Blossoms Healthcare

Not feeling well before a trip I booked an appointment at Blossoms on Garlick Hill. I booked the appointment for a Thursday morning and was told of the 1 day cancelation policy. By Wednesday morning I felt better and when the 1 day reminder for the appointment came up on my outlook, I looked up the number for the clinic, called to cancel and spoke to a person at the clinic. By this time it was 23 hours and 55 minutes before my appointment. I was told that since it was more than 24 hours I would be charged the cancellation fee. I asked to speak to a manager and she said that they have a business to run and that was the policy. I explained that I had to find the number and go through the telephone prompts and, by that time, I was a few minutes after the 24 hour period before my appointment was supposed to start. I also reminded her that 24 hours was never defined (i.e. was it 24 hours before the last check in time for my appointment or 24 hours before my appointment was supposed to be completed or 24 hours before my appointment was supposed to start) and that people in the City are busy and to get in an argument over a few minutes is a good way to alienate customers. I told her that I was going to challenge the charge with my credit card company and she repeated that they have a business to run and I would be charged. Since we have a corporate relationship with Blossoms I also contacted our HR team and they weren’t surprised I was having issues with them. I called my credit card company to let them know of the situation and also wrote an email to the head office and was offered a credit for another appointment. I declined since I was hoping not to be sick in the immediate future and asked to be refunded. I thought that was the end of it but they sent me a cancellation email but then still charged me. This surprised me even more because I was expected to pay but now didn’t have an appointment to attend if i wasn’t feeling well the next day. I was given various excuses for why I was going to be charged: they had a business to run, they would not be able to re-​use the time for other patients, and inside of 24 hours the computer would automatically make a charge. The bottom line is that if you cancelled 6 hours before your time slot and they rebooked your appointment I am willing to bet a lot of money that you would still be charged the cancellation fee. Also, they will use any excuse (like the computer automatically charging without any ability to stop it as if it was Judgement Day in Terminator 2 and the computers had taken over) to get around the fact that they are a greedy company who look to catch out their customers. Bottom line is that they charge a premium to very busy people, for what I assume is convenience, but will use any excuse to take your money away from you if you fall in breach of their arbitrary policy. Blossoms should be avoided and it is very much run like an American health clinic (not surprisingly it is owned by HCA: Hospital Corporation of America). They act more like a credit card company than your doctor and, in reality, are another Vampire Squid in the City.