What was this business owner thinking?!

I must share a story of how I was recently treated by a business owner. My desire is that business owners will read this on NOT follow this person's example.

A little over a month ago, my parents and I had an appointment with a Naturopathic Doctor. I won't go into details on how the appointment was arranged, but I will say that this ND was not from the area.

During this appointment, certain testing was done to identify problems with organs within the body. After the appointment was over, the ND suggested the use of certain homeopathic remedies and supplements. Although the products were not available to us at the visit, we paid in cash and assumed the items would be shipped to us as soon as this ND returned to her office.

Several days after the appointment, my mother called the ND's office to order several more bottles of one of the remedies. At the time, she gave her credit card number and was under the assumption the products would be shipped right away. A week later, we received only a partial order.

Several weeks later, we still had not received the additional products so we called to follow-up on the status. We were first told they did not have the items or my mother's credit card information. We were then later told they did have the order and the items were on back order. At the same time, my mother checked her credit card and found that $41 was charged to the card. We were not sure why the card would have been charged because we had not received any of the products.

Now, here's where it gets dicey for this business owner. Over a month went by and we still had not received anything. I was given the email address for the ND, so I proceeded to inquire by email. At the same time I sent the email, I asked the ND for some very basic information on the treatments she had originally suggested.

What happened next is still a shock to me. I was treated with extreme rudeness and contempt. The ND kept insisting we had received products during our visit. She also had all the billing information wrong. She even went as far as to insinuate that my mother must be losing her mind because she never called to place the order and give her credit card information.

She finally ended her discourse by telling me she did not have time to deal with this and that if I bothered her more regarding the billing and shipment of items, she would charge me a consultation fee. She also refused to give me any clarification on treatment because she didn't getting paid what she normally would for the initial consultation. The sad part was that I didn't negotiate the price for the initial consultation; she did.

I'm sorry folks, but her behavior was unprofessional AND unethical. We found that her office staff charged my mother's credit card for items that we had already paid for. Shouldn't she care about how her office staff is handling orders for customers? I also did not feel it was appropriate for her to refuse to answer questions on treatment. She negotiated the original price and should be honoring that commitment.

Why would a business owner treat any customer the way we were treated? Some may assume it is because she doesn't know any better. I say it is because she cares more about what she is getting than what she is giving... a very bad attitude to have when you are running a business.