Any employee working in any arm of the service industry has had to deal with rude customers, it’s unfortunately just part and parcel with the job. So you’d think that someone working in the office of a Beverly Hills plastic surgery would know to simply grin and bear it and not scare away a potential (no doubt high-paying) customer.
Or, you know, maybe they could hit back with merciless name-calling and body-shaming, peppered with lots of offensive language. TikToker Kaileen Savannah found herself on the receiving end of such treatment after what was supposed to be a routine inquiry. Upon having what she describes as a “body dysmorphia” episode, Kaileen reached out by email to inquire about the prices of arm liposuction at a cosmetic surgery clinic in the Hills. When the surgery gave her a call — which Kaileen says she didn’t consent to, by the way — Kaileen’s phone appeared to lose connection. With only silence on the other end, she hung up.
Kaileen didn’t get a call back. Instead she received an extremely catty email from the woman on the phone, named Alisa. “I called because you sent US a message. If you’re not interested in pursuing a consultation with us, I will add you to our DO NOT SCHEDULE list,” wrote Alisa, employing enough random capitalization to make you wonder if she ghost-writes Donald Trump’s social media posts. “No need to HANG UP on me.”
The affronted Kaileen hit back with what she calls a “colorful” reply of her own (more on that in a minute). The next day, she wakes up to get a text from a number she doesn’t recognize. It reads: “Go lose some weight fat h*. Nasty b*tch go eat some salads.” Not exactly needing Benoit Blanc to solve the mystery of who sent the vicious text, Kaileen replied: “ok alisa.”
That, as the saying goes, escalated quickly. So what exactly did Kaileen say to make Alisa jump from the uppermost border of passive-aggressive to full-on personal attack? The OP didn’t go into it in the first video, but she finally came clean in a follow-up. And let’s just say it transforms Kaileen from sympathetic protagonist to something of a TikTok anti-hero. Although many are of the opinion it was the “perfect response” and “the best reply ever.”
Kaileen prefaced her email reveal by stressing that she was not “looking for sympathy” with her original video and she’s fully aware she was “very rude” in her email. Rude enough to warrant that scathing text sent the next morning? Well, she did say “Actually, I can do whatever the f*** I want” and, in addition to saying she was going to leave a one-star review for the “disgusting” service, she added: “Kindly, go f*** yourself.” So it’s hard to say Alisa’s text tirade was totally unprovoked.
HOWEVER (to let out my inner Alisa for a moment), whatever Kaileen said doesn’t excuse Alisa for violating HIPAA rules. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 forbids healthcare professionals from breaking the confidentiality of patients’ information simply to send a nasty text. No matter how harsh Kaileen’s email was (which came after Alisa’s own charged message, to be fair), she actually broke the law and it would be perfectly understandable if her employer removed her from her position.
Suck it up and get on with it. That’s advice for both Alisa in her future experiences with rude customers and for the plastic surgeon if Kaileen decides to get that liposuction.