The Truth About ZocDoc- An Online Tool to Help You Schedule Doctors Appointments

The company ZocDoc was Founded in 2007, and according to their website, the mission of this company is to "improve access to healthcare." If this is their mission statement, well then mission unaccomplished (but we will get to that later).

The ZocDoc service is free to use, and provides users access to a wide range of doctors in many different fields, as well as the ability to narrow down doctors by location and insurance type.

A new feature of ZocDoc is the ability for users to book appointments with any doctor directly through their website using the ZocDoc calender.

ZocDoc reports that through revealing the 'hidden supply' of appointments, the typical ZocDoc patient will be able to see a doctor in less than 24 hours.

Users however report a much different experience.

After thorough research conducted after my own experience with the company, I uncovered some startling facts, and decided to publish a review of their services in order to spread awareness.

If you were to log on to the Facebook account, Twitter account, or any ZocDoc moderated platform, you will see nothing but rave reviews about the customer service provided by the company, but at what point are too many reviews about excellent customer service a sign that customers are unhappy with your service?

Yes, ZocDoc does have excellent customer service, but it goes deeper than this.

ZocDoc allows users to post a review of their visit right after their appointment was due to be scheduled for, however what they don't tell you is that any negative reviews will be hidden from other people who view their site.

Where do the negative experiences go? They have to go to third party sites designed to expose corrupt companies that scam their customers.

Some of these sites include:

RipOffReport.com - Five complaints lodged

ComplaintsBoard.com - Four complaints lodged, including a claim that all positive reviews on the site are paid for by the specific doctor

Glassdoor.com - A site where employees (both former and current) are allowed to post reviews of their experience, and 50% of those reviews reported a negative experience

Medscape.com - Where you can read an account from a doctor who used ZocDoc and was so upset about the experience that he had to write this quite elaborate review

So yes, they may have excellent customer service, but users and even doctors are pretty unanimous in their feelings that the only reason customer service at ZocDoc is so impressive is because they have so much experience with unsatisfied customers.

I signed up for ZocDoc several weeks ago after my husband was diagnosed with shingles at the age of just 26.

He was in excrutiating pain and needed a pain management doctor, a dermatologist and a strong primary care doctor.

I performed an online search for local doctors in the area. Looking for reputable doctors in the area, I eneded up stumbling upon ZocDoc's website.

I had heard about the company previously, but only while I was searching for photography jobs, so I knew nothing about the services provided by ZocDoc.

At first, I was surprisingly impressed. The company had a beautiful website which was easy to navigate, and a wide range of doctors from varying specialties, all with rave reviews.

Not only was able to find a terrific dermatologist and pain management doctor for my husband, but I was also able to find a therapist, dentist, and physiatrist for myself. Honestly, I was extremely excited, relieved and hopeful.

All of that changed quickly however.

The first scheduled appointment was with Doctor Jordan Fersel, a pain management specialist from Bayonne, New Jersey. We booked a 1:00 pm appointment, arrived on time, and were told that they had no knowledge of our appointment and that the doctor was leaving for the day.

In front of my husband (who was crying in pain) and myself, the doctor literally walked out the door and left. After the doctor walked out, the secretary began to scream at the two of us, telling us that if we didn't leave she was going to call the cops. We said nothing, yet she still called the police and then after hanging up, she got in my face and asked me if I wanted to "take this outside".

That was our first ZocDoc appointment. Now on to our second appointment, which was scheduled with the dermatologist.

My husband went to this appointment by himself, bringing with him a script from his doctor for a culture to confrim the shingles diagnosis. Not only did he not get the culture done, but he didn't even see the doctor with whom we made the appointment.

He talked to a nurse practitioner for no more than five minutes, was prescribed a cream that he couldn't even fill because it cost over $300, and was charged $100 for an office visit that was absolutely no help.

Because we had already scheduled other appointments with ZocDoc, we kept trying. A few days later, we went to the second pain management doctor we found. Dr. Timothy Mims, a pain management doctor, was who we had the appointment with, only when we showed up, we were told that he was at his other office that day.

At this point, I had already spoken with ZocDoc's customer service several times. They were great, and they assured me that they would fix the situation. They even gave us two lovely $5 Amazon gift cards (as if that was any concelation for our painful experience with ZocDoc).

I called the customer service one more time, and asked them to follow up with the remaining doctors with whom we had scheduled appointments. All I wanted was a confirmation of our appointment, and knowledge that we would be seen. They assured me that they would do that, but I never heard back from anyone, not ZocDoc, not any of the doctors.

Here are some of the testimonials from ZocDoc users:

"Ridiculously pushy, unrelenting sales force that uses every ruse to obtain doctors private phone lines and emails, then falsely claims they were referred by another doctor, etc. I am a physician, I would not recommend this service to anyone. This is a bad business."

"I would not recommend this service. I made an appointment that got moved without even a phone call. Their HR person tried to appease the issue with a $5 Amazon gift card, but apparently there are no internal controls to ensure that doctors are available when the system says they are. I made another appointment for an available time at a different near-by doctor's office. But no one from the office bothered to call me and tell me that the doctor was not in. I had already taken off of work and was on my way. "

"I booked an appointment through Zocdoc with an ENT doctor by the name of Conrad K McCutcheon in Houston. I was late due to a major accident near the office that had traffic backed up for miles and apologized and the woman at the desk sad that is ok we are aware of the accident. I was in terrible pain with my THROAT was SWELLNG and a large growth under my tongue... By depending on this service and this doctor, I missed work, got kicked to the curb with a serious health condition and am in serious pain, with a growth growing in my mouth and unable to get an appointment with an ENT doctor for two weeks."