Don't Lie

I hate fighting with liars. It tends to get nasty. When I came into work yesterday I had a note to call a mother. Her son cancelled his appointment at the last minute and we charge for late cancellations. It was a two hour appointment so the charge was $500. First she said that her son was calling all day and could not get through. I told her that was not true as I was there all day and the phones were slow. Then she said he called early and my receptionist wrote the wrong time down. Again, I said I was there till 2pm and no call came in to cancel his 3pm appointment. Then she said he emailed the doctor but I said we do not give out doctor's emails. At that point she knew she was being caught in lies so she accused me of yelling at her. I never raise my voice at anyone. I told her that there were many people in the room and they are witnesses to my tone so if she says I am nasty or rude they will back me up as only being professional and business like. At this point she started crying as she knew that she could not win. To put her out of her misery, I told her that we would split the fee and she would only be charged $250. She took a deep breath and said thank you. What she did not realize is that if she told me nicely that her son made a big mistake and she was sorry he did that, I would have charged her nothing.