To think I shouldn't have to pay for the missed hygienist appointment

[quittinaeete]

My dentist sent me an appointment reminder by email with the wrong date and I added it to my phone calendar.

They sent out a correction just via email an hour after this and I didn't read it. They have my address and phone number but didn't get in touch.

So now I've missed an appointment and they've charged me £120 for this, I did have an appointment a few days later and paid £120 for this. But they've sent an invoice by post.

Aibu to think they made a mistake and should have made more of an effort to inform me?

They sent out the wrong info. At that point they needed to reach you in person to make the correction. I would refuse to pay.

But if people are charged for missed appointments exactly the same surely you are paid for missed appointments?

Where are you to get an appointment for £35? They are all £60-65 around here!?

No I check my email all the time, but the emails from the dentist stack up in Gmail. I don't always read every single one. I imagine if there's been something important people would call or request by email a confirmation that isn't been received. It isn't enough to just send an email and assume it's been read imo. Very different to a phone call

why on earth do you have an email account if you don't read the emails?

In these days and age, an email is enough - you should have told them to delete your email address in the first place.

Email isn't enough at any place I have worked, could easily be sent to spam or someone locked out of their account.

But you knew about the original appointment? This was merely a reminder. If you knew the arrangements for the original appointment you'd have known the first reminder was incorrect.

Sorry I'd say you were in the wrong here. They emailed within the hour to correct their mistake and you didn't bother to read it so I think you should suck it up and pay the fine and learn an important lesson.

If you originally made the appointment then I think YABU. I would have put it in my calendar then and called them to double check the wrong date.

If you didn't make the appointment then yes I think YANBU and they should have called to check you got the correction.

Quite often if an email comes in from the same address fairly quickly in Gmail it adds it to a kind of stack, and it is easy to overlook.

Equally, if it has the same subject line, as would probably be the case with system generated appointment emails I can fully appreciate why the OP may have assumed that it was a double email, already dealt with.

In this instance I'd expect the surgery to waive the fee.

I think you are in the wrong here too. You’ve literally been ignoring emails. Lesson learnt

Thanks Barrenfieldoffucks, finally someone that understands how Gmail works and gets it!

The email was even hidden by default with the "show quoted text" link, if you know what I mean with that also?

But it was a reminder! You booked the original appointment so should’ve known when that was. I don’t think they did well, but surely you booked the appointment and noted it in the first place.

Yes the subject line was all the same generic "confirmation email" so it was on the stack and looked like a dupe

OP YABU - you provided them your email for communication, they used said email to communicate their error and give you the correct details as promptly as possible. The fact you didn't check your email for a week is not their problem.

The email was a reminder, so surely you had the original appt already in your calendar? So when they emailed a reminder with the wrong details (which you should have known were wrong when there was nothing in your calendar), why on earth would you not query it, or at least read any emails that came from the dentist on that same day/day or two after?

Have you sent a nice email explaining your confusion?

eg

Dear Practice Manager,

I relied upon your first email, overlooked the second and I'm terribly sorry to have missed my appointment. As a gesture of goodwill, could you reschedule it just this once?
Yours
quint

I love Gmail and the app very much, but have missed emails in a stream for this reason.

I would speak with them and explain. If they didn't mention it when you were in a few days later it may be a system generated invoice that is easily cancelled on explanation.

Yes, that's how I have missed emails sometimes...the mysterious 'show quoted text'. I don't understand why an email I have already read is showing as unread and then days letter discover there is another email in the stack and that is what is showing.

I think it is gmails fault, their emails are annoying when they do this!

If you know gmail does this then you are still at fault. You choose your email provider and you know how it functions

No they should have repeatedly phoned you when you didn't respond to correction email. It's their error, they need to reimburse this self employed sub contractor paying a mortgage.

I think they should have followed up the email with a phone call. I get loads of junk emails on an almost daily basis - hardly anything else so I quite often don’t check my emails for several days. I would always expect to hear about emails via phone /text it’s much more likely that you would have seen it.

Our dentists and doctors send a text message if you don't reply with a 'y' to say that you got the msg and that you will be attending then they call you.

I actually feel that seeing as they initially made the mistake they should have called you to confirm the actual appointment date, they also had opportunity at the appointment you attended to say something which they didn't so I feel they are responsible here for waiving it if it is a once off missed appt.

• hear about appointments

YANBU corrections should be very clearly signalled in the subject line; if it was generic confirmation email heading then it’s bad practice and very easily overlooked.

OP still hasn’t said whether she booked the appointment in the first place, before the first confirmation email. If that’s the case she IBU.

YANBU corrections should be very clearly signalled in the subject line; if it was generic confirmation email heading then it’s bad practice and very easily overlooked.

Thank you for some common sense - that is often lacking on these MN threads where people berate you for not being perfect.

*Our dentists and doctors send a text message if you don't reply with a 'y' to say that you got the msg and that you will be attending then they call you.

I actually feel that seeing as they initially made the mistake they should have called you to confirm the actual appointment date*
That sounds like a great system, just sending an automated message without having a response isn't sufficient imo.

No they should have repeatedly phoned you when you didn't respond to correction email.

Totally agree, that's what I do at work

I think they should have followed up the email with a phone call. I get loads of junk emails on an almost daily basis - hardly anything else so I quite often don’t check my emails for several days. I would always expect to hear about emails via phone /text it’s much more likely that you would have seen it.

Exactly, so many automated emails - I think some of the people here that are critical for not reading every single email are being very unpractical.