Any professionals (read: mainly doctors) who charge cancellation fees with no exceptions are just ridiculous.
People sometimes cancel their appointments or fail to even show up at all; it is just part of doing business with the general public. Things happen: cars break down, people run out of gas, your boss won't let you off work. Fellow lawyers--who hasn't had a hearing set by the judge at the same time you were supposed to be somewhere else? Court wins almost every time because that is your livelihood.
For chronic cancellations or no shows, I fire
the client. Otherwise, I do not see the wisdom in punishing the vast majority of my
clients because of those rare
inconsiderate people. If you do not respect my time, then I have none for you. All others get the benefit of the doubt, and on the occasion when I'm late because life happened, or outside factors, I expect to get it in return.
I've never even considered charging a cancellation fee and I've never heard of any other attorneys doing so. Has anyone out there ever been charged a cancellation fee by a lawyer? Tell me about it in the comments.
I've never even considered charging a cancellation fee and I've never heard of any other attorneys doing so. Has anyone out there ever been charged a cancellation fee by a lawyer? Tell me about it in the comments.
On the issue of respecting my time, an hour wait at the doctor's office is ridiculous and completely disrespectful of a patient's time. Life happens, and if it is not a chronic problem, I try to be understanding as the patient. Emergencies (personal and professional) happen to doctors too. Who hasn't waited extra long at the OBGYN to find out that the cause was an emergency delivery or some other much more important situation? If the wait is always an hour after my appointment time, then I start looking for a new doctor. The doctor clearly does not value my time as highly as he or she values their own and that is unacceptable.
Which brings me back to the cancellation fee. Recently I waited an hour past my appointment time to see a pediatrician. No apology or explanation was given. The next week I had to cancel an appointment at the last minute because of outside factors beyond my control. Same doctor sent me a bill for $25. Clearly, we have a different way of looking at things, and she will get her $25 but also never see any of my family again. So she made her co-pay for that allotted time, but she loses all the future co-pays and more importantly my good will. Yes, I've already had one of those "catch up" conversations in the grocery store parking lot with a fellow mom looking to move pediatricians and I thoroughly trashed this doctor's office policies.
I hated ethics class in law school because the professor was a west coast philosophy major who had never stepped foot in the real world to practice law and the course was in no way geared to prepare us for the MPRE. In fairness to the professor, this was my last year and I was totally over it.
I have to give that professor credit though, because she taught me a concept that has never steered me wrong: Equity is always the exception.
This doctor with the cancellation fee not only needs to think harder about her business model but about fairness in general. She has lost two new patients in less than 3 weeks, all for $25 because I guess my cancellation messed up her one hour ahead overbooking policy.
I hope she buys a coke and a smile with it.
JAS
Which brings me back to the cancellation fee. Recently I waited an hour past my appointment time to see a pediatrician. No apology or explanation was given. The next week I had to cancel an appointment at the last minute because of outside factors beyond my control. Same doctor sent me a bill for $25. Clearly, we have a different way of looking at things, and she will get her $25 but also never see any of my family again. So she made her co-pay for that allotted time, but she loses all the future co-pays and more importantly my good will. Yes, I've already had one of those "catch up" conversations in the grocery store parking lot with a fellow mom looking to move pediatricians and I thoroughly trashed this doctor's office policies.
I hated ethics class in law school because the professor was a west coast philosophy major who had never stepped foot in the real world to practice law and the course was in no way geared to prepare us for the MPRE. In fairness to the professor, this was my last year and I was totally over it.
I have to give that professor credit though, because she taught me a concept that has never steered me wrong: Equity is always the exception.
This doctor with the cancellation fee not only needs to think harder about her business model but about fairness in general. She has lost two new patients in less than 3 weeks, all for $25 because I guess my cancellation messed up her one hour ahead overbooking policy.
I hope she buys a coke and a smile with it.
JAS
Copyright 2013 Julie Ann Sombathy All Rights Reserved
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Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog. I moderate all comments, so please be respectful of me and each other. My blog and none of the comments by me or others constitute legal advice or an attorney-client relationship. Regards, Julie