We are all familiar with the story of Red Riding Hood who goes to visit her Grandma only to find the wolf disguised and sitting in Grandma’s bed. Little Red Riding Hood knew something was off, trusted her intuition and kept asking questions until she got the answers she was looking for!
A couple of years ago, I encountered a wolf in sheep’s clothing when I was looking for a new dentist. I asked my friends who they used as a dentist and ended up going to see one of the recommendations I had received. The office was state of the art. The dentist was very impressive – wonderful business savvy and very knowledgeable about his profession.
The dental office offered a special package for new patients that included a cleaning of my teeth, x-rays and an evaluation of what other dental work I may need all for $99. The cleaning was performed by a dental hygienist and the dentist looked inside my mouth to perform the evaluation. After this was done, he left the room and said he would be back in a few moments with my dental plan, a summary of all the dental work I would need. About ten minutes later came back in and rattled off a laundry list of items that according to him required correcting in my mouth with a price tag of $16,000. He then started to rattle off my payment options.
I put my hand up and stopped the dentist right there and said before we get to payment options, I need to fully understand what services are required, why and in order of importance. The dentist stopped me and said – no I don’t give written estimates because most people would do what you are doing. I responded that his approach was unethical – steamrolling a patient into services they did not understand and most likely could not afford.
Then it dawned on my, this dentist was in total fear around money and used bullying tactics to bring in revenue! His tactic reminded me of that old con artist game, the shell game. This is where they place an object under one of three cups, move them around and you receive the prize only if you guess which cup the object is under, but it’s under none of the cups.
Had I not had the courage to put my hand up and stop the dentist I would have been saddled with repaying $16,000 plus interest for dental work, all of which was not necessary! (I did go to another dentist and the work that I needed was not even a third of the price I was quoted.)
It is not easy, when you are in a situation like this to stop the train in its tracks and believe me I felt like I was on a runaway train. The point I want to leave you with it, if you don’t understand what you are being charged for, DON”T BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS and stop someone whenever you are unclear about what something is going to cost you! A good way to know you are in confusion is when your mind is racing and you feel pressured to come up with a quick response. Know it is okay to say, I need time to think this over. The other party may not be happy with your decision but your pocketbook certainly will be!
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