Many thanks for the replies folks and does look like it is a more common practice than i expected.
As i said,my surgery gets an absolutely booting of a pile on when anyone posts a grievance on social media,with probably 80+% of comments slaughtering it with actual occurrences that have led them to post,and is usually accompanied with the recommendations of 2 localish vets who apparently can do no wrong.
I know it's social media but very rarely do i see a pretty much universal damning of a place with very little approving voices but it looks like charging before actually getting results and such is pretty common.