=?utf-8?Q?Fwd=3A_Facture/Invoice_50379_Home_Care_Assistance_Montr?= =?utf-8?Q?=C3=A9al_/_Soins_=C3=A0_Domicile?=

FYI.

Tim Thomas Sr.
514: 726 7647

tthomas@thekey.com

> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Allison Mindy Roth <amr2264@columbia.edu>
> Subject: Re: Facture/Invoice 50379 Home Care Assistance Montréal / Soins à Domicile
> Date: September 29, 2023 at 11:28:19 AM EDT
> To: adminmtl@homecareassistance.com
>
> To whom it may concern,
>
> I will not be paying this invoice. I was told that these services would be free to make up for the emotional distress you caused me and the time I had to take out of my day to deal with your company illegitimately funneling nearly $26000 out of my bank account without my permission or without any services provided. I have included a detailed description of the events, with some relevant points to the invoice that you sent over highlighted in yellow. Please do not ever contact me again.
>
> 1) Aug 21-22 2023. I contacted The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) to inquire about hiring a caretaker for a single shift to pick me up from an egg retrieval (elective fertility preservation) at Clinique Ovo that would take place in mid to late September. I needed someone to take me home after my egg retrieval, as Clinique Ovo has a policy that they will not send anyone home unaccompanied. I was told that this was a service that The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) provided and that The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) would need me  to preapprove my bank account for payment. In good faith, I preapproved The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance). I was explicitly told that I would not be charged prior to the completion of services and that I would be charged at a rate of 40 some dollars an hour for 4 hours of service. This was all completed via various phone calls and emails between myself and Desiree Aranjo/ Maria Licoudis.
>
> 2) Aug 31 2023: The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) stole $8356.38 from my BMO bank account
>
> 3) Sept 7 2023: The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) stole another $8511.33 from my BMO bank account
>
> 4) Sept 13 2023: The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) stole a third lump sum of $8846.77 from my BMO bank account
>
> 5) Sept 13 2023: I had my first ultrasound for my egg retrieval at 9:10 AM at Clinique Ovo. Clinique Ovo requires their clients to pay the entire bill for the egg retrieval before their appointment for their first ultrasound. I woke up to go to this appointment and pay my bill but before leaving my home I noticed that my BMO bank account had been overdrafted by $1240.76. I called my bank and checked my online banking to see what was going on as I knew I should have approximately $25K in my account. My bank said I would need to call The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) to figure out why they had taken three large sums out of my account without my permission and without any services provided.
>
> 6) Sept 13 2023: I called The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) who initially denied that this could have happened. Eventually, Joey Taylor (henceforth “Joey”) admitted that indeed The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) had illegitimately taken this money and was incredibly apologetic. As all of this was going on, I was heading to my doctor’s appointment at Clinique Ovo and to pay my bill. I was unable to pay my bill at Clinique Ovo on time because The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) had completely emptied my bank account. Clinique Ovo should have cancelled my entire egg retrieval, per their rules, but they were very gracious once I had showed them the proof and agreed to let me pay my bill late.
>
> 7) Sept 13 2023: Joey electronically transferred me $8450.00, and I was able to pay my bill after my first ultrasound (again, I had to pay my bill late). He said that he would get me a check for the rest of the money as soon as possible.
>
> 8) Sept 13 2023: Joey called a bit later and asked if he could drop off a check. Again, he profusely apologized for all of the trouble and said that nothing like this had ever happened before. He said that because of all of the trouble and stress The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) had caused and because I had to take out so much time from my day to sort this out, my services from The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) the following week (i.e., picking me up from Clinique Ovo after my egg retrieval) would be free. I thanked him for this and also told him that my bank would be charging me both an overdraft fee as well as a fee for my account dropping below $3000. He said that The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) would cover this. Joey came to my home and dropped off a check in the amount of $17264.48. He again apologized and explicitly stated that my full shift would be comped the following week. He explained that the reason so much money had been taken from my account was that The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance)’s largest client had the exact same name as myself and there was a technical glitch in their system where their computer automatically started charging their largest client’s bill to me. We again discussed the overdraft fee and the fee for my account dropping below $3000 (both of which only occurred because The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) had stolen so much money out of my bank account). Joey said that I would need to go into my bank to provide evidence of these fees before the The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) could pay it. I let him know that I was heading into my bank now. I went to my bank and explained the entire situation to them.
>
> 9) Sept 13 2023: I went into my bank immediately after meeting with Joey. My bank suggested that this whole series of events, as well as the explanation I was given for them, sounded very fishy and urged that I get both the police (and potentially lawyers) involved. However, at that time, I was willing to give The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) the benefit of the doubt. Regarding the two sets of fees, the bank said that these would not hit until the end of the month at which point they would show up on my bank statement and I could email them to Joey. They said the overdraft fee might not hit because I had deposited the check before 1PM that day.
>
> 10) Sept 13 2023: Immediately after I returned from the bank, I emailed Joey the following at 12:38PM:
>
> “Hi Joey,
>
>
> Thank you so much again for everything. I really appreciate how quickly you took care of things this morning. I just wanted to write to let you know that my bank said the fees won't hit until the end of the month so I'll have to wait until then to give you the details. In summary though, there will be a $11 fee because my account balance dropped below $3000. There may be an additional overdraft fee of $48, however, the bank may be able to waive this since I was able to deposit the check that you gave me before 1PM today, but they cannot guarantee this. They said I will find out if I was charged the additional overdraft fee at the end of the month. So I will be in touch once this all hits at the end of the month. I just wanted to email you to let you know where things stood.
>
> Thank you so much again, and have a nice rest of your week!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Allison Roth”
>
> 11) Sept 13 2023: At 12:57PM (19 minutes after my email) I received the following reply from Joey:
> “Hey Allison,
>
> No problem at all. As soon as you know the fees, let me know and we will send you an e-transfer!
> I am so sorry for the stress this caused you as well as the time you spent today dealing with me and the bank.
> Please let me know if there is anything else I can do!
>
> Take care, “
>
> 12) Sept 13 2023: At 1:16 PM I replied to Joey’s email with the following:
>
> “Hey Joey,
>
>
> Will do! Thanks again for everything. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to take care of things so quickly. I'm also really grateful that you said you would comp the charges for your services next week. That is really helpful, and I really appreciate everything. I'll be in touch at the end of the month! Have a good one :)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Allison”
>
> 13) Sept 17-18 2023: There were several calls and emails between Desiree Aranjo/ Maria Licoudis at the The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) and myself to set up a four hour shift for one of their caretakers (Tekla) to pick me up from my egg retrieval and stay with me afterwards. She was supposed to be there from 9AM -1PM.
>
> 14) Sept 20 2023: I had my egg retrieval at 8 AM. Tekla showed up 15 minutes late (at 9:15) and stayed until approximately 11:30AM (ca 1.5 hours early). I was fine with this shorter shift as I was told that I wouldn’t be paying for services.
>
> 15) Sept 21 2023: To my surprise, I received the following email at 11:46 AM from Joey 8 DAYS after my last email to him which mentioned (and thanked him) our conversations about the services being free. Please note that Joey waited until the day after services were completed to respond to my email despite responding within the hour every other time we have communicated by email.
> “Hey Allison,
>
> Hope everything went well yesterday!! I spoke with our billing department, and you will only be invoiced for 3 hours instead of 4 hours for the shift yesterday. As we had discussed, please let me know when you receive your overdraft fee's and we will take care of those.
>
> Thank you,
>
> “
>
> 16) Sept 21 2023: I responded to Joey’s email at 11:49 AM:
> “Hi Joey,
>
>
> You had said the entire shift would be free. I would not have used your service otherwise. The caretaker did not even stay for a 3 hour shift...
>
> Cheers,
>
> Allison”
>
> 17) Sept 21 2023: Joey responded to my email at 12:26 PM (37 minutes after my last email)
> “Hey Allison,
>
> I had said we would be able to provide a credit. If you were using our services post-op (72 hours) or long-term, we would have been able to credit the shift but given it was a one-time shift and given how quickly everything was resolved, our billing team was able to credit 25% of the shift.
>
> Thank you, “
> Please note that Joey was very quick to respond to all of my other emails but ignored the email reminding him that he had stated that my services would be free until the day after my service. This feels like a bait and switch tactic and after this, I started to feel that maybe everything that happened with my money wasn’t really an accident after all as this was the second shady encounter that I have had with The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance).
>
> 18) Sept 21 2023: I responded to Joey’s email at 12:41 PM
>
> Hi Joey,
>
>
> You had explicitly stated that the first shift would be free of charge. If this is not what you intended, why did you wait until the day after the shift to state your true intentions, especially given that I emailed you 8 days ago with the following, " I'm also really grateful that you said you would comp the charges for your services next week. " After everything that your company put me through, this feels very unethical.
>
> Please note that as of now, I have not gotten lawyers involved, or reached out to the police, Canada Revenue Agency, or Better Business Bureaus despite the fact that your company literally stole over $25,000 from my account. The fact that you stated that you would comp the services for next week and chose not to respond to an email sent on September 13 reminding you that you had verbally agreed to this until the day after the service (which I would never have used after everything had you not explicitly stated that the shift would be free) feels really unethical. Moreover, your company did not provide the services that you were supposed to as your nurse arrived 15 minutes late and left 1.5 hours early.
>
> Regards,
>
> Allison
>
> 19) Sept 22 2023: I went to my bank and the police who told me that all of this seemed very suspicious and advised me not to give The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) another penny. My bank said we should close my account and transfer my funds to prevent further theft. I agreed to this.
>
> 20) Sept 26 2023: I received an invoice from The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) for $87.38 (in the email I am responding to).
>
> 22) Sept 26 2023: I spoke with a lawyer who, like the police and my bank, advised me not to pay any invoices sent to me by The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) and advised me to send this email.
>
> 22) Sept 28 2023: I received 4 phone calls from Tekla (438-875-5428), the caretaker who had picked me up from my surgery, inquiring where I was. She was under the impression that she was supposed to care for me yesterday which is absolutely baffling. This is the third type of error that The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) has made, and I honestly cannot even comprehend this. I had only ever planned to hire The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) for one shift to pick me up from my egg retrieval, as Clinique Ovo requires someone to be present to pick me up. After everything that happened with my money being stolen by The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance), I would never have used The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance)’s services for any shifts had Joey not explicitly told me that my entire shift on Sept 20 2023 would be free given everything The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance) had put me through. Moreover, now more than ever, there is zero chance I would have used The Key (Formerly Home Care Assistance)’s for a second shift, and I cannot imagine why Tekla believed she was scheduled to care for me yesterday.
>
> Please stop contacting me in any way, shape, or form. I will not be paying an illegitimate bill. I was told your services on Sept 20 2023 would be free by Joey Taylor. I have not scheduled any other shifts with your company. Your company has caused me a considerable amount of stress, notably during a time where I needed to avoid stress as I was trying to have my eggs frozen. Please take me off of any clientele lists or listservs that you may have. I will never use your services again.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Allison Roth
>
> On Tue, Sep 26, 2023 at 10:02 AM <adminmtl@homecareassistance.com <mailto:adminmtl@homecareassistance.com>> wrote:
> Allison Roth:
>
> Votre facture est ci-jointe.
>
> Les frais seront traités selon votre mode de paiement.
>
> Si vous payez par virement Interac, svp envoyer le montant total à adminmtl@homecareassistance.com <mailto:adminmtl@homecareassistance.com>. SVP, mettre en référence votre numéro de facture. Notez que vous n'avez pas besoin de mot de passe pour virement Interac.
>
> Merci de faire affaire avec nous. Nous l'apprécions beaucoup.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Your invoice is attached.
>
> Your method of payment will be charged.
>
> If you are paying by e-transfer, please send the full amount to adminmtl@homecareassistance.com <mailto:adminmtl@homecareassistance.com>. Please reference the invoice number on the e-transfer payment. You do not need a password for the e-transfer.
>
> Thank you for your business - we appreciate it very much.
>
> Soins à Domicile / Home Care Assistance (Montréal) Inc.
> 4464 Ste. Catherine Ouest
> Westmount, QC
> H3Z 1R7
> (514) 907-5065
>
>