Really Annoyed at the vets :-(

[Elvisisboss]

my cat has been ill since a kitten, we swapped over vets about 4 years ago due to moving.

im with petplan and they pay for the life of the illness, which is great because my cats costs thousands of thousands of pounds!!

i recieved a letter from my vet about 9 weeks ago saying that i owed them £300! i was shocked as they were backdating from over 3years!

it was there fault, she said everytime i went in she etiher forgot to ask me what this money was about, then she said she just didnt bother, then she said that she kept seeing the money getting higher and high and she always wondered whtt it meant......!!

i mean 3 years though!! 3 years to find this out! at one time we had to go every 2 days for 6 weeks for injections!!!
anyway it works out that i pay a premium for every claim, why didnt they tell me about this?!

so i worked out a payment plan, im not working right now as im really ill & i was recovering from a operation when i found out about this, i said i could give them £10-£20 a month due to me not working, she spoke to head office who took the blame and said it was completly fine and they were sorry i was landed with such a huge bill when if i had just been told each year for every 1st new claim i pay a premium i could have paid right away, but obv its a big bill to someone whos not working.

so it has all been fine! then my cat gets ill again.......i mange to actually get out of bed to take him & to the vets and the receptionist starts whispering to the vet, who then comes out guns blazing saying i must pay them £270 pound right there and then as its outstanding balance!

i said 'no its all sorted i speak to (i forget her name) and we have sorted it out, they start going over the computer basically calling me a liar as theres no record of it, i can barely stand and i start to shake with rage! i said 'no it has been sorted i am paying £10-£20 a month as they know my situation, if i could pay you right away, dont you think i would? plus its your fault for not telling me!

they shes says, well the balance will never get paid off, you have to increase your payments! i said 'are you going to give me the money to pay?! if i havent got it, i havent got it!'

then she goes on saying have i upset pet flippin pan & they wont pay anymore?!

i was like NO you made a mistake, but she wouldnt have it!

i was SO annoyed coming out of there, i had to sign a petplan form & she doubled checked my signiture & date!!!

they kept tutting saying things like 'poor cat' yeh poor flippin cat whos treated like a king and has cost about 10k since we had had him!

does she think after 4 years of going there im going to do a runner for £280?!

can barely walk let alone run!

sorry this is long it just annoyed me so much!! :mad:

[mable1718]

i hope you get it back on track

[tilly]

Sorry to here about the trouble you have been having hope it gets better for you soon.

Sally

[Fran]

Not a very professional service your vets are offering is it? :? Think if it were me, I'd pay off what I owed as soon as I could and then perhaps look for another vet. Good luck, I do hope it all sorts itself out

[charliebubs]

Oh dear, what a horrible situation to be in :( I hope you can sort something out with your vets and Petplan soon.

I agree with what Fran says, I would change vets after being treated like that.

Best of luck. :)

[Jac]

I agree with all of the above. Or get your agreement in writing from the Vets head office. Put in an official complaint of how she treated you and change vets. Remember to keep to your payment plan and you'll be home dry.

[alexgirl73]

What a disgraceful way to be treated. i would be straight on the phone to their head office and also putting a complaint in writing. I also agree a change of vets is required!! good luck.

[Mags]

That's an awful situation to be in, I do hope something can be sorted out soon.....
............. then change your vet, hopefully they will be more obliging...:mad:

[Elvisisboss]

hiya thanks alot for your replys!

thing is there so nice usally, all because they forgot to keep asking me about the money!

anyway! hopefully ill find somewhere else when i move!

thanks! :)

[dandysmom]

What a distressing experience for you! I agree with the above comments and would definitely change vets as soon as I could!

[Amber]

Thats awful! To leave it three years, and then all of a sudden turn around and say that you still owe them £300 :shock: had they bothered to tell you in the first place it wouldn't have been a problem.

At our practice, we ask that all bills are settled on the day, but if for some reason this is not possible, we ask that they are settled within 14 days. If for some reason, the client is unable to pay back the full amount in one go, we will come to some sort of arrangement so that they pay us in monthly installments, or supply us with post dated cheques. If the bill is not settled within 14 days (except for the circumstances just described) a copy of the invoice is sent to the client, with a note on the bottom asking that the bill be settled within the next 7 days. Once the 7 days has passed, we give them a few days grace, and then another copy is sent to the client, stating that this is their second reminder and the bill must be settled within 5 days, otherwise a court letter will be issued. We have only had two cases in the past year where a court letter has been nescessary, and I have to say those clients were very bad payers anyway.

Our policy used to be that the owners pay us back when they could. Regular reminders would still be sent but we had no set time in which the bill must be settled. However we had so many cases of clients ignoring the reminders completely, and when contacted by telephone months later, claiming that they had never received any bills. If clients are unable to pay, and tell us that straight away, that's fine, we can make arrangements - it's when they lie about it or totally ignore it that annoys us.

Clearly the practice is completely at fault here, and there was absolutely no need for the vet to speak to you the way they did! If I were you, I would make a formal complaint against the vet to the head office. There's obviously a total lack of communication going on between the staff there aswell. A change of vets may definately be in order hun.

[Elvisisboss]

hiya thanks!

i know!! petplan pay for it all, i was under the impression that after my first claim i didnt have to pay anything else as they never asked for Any money what so ever!!

but every year for the first claim i have to make a little bit torwards it, so thats what the £300 (now £350-made another new claim) adds up to!

my dad might be paying it for me & ill pay him, i hate having debt in different places, i saked them to set u a direct debit or a bank payment but they said no to that aswell, so my partner has to drive down there every month with payments as im too ill to go!!!!

extremly annoying, if only the girl i had spoken to & head office had told the other vets what was going on, made me feel like a liar! and i do not lie!!

anyway, we are moving next year & i will move vets to, i havent got the energy to complain, just want to forget about it, they used to be so nice to us as at one time we took our cat in every 2 days....then every 4...then every week, then every 4 weeks over a period of 6 months as he is allergic to Everything!

if they had tols us 'you have to so and so torwards each new claim' at the time i had a job i could have said 'here you go thats fine'

but to leave it 3/4 odd years!

ARGH!

[Elaine]

I agree with all of the above. Or get your agreement in writing from the Vets head office. Put in an official complaint of how she treated you and change vets. Remember to keep to your payment plan and you'll be home dry.


I agree Jac, thats exactly what I would do too.
I can understand that you dont want to do this and I am sorry you had to be humiliated like that. Personally I'd kick ass.

[Elvisisboss]

lol no i should write to them really, im going there tonight to make a payment & ill ask for a written agreement to be sent to me, then i have to go 2weeks later to take the cat for his monthly injections so if i dont recieve it buy then ill be going back any flippin way!!

:)