WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – You use them to talk, to smile to express yourself. Your teeth do a lot of things that we can sometimes take for granted.
Viola Vigil uses her teeth to eat and to eat well. But the 93-year-old hasn’t been able to eat anything that isn’t in liquid form because she has no lower teeth.
“It’s really hard,” Viola said. “You really try not to complain about everything that happens, however there are some things like this. It’s ridiculous.”
Viola needs a new set of dentures. Her daughter, Jackie, took her to Affordable Dentures and Implants in Wichita. Instead of walking away with her new teeth, Viola walked away without her money.
“They didn’t fit well and they hurt her. The 4th or 5th time we went back, they just said “okay, we’ll go ahead and give you your money back because it’s not working”. We had to drive about two hours each way to get here each time. I tried to get them to refund us and they wouldn’t. They will not refund us at all. I did everything,” said Jackie.
Receipts show the company agreed to repay Viola just over $1,000 in September of last year, but four months later, it still doesn’t have the money.
“I never got it,” Jackie said. “And we’ve asked them, called them, faxed them, texted them, emailed them and mailed them and we haven’t gotten any response. At all.”
Viola is not alone.
Carrie Humphries’ mom also paid for dentures at Affordable Dentures and Implants in Wichita. Like Viola, she never had them.
“I gave them some extra time and kept getting the same story of ‘oh well, the computer crashed…the system crashed…’ which is why I told them every time I called, ‘I’m contacting the AG, I’m contacting Channel 12, I’m contacting the BBB’, because something needs to be done and I don’t think they took me seriously when I said that,” Carrie said.
He said the Kansas attorney general’s office called the company and days later, his money was returned.
It wasn’t so simple for Viola, who at 93 is a little more forgetful these days.
“There are times when you feel really good and there are times when you’re not very sharp,” explains Viola. “Even though I get up and try and everything, I have to face the fact that I’m getting older. I’m not as agile as I used to be. And my brain isn’t always as sharp as I’d like it to be.
Adding to her age, she said it took a lot of energy just to get her due.
“It takes so much energy to go through all of these things just to begin with, let alone, just trying to scam you,” Viola said, “and you don’t expect it, that’s when they get you.”
It took Viola a call from Factfinder 12 to get her money back. Now she can go to another place to get new dentures.
The owner of Affordable Dentures and Implants sent 12 News a statement saying, “We value our patients and want to make sure they are satisfied with the high-quality care we provide.”
If you have an issue that needs our help with, call Factfinder 12 at 316-831-6166 or email us at [email protected].
