Some people—and companies—only learn the hard way.

In this woman’s case, she left a bad review on Yelp for her doctor’s office billing company after being ignored by them multiple times when trying to get her money back.

The CEO squirmed.

Let’s read the story.

Sure, I’ll take down my negative Yelp review

This happened to me a few years ago.

I was owed a significant sum of money by the company that handles my doctor’s billing (she worked at a large healthcare system that outsourced billing to this company).

For months and months I tried via email and phone to get the money back… but each contact I was treated rudely or ignored.

They made it impossible to solve the issue.

They would either say they are still working on it or would act like I had never requested the money in the first place and needed to start the process over.

It was maddening.

That’s not right. Something needed to be done.

One day after receiving another rude email from this company I decided to leave a Yelp review on my doctor’s page.

I essentially said that while the doctor and her staff were helpful and professional, the billing company they used was atrocious and made the entire experience not worth it.

“Atrocious” was the right word. But they took offense.

Lo and behold, the very next day I get a call from the CEO OF THE BILLING COMPANY.

He asks what the problem is and I explain.

He says, “Ok, I’ll make sure the money gets sent ASAP. Could you please take the review down?”

Apparently, he was getting angry calls from my doctor and he seemed pretty pressured to get it taken down.

Oh, now they care about the customer’s experience?

I respond that I can take the review down after I get my money back.

He gladly accepts my offer.

A week later, there is my check in the mail.

Here’s the thing though.

I never specified how long until I would take the review down after I get the money.

So I wait a week.

To really drive the point home…

Get some calls/texts from the CEO.

Ignore them.

Wait another week.

Respond that I’m having technical problems logging into Yelp but should have it resolved ‘soon’.

After about 6 months of him reaching out and me being as unhelpful as possible I finally took it down.

Doesn’t feel nice to be ignored, right?

The next time I returned to that doctors office, it was a whole new billing system.

Not sure if my review made a difference but it was sweet malicious compliance regardless.

She single-handedly improved two services.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this.

Maddening.

A reader shares their thoughts.

It was a win.

That’s an interesting point.

Yup.

Another commenter chimes in.

They had to get called out by the doctor’s office to start caring.

Hopefully, they actually improved their service after this.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.