«His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity.»
Taken from a performance evaluation
A while ago I had a quite negative experience with an orthodontist. For example, the doctor’s office was organized badly (e.g., did not send an eMail, gave me the wrong questionnaire) and the doctor itself first explained to me for roughly ten minutes that it was essential to do the upper and the lower row of teeth, only to spend almost as much time later telling me it was fine to do just the upper row (my teeth are strange, let’s just leave it at that). I mean, why not, one consequence is that I would not be able to hold a thread with my teeth. I was thinking whether I would pay that price, but I was also thinking about starting sewing at that time (I did afterwards and haven’t needed to hold a threat with my teeth yet). But before I did come to a final decision, the doctor’s office send me another bill … for something I had already paid. Even though it was the last item in the diagnostic process, it was somewhere in the middle of the list of the former bill.
No idea whether that was deliberate or just another mishap, but my patience was at an end. I took some effort for me to even go there, knowing I would have to pay everything myself (yeah, there’s health insurance, but it doesn’t pay for everything). And then the office was organized this badly (usually an indicator that something else is wrong), and the doctor is either that preliminary or that inconsistent with his recommendations, and then they even try to get money twice?
So I gave a one star review on Google Maps. And I found out that I wasn’t the only one who rated him that way.
That could have been it, but recently a lawyer was claiming that I wasn’t every in that doctor’s office, so the review was a fake and should be removed (unless that was a prank, or a phishing expedition). But looking at the cited legal decisions, it seems an orthodontist in the city I live in is rather happy to use legal action against … reviews that are bad for business.
I get that a harsh review is bad for business, but I don’t think the review was the cause. The bad practice was. Or to put it bluntly, perceived incompetence is bad for business.
Frankly, I think a better way would be to improve work (get the office running smoothly, improving one’s skills), thus getting better reviews. And perhaps try to convince these rating sites to weigh recent reviews stronger than older reviews. After all, people do change, for the better and for the worse. Perhaps show only the last two to five years per default.
That would be a better option than going after those who wrote 1-star-reviews. But that requires a motivation to learn, to improve, and I doubt it’s there. Only bright side is that he never got to actually «treat» me, so the damage is limited (still, about 300€ for a worthless diagnosis down the drain).
