Complaint Review: South Florida Plastic Surgery - Bonita Springs Florida

Stay Away from Dr. Eshbaugh and South Florida Plastic Surgery!

They will take your money and drop you as a patient. Dr. Eshbaugh cannot be trusted, do not believe anything you are told about rescheduling policies. Dr. Eshbaugh does not honor his own office policies. After he drops you, you will not ever hear from him again, EVEN IF THE REASON IS BASED ON INCORRECT INFORMATION.

I made the mistake of trusting Dr. Eshbaugh and choosing him to be my surgeon. He seemed like a very gentle, caring, skilled physician. I liked him immediately. I gave him money it had taken me 2 years to save up, he is not what he seems. He has not even taken 3 minutes to respond to me about why he decided to keep my deposit after dropping me as a patient and not performing any services. He has deceptive business practices and misleading staff.

I paid a $2000 dollar deposit to Dr. Eshbaugh and South Florida Plastic Surgery for multiple cosmetic surgery procedures. In the contract, I initialed a line on the contract stating that the deposit was non-refundable, however I was also told that if I needed to reschedule my surgery for any reason, any money paid toward the surgery would be applied to the new date, "no problem".

I had also been informed of the reschedule policy about 6 months earlier when I had signed a contract for a different surgery. The weekend before that surgery I was admitted to the hospital for an asthma attack. When I notified Dr. Eshbaugh about the admission, HE decided to cancel the surgery "just to be safe". Since HE made the decision to cancel, the office refunded all the money I paid.

Over the summer, I received a letter from the office, asking me to come back and have my surgery with Dr. Eshbaugh, so..

I scheduled my new surgery and 2 weeks prior to my date, I had a family emergency that required me to go out of town. I called the office and told them that I needed to post-pone my surgery. Both the secretary, Angela and the nurse Sandy, said, "no problem, don't worry about the surgery, call the office when you get back and are ready to reschedule".

Everything seemed okay, in line with what I had been told. So, I went to take care of my family, spent an unexpected amount of time and all of the money I had saved up to care for and bury somebody very important to me.

The week I returned home, I called the office to find out all of my options as far as my deposit and rescheduling the surgery. My call was transfered to the office manager, Karen Stephenson. Here is where the nightmare begins. While on the phone, Karen verified that the office policy was to reschedule and transfer the deposit to the new date, "however since I had CANCELED TWICE, rescheduling would be up to Dr. Eshbaugh".

It was at that point, that I tried explain that she had the wrong information, I hadn't ever canceled even 1 surgery. I tried to explain that had Dr. Eshbaugh not decided to cancel the first surgery I would have been there and had it done.

I also tried to explain that since I had been told about the office reschedule policy, and she just verified it on the phone, Dr. Eshbaugh couldn't decide after he had my deposit, that he wasn't going to honor the policy or that the policy didn't apply to me.

She was very rude, she didn't make any effort to listen to what I was saying. At some point she decided that I was not worthy of her time. She even said, "isn't this really about you not wanting the surgery", then she implied that I had lied about the reasons for needing to reschedule. I offered to send proof of both the hospital admission and the illness/death in the family. Karen, was completely harsh, rude and disrespectful. I was good enough of a person for them to take my money, but not worth the time to get the facts right.

I have NEVER been treated as badly as I was was by Karen and consequently by Dr. Eshbaugh.

If I had not been told about the reschedule policy at the time I signed my contract I would not have signed it.

Since that phone call, I received a letter from Karen at South Florida Plastic Surgery, stating "As you have cancelled this surgery on two separate occasions, your deposit of $2000 will not be refunded to you" and "As we cannot schedule surgery after two cancellations, it will be necessary for you to find another physician"

This is where the big rip-off comes in:

First - I didn't cancel any surgery, EVER! Dr. Eshbaugh cancelled the first surgery, I had nothing to do with that decision. I tried to reschedule one surgery, which I was told was my right. All of the decisions made by Dr. Eshbaugh are based on incorrect information on the part of the office.

If Dr. Eshbaugh would take 10 minutes and look at my chart, he would see that I haven't ever canceled and that it was his decision to cancel the first because i wasn't a safe time. How can that be held against me?

Second - I was told multiple times by multiple people in Dr. Eshbaugh's office about the reschedule policy. If it didn't apply to me, I needed to be told that BEFORE I signed the contract and gave them my deposit.

Third - The contract I signed is for cosmetic surgery procedures. There is nothing in the contract about a specific surgery date. I paid $2000 to Dr. Eshbaugh as a deposit toward his services. By deciding after taking my deposit, that he would no longer be my physician, he is breaking the contract.

My understanding of non-refundable deposits when paid towards surgical/medical procedures, is that they are the physician's protection against somebody deciding they never want to have the surgery done or against "no shows".

The reschedule policy I was told about before I signed the contract, is my protection against losing my deposit without receiving any services.

I have written letters, left messages at the office as well as gone into the office to attempt to talk to Dr. Eshbaugh. He has not bothered to respond even once, and he has refused to set up an appointment to talk to me face to face about what is happening.

I had every hope that the problem was basically a "power trip" on the part of Karen, and that surely when Dr. Eshbaugh himself found out what was happening and how I was being treated, he would call me and fix all of the misunderstandings.

That is not the case. When I went into the office to talk to Dr. Eshbaugh in person and/or make an appointment to talk to him when he had time, I was told by the new nurse, that Dr. Eshbaugh knows exactly what happens with all of his patients surgeries and finances. I was also told, that the nurse would let him know I would like to talk to him and would try to set up an appointment. She needed his permission to do that, and she promised to call me back and tell me what he said. I never got another call back.

All of this is very strange to me. Since he has decided he no longer wants to be my physician and he has not performed the contracted surgery for which the deposit was paid, it would not cost the office anything to return my deposit.

I would expect the same from a car dealer. If I paid a deposit towards repair services and those services were never completed, my deposit would be returned. Especially if they decided they were no longer willing to do the repairs.

Originally, all I requested was to be able to rescedule my surgery to another day and have my money transfered to the new date, just like I had been told was the policy. That wouldn't have costed them a penny, in fact it would hav earned quite a bit more money for the practice. I had been very excited about having the surgery and saved up for a long time.

Now, I no longer trust Dr. Eshbaugh, and I wouldn't want an angry physician in charge of invasive surgical procedures. I simply want my deposit refunded.

Kristin

Fort Myers, Florida
U.S.A.