She paid a dentist’s office for dentures and then went to get them, but the owners had been arrested — leaving her with no dentures and a big credit card bill. Does she have to pay it? It is tonight’s Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.
Very few things are better than a wonderful family.
Priscilla Huntley: “And I do appreciate her, because she’s good to me. She’s very good to me.”
Priscilla adores her granddaughter, and Kristie loves her grandmother.
Kristie Mion: “She’s helped me so many times throughout my life, and I want to do whatever I can to help her out of this mess.”
And it is a very complicated, painful mess.
Priscilla Huntley: “It’s very uncomfortable, because I can’t eat anything. Everything I eat has got to be very soft food.”
Priscilla had gone to a Pembroke Pines dental office to get posts installed and new dentures. They got half right.
Priscilla Huntley: “And the tops fit, the bottoms didn’t fit from the very, very beginning.”
Priscilla had paid $3,500 to replace these faulty bottom dentures. The dentist’s office opened a credit card in Priscilla’s name.
Priscilla Huntley: “They just kept trying to make them over and over again, and I’ve been doing this for over a year now.”
The bill for the work kept increasing. The credit card charges now total $8,119.
Priscilla Huntley: “They never give me an itemized bill. They just kept charging my credit card every time I’d go in.”
Then the office called to tell her the new bottom dentures were ready. Priscilla went there.
Priscilla Huntley: “And they were closed down already, ao I never got to see them anymore.”
Closed and the doors locked, because the owners were arrested and charged with insurance fraud for allegedly racking up fees for work not performed, leaving Priscilla without her new bottom dentures and a big credit card bill.
Kristie Mion: “The credit card company is saying that she needs to start making payments this month.”
Priscilla Huntley: “I don’t think it’s a fair price. I think they overcharged me, first off.”
Without her new dentures, Priscilla sometimes uses the old faulty dentures that she had to pay the dentist’s office for.
Priscilla Huntley: “And they rub, and they hurt like crazy, so they don’t fit me right.”
Howard, we said it was a mess. So, legally, how can Priscilla get her bottom dentures and her medical records?
Howard Finkelstein: “Clearly Priscilla is entitled to her dentures and records. But complicating this: the arrests of the owners of the dental office, making it a criminal investigation. The prosecutor may be able to give Priscilla what she wants immediately, but legally can refuse until the investigation is over, which could be a year or two. It’s really terrible for Priscilla and others.”
I contacted the state agency that oversees dentists. They didn’t help at all. I emailed the prosecutor’s office and got nowhere.
The property manager of the locked dentist’s office told me “they could not unlock the door” for Priscilla because the “tenant was still paying rent,” but a new dentist was hoping to take over, and that “might give Priscilla access to her records and dentures.”
Then we got a nice break. I contacted the attorneys for Evelyn Cruz, who’s charged in the case.
Jason Weiss wrote: “Ms. Cruz will be able to provide Ms. Huntley with her dentures. If you can get me the name and address of the new provider, I will make sure that it is shipped.”
Good news for Priscilla.
Priscilla Huntley: “I am going to be so happy if I can get my dentures back.”
It took a few weeks, but Priscilla’s call to Help Me Howard is paying off.
Priscilla Huntley: “And I want to thank Patrick Fraser for doing all he has done to help me get my dentures back from the dentist’s office that closed down.”
And we’ll be so happy for you when you get those dentures, Priscilla. Now, does Priscilla have to pay that large credit card bill? If the bill is legit, yes, but maybe not, because the dentist’s office was accused of operating illegally.
I contacted the credit card company’s representatives, and they said they are going to look into it for Priscilla.
Got a problem you want us to sink our teeth into? Let us brush on the law, and then we’ll fight tooth and nail for you.
With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD:
Email: helpmehoward@wsvn.com
Reporter: Patrick Fraser at pfraser@wsvn.com
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