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Clinique Santé Voyage On June 22, 2010 my wife and I had an appointment at Clinique Santé Voyage which is a Health Clinic at the Lakeshore Hospital in Pointe-Claire. They are a for profit organization that charges travelers for vaccination shots which are recommended for overseas traveling. Our appointment was scheduled for 1:15 PM and we arrived at 1:14 PM. We were
told to fill out a form which I completed and handed to the secretary at 1:17
PM. We were then called into the clinic for our appointment at 1:42 PM. This
means we were left waiting for 27 minutes, 2 people X 27 minutes is 54 minutes
of wasted time waiting. If you consider that your time is worth about $30 an
hour, which is not unreasonable considering that the Quebec average weekly salary
in 2006 was $697.15 according to the Quebec Government Web site located here: The clinic charged me a $28 service fee plus $79 for my shot, and they also charged my wife a $28 service fee plus $79 for my shot for a total of $214. I asked the nurse to reduce our fees to compensate for our wait time, considering that time has a dollar value associated with it. The nurse said that she would have to speak to her supervisor. When she returned she said that her supervisor refused to compensate me. I said that this was unacceptable and asked to speak to her supervisor directly. A few minutes later, Dalia Toledano, the supervisor, came to see me. I vented my anger towards her for having made me wait and she explained that doctors are notorious for making their patients wait and that there was nothing she could do. I explained to her that doctors in Canada are paid for with our tax dollars and therefore if we charged the doctors for making us wait we would in fact only be charging ourselves since we are the taxpayers who pay their salaries. But this is not the case here because this clinic is a for-profit clinic and is not paid for by the taxpayers. I am the customer and I am paying her salary and therefore I expect excellent service just like when I go to see a dentist or a lawyer. We continued to debate the subject for at least 15 minutes and in the end she refused to compensate me for my wasted time, but she gave me her boss’s name which is Manon Fabi who can be contacted at (514) 697-4111 extension 1312. I still haven’t called her. I want to make it clear that as consumers we are constantly being cheated and abused and it is our responsibility to speak up when we feel we have been abused. Therefore, when you are the paying customer, please follow my lead, and don’t let yourself get pushed around! The more often we speak up, the less often companies will try to abuse us. Written by Sean Ross on June 23, 2010 |