Comments on: Banfield – The Pet Hospital Run By Con Artists!

By: Sucker,sucker,sucker

Sucker,sucker,sucker — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:01:29 +0000

If your complaint is related to the care given by a vet, don’t forget to write a letter to the school they graduated from!! It’s more of an embarrassment for the vet, rather than a judicial punishment however it will get back to the inept vet quickly!!!

By: Sucker,sucker,sucker

Sucker,sucker,sucker — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:51:31 +0000

Started our puppy with the Banfield wellness plan, at an Urgent Care Banfield in the D/FW metroplex. Our baby was spay at 10weeks old, hum, not a successful encounter, we remained on the plan, noticing the end of the contract was near, we looked and noticed some services had not been provided. Ultimately refusing, to complete the contract, then stating we were no longer eligible for a wellness plan because our dog WAS A SICK DOG. (short version, our dog was due a fecal examine, and needed one due to soft stools)
During our first wellness plan we met an awesome vet that actually worked at another Banfield hospital, This vet was happy to help our dog, and does an outstanding job. Every now and then, for convenience we attempt the other BAD banfield, for simple things (nails trimmed, flea meds, oh and urgent care) and EVERY single time we are outraged, Every single time we swear to never go back,.. Finally, Finally,.. we will NEVER go back. Being informed by the cute young vet tech that she INTENTIONALLY quicked our dogs toenail while clipping them, just to see where the quick was,,,,,,,,,unF’Nbelievable, sure accidents can happen,.. but to intentionally inflict pain, Seriously!!!! I hope the cute one gets her toenails ripped out for no good reason.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 02:33:44 +0000

Katy,

You obviously didn’t read the article completely, so let me summarize it for you.

1. I had 2 eight week old Brazilian mastiffs.
2. I signed BOTH of them up for the puppy Wellness plan (which said it covered spay/neuter and DID NOT mention any extra charges for size of the dog in the paperwork or the website. They have since added this to their literature).
3. It was $140 to sign up and 25.99 per dog each month for a year. So after one month, I had already spent over $300.00
4. The Veterinarian recommended having the pups spay/neutered at the 5 month mark. Because of their size (over 50 pounds), he said it would cost $86.08 extra for EACH PUP to have them spayed/neutered. NOWHERE IN their contact did it say anything about extra charges based on size.

You are bound by contract to pay off the rest of the contract regardless of whether you use their services or not. The veterinarian CAN charge extra for things if he feels it is necessary (according to the Banfield Corporate Office), and you will pay it if you want that procedure done by him. Other veterinarians often charge less if you ask around.

When I sign a contract for ANYTHING (pet plans, cell phone, etc) I expect to pay the price listed and have any possible extra charges DOCUMENTED before I sign the contract.

Are you a veterinarian? Probably not, unless you work as one for Banfield. So I guess your opinion isn’t worth anything either, by your own definition.

By: Katy

Katy — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:20:11 +0000

This article is complete bullshit…it’s all common sense when you sign your pet up on the plan. I had 3 animals on Wellness Plans and they saved me an astronomical amount of money…as long as you aren’t retarded they make perfect sense. Also, of course they are going to recommend heartworm medication, and unless you are heartless and cheap it isn’t that expensive compared to the amount of money you will spend on the treatment, which your pet probably won’t even survive. Unless you are a trained veterinarian I don’t really see your opinion on any of this of being worth anything.

By: True

True — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:20:06 +0000

This information on Banfield amazes me and I found it while looking for a specific female conartist. I will tell everyone I know, however, here in San Antonio, I have found a number of veternerians push services a little too hard. I use to take my cat to Veternerian Assoc on Nacogdoches until they started pushing services a bit too much and now my current vet doubled the price of tooth extracttions in one year from 298 to $450. The big thing are these “wellness profiles.” I will never go to Banfield and I will never buy a wellness plan. Thanks for a great website.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:21:18 +0000

Even an ex vet is saying that Banfield uses unethical practices that endanger their patients:

“A veterinarian fired from a Banfield, The Pet Hospital, clinic outside Portland, Ore., is taking the company to court, claiming he was wrongfully discharged after he complained that his employers engaged in unethical medical and business practices that endangered the well-being of patients and gouged their owners.”

SOURCE: http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=15884

By: Bruce Lascano

Bruce Lascano — Fri, 14 May 2010 01:05:48 +0000

If only everybody adored kittens and cats just like we all do. Perhaps you have heard concerning the Epa and flea preventive products? It' pretty disturbing everything that some of those products are doing to our kitties. Distressing: Flea Products Killing Pets

By: Amber

Amber — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:50:56 +0000

I to am having a horrible experiance with the Banfield in Burleson,Texas. I took my kitten Tiny in 2wks ago at 6 wks of age due to the fact he was vomitting and had diarrhea. The Vet Tech.. Aka sales girl at the front was very prompt into pressuring me to by the wellness plan at that moment I declined wanting to see the vet first(I knew he was very sick & wasn’t sure if he would make it). The vet saw him told me he had worms and the parasite in his stool that humans get from drinking water in Mexico. I found this hard to believe due to the fact Tiny was born in my closet and was not an outside cat…I was then informed he could’ve contracted it from his mother who was a stray that I took in that passed away when the kittens were 5wks(neighbors dog attacked her on the porch with my kids next to her). Once I told the vet that she then recommended that I buy the smallest bag of cat food I have ever seen for $20 to ensure he was getting extra nutrients….I got the plan once the vet ensured me that Tiny was going to be Ok & would not be dying on me anytime soon…I walked out of there paying $133 for plan, three types of medications & food. Fast forward 2wks to this past Sat 04/24/10. Tiny has a 6:00 appt for his 1st set of shots, we get there on time. Wait forever for the vet to see us. Once she is in I proceed to tell her that Tiny was acting weird the night before that he ran in my room real fast flopped over then wasn’t able to use his back legs,acted like he couldn’t see me & his face was spasming but that he hadn’t had an instance since last night at 12 am. She said he seemed fine now,the tech said his face was twitching due to fleas(He had no fleas on the 1st visit)so the decided to give him his shots…Fast forward 4hrs I am reading a book and Tiny is curled up on top of my feet when all the sudden he cries out a strange cry. I sit up to grab him & his whole baby body is in a fit of seizures. I call for help & my 12yr.old comes in with a towel & we wrap Tiny up, as soon as that seizure passes he has another he has 4 in 15mins. & we are on our way to the vet ER. Tiny has two more on the way there then four more with the tech & vet seeing him. The vet informs us that he NEVER should have gotten vaccinated being such a sick kitten and that the humane thing for us to do is put him down which I do. I went to Banfield when they upened up on Tues. the sales girl gave me a card with a toll free number on it I was on hold three different tomes and got diconnect all three times! I got throught today and noe I am waiting on a representive to call me back in 3 to 5 days not to mention it will cost me $126 to cancell my plan! I requested corp # & address in which I was told I was speaking to. I am filing a complaint & thanks to this site have Banfields corporate # & address!

By: K.

K. — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 19:07:32 +0000

I worked for Banfield briefly as a collections rep at the corporate office in Portland, Oregon. The post by Daniel is perfectly indicative of the Corporate atmosphere as well. The Wellness Plans are made for one reason only, TO MAKE THE COMPANY MONEY! All day long I talked to people who were told by the hospital that the plan could be canceled at any time. I Know for a fact that the corporate office is aware of this misinformation and deliberately does not advise there hospitals to correct this. The actual production cost of the services provided by the wellness plans is often less than $100, but the “Retail Value” of the services can be in excess of $1000.00. I understand that a company obviously needs to make money, but the markup on these services is outrageous on top of the unethical lack of information given to the clients by the hospital staff (generally speaking) about their options for canceling the wellness plan. In addition to this the billing for the company is all “paperless”. You have to give a credit card to be automatically billed every month. If something happens and the payments aren’t automatically processed for several months the wellness plan is canceled to collections. At this point, even if the “Retail Value” of the services used is LESS than the cost of the plan they are going to send you to IC Systems (a collection agency) for the whole year’s cost of the wellness plan plus collection fees, if said fees are allowed in your state. This means that if you took your pet in to the hospital all you had done were 2 shots and some kind of fecal exam, and later on the payments are defaulted on (sometimes the “automatic billing system” randomly just stopped taking payments for, SERIOUSLY, no reason!) you are going to be sent to collections for up to $400.00. Granted, it is ultimately the client’s responsibility to make sure their bills are being paid, but how easy could it be to miss that 21.95 wasn’t deducted from your account? SOMETIMES the clients will be mailed a letter saying the payments are not being made and SOMETIMES a phone call is generated in the system, but by no means does this happen with every client. I would say it happens maybe 30% of the time. I know, this is all I did all day long for two months while in the Wellness Plan collections department. I have never in my life worked for a company where all day long I had to listed to people threatening legal action. I really believe that it can’t be legal that they cancel the wellness plans to collections for more then the retail value of the services that were used, and I also think this is in direct contradiction with what the actual contracts say. This is one of the shittiest jobs with the shittiest company I’ve ever had in my life.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:46:14 +0000

I worked at a Banfield for a little over a 2 month period. That was the most miserable job I have ever had, and the employees were miserable as well. The staff is given a commission for selling customers the wellness plan, we were also encouraged to get people to sign up for services that didn’t cost the company any money.Frankly, I couldn’t do anything right because it went against my morals. The main motif of this company ,or at least the clinic I was at was greed. I came from a smaller community vet clinic where I had worked for 2 years and knew the community, to a Banfield clinic in a suburban neighborhood. I was chastised repeatedly for spending time immediately after an appointment to process people’s lab work and make sure it was received by the lab company on time( lab work can easily be 130$ and can determine the well being of your pets’ health. The reason for this was to get people into an exam room that had been double or triple booked.
I remember specific examples where a customer was charged 2 physical restraint fees (16$ each ) because their dog couldn’t hold still. If you work in a vet clinic that should be just part of the job. The reason for this extra physical restrain varied from doctor to doctor and there was never a set definition.

My manager was a misanthrope who had a past career in retail and carried those principals over to a vet clinic.
I am very happy not being a part of the company any more, work can be tough in any profession, however when your job is to let people know that they owe 200$ extra dollars for a procedure they had not budgeted for and $125 were non essential including the 16$ physical restraint fee, I’d rather be a used car salesman, at least people know they’re probably being taken advantage of, and they are not as attached to their cars as they are their beloved pets.
As for a solution to this company and it’s practices, there are a few. Many people who sign are first time pet owners who trust that the relationship with Petsmart means low prices and a nationwide network. This is a false assumption because a) the wellness plans do not carry over from clinic to clinic.
b) there is a very limited relationship between petsmart and Banfield.
c) many private clinics work with clients and offer them payment plans, banfield does not for non preventative care
d) prices are decided by individual DVMs and can be discounted according to your care situaton

Consumer power and recommendations are a force to be reckoned with, give advice to other pet owners who are looking for a new clinic, tell them to look for private practices. If you feel that you or your animal has been done wrong contact the veterinary board, they will investigate.
Also don’t stop using the WWW, I’ve found these things very helpful in dealing with many companies. I’ve actually found solutions to problems I’ve faced!