I’ve had three private scans with ScanAssure. I cannot praise and thank the sonographer Alyssa enough. She has been nothing but kind, compassionate and caring, and her knowledge and attention to detail are second to none.
Unfortunately my whole experience has been overshadowed by the incompetent administrators, poor organisation and the overbearing, bullying and intimidating Managing Director - Roy Craven.
When I went for my second scan at 10 weeks (myself, my partner and my mother attended the scan) I booked a 17 week gender scan with Lyss - we booked for a Friday at 8.30am. Unsure of her days Alyssa asked for the appointment to be put in and notes on the diary and in my notes to say if there was an issue that I was to be contacted. We attended for our gender scan on the 13th April, only to be told that there was no clinic running and there was no where else I could attend for the scan. After I arrived home the aforementioned MD called me on my mobile and tried to blame me for the mistake, claiming that I ‘believed I had an appointment but in actual fact I hadn’t’. He claimed that all staff present on the day confirmed no appointment was made - ‘all staff’ means two members, one of which was Lyss, who advised she had told them to contact us once they had changed her days. Customer service is severely lacking within this organisation. Blaming a customer, rather than accepting liability and apologising, is the wholly unacceptable. Scan assure did refund £50 for the scan (we paid £60 for it upfront). However, they are now disputing this. I would argue that being so administratratively poor, the mistake is theirs. We paid a deposit for the first, and the second and third in full.
Despite all that happened on this day I still, feeling confident in and comfortable with Alyssa, proceeded to book a £130 anomaly scan at 19 weeks.
After a very thorough and enjoyable anomaly scan on 28th April (at 19 weeks pregnant!) I came out to pay and was immediately accosted by the receptionist about the £50 refund - I explained that the account wasn’t mine and that I had no idea what it was going on with it. I paid my £130 and sat waiting for the pictures from my scan. We waited for about 15 minutes, when we asked about them the receptionist said ‘I don’t think there are any’. I said ‘I would think for £130 there would be some’ and confirmed with Alyssa that she was printing them. It now seems they were withholding my pictures until I had been interrogated by the MD. I got a text message from him (wholly unprofessional, and not why I provided them with my phone number) and a phone call. When I was unable to answer the phone due to poor signal he proceeded to call me on his receptionists phone and then the office landline. During the call he was intimidating, bullying and condescending. I repeatedly informed him that the account wasn’t mine and that he would have to speak to my partner. In the end I terminated the phone call in floods of tears, apologised to the receptionist and asked that she apologise to and thank Alyssa. I told her I wouldn’t be returning. How did he know my scan had been a positive one? On leaving the building I called my partner, who had been unable to attend the scan, in a hysterical state. Understandably, after my having had an anomaly scan, he immediately thought there was something wrong with the baby.
Since then my partner has tried to contact Roy Craven, requesting a call back. His phone calls have not been returned. It’s ok to try and intimidate and upset a pregnant woman, but he doesn’t have the decency to call a man back?
I’m saddened that this has been my experience, because I would have loved for Alyssa to 4d scan my baby.