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Balance Treatment Center/ Ronald D. Sager M.D/Gali Gill, Ph.D. Ripped off, robbed, lied to, bait and switch, pompous attitude, rude, didn't return calls, scam Calabasas California
I had agreed to do the inpatient program at Balance Treatment Facility to help with my insomnia and anxiety and then paid a 5 thousand dollar deposit to secure a room for treatment. The documents about the program that they sent over, however, did not mention that during the night someone would check in every 15 minutes and that a patient could not lock the door. Nowhere was this mentioned (in their 21 page handbook) or to me via phone or email before the 5 thousand dollars was handed off to them.
The door opening every 15 minutes and not being able to lock the door would prevent me from sleeping at all as I am a major insomniac. I wanted to do the program for insomnia and would not be able to be treated if someone kept opening the door and waking me up. In fact, in order for me to be relaxed to fall asleep I need to have the door locked. This has been the case my entire life. I would've been exhausted and untreatable had I not been able to lock the door to fall asleep.
It was only after they took the 5 thousand dollars that they just so happened to mention this. I even had read their 21 page handbook several times and nowhere was this mentioned. I mean 21 pages! They couldn't mention something that significant? Not one sentence in a 21 page handbook?! Really??
So, after realizing the inpatient program was not going to work for me, it was at that point that they offered outpatient "group" therapy, something I was not interested in. It was at this point that I had asked for a refund and they said no! That they were in fact going to keep the money, which by definition, is theft.
Then, after some heated back and forth they mention I could do one on one appointments with the head therapist, Dr. Sager and I liked that idea. I then requested that they transfer the 5 thousand dollars to be used towards these sessions, which is only fair and the right thing to do.
They then responded saying that the one on one sessions, with Dr. Sager have nothing do to do with the Balance Treatment Center... meanwhile, on their website Dr. Sager is listed as the CEO and Medical director of the Balance Treatment Center! They claimed his 'private practice' is a seperate entity, yet it is located at the same exact place! WTF?!!
Now, how can Dr. Sager, the CEO and Medical Director of the Balance treatment facility have a private practice at the same address and claim that they are completely seperate entities? I mean, the man is the friggin' CEO of the place. We paid 5 thousand dollars to the Medical director of Balance and he wouldn't honor that for therapy sessions with him!
Long story short - they stole 5 thousand dollars. They lied or 'failed to provide sufficent information' about their program and when called out about it they starting acting very rude, didn't return phone calls and Dr. Gali Gill was extremely rude. In their defense there was one lady who worked there who wasn't rude, but she passed the buck along to Dr. Gill who was extremely rude.
Also, in their defense I never personally spoke to Dr. Sager. Although, I can confidently say that any person (especially one who runs a mental health treatment center) would be expected to be compassionate and undersrtanding. They lied and robbed us of 5 thousand dollars. I would strongly suggest to anyone to be very weary of any dealings with this place.
That said, I never did any treatment there so I cannot say whether their program works or doesn't, just that they should've done the right thing and returned the 5 thousand or honored it and transfered it to sessions. To me, and anyone reading this, I would say they behaved in a crooked and illegal manner. I am considering taking legal action against them, yet 5 thousand would be a small claim and it might not be worth the hassle/expense of it. I just wanted to write this so anyone who is considering the program knows the truth about how they conduct themselves.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
ONE ADJUSTMENT TO ORIGINAL POST
#2Author of original report
Fri, December 30, 2016
To be 100% clear, on my previous post they did mention that "Group therapy" would be apart of the inpatient program. I was okay with doing some group therapy in the inpatient program, but to do group therapy exclusively, I would certainly not be interested this. In fact, that was the one aspect of the program that I was the least interested in.
To CLARIFY: My previous post consisted of this:
"So, after realizing the inpatient program was not going to work for me, it was at that point that they offered exclusive outpatient "group" therapy, something I was not interested in. It was at this point that I had asked for a refund and they said no! That they were in fact going to keep the money, which by definition, is theft."
That is all correct. But... just to be 100% clear, I was aware that some group therapy was apart of the inpatient program, but was not interested in exclusively doing group therapy.