ComplaintsforSalado Veterinary Hospital

• Initial Complaint

  03/19/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Dishonest added charge to veterinary bill on dog Foxy. We got a quote to have her spayed and an appointment was made 02/19/24 to have her surgery done on 03/01/24. That afternoon of 02/19/24 (3:40 according to their phone records) I called and talked to a receptionist and told her that I was not going to be the one dropping Foxy off for surgery but Im the one paying the bill and I was refusing the pre spay bloodwork. The receptionist agreed and said she documented it. Not once was I told that I needed to put that in writing otherwise I would have asked that documents be emailed to me and I could have had them filled out and sent them with my son when he dropped the dog off since we had plenty of time before the surgery. . She never even asked for my email address. My son who was just the drop off person was talked into signing for the bloodwork and my phone instructions were completely ignored and I was charged $95 for bloodwork I specifically declined over the phone. In a phone call with both assistant office manager ********* and office manager *****, they both admit to seeing on the surgery schedule no bloodwork but they refused to reimburse me for the cost of the bloodwork I specifically told them not to do. Our whole family feels this was sneaky and dishonest.

  Business response

  03/25/2024

   We received a phone call complaint from the client regarding her invoice for her dog spay (which she received at a discount because she did not tell us that her dog was in heat).   Her concern was that her adult son dropped the dog off and, when signing surgery paperwork, also signed for the pre-surgical bloodwork to be performed. 

    When she made the appointment, she told the receptionist that she did decline the pre-surgical bloodwork.  When I spoke with her over the phone, I advised her that more than 80% of clients that come in for appointments/surgeries change their initial services that they themselves had requested when the appt. was made. 

    ********* services are added at the time of the visit/surgery.  Other times, they decline a service they previously had scheduled.  This happens with both clients who made the appointments and those who are dropping off.  Our policy is that anyone dropping off for an appointment or surgery must be over the age of 18. 

    From the time the owner made the appointment until the surgery, a few weeks had gone by.  Many times clients will have friends or family who bring the pet in for surgery or their appointment.  Sometimes it is decided that the owner changed their minds and actually wanted more services or to have something taken off of the appt./surgery and we get that from the person who brought the patient in.  It can be due to financial reasons or family discussions.  Those are not our business or concern- we do as we are told at the time of the appointment by the legal adult who is bringing the patient in. 

    The onus is on the client to provide up-to-date information to the legal adult dropping the patient off as to what exactly their wishes are for the patient that day.  If the son had questions about the charges or paperwork, he could have called his  mother to make sure what she wanted.  Or she could have called him.  

    Again, these scenarios happen every day where, even the same client that made the appointment will change their minds about services they had previously scheduled.  Our medical team is trusting that each owner has made the person dropping off aware of their wishes and what services are to be performed and which are not. 

    This was not a case of any kind of deception, but lack of communication between the owner and the person who was dropping off (in this case, the adult son).  

    We are sorry that the owner feels this way, but this is our policy and because she already received a steep discount for not being charged for an in-heat spay, we will not be issuing a refund for services already rendered and signed for. 

  Customer response

  03/26/2024

  Complaint: 21454332
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  None of the office managers rambling response is an acceptable reason to blatantly ignore my phone call request to not perform any pre spay bloodwork. For the record since I was traveling the dog was with my son, hence the need to have him drop off and pick up the dog, so I was not aware she had gone into heat.
  Regards,
  
  S. *****************

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