post positive reviews. I'm still not sure what to say in my review, but if I see any of those fictitious reviews, I'm going to mention they're fake, not patients but friends of the dental office employees, in my review.

      Delete
    2. And BTW, I'd tried early this morning to leave a comment on your post about finding all that cash out in the desert but, for some reason, the comment box kept opening up on a different post ... the one about the event you'd attended.

      Delete
    3. The Comment section of Blogger has acted Weird lately, that's why I posted that duplicate Comment on your other Post, the other one disappeared without confirmation it had taken. A few Blogs lately I've not even been able to leave Comments on, they just never show up.

      Delete
    4. Another situation of if it ain't broke don't fix it gone wrong.

      Delete
  5. I hope you add your two cents to reviews for Dr. C's office. Karma will get them, let's hope.
    No upscale neighborhoods for me either. I know I wouldn't fit in.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will, after I see what they're going to say/do. But I'm struggling with what to say.

      Delete
  6. Goodness! You ARE observant around the neighborhood; better than any drone flying around.
    The dentist and most doc offices have a shortened description of the various levels of office visits. "Limited oral evaluation, problem focused" is medspeak for the coding they use to bill insurance. Sending a straggler bill after the recent one is definitely tacky. Hopefully the new one does his billings more promptly.
    (I had a divorce attorney send me a "straggler" bill over a year after the divorce was done and he'd been paid. My usual attorney said to ignore it because they can't send one over a year after the work was done.) Tacky attorney; nice try. Linda in Kansas

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess it's because, as a female, I'm forced to be observant of my surroundings at all times. That "Limited oral evaluation, problem focused" must be medspeak for "made up charges" but it's worth $75 to be able to include that note direct, rather than just a Yelp/Google complaint they might not have seen :-)

      Delete
  7. In spite of everything, that's hilarious!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Which part ... the nerves of the dental office or the dealers chasing off the street people?

      Delete
    2. You and your note to the dentist.

      Delete