Poor service
I was running late for an evening appointment due to a traffic accident, and spoke with someone on the phone and was told this would be no problem. When I arrived to the appointment 17 minutes late, I deeply apologized as the situation was out of my control and I was told that I had missed the appointment and would have to reschedule. It would have been great if the person I spoke to on the phone could've told me that if I was to arrive after a certain time, that my appointment would be missed so that myself and the person driving me did not rush and speed to get there once we were out of the traffic area. I had to reschedule the appointment but they could not get me in until next month. Unfortunately I need more contacts before I travel to Europe so waiting a month to have my prescription checked won't work for me and I was forced to make an appointment with another eye doctor who could see me this week.
I understand the importance of being on time, as I am always on...
I was running late for an evening appointment due to a traffic accident, and spoke with someone on the phone and was told this would be no problem. When I arrived to the appointment 17 minutes late, I deeply apologized as the situation was out of my control and I was told that I had missed the appointment and would have to reschedule. It would have been great if the person I spoke to on the phone could've told me that if I was to arrive after a certain time, that my appointment would be missed so that myself and the person driving me did not rush and speed to get there once we were out of the traffic area. I had to reschedule the appointment but they could not get me in until next month. Unfortunately I need more contacts before I travel to Europe so waiting a month to have my prescription checked won't work for me and I was forced to make an appointment with another eye doctor who could see me this week.
I understand the importance of being on time, as I am always on time unless situations like this happen that are out of my control. I know that when people are late it can disrupt other appointments and make things difficult, and I am deeply sorry that I caused any trouble by being late. I just wish that it was made clear to me that if I do not arrive to an appointment within a certain period of time that I would miss it. I had been a patient at Bedford Eye Care for around 15 years and I am always on time and am almost always in the waiting room for 10-15 minutes before I see someone anyway. I share because I do not want the same thing to happen to someone else in the future as it was a very frustrating situation I think patients deserve better service than this! A policy should be put in place so patients know that being more than a few minutes late means missing the appointment, I did not see such a policy on the website.
Thanks!
Comments
Hello patient1234. First of all, I would like to thank you for letting us know right away about this unfortunate situation. Bedford Eye Care prides itself on exceptional customer service, and your experience certainly did not come close to meeting our service standards. It is totally unacceptable that we indicated that you could still be seen, despite letting us know that you would be late and then being told that you had missed your appointment! To make matters worse, we should have done everything we could to at least get you a supply of contact lenses before your trip to Europe. Fortunately, we have never had a complaint like this in 35+ years of practice, but we will certainly be discussing your experience at our next staff meeting. Mistakes do happen, but we try to use them as learning opportunities so our staff can learn how to avoid situations like this in the future. I can’t ‘undo’ what happened to you, but if you would like to return to our office in the future we would be happy to offer you either a complimentary eye examination or a free 2 week supply of contact lenses. Please call our office at 902-835-2020 and ask for our manager, Cindy. Again, you have our sincere apologies. Dr. Toby Mandelman