Advanced Otolaryngology

After an extremely bad sinus infection in the winter of 2018, my wife almost completely lost her sense of taste and smell. With my urging, she finally decided to get things checked out at Advanced Otolaryngology/Richmond ENT. My wife had some medical testing done through their office in August of last year, then had a follow-up visit in October where they literally had her come into the office to tell her they couldn't figure out the issue and told her to go somewhere else (to a hospital for smell training??) -- Gee, thanks, you could've relayed that over the phone and saved us $50. When she tried to pay off the balance for the two visits via our Care Credit card, they told her the machine was down and that they'd call her when it was back up to take payment. They never called her back. So then life went on, and we spent a lot of time looking into what Advanced Otolaryngology/Richmond ENT recommended -- trying to figure out just what the heck and how smell-training works. In the end, my wife felt really discouraged because, it seemed smell training (essentially physical therapy for your nose) was not only costly -- but also time-consuming. It just didn't seem possible for us due to lacking the ability to that much time off of work, arranging for childcare for our toddler, and of course the cost. So, months later, my wife had seen zero progress and now we had medical bills to pay, but of course, other finances came first: our mortgage, childcare, groceries, etc. And then...... Maybe you've heard...a pandemic happened, and countless people have lost their jobs -- including my wife. Our income has literally been cut nearly in half. A few days ago we received a court summons with a lawyer's info on it. My wife looked like she'd been punched in the gut when she received it. It felt cruel. In that moment, and the look on her face, I just wanted to help. With so many financial institutions offering relief programs or financial aid during these times, I figured surely Advanced Otolaryngology/Richmond ENT may be willing to do something. I called the lawyer's office yesterday and asked if there were any options, specifically to get this taken care of and have the court date dropped ASAP. I obviously explained our recent hardships since Covid-19, but ultimately they're just the middle man...the debt collectors...so, I was told to send an email with a settlement offer. I offered 5% more than her original bill -- the exact amount of money in my personal savings account with this note: Due to Covid-19, my wife has lost her job and our income has been nearly cut in half. As I’m sure you can understand, our priorities have shifted as we’ve been navigating childcare, keeping our family safe and healthy, and trying to make ends meet. This was not negligence in being unable to pay, rather it was due to hardship. I would deeply appreciate any allowance or empathy that may be extended. I, myself, with my own savings can offer (redacted) to settle this debt. I appreciate your understanding and response. And I received the following response from the lawyer's office this morning: My client, Advanced Otolaryngology, P.C. d/b/a Richmond ENT, has declined your offer. No counter offer, no other solutions or offerings whatsoever. I feel like anyone with even a small capacity for empathy, or an understanding of the lived experiences of those in a socioeconomic class most effected by Covid-19, could grasp how harmful and underhanded this is. After posting the review above, I received a response back in minutes: Andy, I’d be happy to speak with you about your specific case. But also to be clear we never received any kind of settlement offer. Please feel free to give me a call 622-3780. Interesting (please see the image of a letter from their lawyer's office below) that says otherwise. At 12:44pm I had the (non)pleasure of speaking with Lisa from Richmond ENT. Right off the bat, Lisa was condescending, interrupted me repeatedly, and was without even the most basic understanding of customer service leadership or empathy. One of my first questions or requests was -- IF they'd never received a settlement offer from their lawyer, could I please receive written confirmation of this fact because that would of course be illegal -- Debt collectors are prohibited from deceiving/misleading you while trying to collect a debt. She agreed and we continued on with what became a tense and fairly unproductive conversation where she stated that their Care Credit/credit card machine had "never been down," and argued with me about the crappiness of being sent a court summons during a pandemic, and finally "offered" the following: That IF I remove all negative reviews and pay $200 by the end of business the following day the court case would be dropped. I requested again that she send a written statement that they didn't receive a settlement offer from their lawyer to which she responded that Brittany from Gilliam and Mikula would call me. Great. Okay. Sure. So then at 1:24pm, I got a call from Brittany, from G&M, who immediately said that she understood my frustration and confirmed that their office truly never sent the offer to Richmond ENT -- something about how they're not required to or something...so, I asked her if I could get that in writing from them -- that essentially oh yeah, it's our policy to totes lie to people and waste their time -- and shocker, she couldn't do so, and she'd have to ask one of their lawyers. I told her that was fine, and talked with her about the ridiculous 24-hour timeline given by Richmond ENT to cough up $200. She told me that as long as we paid the debt in full before the court date (August 20th) the court case would be dropped. We ended the call with her agreeing that she'd reach back out to Lisa about more reasonable payment options and her looking into getting me a letter admitting they never sent an offer to Richmond ENT. I heard back from Brittany at 2:45pm yesterday. She did not mention anything about the request for a letter confirming her office did not communicate with Richmond ENT about our settlement offer. She did say that she spoke with Lisa where she again stated we had until the end of the following day to take down the negative reviews and pay the $200 or go to court. I asked about paying in full by court date -- and she just responded that that wasn't an option their client (Richmond ENT) was offering. I replied that if we paid the debt in full by the court date and they still took us to court....that would be a really boring day in court. We ended that call with her saying her office would email the settlement offer from Richmond ENT. It's approximately 1PM the day after all this communication, and we still have not received a settlement offer letter that we're apparently supposed to read, agree to, sign and send along with $200 by 5pm today......or go to court. It seems I'm not the only person who feels Richmond ENT's customer service or capacity for understanding/empathy is seriously lacking judging from their 2.6 stars on Google.

He has an all-in-one office. I have not been in there recently but I was going there quite often a couple of years ago. He is very professional. The only thing that I do not like about his office is that they keep changing their audiologist. They have had three since I have gone there and that, to me, is not good. The doctor is very good and his staff is good but that would be my one complaint that they seem to change the audiologist quite often and I do not know why.