I am a Dentist in Florida who uses a lab in California for certain denture cases. In this particular case, a denture was sent on 12/3/02 to the lab to repair. After 1 week I called the lab and asked them about this case. They said they never received it. I called Airborne up and they said they would trace it. Another week goes by and we call Airborne up and they said the case was traced to Miramar, Florida but they have no clue where it went from there. We gave them another week and they still couldn't find it. They told me I needed to make a claim now.
Since I had to redo the case at my own expense, I told Airborne that the denture that they lost cost $550. They said no problem. They told me to wait about a month and the claim would be investigated. A month goes by and we called them up again. Now they tell me they have no record that I even called them and they want to start from scratch. We waited a few more weeks and then we called them up again. Not once did they ever call me. This time they tell me that they forget to send me a specific claim form, so they sent me the form to fill out. I sent it to them and waited another 2 weeks.
When we called them up this time, they said they never received the claim form. Now they tell me to fax everything to them. I faxed the claim to them and waited a day. We called and they said they never received the fax. We faxed it again and again and finally after the third time they said they got the claim. We waited another week and we called them up again. Now they tell me they are denying the claim because we sent it to them too late. We have documented every call we made to them and the people we spoke to. We have reference numbers that they gave us each time we call. Now they are saying there is no proof that we made any calls to them. When we told them we would sue them for the money, Kim, one of their supervisors, said who cares.
Because I had to redo the denture at my own time and expense, the cost that I put in a claim for was $550. But the extra time I needed to remake this cost me a lot more than that. My patient was without his teeth for almost a month because of Airborne.
Well, since Kim obviously doesn't plan to do anything, we'd say the good doctor should head down to Small Claims Court.
