A letter to our veterinary clients (sarcastic)

[Catty1]

I corrected a few typos, and am taking a copy of that to my vet tomorrow (weigh-in times for the babies!)

[trayi52]

I want a copy to take to my vet. I think he would find it interesting and funny.

Willie

[cassiesmom]

Ohboyohboy, some of these are true of the hoomin doctor/patient relationship, too!

Such as - your scheduled appointment time is just a suggestion, don't bother to cancel, please feel free to use your cell phone headset in the office so we can guess whether or not you're talking to our staff. Don't bring your prior records to your first visit, but feel free to bring an entire ream of articles you printed from the Internet. And while you're at it, bring your ill child with you to your appointment so you can infect everyone in the waiting room and the entire office staff. Call five minutes before closing with a crisis, and don't hesitate to be verbally abusive to the staff.

I'm going to take this to my doctor when I see her again - I'm sure she'll get a laugh. As for the veterinarian - well, he might as well have written it!

[IRescue452]

yippee, I've been a good client then. Too bad I'm the good client at the suckiest vet possible. He comes in, gives whatever shots were prepared, and walks out. All in under 30 seconds. I don't even know the guys name. Good thing the rest of the staff can answer questions and whatnot.

[Jessika]

yippee, I've been a good client then. Too bad I'm the good client at the suckiest vet possible. He comes in, gives whatever shots were prepared, and walks out. All in under 30 seconds. I don't even know the guys name. Good thing the rest of the staff can answer questions and whatnot.

I could never go to a vet, or even a doctor, with someone that impersonal. They have to at least talk to me, joke around, even if they get the job done in under 30 seconds. That's sad.

Anyway, I guess I've been a good client so far! But since I'll be a vet tech, this worries me, I was so happy to not have to work with customers at my previous job, I'm not looking forward to it again... but at the same time I may not even work in a clinic, I'm not sure yet

[Sevaede]

Hehe! I am a good client, then!

One thing I don't understand.. you don't want people to ask you if you have a payment plan available? That's one of the things I ask about when I am looking for a vet.

[Catlady711]

I corrected a few typos, and am taking a copy of that to my vet tomorrow (weigh-in times for the babies!)

Which typos did I miss? The original was chuck full of typos and misspellings, and all those forward >>>> marks, so I had to hand type the whole thing over again to make it legible. I thought I'd run it through the spell/grammer checker but I know those don't catch everything.

Hehe! I am a good client, then!

One thing I don't understand.. you don't want people to ask you if you have a payment plan available? That's one of the things I ask about when I am looking for a vet.

Many vets won't take payment plans from being burned too many times. I think our county and the 3 surrounding ones only have maybe a couple that take payments. We generally don't do payments but once in a while the head vet will allow an exception and usually gets burned on it.

I've personally seen sweet little old ladies crying their eyes out, swearing on their childrens and grandchildrens lives (no joke) that they'd pay the bill if we'd only let them make payments. Guess who got turned in to the collection agency when she stiffed us for over $400 after 4 invoices with letters were mailed to her over a 4 month time period?

I've seen people who drive up in Cadillac's, Avalanche's, and PT cruizers, dressed to the nines, who cry poverty and want to be billed later, and didn't pay so got turned over to collections.

Vets have been burned soooo many times by nice and seeminly honest people. Someone has to make up that cost and unfortunately it's usually the paying clients that have to pay a higher fee to cover for the ones that don't pay. Needless to say it's bad business, and others shouldn't have to pay higher rates because of the deadbeats. So many vets (in our area at least) won't take any type of payments. If the client wants to make payments they'll have to use a credit card and let the card company deal with non payments.

I know it stinks when you are a person who actually would pay the bill, but think of it this way, on the everyday things you pay less money each time if you aren't having to finance the deadbeats, and the vet can't tell which ones will pay and which ones won't until it's too late.

[CathyBogart]

Love it love it love it!

If you're looking for payment plans, we usually direct you to CareCredit.

[IRescue452]

I could never go to a vet, or even a doctor, with someone that impersonal.

This is just our annual shots vet. They charge the very least for everything. The staff is very good to make up for doctor invisible. Its a county low-cost vet, so we can't expect much.
We have another vet for emergencies/anything more important than shots. They charge $45 for the office visit alone. Annual visits for two dogs is almost $300, whereas its about $90 for two dogs at the county vet.

We have an exotic clinic that advertises discounts for multiple animals. When my ratties are all at the point where they can be neutered, they are going there together.