Dr. Smith did not come from a wealthy family, but knew that he needed working capital to start a practice.
Unfortunately, PMA's program of securing a loan did not work for Dr. Smith. As he put it, "PMA's methods of getting loans for its clients may have worked in the past, but they don't work today."
In fact, even PMA's leasing company wouldn't approve a lease for Dr. Smith because he couldn't get money from his family. This turned out to be a positive event for Dr. Smith, because he was later able to secure a lease from a non-PMA leasing company. There were two benefits to not using PMA's leasing company: "Fortunately, I was turned down by PMA's leasing company. This caused me to seek a lease from another company where I received a much better lease. The finance rate was two percent lower and they didn't push me to purchase so much equipment."
Hoping to make the best of it, Dr. Smith sought to gain benefit from other PMA services. Dr. Smith went to all of the PMA classes, wrote the PMA letters, and knocked on over 1,200 doors doing the PMA "survey." Nothing worked. Dr. Smith also purchased his computer and software from PMA. When Dr. Smith went to buy PMA supplies, he discovered that "everything PMA sells is at least double, if not triple what you could buy it for elsewhere."
Dr. Smith then tried to get much needed information from the PMA consultants who were present at the PMA meetings. Unfortunately, these were no help either: "Consultants purposely don't have information with them at the PMA seminars so that you have to call them. When you do call them, they try to charge you an additional consulting fee."
Finally, Dr. Smith decided to follow the course of many of the students that joined PMA when he did. He filed suit against PMA.
All that Dr. Smith had left from his experience with PMA was a computer and the software that came with it. Dr. Smith organized his practice by inputting all the documentation and record keeping information necessary to operate it efficiently, and used the computer system for some time; but Dr. Smith could not foresee the curious event that was to take place.
One day, Dr. Smith turned on his computer. But the computer would not allow Dr. Smith to access any information: appointments, who owed money, patient files, nothing. Dr. Smith was LOCKED OUT.
Dr. Smith discovered that the only way to retrieve all his vital information was to get the "access code" that would allow him to unlock his computer. (This is considered illegal in most states). In desperation, Dr. Smith contacted PMA. He was told, "Our attorneys say that we can not give you the access code because we are in litigation with you. If you want any other information, ask your attorney to call our attorneys."
There was only one thing Dr. Smith could do. He replaced the PMA computer and software with that of another company and started over.
It was no surprise when Dr. Smith discovered that his new computer and software were almost half the cost of the PMA computer and software. Sometimes adversity has a plus side; Dr. Smith considers the new system superior.
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