POSTED UNDER Lip Lift Reviews
Consultation review - a series of major communication failures by the booking team
ORIGINAL POST
Great Doctor, Terrible Practice
I am sad to have to write this review. I consulted with Dr Bran around a month ago and received my surgical plan. I told the clinic that I was happy to go ahead with the procedure and they gave me some available dates. I accepted a date, which was around 4 weeks away, received confirmation for the procedure, and began making preparations (time-off, break from medications, alternate recovery location etc).
What followed was a series of major communication failures by the booking team. They were very slow to reply. They were unreachable by any means. No phone call was responded to or returned, whatsapps went ignored, emails would be partially answered after a lengthy delay, but with no full resolution.
I had (to my best knowledge) confirmed the procedure, but had as yet been unable to pay for it as they had not supplied the payment details. To be clear - they confirmed the date and I repeatedly asked for the payment details. By this point I was committed to undertaking the procedure with Dr Bran on that date, having made many arrangements for the procedure and recovery. I really did not know what was going on however, and the booking team were regrettably beginning to reveal themselves as unprofessional and highly unreliable.
Over the course of the week I received a series of confused replies: some offering further consultations but no replies to my asking to book one in - I had asked whether I was due a further consultation prior to surgery, as you only get the in person consultation and no other beforehand, which I was unaware of.
At some point I was offered a telephone zoom also which was not capable of being booked in, as no one replied. There were others, to my several mails/whatsapps/calls to the office to finalise arrangements, all of which were hurriedly but not sufficiently responded to.
I was still under the impression that the surgery was going ahead on that date, as no one had informed me otherwise, and I was still getting some replies. After another lengthy delay I was told that my date had been given to someone else as "I hadn't paid the surgical fee". No apology.
Of course, in reality they had never sent the payment details, despite my asking for them. They then offered another date for the week after, which again, I could not book in because no one responded. Then another offer for the following month, which again - could not actually be booked in because no one responded.
There was no apology whatsoever for this terrible work, nor any attempt to resolve this for me. To be completely honest: no one cared.
I had even dropped by to the clinic (with notice) to try to resolve things in person and pay for a new date as I happened to be around the corner for a work meeting. It seemed expedient to try to sort this out properly, but there was (apparently) no one in at the office. The receptionist left a note and I left crying I was so upset at the entire fiasco. By now I had made arrangements which were completely up in the air due to their lack of professionalism.
Following this, I decided to make a complaint about the service I had received, which I asked to be forwarded to Dr Bran (as he himself is unreachable, only contactable through this clinical team). I wanted to make sure he knew what had happened. The clinic had really missed the mark and I was by this point upset.
It was then that the clinical team turned (frankly) nasty. They stopped offering any other dates at all, in fact they struck me from Dr Bran's client list. They doubled down blaming me for what happened, despite all the written, irrefutable evidence to the contrary (its all in the emails). They said I showed I didn't really want the surgery by asking about a follow up consultation prior to the procedure (despite my assurances in my mails to the contrary - I had planned this procedure, with this doctor for over a year). They refused to answer whether they had passed onto Dr Bran my complaint mail, which clearly and calmly states the entire catalogue of what happened and when.
They accused me emotional instability for getting upset and further used that as a reason to declare me unfit as a patient - which even they have since retracted, as it is completely, completely false and an entirely self-serving interpretation of what happened. They have yet to respond to my last mail asking whether Dr Bran had received my complaint.
Frankly - I have had enough. I hope it is clear that I have given them so many chances to resolve this. I never write reviews, not even bad ones. I am very reluctantly writing and publishing this review, in the hope that Dr Bran himself actually reads this and assesses what happened. I am happy to take it down if requested sensibly and I am not looking to cause disruption or damage to anyone's reputation or career.
The booking team have offered no real apology, other than a very vague (paraphrased) "sorry for the confusion, and thanks - we will now be better for other patients" which is hardly convincing, nor proportionate to the level of problem they created for me.
There is yet more incompetence to the story but I can't remember it all. I do have the events logged and I am happy to share my complaint mail (1 and 2) which summarises everything if I have to. I say this because I anticipate any response their end will amount to denying responsibility or fault, and will likely include some new deflection tactic which conveniently blames me for this cascade of events.
Make no mistake - this absolutely happened to me, in exactly the way I described. It is not yet a premium service being offered here, but a highly incompetent one. Its a terrible shame that Dr Bran's practice is being tarnished by his booking team because he seems excellent, and I was happy to become his patient. I never had cause to think about the team, but I realise now I had never encountered this (and I have had cosmetic surgery before).
Having experienced this, it is highly, highly important to me that I am engaging with a professional, serious, practice as well as practitioner. My review details the GBAesthetics clinic response to a booking error, which was demonstrably their fault. I can't imagine how evasive and difficult they would be in the event of a medical error or complication. I cannot take that risk lightly and so I am most definitely working with another surgeon.
If you are looking for London based surgeons of the same level and pricing bracket, specilaising in deep plane lip lifts, whose clinical teams are responsive and professional, I would suggest looking at
Dr Orfaniotis (I had an especially good experience with his office - Lian was amazing)
Dr Yannis Alexandrides
Both highly, highly professional, and much more of a premium and professional service.
I have no issue with Dr Bran himself, unless of course he's absolutely fine with what happened here, but sadly I don't think he even knows fully what happened. I'm sad that I have to write this review and I'm sorry for the upset it may cause him, as it doesn't seem to be his fault at all, but a Doctor is only as good as his team.
What followed was a series of major communication failures by the booking team. They were very slow to reply. They were unreachable by any means. No phone call was responded to or returned, whatsapps went ignored, emails would be partially answered after a lengthy delay, but with no full resolution.
I had (to my best knowledge) confirmed the procedure, but had as yet been unable to pay for it as they had not supplied the payment details. To be clear - they confirmed the date and I repeatedly asked for the payment details. By this point I was committed to undertaking the procedure with Dr Bran on that date, having made many arrangements for the procedure and recovery. I really did not know what was going on however, and the booking team were regrettably beginning to reveal themselves as unprofessional and highly unreliable.
Over the course of the week I received a series of confused replies: some offering further consultations but no replies to my asking to book one in - I had asked whether I was due a further consultation prior to surgery, as you only get the in person consultation and no other beforehand, which I was unaware of.
At some point I was offered a telephone zoom also which was not capable of being booked in, as no one replied. There were others, to my several mails/whatsapps/calls to the office to finalise arrangements, all of which were hurriedly but not sufficiently responded to.
I was still under the impression that the surgery was going ahead on that date, as no one had informed me otherwise, and I was still getting some replies. After another lengthy delay I was told that my date had been given to someone else as "I hadn't paid the surgical fee". No apology.
Of course, in reality they had never sent the payment details, despite my asking for them. They then offered another date for the week after, which again, I could not book in because no one responded. Then another offer for the following month, which again - could not actually be booked in because no one responded.
There was no apology whatsoever for this terrible work, nor any attempt to resolve this for me. To be completely honest: no one cared.
I had even dropped by to the clinic (with notice) to try to resolve things in person and pay for a new date as I happened to be around the corner for a work meeting. It seemed expedient to try to sort this out properly, but there was (apparently) no one in at the office. The receptionist left a note and I left crying I was so upset at the entire fiasco. By now I had made arrangements which were completely up in the air due to their lack of professionalism.
Following this, I decided to make a complaint about the service I had received, which I asked to be forwarded to Dr Bran (as he himself is unreachable, only contactable through this clinical team). I wanted to make sure he knew what had happened. The clinic had really missed the mark and I was by this point upset.
It was then that the clinical team turned (frankly) nasty. They stopped offering any other dates at all, in fact they struck me from Dr Bran's client list. They doubled down blaming me for what happened, despite all the written, irrefutable evidence to the contrary (its all in the emails). They said I showed I didn't really want the surgery by asking about a follow up consultation prior to the procedure (despite my assurances in my mails to the contrary - I had planned this procedure, with this doctor for over a year). They refused to answer whether they had passed onto Dr Bran my complaint mail, which clearly and calmly states the entire catalogue of what happened and when.
They accused me emotional instability for getting upset and further used that as a reason to declare me unfit as a patient - which even they have since retracted, as it is completely, completely false and an entirely self-serving interpretation of what happened. They have yet to respond to my last mail asking whether Dr Bran had received my complaint.
Frankly - I have had enough. I hope it is clear that I have given them so many chances to resolve this. I never write reviews, not even bad ones. I am very reluctantly writing and publishing this review, in the hope that Dr Bran himself actually reads this and assesses what happened. I am happy to take it down if requested sensibly and I am not looking to cause disruption or damage to anyone's reputation or career.
The booking team have offered no real apology, other than a very vague (paraphrased) "sorry for the confusion, and thanks - we will now be better for other patients" which is hardly convincing, nor proportionate to the level of problem they created for me.
There is yet more incompetence to the story but I can't remember it all. I do have the events logged and I am happy to share my complaint mail (1 and 2) which summarises everything if I have to. I say this because I anticipate any response their end will amount to denying responsibility or fault, and will likely include some new deflection tactic which conveniently blames me for this cascade of events.
Make no mistake - this absolutely happened to me, in exactly the way I described. It is not yet a premium service being offered here, but a highly incompetent one. Its a terrible shame that Dr Bran's practice is being tarnished by his booking team because he seems excellent, and I was happy to become his patient. I never had cause to think about the team, but I realise now I had never encountered this (and I have had cosmetic surgery before).
Having experienced this, it is highly, highly important to me that I am engaging with a professional, serious, practice as well as practitioner. My review details the GBAesthetics clinic response to a booking error, which was demonstrably their fault. I can't imagine how evasive and difficult they would be in the event of a medical error or complication. I cannot take that risk lightly and so I am most definitely working with another surgeon.
If you are looking for London based surgeons of the same level and pricing bracket, specilaising in deep plane lip lifts, whose clinical teams are responsive and professional, I would suggest looking at
Dr Orfaniotis (I had an especially good experience with his office - Lian was amazing)
Dr Yannis Alexandrides
Both highly, highly professional, and much more of a premium and professional service.
I have no issue with Dr Bran himself, unless of course he's absolutely fine with what happened here, but sadly I don't think he even knows fully what happened. I'm sad that I have to write this review and I'm sorry for the upset it may cause him, as it doesn't seem to be his fault at all, but a Doctor is only as good as his team.
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