Dore Talk

I'd love to start a thread for US families being effected by the recent center closings.  Not to exclude the UK and other countries affected but it seems like here in the US we're getting the services/support last because we were the last to close.  We were attending the Grapevine, TX center.  Just would like to "chat" with people going thru the US experience to see if things are different for them.

 

Hey,

 I'm glad you started this thread, it seems that the U.K. and Australia clients are getting most of the information....I live in Florida and fly to Massachusetts every six weeks for my session. I showed up this Tuesday in Needham and was greeted by a vague note explaining that "management would be contacting clients with details to come". As one might imagine, I was not very pleased....

 Hello there, you may want to look at the alternative of Dore Caribbean in Barbados for your assessments.  I also understand that Dore is available at the New York centre, thought this will have to be verified by them as to whether they are available to continue treatments or not. We hope we can help where we can.  

Hello,

The Dore Center in Barbados is fully operational as well as our center in New York City.  Please contact me for information to continue treatment at christine@adhdnewyork.com

Thanks very much,

Christine Robinson, M.Ed.

The Hallowell Center  

Thanks, Mae-Mae for the suggestion.  Part of the appeal of this program for us was I had a center 45 minutes from my house.  So, adding travel expenses to a foreign country is not in the immediate plan.

Not to be rude, but I started this thread to have conversations with other people from the US in my situation, not open a forum for you to promote your center.  I appreciate your attempt to help, but the only help I'm interested in at this point is Dore giving us what we were promised when we signed up.

I'm glad that your center is still thriving and you are still able to help your current clients.  At least some families somewhere in the world are continuing to get help for their children.

Hi Jsmalls,

My husband asked the same questions about how New York is still operating because we always had to wait for information from the UK.  We understand the financial part of it, but we don't get how they're still providing information to people.  I agree, I'm sure the New York center or any of the other centers aren't willing to help out of the goodness of their hearts. And even if they are, I think someone should pay for our travel since we signed up at what was a local center.  I probably wouldn't have signed up for the program if we had to travel somewhere, we could barely afford the program, much less spend more money to travel there every six weeks.  I know they were trying to help, but I was pretty offended at the suggestion that we should have to make more of an effort when we're not getting what we paid for to begin with.

Is anyone in the US pursuing getting their money back?  We are seeking legal advice as to what our rights are in this situation.

Jsmalls, where in Dallas are you?  We're in Frisco.  Any other Texans out there?

 

Texas Mom,

We are in Richardson.

I have a friend who is an attorney who suggests we pursue refunds through smalls claims court.  One of the challenges is that they have set up several entities in the US to try and protect themselves, so we must decide which is the right one to file against.  The chances of getting any money back are almost zero, but it might feel better to have a claim on file.

There is a "Initial letter to customers" on the UK website (http://dore.co.uk/Legal/Initial_letter_to_customers.pdf) that states in part, "According to the Comanies' records you may have paid in advance to receive a course of treatment although I understand that you may not have received all of any of the treatment to date.  Unfortunately, due to the Companies' financial position refunds are not possible."  Once they file for bankruptcy in the US, I expect that we will see a similar posting (although the US site has not been updated at all since the closing).

It is so sad to think that such a great program was run so poorly run.  I know they are looking for a buyer, but I cannot imagine another company buying them when Roseanne has claimed on other posts on this site that Wynford was susidizing the program by $2500 per client.  That would mean that it should really cost almost $7500 per person (a number I find hard to believe).  While we would like to continue, I am not sure we can afford the travel costs to New York, and I am not confident that they will be able to operate much longer as the computers in the UK cannot stay on forever.

We'll see.  Good luck.

Hi, We're actually in Arkansas but drive to the Grapevine location for sessions.  We've just started so this is heartbreaking for us, just as it is for others.  Anyone know if the Grapevine facility is independently owned and operated?

Texas Mom, your attitude towards Mae-Mae was unnecessary. She was only trying to help you. You say "not to be rude" but you were. Instead of trying to split into different countries and complain that the UK have got more info than the USA or AUSTRALIA, we should all be supporting each other and sharing any information we have. We are all in the same position and this forum should be about helping and supporting each other wherever we're from.

DEBBIExx

Debbie,

I've read several of your posts and it is very clear that you are an avid supporter of Dore in this situation.  Good for you, hope it's working for you.  I choose to take more of a realistic approach based on what I'm being given to deal with, which isn't much.  I simply started this post because I'm looking for support from people in my country who will deal with the same legal issues I will regarding this, as well as the feelings and emotions we're having being 3rd on the list to get support.  That is clearly different than what you are going through, which is why I started this thread.

Last I checked this was an open forum for people to express themselves, regardless of their opinion.  Your posting history clearly shows that if posters don't agree with your way of thinking in blindly supporting these people who have put us in an impossible situation, then they are wrong and should get ready to be told just that.  Well I'm not going away and I'm not going to sugar coat what I think and what I feel.  I felt what Mae-Mae did as well as the New York center was rude in offering a suggestion that is completely out of the question for most of us.  I've clearly read other posts on this forum and was well aware that those centers were still operational.  I didn't need them to come and place off topic posts making me even angrier than I already am.  A suggestion for me to travel to a foreign country or even out of state is offensive to me because I already feel like I've been taken advantage of, only to be invited to keep doing it again and again in an effort to "help".

Thanks for your opinion, but I'll stick to my own.

 

JakesMom,

We were going to the Grapevine center as well, we live in TX 45 mins. from the center.

As far as I can tell, the only US cener independently owned is in New York.

I think Mae-Mae and the new york centre were being very helpful. I was only suggesting that we all stick together and support each other, sorry if that offends.

Texas Mom, and ALL other parents out there who have put time and money into DORE to help their child overcome, our family is hurt and frustrated too.  I can also understand exactly how Texas Mom is feeling. We live right here in Grapevine, TX where one of the now closed Dore centers are.  My son has been on the program since Feb. 2007.  We have only have seen slight improvements with my his ability to stay on task.  We've seen no changes in his behavior.  As we homeschool, I only saw very slight improvement in staying a bit longer at his work.  Through official testing this past December we confirmed he has no learning issues, just ADHD with a very short attention span.  My son does not take medication for ADHD as all the meds we have tried make him quite agressive.  My son also quits eating and he is just barely at the 50% weight already.

The thing I really trusted about DORE was the testing done every six weeks.  Concrete evaluations that could be compaired and documented as to what changes were happening metaphysically.  We were not convinced that DORE was going to work when we used the Care Credit offered to paid for DORE, but we felt since medication was not helping him to focus well enough to reach his full potential, we would try it.  Since we've not seen great improvements, our family still is not convinced that DORE was a good choice for our son.  He was to have another appointment this week and my son had worked so hard hoping for some good improvement showing in the testing.  We did receive a personal phone call from the center letting us know they were closed, the appointment cancelled and they had no more information than I had received in the email.

Of course fist thing that morning I called Care Credit to file a "dispute" of payment due to DORE filing bankruptcy with discountinuing treatment of services paid for.  Care Credit is holding requirement to pay until this issue has been investigated.  Here is America, when a company goes bankrupt, most often they never become solvent again and those who were involved most often never see another penny or restored services.  I completely understand how Texas Mom is feeling.  It is competely one thing to be "taken" on some intangable "thing" we might have purchased, but when it come to being an advocate for our children and investing time and money to help make their life better and someone pulls that away from the one thing we care about the most - our child.  Well then, it is a whole different thing tied to deep love and loyalty with intense emotion to protect!  So while some hope and try to have a positive attitude, the reality of business, especially here in the USA, and the logistics of DORE centers opening their doors as the program we paid for is not likely.

My personal thought is, if they can not offer the exact services/treatment that we entered into a contract on, then we have a right to a refund.  Even if by some remote way we are able to download some exercises, without real concrete physical testing available, how are our children really getting the correct exercised for them?  My son's eye tracking is now just about normal, yet his balance has barely made any improvements.  While your child may have mastered the balance thing, and the eye tracking is their weakness.  The whole idea that DORE is custom tailored exercise, by exercise will not work remotely without the proper testing for each individual child based upon physical testing.  Also, without the physical testing of the child every six weeks there is no measurement of physical change to evaluate and move forward from.  We have about 30 days of exercises left in our book and will continue with that as we wait for an answer from DORE.  Then we will move legally to take action beyond the Care Credit dispute.  I join many of you who are saddened, frustrated and angry.  You are not alone...

Our son has been in the program for about 10 months and has made remarkable progress. He is just at the stage where he is expected to made a "huge leap" forward. We are in Massachusetts and our center in Needham is only 45 miutes away. I called an spoke with Diedre at the center she was there only to answer the calls of her clients because she felt she couldn't "just abandoned them. We paid the full amount up front so I guess we are just SOL as far as money is concerned. But the money is secondary to the progress the our 8 year old was making. Everyone, his teachers. coaches, babysitters etc remarked on it.It will be a terrible loss if he's not able to continue.

Bob

Hello, I am so encouraged by all of the support and kind words I and my Program Specialist, Maria, have received at our New York Center.  I am also a mom who has completed the Dore program with my son, so I know firsthand what all of you are going through.  I also understand the financial concerns some of you are addressing...and ,yes, we have to charge at the Hallowell Center for continued treatment for the Dore program.  We receive no funding or subsidy from Dore.  I would like to speak with each of you individually to see how many update visits you have completed thus far and where you are traveling from to get to our center.  We are trying to make this as reasonable as possible for all of you to continue.  The events of this week have had no impact on our ability to generate exercises.

So please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail christine@adhdnewyork.com .

Thanks very much,

Christine Robinson  

Everyone needs to go to the UK site and they have posted an

Initial Letter to the DORE Clients

that explains where we stand as far as our money goes.  However, I do not know if this is just for the UK clients.  I am sure that American laws differ somewhat, and the company's legal responsibilities to the American clients may be different.  This just adds to our on going frustration of a lack of information for those of us here in the USA, but at least it is becoming more clear by the authorities that treatment as we knew it and paid for is not going to be available.

Mrs. B,

Are you a mind reader?  Thank you so much for your post, it validated exactly how I'm feeling.  That is exactly why I started this thread, for responses just like yours from people who understand US laws and how we deal with bankruptcy issues like this.  I also whole-heartedly agree with what you said about them not giving us exactly what we paid for, then we are entitled to a refund.  I'm hoping Care Credit sees it that way too (we did the same thing you did).  How'd you get so lucky to get a phone call from the center?  Who was your program specialist?

I'm sorry to hear you hadn't gotten the full effect of the program for your son.  We signed up my 8 year old in March, so have only received 2 months of services, and only 1 6 week assessment.  We had seen small improvements but haven't been on the program long enough to really see major change yet.  That is the other part that is frustrating, we barely had a chance to get started and now this.

Good luck to you and thank you again.  Stay cool too! :0)

 

Bob,

Congratulations to your family and your son!  It is bittersweet news - great success in 10 months, but now where do we go?  We've been doing the program with my son since March 2008 and haven't had the chance to see great progress.  We've seen slight improvements, but nothing like what you're talking about.  That was our dream when we signed up, now who knows.  But it does give hope that this program can make a difference, hopefully they'll figure out a way to make this right.  Congrats to you again.

 

Hi all, I am another parent from the US. My child has been on the program for almost a year. We paid the full price up front. I am disappointed that it came out this way (spent most of Friday quite weepy), but, honestly, always had some questions about the business model. I simply couldn't see how it was maintaining itself, let alone making a profit. I just hoped we would get through before the shoe dropped. Well, it dropped and frankly, I think it is incredibly naive to think Dore will be up and running at a level similar to what we had anytime soon. As far as the money, if you paid upfront, when everything shakes out you will need to become one of the creditors in the bankruptcy case. If you paid by credit card, you need to tell the card company and see what they can do for you. If you are on the Care Credit program, file a dispute and it sounds like you will not have to continue paying until the dispute is resolved (count yourselves lucky!). All in all, based on the UK letter, I wouldn't expect to see a penny back from Dore, it doesn't sound like there is anything left in the pot. At this point each client is faced with a fairly clear decision - continue or not. Continuing at one of the independent centers is, in most cases, going to mean an unexpected increase in overall cost. Flights alone on a budget airline for us will be easily over $1000 per assessment. We will have to stay at a hotel and eat out and will require some sort of transportation in NY - easily another $500. Plus the cost of the assessment (something that I, for one, do not begrudge any of the independent centers - they have to be paid for the services they provide.) We are probably looking at $2000 per visit. I expect we will have another 4-5 assessments before completion, $8000-10,000. All of that said, we will be continuing. I have seen the improvements and despite the cost (we have borrowed money from everyone in our family to get to this point, so don't be under any false impression that we are rolling in dough) want to see it through. We have spent $5000+ annually on tutoring and support for three years, there was no reason to believe that would ever change for as long as our child is in school before Dore (meaning we were looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $65000 to get through college). Because of the improvements we have seen since we started Dore, we have been able to cut that support by half since January. Even with this unexpected increase, we will be saving a lot of money in the long run. It is a terrible decision to be faced with. I am sorry for all that are having to make it. Scotia