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Since your an employee of Banfield I would expect you to CYA during your rant blaming clients for posting complaints regarding many issues they have encountered with Banfield.

First off, the Wellness plan is for the most part a scam. Why? due to the fact Banfields prices are so over inflated the plan sounds like a financial savings deal. However, the plan itself is very limited in so far as actual medical treatment(s) it covers general weight, deworming for a puppy, poke, feel, listen and spay/neuter. I believe Banfield charges between $425 - $475 for a routine spay/neuter procedure without any complications.

The general cost for spay/neuter can be as low as 100 to 350 depending where the procedure is done. i.e. spay/neuter clinic, local animal shelter - A.S.P.C.A. or privet vets office.

When clients sign up for the Wellness plan no one at Banfield fully discloses all the terms and conditions of the plan to the client and the client most likely doesn't even have a chance to read the actual contract prior to signing it. The client is not informed that the plan will automatically renew, or can not be cancelled even if the pet passes away and has not used the full 12 months of the plan benefits they paid for upfront. The plan doesn't cover any medications, x-rays, blood work, flea/tick or hart worm meds all the meds that have inflated/upcharged prices on them in the first place. Most clients don't know they can request a prescription from the vet and get needed medications elsewhere at much lower prices as opposed to Banfield.

In closing of my rant after 30 years in the medical field. I'm fully aware of what's necessary, unnessary & over priced when it comes to general medical care for both humans and animals.

Medical care is a business and business comes first and foremost. That's how a business makes money and stays in business.

Reason of review: Not as described/ advertised.

Banfield Pet Hospital Cons: Overcharged for services, Paying for future service after canceling.

Location: Chicago, Illinois

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Guest

I worked at a Banfield, but quit after 3 weeks. They took dogs from their owners and were very rough with them in the back, out of sight. I would never have taken my dogs there.

Guest

Look how cold and cruel some of the employees are to people that lost their pets to Banfield's negligence. One client called several times about her concern for her dog not adjusting after his neutering.

He could not walk. Obviously he was having a reaction to the medication they used. Instead of having the family bring the dog into be check he just assured her the dog would be fine. The pet died.

There were no condolences from the employees from Banfield just a bunch of cold replies about unless there is a nertopsy down there is no evidence the vet is to blame. Wow! Way to sell Banfield as caring! I would have gone down and made ***, they would not gotten a dime of my money!

So on top of killing the dog, Banfield would not let the client out I'd the contract. I would of demanded the value if my dog, the cost of the out if pocket expensive, and be let out of the contract!

Great place! Kill the dog and no one even bothers to say they are sorry for the dog's passing.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1159949

Do you believe every thing you read online? You weren't there.

I'm assuming you don't work in veterinary medicine either. Because it's the complete truth that unless a necropsy is performed, there's absolutely no way to know a cause of death. It's not cold or heartless, it's the truth.

A majority of the time when something happens to a pet, the FIRST and ONLY person they blame is the vet.

As I said on another post, veternarians have the number 1 suicide rate out of any single profession.

It's because they are constantly blamed for everything because nobody wants to hold themselves/owners accountable for something that happens to a pet. Some of the complaints on here about banfield killing their pet are outrageous. There's 1 lady who claims banfield killed her dog Missy, and MULTIPLE vets and vet staff, who HATE banfield have even said that banfield did nothing wrong. But she just keeps going and going and she's ruining the lives of the vets who treated and tried to save her dog.

So many of the complaints about banfield killing pets are outrageous, not true and big parts have been left out.

The ridiculous demands that vets recieve from owners and lies spread on social media when the owner has no understanding of what actually happened (or they choose not to listen because they want someone to blame) is damaging to the vets and staff and their wellbeing. Burn out is a serious problem in the veterinary profession because of multiple unreasonable owners and people who like to bash vets and say they don't care because they won't treat for free. Guess what? Pets aren't free.

It's not the vet/staffs job to pay for your pet, it's your pet not theirs. There's no such thing as treating for free, since the money comes from somewhere. If it doesn't come from the owner, it comes out of the pockets of the vet and their staff.

Nobody will truly understand everything that veternarians and their staff go through on a daily basis until they've worked in a veterinary clinic.

We are overworked and underpaid. No veterinarian is rich, especially one who owns their own clinic. But owners don't care, they just want to blame when something happens to a pet or trash a vet when they won't do everything the owner unreasonably expects.

Are there bad vets and vet staff out there ? Of course there are and not just at banfield either.

Multiple private clinics around me are horrid. But a majority of the vets and staff at banfield and private clinics, truly care about the pets and clients. I USED to work at banfield. They don't treat their employees or their doctors well at all.

But a majority of the doctors there truly do care about their patients and clients. Banfield vets and employees have absolutely no say in pricing and they can only do so much without getting in trouble. The two I worked with were the most compassionate and amazing vets I've ever met in my life.

I'd been there so long I knew every pet and owner who came in without having to ask their name. All of our yelp reviews were about me and the vets.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1159949

Oh and I forgot to add.

The wellness plan is NOT insurance. They are NOT charging for services that haven't been used.

If you cancel the plan before the year is up, no matter the reason, you either pay the remainder of the months you owe, or services you've already used at cost, whichever is cheaper.

For example.

You're on a puppy plan that's $42/mo. You've paid 4mo worth of payments which is roughly $170.

You've used 4 office visits- normally $50 a piece without the plan. That's $200 alone.

Then you've used all the puppy vaccines which is $20-$30 PER vaccine+ per vaccine booster without the plan .

So roughly, the entire total for all vaccines and their boosters, would roughly be about $400. You've used 3 deworming which is about $15 without the plan. Two fecals which are $45 a piece without the plan. Then you used the neuter & the preanesthetic bloodwork that comes with the neuter.

Neuter package is roughly $300-$350 without the plan. So you've used roughly over $1200 worth of services but have only paid $170. The entire plan cost for a year is about $480-$500. So tell me how it's fair that someone has only paid 4mo of payments with a total of $170, but has used over $1200 in services?

Again if it was insurance, you would be able to cancel right away. Veternarians are a business as well. If they don't make money, they can't stay open. It takes more money than you would ever think to keep a hospital open.

Machines thousands if not tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars, they have meds to keep in stock, the machines need maintenance which isn't free, they have oxygen, emergency supplies, office supplies, bills for electricity, staff to pay etc. So while they aren't all about the money, they do have to make money to stay open.

Again I no longer work at banfield. But it's still not fair to blame them when you weren't there, don't have background in vet medicine, don't know the patient, don't know the drugs and dosage the patient was given, don't know the actual conversation that was had (again, alot of people don't tell the whole story) etc.

Madora Bdy

I couldn't agree more. I just got charged about 600 after everything with my dog's neuter.

Making sure to review them everywhere and collecting names of those who have been scammed for legal action ASAP.

Eventually someone needs to put a stop to them. Seriously.

Guest

you sound like a ***, you say you have 30 years of experience, well i feel sorry for your patients then if you dont believe in doing a good work up.

Guest

I am not blaming or bashing anyone.

There are 2 levels of puppy plans aND 3 levels of adult plans.

All 3 adult plans include 1 set of bloodwork by itself and 1 set of bloodwork with the dental cleaning. The puppy plan that includes the spay/neuter includes bloodwork the morning of the procedure. The 3rd level plan for adult dogs includes xrays.

It is not insurance. It is a preventive care package so that is why medication is not covered, but you gET a discount on everything that is nit included.

For the flea/heartworm prevention, no it isn't included automatically but you can add it to the plan so you pay monthly instead of all up front. The flea/heartworm preventions are all around the same price at non banfield clinics around me. I have tons of friends who work at private practices and we've compared pricing.

As for people not informing clients about the plans cancellation policy, they should be doing that. I go over it with EVERY client, including the part about the pet passing away before the year is up.

I also let them know it automatically renews. This is all in the contract they receive a copy of as well.

You cannot compare banfield spay/neuter priced to the humane society price or a low cost clinic.

Lower cost places, like the humane society are cheaper for a reason. They do not donly bloodwork the morning of, they do not place an IV catheter, they do not do IV fluids etc.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1103738

A routine spay/neuter should take no longer then 30 minutes.

As for blood work (CBC and or blood chemistry) these pre-op tests are normally unnecessary for a pet under the age of 18 months old, since the pets liver/kidney functions should not have any abnormalities to begin with. And since a routine spay/neuter surgery procedure is under 30 minutes an I.V.

cath and or bladder cath isn't necessary, providing the pet has been able to go potty prior to the spay/neuter surgery.

Again, unnecessary procedures/tests being conducted. However, since most pet owners don't have any medical knowledge they just agree with what ever their told is necessary.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1106902

Where did you get your Veterinary degree? Or don't you have one?

You exemplify the phrase 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'

Absolutely pets can have livery & kidney dysfunction before 18 months of age. Liver shunts are actually a relatively common cause of liver dysfunction in toy breed puppies & can have disastrous effects if not addressed. I personally know a pet that died at another vets while under anesthesia for her OVH - and on necropsy they discovered the shunt. A shunt which SHOULD have been detected BEFORE putting the pet under IF ONLY THEY HAD DONE BLOODWORK 1st.

In that case not doinf bloodwork directly lead to the death of that pet. Juvenile renal disease, renal hypoplasia etc is sadly also another real problems.

FYI - if an animal is undergoing anesthesia then for safety they should ALWAYS have IV access in case emergency drugs or fluid support is needed.

You don't want to have to waste time trying to get a catheter in when a pet is having problems because that delay could be the difference between life and death. Would YOU want to be under anesthesia and not have an IV access - how safe would you feel like that?

***!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1106902

I am by no means a proponent of Banfield, however, I am going to respectfully disagree with your above statement on most points.

1.

I agree that a routine spay and neuter should take no longer than 30 minutes. The only caveat would be a large breed dog spay where hemostasis can be trickier, therefore, this procedure would take longer to ensure it is done properly.

2. Preoperative bloodwork is 100% recommended for ANY anesthetic procedure, no matter the age of the patient.

Young patients are more prone to infections which would be caught with a complete blood count, platelet count is important to ensure that they will clot properly, and young patients can have congenital abnormalities such as a liver shunt that would preclude them from undergoing an anesthetic procedure. Many anesthetic deaths would be prevented with preanesthetic blood work. If your human baby were in need of a procedure, would you not want blood work to ensure that they were an ideal anesthetic candidate....or would you tell the doctor that they were too young to have any kind of medical problem?

3. An IV catheter provides your pet intravenous fluid therapy which ensures that their organs are receiving the blood supply they need to function normally.

Anesthesia can lead to hypotension (decreased blood pressure) and the IV fluids decrease the chance of this occurring. On the occasion that your pet experiences a problem under anesthesia, an IV catheter can mean the difference between life and death. An IV catheter allows your veterinarian (me) to administer emergency medication that could save your pet's life. It's by no means an attempt to coerce the pet owner out of more money.

Again, wouldn't you want an IV catheter placed if you were undergoing an anesthetic procedure so that the doctor could save your life if necessary?

We, as veterinarians, suggest things to make increase your pet's longevity and keep them as safe as possible while they are under our care.

There's nothing worse than having to call and tell an owner that their pet died unexpectedly while they are in our care.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1107290

In reading several posts it seems a number of pet parents have in fact received calls that their pet passed away during routine teeth cleaning and or spay/neuter surgeries. However, the pre-op blood work showed no abnormal results to prevent a routine procedure from being performed as scheduled. One of those cases where the surgery and or teeth cleaning was successful

however, the pet passed during the procedure?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1106902

Again you are so ignorant it's not even funny.

An IV catheter doesn't have anything to do with how long or short the surgery is. The surgery could be expected to only take 15min and an IV catheter should be placed.

An IV catheter is placed not only to provide fluids during surgery, but it's there mainly just in case of an emergency where they need access to a vein right away. Nobody can predict if a pet will need emergency drugs or not. A completely healthy pet wth perfect bloodwork can can go under anesthesia for a routine surgery but their heart rate drops to dangerous territory and atropine is needed asap.

If your pet goes under anesthesia and something like that happens, you wouldn't want them having to waste time trying to find a vein. Because that little time finding a vein could mean the difference between life or death.

Nobody said anything about a bladder catheter.

That is completely different than an IV catheter. The bladder is manually expressed by the tech or doctor once the patient is under anesthesia but before they clip and clean the area.

I HATE when people think that just because they've owned pets for x amount of years, they are a groomer, they are in the human medical field, they are a breeder, they think they know veterinary medicine when they actually have no clue what they are talking about.

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