Lack of transparency and poor customer service

I want to start off by praising the business idea, I think it is really convenient and helps make dermatology more accessible, but Dr. Derma (drderma.co.za) needs to make major improvements.

Whilst it initially seems relatively affordable, offering consultations for currently R999, they are not transparent about their follow-up consultation fees. They only say on their website that doctors set their own rates. The doctor I was working with (Dr Nkgapele) has her follow-up consultation fee is the same as an initial consultation. This is not a surprise I appreciated, especially for someone who is has a life-long skin condition.

Because scripts repeat only 6 times (they last 6 months), it means every six months I have to cough up R1K every since month for a script renewal for a condition that has already been diagnosed on top of the expensive medications I have to buy on a monthly basis. This is not sustainable and it is why medical practices usually set follow-up consultation fess lower than initial consultation fees.

I tried to e-mail Dr. Derma for them to be more transparent with the follow-up consultation fees, but their customer service is very unresponsive (unless you are consulting lol). I had to e-mail a couple of times about the same thing to get a response and they only engaged once. It was even difficult for me to try to contact them to set up a follow-up consultation.

It's a great idea, but ultimately would not recommend it. If you have a hair condition or any other skin condition, try to find out if a GP can't help with it first before wasting your time, money, and energy here. Also, contact alternative and legitimate online health platforms, which is what I did, and now I'm paying R300.