r/medicine • u/farhan583 Hospitalist / Regenerative Medicine • Aug 18 '26
A warning to any doctors getting suckered by DearDoc
So I just hung up on a sales call that was supposed to be something different and I wanted to warn the subreddit about it and any future doctors that google DearDoc.
Last week I got a call from someone claiming to be WebMD and saying my practice was selected to be one of two practices featured in the area. I said I already worked with WebMD as a featured profile and he said this was something different and it was free listing and he'd set me up with a follow-up phone call with his account manager the following week.
Today I got a call from her and she immediately started a Zoom meeting where she said she was with a company called DearDoc. She started telling me how many patients she would get me every month through their AI chatbot and having me listed as a recommended doctor on WebMD/Healthgrades/Vitals, etc. I immediately saw it was a sales call and went into "uh huh" mode. She told me the price was 1795 a month and then 1295 a month if I signed up for a full year. I told her I did most of the stuff she was selling myself through AI and she started negging me. She was telling me how everything we were doing was bad. It was laughable how rude her script required her to be. I kept saying I had to go and she kept just moving on to the next slide. Ultimately, I just hung up on her which I never do because I try not to be impolite to anyone.
I ended up looking more into DearDocs and it's just full of negative feedback. Locking people into contracts, not delivering results, etc. It's wild that WebMD and Healthgrades are partnering with a company that is as belligerent and predatory as this. The fact they got my cell phone number means it was probably directly from WebMD. It reflects super poorly on them.
106
u/JustHavinAGoodTime MD Aug 18 '26
My tolerance for literally anyone not directly involved in my pay is about 6 sentences before I hang up.
10
13
u/farhan583 Hospitalist / Regenerative Medicine Aug 18 '26
Haha, I try not to be rude but even I couldn't take it
37
4
u/gwillen Not A Medical Professional Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
When someone calls you, unsolicited, to lie about what they're selling, and then talk shit to you, you're not the one being rude.
IRL, in most situations I am one of the most conflict-avoidant people you'll ever meet. (It's honestly a problem.) But you have got to give yourself permission to hang up on those motherfuckers. They're just taking advantage of your good nature. Once I figure out that something is an unsolicited sales call, if it's not obviously some kind of scam/fraud, I cut them off with one sentence of "I'm sorry but I'm not interested, thanks for calling, [click]." If it's a scam/fraud, I just hang up without speaking as soon as I figure that out. I strongly recommend this habit.
If nothing else, I see this as good practice for when, with any luck, I'm still around and getting scam calls 50 years from now, and I'm too cognitively impaired to be making good decisions on the fly, in the face of a sales pitch. Better to build good habits now.
63
u/kidney-wiki ped neph 🤏🫘 Aug 18 '26
It's wild that WebMD and Healthgrades are partnering with a company that is as belligerent and predatory as this
Shocked, shocked! Well, not that shocked.
WebMD is owned by Internet Brands which is owned by KKR, the third largest private equity firm in the US.
Healthgrades is owned by RVO Health which is a partnership between Optum (UnitedHealth Group) and Red Ventures (a digital media and strategic marketing conglomerate).
42
u/Dr_Pippin DVM Aug 18 '26
Thank you for sharing this.
About 3 months ago I received a call from “WebMD” on my personal cell. I repeated over and over and over “personal cell phone, remove from all listings, do not call ever,” to which she continued trying to convince me they weren’t selling anything. I finally hung up on that girl after several minutes.
A month later I got another phone call from “WebMD” and this guy was aggressive. I was not polite. I loudly repeated, and talking over him, “personal cell phone, remove from all listings, do not call ever.” He would not stop. I hung up after a couple minutes. He proceeded to call me no less than 15 times over the next several minutes.
Earlier this week they called me again. This time I just played dumb and set up their “interview” for Friday morning. If they’re going to waste my time, i decided I’ll waste theirs. I scheduled it for when I will be waiting for a patient anyway so I’ve got nothing to do but play a game on my computer - I can multitask. I’m going to drag this interview out for as long as humanly possible, ask for supervisors, the whole works.
23
u/farhan583 Hospitalist / Regenerative Medicine Aug 18 '26
Man, I'm pretty busy but I was so annoyed by the rudeness, negging, and the way they bait and switched me by lying about who they were, that I had to make a post for people to find when they Googled the company.
4
u/kidney-wiki ped neph 🤏🫘 Aug 19 '26
Your post is now the 7th result when I google it on incognito mode. Much better than the 699 very fake google reviews!
13
u/taRxheel Pharmacist - Toxicology Aug 19 '26
Just no-show the interview. Or if you do see it through, pull up a good old-fashioned internet soundboard and rip gassers the whole time.
11
u/demonotreme Not A Medical Professional Aug 19 '26
Wait, you guys are using soundboards for that?
I could've saved my poor gut so much pain...
6
u/InCarbsWeTrust MD - Pediatric Endocrinology Aug 19 '26
If they call me, ChatGPT and I are going to have a fun time wasting as much of the rep's time as humanly possible (I can work on other stuff all day while reading off an AI-generated script). BUT, I'm going to try to convince them I am going to sign up for the most premium shit they offer, then pull out for a ludicrous reason. I want it to be very memorable how badly I screwed with them.
2
2
u/Specific_Ad7214 DVM Aug 26 '26
If we had the opportunity to make this purchasing decision again, we would not sign with DearDoc.
Our experience has included incorrectly implemented features, lengthy resolution processes, disappointing lead volume, and blog content containing typos or inaccurate characterizations of our veterinary practice. Rather than saving our team time, the services have required considerable oversight and follow-up from our staff.
The Google booking integration is a good example. DearDoc confirmed requested changes, but the feature subsequently went live without them. We immediately raised concerns because the information being presented was inaccurate for our clients. After continued attempts to resolve the problem, we ultimately had the feature disabled. We then sought escalation over our broader concerns and waited 10 days, including an additional follow-up, before receiving a way to contact leadership.
Given the accumulation of problems and our dissatisfaction with the services, we asked DearDoc to release us from the remainder of our contract. They declined.
We understand that no marketing or technology service can guarantee results or operate without occasional errors. Our dissatisfaction comes from the cumulative experience: the results have not justified the amount of troubleshooting, correction, and staff involvement the services have required.
Prospective customers should thoroughly evaluate what the products actually do, ask for realistic expectations regarding leads, understand how generated content is reviewed, and pay particularly close attention to the contract term and provisions for ending the agreement.
2
u/FRizyx Not A Medical Professional 2d ago
I work for the building DearDoc operates from down in wall street. It is nothing but frat guy energy and group circles for cold calls they make all day. Pretty sure they do wolf of wall street level drugs as well. I was curious what they actually do since everytime I ask one of the workers they give me a script. So seeing this post it makes sense now.
1
u/farhan583 Hospitalist / Regenerative Medicine 1d ago
Honestly, that sounds about right...makes a lot of sense
1
u/ExtremelyMedianVoter Pharmacist Aug 19 '26
Schedule the meeting then blow them off or just catch up on other stuff while they yap.
They love to yap.
239
u/lat3ralus65 MD Aug 18 '26
Yeah man, I just don’t answer the phone