Eventually he gave me another appointment a different day, and now he issued a bill for 150 CHF. By law in Switzerland if you don't show up to an appointment you need, as a client, to pay the session nevertheless. In this case, I am willing to pay 100 CHF what I consider generous becuase he should've given it for free as it was his mistake. Can I take the guy to the Betreinbungsamt?
Recently I was given an appointment by an physio that a friend recommended, when I turned to the appointment he had made a mistake and given the same time to me and another guy whose first name was the same. My case was more acute than the other guy but he was his friend. He offered me to come later on the same day but I was already tied up with more meetings.
You want take him to the Betreibungsamt because you have to pay for an appointment that has been moved?
Or did you have to pay for both cancelled and new appointment?
So... he gave you another appointment and told you about it, but you didn't turn up and now you want to take him to court over it?
Why didn't you show up for your second appointment? From here it looks like he tried to do more than enough to correct his mistake and is completely in the right.
You don't know about anybody's health situation just by looking at them, so I'll take your "My case was more acute than the other guy" with a grain of salt.
The therapist offered you to come later on the same day (=offered to substitute the hour he mistakenly booked with the other guy): This means that he offered you the possibility to use the session at the later time, payment being due for that day's later session. Since, from what I'm reading above, you said you couldn't show up for the later session right then (and hadn't known about him shifting session times earlier than 24 hours before the shifted appointment), he rightly didn't bill you for not showing up for the shifted session.
The appointment he gave you for a different day (Appointment 2) was given more than 24 hours before it would have taken place, am I correct? Thus, your not showing up (if you didn't cancel appointment 2 24 in advance) gives him the right to bill you for the full session. If you did show up, he of course also has the right to bill you for the full session.
If you don't pay for appointment 2 without having cancelled it at least 24 hours in advance or having told him that you can't come to appointment 2 when he offered it to you, he IMO has the right to take you to the Betreibungsamt.
I'd be interested to hear how you know this.
Did he discuss the other guy's case with you?
That doesn't sound very professional.
Only if Only1MaiTe AGREED to the booking of the second appointment and then didn't show up without a valid reason.
Either way the physio is is bit cheeky to bill Only1MaiTe for the missed appointment after the physio himself missed the first appointment.
If I was Only1MaiTe I would send a bill to the physio for the exact same amount for the time I waisted when the physio didn't honor the first appointment.
I guess you could say that the Physio was "Expatlanded" (opposite to Switzerlanded)?
PS: "Expatted" could work too.
Assuming, as others have not, that you turned up for this rearranged session and had the treatment, then no, you've got no chance of legally getting it reduced. If you'd made it clear before rebooking that you were really badly put out by his mistake the first time, and asked if he would do the second session for a reduced price to compensate, then he may have done so, but by accepting the rearranged appointment and taking the treatment you've agreed to pay for it too.
Exactly.
If you turn up and he isn't available, he is losing your time and your money by not respecting the appointment. When the patient does it, they get charged for it so I would say, if the professional is doing it, he should pay too.
Did YOU send HIM a bill?
Did HE not pay the full ammount?
Did YOU send HIM a remainder?
Then yes. (*)
PS: If you do not pay his bill in full he may take you to the Betreibungsamt.
(*) Technically you coud take any willy nilly person you randmoly picked from the phone book. No previous bill or even demands needed. But that is just weird and considered as harassment.
Why didn't you tell him you didn't want the second appointment? All you had to do was a phone call? He obviously made a mistake the first time, and I suppose it can happen to any of us- but if you didn't want the second app. or the date/time was not suitable, you could have just told him so. Not sure I get your story?
Did you just not turn up for appointment- or did you give notice and he still billed you?
Why is everybody assuming that the OP didn't turn up for the second appointment?
The way I read it was that he went for the second appointment on a different day but is aggrieved that the physio is charging him for it. He seems to think that he should have got the consultation for free as compensation for the misunderstanding over the first appointment.
In which case I think the reduction of 50chf the OP received seems fair enough to me given that he did actually receive the treatment.
From what I understood, the OP turned up to the first appointment but the physiotherapist did not honour it as that appointment had been double booked.
I sympathise - doctors and dentists do charge when their patients miss an appointment but never compensate for appointments that they miss or mess up.
Reminds me of one of the Jerry Seinfeld episodes.
I disagree. OP was offered an alternative session but he didn't want it - tough luck. As to the double booking - to err is human, and offering an alternative session is the best the therapist could have done. IMO the bill for the appointment on the other day is separate from the double booked session and therefore the appointment on the other day is not to be viewed as a compensatory and therefore free session in exchange for the double-booked one.
Thus, the appointment on the other day should be billed in the usual way if OP attended. Even if OP didn't attend, the appointment should be billed in full if OP failed to tell the therapist at least 24 hours in advance that he wasn't going to show up.
Hmmm, so the therapist is allowed to err without having to compensate the customer for wasting his time, but the customer has to compensate the therapist when the customer doesn't show up... your logic is clearly flawed...
The therapist offered to compensate but OP declined. Second sentence of my post right above yours.
Are you the therapist or why do you say this?
I cannot see that the OP has written anywhere that the therapist offered to compensate. Being offered another appointment is certainly not a compensation for the wasted time!
Agreed- but anyone can make a genuine mistake- If it had happened before, I'd understand. I'd like confirmation from OP of what happened with second ap. Did s/he attend or not, it is not totally clear from OP.
I agree to disagree.