If you are dissatisfied, should you seek (or accept) a refund?

(Posted Apr 2003)

Generally speaking, accepting a refund when you have experienced a complication is only prudent if as a condition of doing so you are NOT obliged to sign a release absolving the clinic from all future responsibility.

If the clinic made an unsolicited offer of a refund, I would be a little suspicious. What are the terms? It is probable that they will require you to sign a release which not only releases them from any liability under any and all circumstances but also binds you to confidentiality. (Mind you, there are certainly exceptions. But we are simply talking her about what to be cautious about or look out for to protect your own interests.) Why are they offering you a refund? Possibly they are trying to make you feel better, possibly they are no happier with you than you are with them. But they did not simply sell you a service. They evaluated you for surgery, for better or for worse they performed the surgery, and for better or for worse they looked after you afterwards. All three of those things give them a responsibility towards you. Why would you willingly release them from it - particularly if you are not entirely certain what lies ahead?

On the other hand, if you instigated the refund, why? Is it because you are running short of funds and need money to seek treatment elsewhere? There are other ways you can raise the money that won’t run the same risks. Is it for the emotional release — you just want to be done with them? Fine, just leave, but for goodness’ sakes don’t sign anything on the way out. Or are you thinking of it more simplistically — you’re a dissatisfied customer and want your money back? Something is wrong with this picture: This isn’t a haircut you’re unhappy with — it’s surgery. Hair grows back. Corneas don’t. Hair behaves in a relatively predictable manner. But your eyes? You don’t know what the future holds.

The overwhelming concern with accepting a refund is financial.

Simply put, the terms you will be forced to agree to may prevent you from seeking the care you need, or the cost of that care, from the clinic, in the future, whereas you simply do not know right now — you cannot know right now - what your future needs may be. Right now, you may simply be thinking about how unhappy you are, or that you’d really like to have the money back. But if your surgery was less than 12-18 months ago, the chances are you do not yet know all the pertinent facts about what’s happened to your eyes. If you have expensive testing, diagnosis, and treatments, perhaps even surgery, down the line somewhere, who is going to pay for it? Perhaps your insurance will — that’s great. Perhaps you’re just assuming you will pay for it out of your pocket — fine, but wouldn’t it be wiser to keep your options open? Sure, right now perhaps it seems wholly unlikely you would ever consider filing suit, but a lawsuit is not the only means by which people seek or accept compensation. Someday you may simply want to go knocking on their door and show them a list of what you’d spent and ask for their help. By signing a release you may bar yourself from the right even to do that. We are most concerned about patients doing this prematurely, when they do not have a clear picture yet of what the future holds.

If on the other hand you have been offered a refund with (apparently) no strings attached, you may still want to take advice from a solicitor before accepting it. If you are at some later date inclined or obliged to seek compensation, it is possible that your earlier acceptance of a refund could work against you.

Whatever your impression may be from this advice, we are not in fact the least bit inclined to encourage you to think in terms of filing suit. We do, however, sincerely want you to keep all your future options open as best you can, until such time as you are perfectly certain what both your present and future needs are. — Your eyes are your life, your livelihood. Their wellbeing is your bank balance. You owe it to yourself (and, if you have dependants, to them) to be conservative with your eyes.