Client Service Mistakes You Don’t Accept

lorisa stein client service mistakesBeing a client in search of legal advice made for an interesting role reversal.
Here’s what happened.

How Many Form Emails?

  1. I completed and submitted an online request form for legal services. I completed a multipage from about my identity, the identity of the person with whom I had the legal problem, and outlined the problem. There was a pull-down menu and I selected a date and time for my appointment. My online forms were acknowledged received within the day by return form email.
  2. I then received a form email as to whether I preferred to have the initial consultation by email or in person and how I would have to pay for the reduced rate 30-minute consultation.
  3. I decided to attend in person. I received a form email about how to get to the office and instructions on how to take advantage of the free parking if I chose to drive.
  4. I then received a form email to remind me of my appointment scheduled for the next day.

Late to Start My Appointment

  1. I arrived at the lawyer’s office 12 minutes in advance of my scheduled appointment. I introduced myself. The receptionist told me the lawyer was running 10 minutes late.
  2. I waited in the reception area until 17 minutes after the scheduled time to be greeted by the lawyer.
  3. As a professional courtesy, I would have thought given this lawyer’s use of technology that I would have received an email an hour prior to my allotted scheduled time to tell me that the clients before me had come 20 minutes late to their 30-minute consultation.

Lack of Privacy, No Confidentiality

  1. From my seat in the lawyer’s office, I could clearly hear the lawyer speaking to two clients in the glass-walled boardroom facing me. The lawyer recited the facts of their problem and I heard all the advice he provided to them. I heard the fees being discussed.
  2. The lawyer and the two clients exited the boardroom and discussed payment for the consultation and retainer fees right in front of me. I waited while the lawyer directed them as to how to make the payments.

No Idea About My Case

  1. The lawyer ushered me into the glass boardroom 22 minutes after the scheduled start of my appointment. He had a stapled batch of lined sheets of paper in front of him. He flipped to the next blank sheet.
  2. He admitted that he had not read my 6 sentence summary about my problem sent the prior week.

Wasted Time

  1. I cancelled the appointment and did not pay the reduced rate fee of $99 + taxes for the 30 minutes of my wasted time.

If you have a family law problem and want to speak to Lorisa Stein in person on time and fully focussed on your needs, call Lorisa at 416 596-8081 or send her a confidential email from the Contact Page. She will respond to you as soon as possible