The unending polyclinic saga

NHG Polyclinic has screwed up big time as I mentioned in the previous post. Sadly, i used to have a better impression of Singhealth polyclinic until now. Yesterday I receive a letter from Singhealth polyclinic - it was a bill for $8 consultation on my last visit to the Geylang Polyclinic in Nov 06. I was not prescribe any medication then. I knew I had definitely paid because 1) I had an MC on that visit. You must have paid so that your MC will be stamped and considered valid 2) I need the receipt to claim medical reimbursement . Therefore, it was an insult to be billed again. I called the number given in the bill to dispute the billing. The lady on the line had the cheek to ask me if I have the receipt. If I had been a housewife who is unable to claim for medical reimbursement, would I have kept the receipt? Though fortunately I do have the receipt, not everyone would have kept something for so long. By the time they got home, the receipt would have been chucked into the bin. As if to pacify me, the lady gave the lame excuse that there must have been some double entry , hence double billing, and if it's true that I had paid, she would get her supervisor to write off the bill. Hello? Write off? U write off when people default payment. In this case, I did not default payment! Using the word 'write off' is like charity to me, 'oh since u cant pay, we'll write off', or an insult 'oh since u dun wish to pay and we cant do much abt it, we'll write off'. And if I did not keep the receipt? 'Oh since you cant prove, we'll still take your word and write off'.

The polyclinic also did not provide a convenient way for people to make payment as no self-addressed envelope was provided. Hey u asking me for money, u still expect me to pay for my own envelope and stamp? Or you expect me to take leave / time off to make payment since your clinic does not open at night, there is no way I can make it during the polyclinic opening hours. Dun tell me such non-payment cases are rare, hence there is no need to purposely have a system of self-addressed envelope etc... then if so, why din you bother to check properly the accounts before sending me the bill? If someone had bothered to check, the double entry would have been obvious because of the same date and proximity in timing. Billing people is such a sensitive thing, in this scenario, it is an accusation that the other party have not paid up when one should have done so by the time one leaves the polyclinic.

Update 13 Feb 07: This is exasperating! One month later, the same bill is generated and sent to me! I have already faxed my receipt to them and yet this still happened. Totally unacceptable. I called Singhealth head office "May I have the fax number of your Customer Service Manager?"
The person responded "What isit regarding?" I said "What does your Customer Service Manager handle?" Bo pian, she said "You attention the matter to Corporate Section, officer in charge"... huh? No CSM? Really? Or are you trying to hide something?

Update 22 Feb 07: Having gotten the fax number to the corporate person, I faxed them a letter of complaint:
Please see attached documents. One month ago (9 Jan), I receive an invoice for $8 for consultation charges of my visit to Geylang Polyclinic on 23 Nov 06. I called Geylang Polyclinic to tell them I paid the $8 on the day of the visit. The person-in-charge asked me to fax my receipt to her, which I did so promptly. However, it seems that nothing has been done because I still received the same bill, only this time, the bill indicates that the amount has been outstanding for 61 – 90 days. Why has the issue not been resolved till now? The person-in-charge mentioned it is a duplicate bill, one shouldn’t be repeating mistakes. Please ensure this does not happen again.

Here's the reply letter from them:
Dear Mdm,
I refer to your fax dated ...
Kindly ignore the invoices that were previously sent to you as we have indeed received payment from you.
Sorry for any inconvenience caused and do feel free to contact me at DID.... for any further queries.
Thank You

What's wrong with this response you may say? Well, it doesnt address the core issue! My concern is, STOP SENDING ME THE INVOICES! But here, no mention of "we have rectified our system ....we would make sure such incidence do not happen again "... instead, I am just told to ignore previous invoices. So what now? Wait for more invoices to come in, complain somemore? Or assume that they would not repeat their mistake without any assurance from them?