Physio Appointment, Not Confirmed, Then Charged for No Show [UPDATED]

meong on 05/03/2014 - 18:48
Last edited 05/03/2014 - 22:20

Hi guys,

I would like to know what your view is on this.

I made an appointment with a physio over the phone. I then had a couple of visit to them in which I was quite happy with the service. After each session usually they will ask to re-schedule my next appointment. Usually a few days before the appointment, I will be sent an SMS which required me to reply with 'c' to confirm the appointment. I would always reply to this message and received another SMS telling me that the appointment had been confirmed.

Last appointment, which was supposed to be on 28 Feb, few days prior, on 25 Feb I received the same SMS asking me to reply with 'c' to confirm or phone to reschedule. I didn't reply with C and I believed nothing was confirmed on my appointment. So, I never showed up on 28 February.

Today, I received a letter in my mailbox an invoice about the no-show/missed appointment fee of $45. Now, I think this is a mistake as I never confirmed the appointment.

I believe this has never been communicated to me even about the $45 cancellation fee. However, on their website, they actually have an information about the $45 cancellation fee but also about the SMS as shown below:

"We want to make sure you can get to your appointment so we will send you a text message (or email) to confirm three days prior to your appointment. Please respond ‘c’ to confirm your appointment and you will then receive a confirmation text message."

"We understand that circumstances arise when you may not be able to attend your appointment. It is greatly appreciated if 24 hours notice is provided otherwise a $45 cancellation fee will be charged."

So, the website also did mention about the SMS message and that I have to confirm the appointment. Now, am I using the wrong logic that if I didn't reply 'c' to the SMS, I should not be charged for an appointment that I never confirmed anyway?

Thanks for your advice.

UPDATE:
I just received an email that they are willing to waive it due to the misunderstanding of the text message. Good gesture of them.

General Discussion

Comments

  • Ughhh on 05/03/2014 - 18:53
    -1

    It is greatly appreciated if 24 hours notice is provided

    Did you provide notice by calling them to cancel? If no, then imo the charge is valid.
    Never just assume!

    • meong on 05/03/2014 - 19:19
      +2

      So, another question will be, what happen if someone never replied 'C' to the SMS? Does that mean that he/she will have the appointment slot used by anyone else who can book at any time?

      In this case, the customer can say that they have assumed the booking was made via the phone or internet and that no additional confirmation was meant to be done via SMS.

      In my previous appointments, I had always looked forward to the confirmation message after I replied to the SMS. One time it took a while for the confirmation message to arrive that I nearly called them to double check if my appointment had been confirmed.

  • mattypoika on 05/03/2014 - 19:01
    +6

    I would say if the appointment had been made and you did not call to cancel it, then you will need to wear it. You would be surprised at how many people people just don't rock up or call 10 mins before appointments to change to another time.

    • meong on 05/03/2014 - 19:23

      Yeah, I understand the pain the service providers would have to deal with no-show. But wouldn't it be that if I have never confirmed, the appointment was never made at all?

      • Ughhh on 05/03/2014 - 21:29

        By ignoring the text, you didn't really confirm whether you are going or not. Thus appointment isn't canceled.

        They probably thought perhaps you didn't have credit to reply, network problems (vodfone!).

  • Almost Banned on 05/03/2014 - 19:09

    Hum…
    Not sure what I think about this.
    If they didn't disclose the cancellation fee when you attended and relied upon you going to their website to find out about it I would say that it may not form part of your contract. The fact that you found out about it afterwards is analogous to the ticket cases.
    But if you want to go back there you'll probably have to wear it.

    • meong on 05/03/2014 - 19:24

      If I have to pay the $45 fee, I would definitely not come back there again. In fact, I was trying to call them this Monday to make another appointment but I think I called to early and no one picked up the phone.

  • [Deactivated] on 05/03/2014 - 19:38
    +2

    Anyone else think of the Seinfeld episode where George is charged for cancelling an appointment with the physical therapist (the delicate genius) with less than 24 hours notice, and he flies off the handle? lol

  • grasstown on 05/03/2014 - 19:51

    Website won't assist. What did the txt MSG say?
    I would politely tell them what you told us, and I would expect them to waive it.

    • meong on 05/03/2014 - 19:56

      Text Message said:
      <My Name>, this is <physio centre name> confirming your next appointment Friday February 28 at 2:30 PM. Reply: c to confirm, or ph <phone number> to reschedule.

      If I had replied c, I would get SMS such as this:
      You have successfully confirmed your appointment. <physio centre name>

      • grasstown on 05/03/2014 - 21:06

        Sms doesn't mention a fee.
        my hcf SMS goes like this.
        HCF Dental CBD Sydney appt reminder for Xx 08:30am WED 09.01.2014. If unable to attend, pls txt back or ph 02 9290 0555.
        Your physio's terminology is wrong too. They have instructed you to confirm by pressing c. They confirmed that you had made a booking and told you to reconfirm. You neither wanted to confirm or to reschedule so you did nothing. The second SMS also backs you up. It is not a reminder.

        Just politely say what is in your op. they will want to keep you as a client.

  • PissLUR on 05/03/2014 - 19:54
    +5

    You didn't cancel the appointment.

    • Baghern on 06/03/2014 - 10:47
      +2

      They put a process in which requires him to confirm, he did not confirm. Therefore its cancelled.

      Whats the point of the "C" then?

  • itajac on 05/03/2014 - 20:42
    +2

    Sms confirmation is usually just a courtesy to patients to remind them of their appts. it is your obligation to show up or reschedule/cancel if you cannot attend. If you ring them and explain your situation and the fact you did not know about the fee and how the appointment system worked they might waive it?

    • meong on 05/03/2014 - 22:22
      +2

      This is actually what they said. Courtesy.

      So, they have waived it.

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 05/03/2014 - 20:46

    I doubt they can make you pay it, but they will attempt to charge you it if you have another appointment there.

    Politely ask them to waive the fee and you will continue to visit their practice, or you will go elsewhere.

  • p1 ama on 05/03/2014 - 21:51
    +2

    To be honest, the best bet you have is to just talk to them, as with most things. Call up, or rock up there yourself and explain that you thought by not replying to to the text, the appointment would be cancelled. Tell them that you are a regular patient at their clinic and have been happy with their service and let them know that you will be continuing to go there in the future.

    Generally businesses will respect loyalty and should waiver you the fee as long as you explain the misunderstanding and your side of the story well.

    If not, it's understandable why they did that though, it's just policy in the end, there's not much you can do except go elsewhere if you're unhappy.

  • [Deactivated] on 05/03/2014 - 22:40
    +1

    Nice of them to waive it. Good outcome, OP.

    Personally I could see it from your point of view, as well as theirs. Their text messaging system doesn't seem to 'back up' their policy as best it could, leaving that room for ambiguity when a client doesn't reply to confirm - I too might wonder if that means my appointment was cancelled or not.

    I see a psychologist each week at a medical centre, and they have a similar system where the receptionist will call the day before to confirm your appointment. This doesn't happen EVERY week though, so it's more a courtesy reminder than anything. If I don't turn up, I get charged for cancelling without notice (however, my psychologist has been very kind in giving people a few chances, then a warning, then charging - which I believe is very unusual and purely her own way of doing things).

    There have been many occasions when I've missed the receptionists call the day before, and they simply leave a voice message on my phone saying "please call us if you wish to cancel the appointment" which basically means that if I don't call to cancel, it's their presumption that I will be there… which seems to also be the case with your appointment.

    I think we should always put ourselves in the shoes of the practitioner - how would we feel if we were them, and a client cancelled with either no notice or very short notice, or simply didn't turn up for a scheduled appointment. That's one window wasted where they don't get paid and have no opportunity to book someone else to replace you. How frustrating would that be? So aside from the ambiguities in their booking system, you know it's always clearer to call ahead to make sure they know you won't be coming in. I wouldn't rely on a text messaging service to definitely communicate that intention if I simply didn't confirm through it…

  • srhardy on 06/03/2014 - 08:08
    +1

    Charging for missed appointments is a grey area, you cant charge for a service that has not been rendered but a service fee to cover the admin cost can be. it must be cost recovery ONLY too since the ANZ lost its case in court over penalty fee's. The charging and then dropping of the fee is a means by which they 'train' you to either be on time or call which is fair enough to an extent. I bet they serviced as many clients as normal and made no loss in your not attending anyway! My chiro (and doctor) over book and takes walk ins and at $50 for 10 min on average its very profitable being a chiropractor!!!

  • azshade on 06/03/2014 - 17:34
    +1

    I'd assume you signed a contract somewhere where you agreed to the fee? Regardless, I know this has been waived, but can I suggest to your physio they change their texting mecanism? I'd suggest rather than an "opt in" for confirmation, it's "opt out". That is.

    "Dear Mr Smith.
    This is a reminder that you have an appointment with your physio in three days time. Please call or sms on
    XXXX if you cannot attend. We'd like to remind you there is a $45 fee payable if you do not give a 24hr
    warning of non attendence."

    This would make it so the assumption is on the person attending, and puts the onus back on the person keeping the appointment.

    That said, I think the idea of a "non attendence" fee is a bit highway robbery anyhow, unless they guarantee on time appointments or discounts if late etc. Got to be a happy medium.

  • treeman on 08/03/2014 - 00:17

    Am I the only one that thinks of the Seinfeld ep when i saw this post?

    Excuse me we have a 24 hour cancellation policy!

  • p1 ama on 09/03/2014 - 11:37
    +1

    To everyone who is talking about non-attendance fees being a bit of a highway robbery, I doubt many of you are actually in the medical profession and actually know the statistics behind non-attendances. I actually have a very close friend who is a GP, quite a popular one in the community and he says that usually non-attendances actually sit at around 30% and it can jump up to over 40% when it's the "flu/cold season".

    The problem is people will book a doctor because they are feeling unwell. Let's say they have the flu and they book in to see their GP tomorrow afternoon. After a day of rest, they feel fine and just cannot be bothered attending and don't even give a call in, like that sort of stuff happens a lot more than you would expect. Sometimes, people honestly just forget they have an appointment as well.

    That's why doctors overbook, like my friend who is a GP, he knows that around 30% of bookings don't turn up, so he will purposely overbook every day by 30% to sort of "pad that out", obviously sometimes more patients turn up and he will run behind schedule.

    It's really hard to be able to keep appointments on time when other people aren't reliable in the first place, so the only real alternative to double-booking is to have a late-cancellation fee such as this to give the physio (or GP or dentist or any other health practitioner) some form of compensation for "wasted time" per se.

    • Baghern on 11/03/2014 - 11:46

      That doesn't explain why people who booked a time, are virtually always waiting 30-2hours even.

      Something I've noticed is if someone comes late, after their booked time, they're the next in. As far as I'm concern they should be made to wait until there's a slot free.

      Letting late people in bumps everyone else back 30mins or so.

    • SirFlibbled on 11/03/2014 - 13:58

      Reminds me of an episode of Curb your Enthusiasm where Larry is billed for not attending an appointment. Then he gets cancelled on by the doctor and argues that they should pay him for her non-attendence.

  • Baghern on 12/03/2014 - 09:30

    This is actually in SMH now…

    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/when-gloom-in-the-waiting-room…

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