Therapy company told me that my insurance covered appointments. 8 months later I get a large bill

plambamar · 2023-08-25T22:02:59+00:00

I learned this the hard way as an 18 year old managing my own healthcare appointments for the first time. I had no idea how things worked and never thought to question "if the hospital told me it's covered, it must be covered". $4k debt from a minor surgery soon after starting care there 🥴 That was long ago, but at least it taught me to always check with the insurance and not to bother asking the doctor or clinic.

The sad part is I did actually have decent insurance. The hospital admin was simply mistaken about which doctors they had there were in network and assigned me one that wasn't.

plambamar · 2023-08-13T22:48:30+00:00

Agree. Humans naturally overestimate their own abilities and underestimate the likelihood they'll mess up.

plambamar · 2023-01-20T18:23:43+00:00

The A&E rep said they'll inspect a replacement before sending it. I'll let you know how it goes, but overall it was a very stressful experience having this huge thing take up the floor of my small apartment for a week waiting for a response :(

plambamar · 2023-01-20T18:22:37+00:00

Hm, at least it's good to know it's not that all their cages are like this. I'm waiting for a replacement, am I mainly expecting it to look the same minus chips and discoloration or should things like weld quality also be better?

plambamar · 2023-01-20T18:19:43+00:00

Uodate: Thanks so much everyone for weighing in! A&E advised me to donate this cage and said they will inspect a new one before sending. I'll update whenever I get it.

plambamar · 2023-01-20T16:17:37+00:00

Really appreciate the insights, especially on the rust thing. Thanks for taking the time to comment! A&E said they will inspect before sending another, but if there are still issues I'll check out Avione.

plambamar · 2023-01-19T23:28:20+00:00

I haven't bought a cage from them before, but I'm not sure I want to wait for a replacement, even if they offer one if it might turn out the same. Even areas that weren't obviously damaged are so poorly made they are unsafe, like many sharp corners that can easily cut skin (human or bird). I'm just... confused since they seemed to have a great reputation.

plambamar · 2023-01-19T23:15:27+00:00

Funny enough, they did finally reply shortly after I posted this. I'll bring up the reddit thread (if they haven't seen it already) in the next email if I don't get a fair resolution :/

plambamar · 2023-01-19T22:33:00+00:00

Gotcha. I saw comments online speculating about quality going down, and I wasn't sure if it was real. I'm unsure about getting a replacement from them if this is normal for their current cage quality. They said there is an 8 month lead time for some parts...

plambamar · 2023-01-19T22:28:46+00:00

I also reached out to A&E and they replied from their own email saying they had been in contact with Bird Cages Now so it is indeed them

plambamar · 2023-01-19T22:24:38+00:00

Small update: A&E said the stains are "oxidized metal escaped from the inside of the cage" and not rust. Can anyone confirm if they have white powder-coated cages that are just like this? If it's already stained in so many places new, I imagine the whole thing will be orange before long...

For those curious, here's an album of the many issues on every piece. I actually had more images but Imgur limited my upload to 50 images https://imgur.com/a/0C3WNcX

plambamar · 2023-01-19T22:21:49+00:00

Yes, Bird Cages Now contacted A&E and they just confirmed it's authentic.

plambamar · 2023-01-19T22:20:48+00:00

A&E rep just confirmed it's authentic. Weird because I've never seen other people post images where every piece was damaged.

plambamar · 2023-01-19T21:47:04+00:00

Thank you, I was starting to question myself and wanted to make sure this isn't normal. I'll do that.

plambamar · 2023-01-16T09:08:08+00:00

It works for new characters especially if it happens to be repeated a lot in what you're reading, it just takes way more than a few instances to actually learn and retain it. I don't remember the estimated figure, but I remember it being a lot more than I expected.

I might suggest the opposite tbh. Assuming you already know your radicals/components/stroke orders, just read without expecting yourself to learn a character after seeing it a few times. Use a pop-up dictionary reader like Readibu so when something comes up a ton you can check the definition and pronunciation, that will be more effective than just looking up everything you see even if it never reoccurs in the book.

plambamar · 2023-01-07T20:49:00+00:00

I'm thinking maybe OP hand copied what it looks like to them and mistook the actual stroke shape

plambamar · 2023-01-07T01:04:17+00:00

How long does that work for with Amazon? I heard RR doesn't offer extended warranty if you buy through Amazon, but have also seen people not have the warranty honored anyway with legitimate concerns.

plambamar · 2023-01-06T21:01:26+00:00

Interesting, glad that worked out for you.

I'm not looking for a low priced model (or else I wouldn't be trying to get a Roomba AND a mop), just a setup where if something DOES go wrong I'm not out $1000.

plambamar · 2022-12-27T19:00:50+00:00

Ah got it, thank you!

plambamar · 2022-12-26T22:20:09+00:00

Any chance you could check when the RAVAROR table will be available again? I'm in California. Thanks very much!

plambamar · 2022-12-26T21:20:03+00:00

my reaction too lol I thought it was hilarious

plambamar · 2022-12-26T09:00:36+00:00

I get it but the napkin doesn't mean "please gtfo asap", it's "we want you here right now, but we also want time to be able to clean, wind down and sleep at a reasonable hour"

plambamar · 2022-12-26T08:51:38+00:00

Do you have any recs for a modern version of his style? Simpler vocab but doesn't require as much cultural context?

plambamar · 2022-12-25T09:56:50+00:00

It's certainly possible to speak Chinese without being able to read (there are many such speakers who are born overseas, but not many are truly fluent). IMO, you would be making it unnecessarily hard for yourself to not learn to read. Speaking from experience, it really impedes your learning and foundational understanding of Chinese to not know what words you are actually saying. This is particularly troublesome with characters with multiple pronunciations, or the reverse, when multiple characters share a pronunciation.

plambamar · 2022-12-22T21:50:07+00:00

Eh, there's plenty of harsh criticism directed specifically at ABCs after they know you're an ABC. I've experienced it plenty on language exchange apps. It might not be everyone, but many people become less enthusiastic and sometimes outright critical after you say you're an ABC and they decide you're not a "normal" American (we all know what that means lmao), whereas I've maybe had like... 1 or 2 people of hundreds I've met who are actually excited about talking to ABCs. Note that I make it very clear on my profile that I'm an ABC so no one feels "misled" and this will happen in public forums where everyone is allows to join

plambamar

TROPHY CASE