NY Woman wrote a negative Yelp review — and it made her life a nightmare
I wrote a negative Yelp review — and it made my life a
nightmare
By Beth Landman and Julia Marsh May 28, 2018 | 10:55pm |
Updated
Yelp reviewers, beware.
A Manhattan woman who gave one-star reviews on Yelp and
ZocDoc to a Kips Bay gynecologist has spent nearly $20,000 defending herself
against a defamation suit filed by the physician, according to her and court
papers.
And the litigation has only just started.
“I gave an honest review of my experience to warn others,
and he is trying to silence me. It’s a nightmare,’’ Michelle Levine told The
Post.
Levine said she found Dr. Joon Song of New York Robotic
Gynecology & Women’s Health online and went to him for a checkup in July
2017.
“A week later, he billed my insurance company $1,304.32
for the new-patient visit and ultrasound, and I got a bill for $427 that wasn’t
covered,” she said.
“The annual was supposed to be free!”
Levine alleges in court filings that Joon never even gave
her a manual pelvic exam, instead simply asking her about menstrual cramps and
then performing an ultrasound.
Levine claims that Joon said he gave her pelvic and
breast exams, even though he didn’t.
“When I called his office [to gripe], they were
immediately aggressive and said I had come in complaining of pelvic pain,”
which required the ultrasound, Levine said, denying she ever told them she had
pelvic pain.
“I was so disgusted, I wrote a review on several sites,
including Yelp, ZocDoc and Health Grades,” she said.
“Very poor and crooked business practice,” Levine wrote
in the review. “I suspect that this doctor gives unnecessary procedure [sic] to
a lot of people and then charges the insurance sky high prices and no one knows
the difference.
“Everything about my one and only visit here has caused
me emotional distress and panic, and now they want me to cough up an extra $500
for services I didn’t even need?”
Two weeks later, she got an email from the doctor’s
lawyers, telling her she was being sued.
The $1 million suit touts Joon’s Yale University training
and accuses Levine of false postings and online harassment.
“No reasonable person would believe that the statements
made therein were opinion,’’ court papers say.
Levine said the court battle has so far cost her close to
$20,000.
“They tried to drag my start-up wine-and-spirits
technology business into it … They posted my entire medical record, including
notes about my mental health, my bills, my insurance info, my driver’s license,
birth date and home address,” she said.
Lawyers for Joon and the clinic did not return messages.
Additional reporting by Emily Saul
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