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Scammer
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I’ve waited a while to post this warning / review. I was hoping Basu Aesthetics and Plastic Surgery would make things right, so I wouldn’t have to……
After paying $150.00 to Basu Aesthetics and Plastic Surgery, I had a consultation. On Monday, May 17, 2021 I met with one of their new surgeons, Dr. S*****. They quoted me the price of $9,400.00 for my old 400cc implant removal and breast reduction. The surgery time would be 2 - 2.5 hours. After further discussions with Dr. S***** We discussed adding a small, less than 200cc implant for fullness. They then told me my new price would be $12,000.00 for the small implant, the extra operating room time, anesthesia, etc to put them in. Estimated surgery time 3.5 - 4 hours. I was unsure if I wanted the new implant or not.
Basu Aesthetics and Plastic surgery, requires a non refundable deposit of 20% to book surgery. On May 21, 2021, I gave them 20% of the $9,400.00 fee, a deposit of $1,880.00. I was now booked and scheduled for surgery on June 15, with Dr. S*****. They told me if I decided to get the implants, I can add the $2,600.00 price difference to my final payment, which is due two weeks prior to surgery. I went home and discussed with my husband the addition of getting implants put back in and the cost to do so.
On May 27, 2021. I decided I wanted to have the small implant so I gave them the final payment of $9,970.00. Which included the $2,600.00 for the addition of the implant. So the breakdown is as follows
$ 150.00 - consultation fee
$1,880.00 - 20% of total $9,400.00 w/o implant
+ $ 9,970.00 - with added $2,600.00 for implants.
= $12,000.00. - total paid, 5/27/2021
A few days after paying for the entire surgery, and less than two week before surgery, I received a phone call from their patient coordinator Krista. She told me Dr. S***** had “left” their practice. (Looking back that was a huge red flag). Krista told me, Dr. Basu “WOULD GRACIOUSLY HONOR the price I was given by Dr. S*****, if I still wanted to have the surgery done there”. I was so close to my anticipated surgery date, I had all my pre-op tests done, I arranged for a caregiver for my elderly father and my husband was taking off from work… everything was already in place…. Instead of losing my non-refundable deposit, and surgery date, I agreed to meet with Dr. Basu. Krista scheduled me to meet with Dr. Basu on June 4th, 2021, 10 days prior to my scheduled surgery. At this appointment Dr. Basu examined me and told me he “didn’t think I would need the implants.” He said that he “thought I had enough breast tissue for the fullness I desired”. He pushed for me to come back at a later date for the implants. I immediately responded I don’t want to do another surgery later on, that it means more money, for the additional surgery, another recovery period, etc. I want small implants and to be done with surgeries. Dr. Basu seemed to understand. He again said I won’t need them, but if on the off chance during surgery that I didn’t have enough breast tissue he would use a small implant. He “reassured me that he would refund the difference after surgery if an implant was not used. I believed Dr. Basu and gave him the benefit of doubt.
Friday, July 11. The nurse called me with my pre-surgery instructions. She told me what time to arrive the day of surgery, what to do and not to do, all that last minute stuff. In addition to that she started going over what was going to be done during surgery…. I noticed she had left out the reinsertion of the new implant. I again said “and put in a new implant” in fear that the surgery plan was being changed. She said, yes, possible reinsertion of implants.
June 15, 2021 the morning of surgery while Dr. Basu was preparing me for surgery, I again stated to him, I do not want to come back later for another surgery for implants and to put them in now. He then assured me, I wouldn’t need them, that I have enough good breast tissue for the look I want. I then again said I’d rather have them, then not. He obviously had no intention of giving me the implant I paid for, or a refund for that matter.
A week after surgery I started the emails and phone calls about my refund that went unanswered.
At the end of my two week post op appointment, I asked Dr. Basu about my refund. After all, he was the one that originally told me he would gladly refund the price difference between the surgeries. I told him I was very upset about the run around I’m getting for my refund. He told me he “doesn't get involved with the billing aspect and he would leave my file on his billing guy, Zach’s desk”. I find it very hard to believe that Dr. Basu was clueless or that his “billing guy” didn’t bring to his attention that a patient is requesting a refund, and / or ask him about the details. We aren’t talking about a big hospital setting, with huge departments and lots of patients. This is a free standing facility, with one surgeon…..
While waiting to be seen for my 4 week post op, suture removal, my husband asked to speak with Zach to discuss their email offering me only $1,000.00 refund, not the $2,600.00. between written quotes. Zach came out with a nasty, can’t be bothered attitude. When my husband started to get agitated with the repeated, unacceptable offer to give me only $1,000.00 back, Zach started yelling and stepped up at my husband in a very threatening manner. He then proceeded with his rant, hollering at the receptionist to call the police, yelling at us to leave and get out. I’d hate to compare him to my 3 year old grandson, but it was ridiculous. I still wasn’t feeling like myself, energy and pain wise, but I introjected “please stop, I’m the patient, I know what was said and sent, I know the conversations. Where is Krista? Ask her to come talk to me, she knows the emails and conversations, as they were all with her.” Then Zach stomped off and disappeared. I was shocked with the unprofessional, childish behavior. I tiredly sat there on the couch waiting to be seen for my suture removal. After about 10 minutes, Zach came back out and apologized. He told us if I could show him something saying $9,400.00 without implants, he would gladly and immediately write us a check for a difference of $2,600.00. Of course my phone reception was giving me grief, when I tried to open the attachments, my phone would freeze. I asked Zach several times, where’s Krista? And ask her for all our emails, you will see all of it. I also told him to just check my file, surely copies of everything are in there. He wouldn’t do it. He told us I can bring the copies back to him. Which really perplexed me. I’m not lying, why couldn’t he just check? What sort of scam was going on, for all this deceitfulness and anger? When the police arrived, he dismissed them and said there was no problem, it was just a misunderstanding. I was then called in by the nurse who removed some of the sutures….Dr. Basu didn’t make an appearance.
After my appointment, we went straight home feeling better. Maybe they just overlooked their error, or there was poor communication, or perhaps Zach was just having a bad day. Whatever the case was, they were going to correct it. I got all my paperwork, emails and the two different quotes. I printed them and dropped them back off within an hour for Zach. Who, Ironically I might add, was conveniently not available, he was at lunch. We left the papers with the receptionist and went home. We called later that day, Zach was now in a meeting. Called the next day, he wasn’t at his desk….then he left early…then he was off till Monday….this went on for days. We gave him THE PROOF he requested, including all the email conversations with Krista confirming original quotes, with and without implants….Zach continued to be unavailable because he and Dr. Basu flat out lied, and hoped I would go away. He was given the proof he requested, and was now giving me all sorts of new ridiculous excuses as to why they will only give me back $1,000.00 of the $2,600.00 difference. They told me they will only give me back the cost of the implant itself. Which is perfectly fine, but where’s the other $1,600.00?
At 6 weeks post op I got tired of the emails and different excuses as to why they won’t refund me the correct difference between the two obvious black and white quotes they gave me. So I gave them a bad review on the plastic surgery website - www.RealSelf.com. Basu Aesthetics and Plastic Surgery saw the review and sent me a letter with a copy of the review. They stated they are dismissing me as a patient, no longer allowing me the six months of contractual follow up care, because I’m a “Threat” as well as a bunch of other ridiculousness and a check dated July 22, 2021 for $1,000.00 (That I didn’t accept, what a sneaky way for them to try to use as an acceptance contact, I’ll get back to that later) Upon Receiving their dismissal letter, I also filed a complaint with the BBB, which they are NOT accredited with. So I’m not surprised that they didn’t reply. I also filed a claim with my bank to dispute $2,600.00 of the charge. I gave the bank all the correspondence between Basu Aesthetics and myself, including their surgical notes from the day of surgery. I gave them both quotes, the one for $9,400.00 without implants and the one for $12,000.00 with implants, and even the uncashed $1,000.00 check that Basu figured I would cash, and then they could use against me as a acceptance contract.
I still have open wounds under my breasts, with internal sutures popping out. I had to pay another doctor, a wound specialist, to get treated because they terminated me as a patient. As far as me being a “threat”. How am I a “threat”? Because I wanted the correct refund I was told I’d get, so I emailed and called them? Or because I put the truth out in a review? They can’t accept that they were wrong with this whole situation, and that they let it get out of hand. If they just would have done the right thing in the first place…… turns out, after more research, I’m not the only patient with similar complaints about them.
Back to not getting the implant……After the fact, when pushed, Basu claimed he didn’t give me them, because my skin was thin. If that were true, why wasn’t my husband or I told that immediately after surgery, especially after I continually requested them? Because it’s a lie. Not one surgeon I met with before booking surgery, including his own Dr.S***** said a small implant being placed would not be recommended, or foresee any other possible problems. Why didn’t Dr. Basu or anyone for that matter, come out and say anything, like I know she discussed the desire for the implant, but, in her best interest, or blah blah blah…. ?
From when I paid extra for the implant, the conversations about them, up to the very last to the moment, right before going to the OR. Why was it weeks later, with constant persistence that I then started to get these different excuses??? Because this was his plan, He knew from the beginning, he wasn’t going to honor his colleague's quote, he already had my money, and he deliberately tried to deceive us. If he truly had good intentions, why didn’t he address the lack of implant and refund in the very beginning of my first post op visit with him? Instead, at the end of the appointment, after I had to address the refund….and he played dumb. He could have said something, instead of passing the blame. I feel like it was a bait and switch from the very beginning. My original quote for the $12,000.00 included a longer surgery time of 3.5 - 4 hours. Basu is claiming the implants cost $1,000.00 which is fine, and the $1,600.00 he won’t return was because he says I was in surgery for a longer time. They claim my surgery clocked 4.5 hours…..That’s funny because I have a copy of the phone records. The first call to my husband from them was at 9:44 a.m. telling him I just went back for surgery. Then the next call from them was at 11:14 a.m. which my husband missed. At 11:16 a.m. they called again telling my husband I was out of surgery and to pick me up in an hour. SURGERY WAS ONLY AN HOUR AND A HALF if that, because I doubt they called him the very second I wheeled out of the operating room.
I have since filed a dispute with my bank and Basu Aesthetics finally replied to my bank’s inquiry, which my bank forwarded to me. They gave my bank obvious fraudulent, forged, back dated, sloppy paperwork that showed their last minute attempt to steal and deceive. Their responses were so hacked, the dates, nor any of the supporting claims on their reply matched up with any of their prior paperwork. One example was, they claimed they gave me a refund check in May, before surgery, and they included the copy of the SAME check dated July 22, 2021 that I had previously sent to the bank. It's dated 6 weeks after my surgery, not dated before like these “newly discovered” fake notes claim. It’s so painful and obvious they are fraudulent thieves. What makes it worse is their lack of ethics, the arrogance they have, and the attitude that they don’t care to do the right thing. Not to mention Dr. Basu’s god complex. He thinks because most people pay cash, that they can’t and won’t dispute his lies. If they do, Basu goes back and makes up paperwork to fill his greedy pockets. They are still making up lies and fluffing my notes after the fact. They charged me for something I did not get, and stole the rest of the money. Their last ditch attempt is making a fraudulent quote for $11,000.00. I asked them several times for proof of this supposed $11,000.00 quote, without implants. They never produced one…. because it didn’t exist, until they just made it up.
So please be vigilant, make sure you do your research before falling for the beauty of an overpriced practice that crosses boundaries to rip patients off. If you do feel that he’s the surgeon for you, make sure you ask for copies of every single paper, and note that was taken before you leave every office visit.
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