4th False Advertising Claim Alleged Against Waltham Dentist

A former patient of a Waltham dentist, Dr. Jeffrey S. Cummings, claims it is impossible to get a refund from him for goods and services paid for in advance - but never delivered.

So, after making repeated attempts to get a refund, and still not getting a refund, in October 2020, the former patient wrote the dentist a letter, demanding the money.

The letter was a lawfully written "MA Chapter 93A" "30-day demand letter."

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What is MA Chapter 93A? What is a "30-day demand letter" from a consumer?

We're talking about a Massachusetts consumer protection law when we say "Chapter 93A."

We're talking about the way a consumer uses this law when we say a "30-day demand letter" written by a consumer and mailed to a business.

A Massachusetts consumer might send such a letter to a business to demand a refund.

A consumer does not need to hire a lawyer to use this law. A consumer needs to know how to write this type of letter.

Massachusetts shows consumers how to write this letter.

After the consumer writes the letter, the consumer mails it to the busines by regular and certified mail.

Then the business must respond within 30 days.

If not, the consumer can go to court -- and win a judgement because the business did not respond.

If the business responds, but disputes the amount of money demanded by the consumer, then then consumer can file a complaint in court. (The consumer may feel the amount of money offered was not enough, and the offer was made in bad faith.)

Or the business can just agree with the amount of money the consumer demanded -- and send the consumer a check. Now, no one has to go to court. The matter is resolved.

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What Happened After A Former Patient's "30-day demand letter" to Dr. Cummings

The former patient claims the matter was not resolved after sending Dr. Cummings the letter because:

1) He agreed he owed the former patient an amount of money demanded by the former patient; however:

2) He did not enclose payment.

There was no lawyer involved as Dr. Cummings wrote his response, on his own stationary.

If he wanted to dispute the amount of money requested by the former patient, then a lawyer would have likely been hired to write the response-letter to the former patient, because: the matter is now disputed, meaning, this matter can be litigated in court.

But Dr. Cummings did not dispute the amount demanded by the former patient. So no lawyer was involved with writing a response to the former patient.

Yet, no payment was made by Dr. Cummings to the former patient.

His failure to pay the former patient is not a legitimate response to a Chapter 93A letter, since: Dr. Cummings agreed he owed an amount of money demanded by the former patient.

Dr. Cummings still has not paid the former patient any refund.

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Dr. Cummings' False Online Advertising Was Also Printed on the Stationary

The former patient noticed the stationary used by Dr. Cummings repeated his false online advertising claims, in the upper left margin of the page.

As previously recently posted, three internet claims made by this Waltham dentist in his online bio at his business website are alleged to be false or are already proven false.

To recap these online claims (with a link to each of the three previous articles), Dr. Jeffrey S. Cummings materially and expressly represents in his website business bio that he is a member of these three professional organizations:

1) "American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry" member -- but according to that organization, he is not a member of this Wisconsin organization; and it is unlikely he ever was, because of his outdated equipment, as this organization requires digital photos from members;

2) "Robert R. Andrews Society for Dental Research" -- but this is a fiction, according to a dean at Tufts Dental School, as no such organization exists except in Dr. Cummings' imagination; and

3) "National Society of Dental Practitioners" -- but this is a defunct organization, intentionally used as the label name of a live link to: the error page of an actual malpractice insurance, Dentist's Advantage. It appears that: This is all a deliberately crafted illusion to consumers, to falsely materially represent Dr. Jeffrey S. Cummings has malpractice insurance as a client of Dentist's Advantage, when in fact he is not a client of this or any malpractice insurance company.

Since the above three false internet claims are repeated by the Waltham dentist on paper, on his custom-made business stationary -- this stationary now constitutes a 4th false advertisement, in the opinion of the former patient.

Here is an excerpt of that stationary, showing the false internet claims on the upper left margin:

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What Else is Misleading About Dr. Cummings' Business Stationary?

Dr. Cummings' business stationary is misleading and deceptive, according to his former patient, because of :

1) 1st false online advertising claim on stationary

2) 2nd false online advertising claim on stationary

3) 3rd false online advertising claim on stationary

4) 4th false advertising claim: On the lower left margin (shown at the end of this article, on the full page of his stationary), Dr. Cummings makes a claim that he offers "flexible financing" - which the former patient says is false, as this former patient states every cent had to be paid up front, in advance, 100% in advance, at all times. There was no "flexible" financing or "flexible" payment plan.

5) 5th false advertising / deception -- material omission: Nowhere on this stationary does Dr. Cummings ever mention the name of his business, "NK Family Dentistry."

6) 6th false advertising claim -- Due to the aforementioned omission of the name of his business, Dr. Cummings' business stationary is also deceptive because: the stationary falsely represents Dr. Jeffrey S. Cummings is a solo practitioner.

He is falsely representing he is in business for himself, and no one works for him on a payroll.

However, he actually employs at least one other dentist in his business as well as various paid employees on a payroll (including a receptionist and dental assistant).

So, "NK Family Dentistry" is not a "family" business in the sense that everyone is working for free because they are a member of his "family."

To sum up, Dr. Jeffrey S. Cummings is the owner of a Massachusetts business, known as NK Family Dentistry P.C., located at 520 Main Street, Waltham, Massachusetts. ("P.C." is a designation used to indicate this is a professional corporation. ) He is the president, secretary, director, and treasurer of this business, according to official business records on file online at the MA Secretary of State office.

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Consequently, should he ever be in a dispute with a former patient, he really can not accurately nor truthfully allege to any court the dispute is simply two people having a personal dispute. It is not. He is a business owner. Any dispute he is having is with a former patient is a dispute he is having with: a consumer.

As such, this type of dispute -- between a business owner and a consumer -- is subject to MA Chapter 93A.

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A Falsely Made Document, Intending to Deceive, With Legal Significance

To summarize the former patient's feeling about this letter from Dr. Cummings:

1. This response from Dr. Cummings -- regardless of what he wrote -- is a falsely made document due to the six reasons concerning false advertising and deception which is inherent in the printed stationary.

2. Because of the above, the intent of this printed stationary document -- no matter what he wrote on the piece of paper -- is to deceive the reader.

3. This printed stationary document -- again, regardless of what he wrote -- has legal significance, because: it is his response to a consumer's Chapter 93A letter.

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According to the former patient of this Waltham dentist, this letter was sent to the former patient by Dr. Cummings. The letter shows a date of Nov. 11, 2020, handwritten by Dr. Cummings on this stationary.

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Below is the letter, envelope, and corporate business filing (showing the name of his business on file with the MA Secretary of State).

The text of this letter is redacted (meaning: removed here, for privacy reasons), and so is the envelope address of the former patient / consumer:

The envelope, too, was considered a deceptive act by the former patient, because like the above stationary page, the return address printed on this custom-made envelope also materially omits disclosing: the name of his business, NK Family Dentistry.

Here is the envelope:

This is the current, active corporate filing of Dr. Jeffrey S. Cummings, from the MA website of the MA Secretary of State corporate look-up search. Note this screen shot is made today, November 29, 2020:

The former patient / consumer is not named herein due to a right to privacy of health records.
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DISCLAIMER:
The author of this article is not a lawyer, does not represent oneself to be a lawyer, and is not giving legal advice by writing this article.

However, the author of this article has a professional background in advertising, having worked several years professionally in an advertising agency located on Madison Avenue in New York, New York -- and thus can be considered as having expert opinion in the field of: advertising.

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NOTE:

For those interested in reading about the problems and attempted solutions of people, such as those who choose to go to court, the following government site may be of interest, as you can enter any topic in the search field -- and case decisions come up which you can click on and read:
http://www.masscases.com

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You've been reading Part 4 of an original 5-part series written by Susan Alyn titled:

"The Waltham Dentist."

Click here for Part 5.

This series has been written and posted as a public service to the neighbors of Waltham, MA.
The author posted "The Waltham Dentist" exclusively on Patch Waltham.

Copyright November 2020 by Susan J. Alyn

About the Author:
Susan is a native New Yorker and now resides in Greater Boston, in Waltham. Her
first career was in advertising. She later became a teacher. You can visit her Linked In page.

How to Contact the Author:
If you wish to contact the author with your comments about this original series "The Waltham Dentist," you may write to her at her mailing address:

Susan Alyn, PO Box 550171, North Waltham, MA 02455

Note that any correspondence sent to her about this series becomes the property of the author, and may be published or shared with the public, especially in connection with any
future hearings on changing MA laws. However, you may request your name not be disclosed -- and she will not disclose.

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