Yup.
Sorry tale - CVS Vet Group PLC
- Thread starter ben0850
- Start date
I agree, the £3200 quoted was for growing cultures, suggested follow up treatment and cycles of antibiotics etc.
The cost of treatment isn’t an issue for me, it’s the lack of communication, poor briefing and general poor attitude experienced with the large corporations. If I talk to any professional in any line of work I expect them to be open and honest, sincere and also manage my expectations. My experience outlined above (which is just a snapshot) smacked of being drip fed information and subsequently drip fed costs.
I’d happily pay an independent vet twice the corporate rate for honest, sincere and trustworthy advice like the good old days.
Understood. while I'm not there and don't know what they were planning, but it still sounds a lot if ppurely medical. Was ther eany suggestion of surgery as an option?
wildfowler.250
Well-Known Member
I think it’s strange how many people confuse the staff within the clinic with the corporate as a whole. It would be a bit like going into Tesco and blaming the person on the till for the prices going up.
I wouldn’t knock anyone for shopping around but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting the exact same job for a cheaper price. For example, you can neuter a dog with a full surgical gown, fluids, the latest multiparameter monitoring equipment. Or you can have the complete basics. Both may end up,(hopefully) with the same result. However, I know which one I would choose for my dog and I very much doubt the price is the same.
The £3200 must be a miscommunication. Six monthly medication checks are standard. Bloods are purely optional and up to the individual
I wouldn’t knock anyone for shopping around but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting the exact same job for a cheaper price. For example, you can neuter a dog with a full surgical gown, fluids, the latest multiparameter monitoring equipment. Or you can have the complete basics. Both may end up,(hopefully) with the same result. However, I know which one I would choose for my dog and I very much doubt the price is the same.
The £3200 must be a miscommunication. Six monthly medication checks are standard. Bloods are purely optional and up to the individual
jimmy milnes
Well-Known Member
Some years back I was in the vets having an annual booster done on a GSP, the vet went into sales mode regarding having the bitch insured.
I told her although I love my dogs they are just that, "dogs" and if she gave me a bill for more than 1200 quid I could buy a new one for 800. The look on the young lasses face was priceless..
I told her although I love my dogs they are just that, "dogs" and if she gave me a bill for more than 1200 quid I could buy a new one for 800. The look on the young lasses face was priceless..
Highlander
Well-Known Member
Perhaps that says more about you than her, if you are willing to write off the loyalty the dog has given you over the years, plus the training input you may have put in for the sake of £400?
jimmy milnes
Well-Known Member
Maybe it does, however without knowing me you've made an instant summary of my character..
Perhaps that in turn says something about yourself ?
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
That's an old-skool thought about dog ownership that has been drummed out of us by the constant hand-wringing programs we are drip fed through the tv, combined with the insurance backed schemes offered to dog owners for treatment.
My attitude has mellowed as I have got older, but looking back I could have had some dogs treated instead of having them put down. A good friend still has the old-skool attitude, mind you he has been a pig farmer all his life
Not sure I understand your point with regards Staff V corporation? The staff are fine it’s the party line they are towing from their owners / group / Shareholders call it what you will.
I can honestly say the £3k is not a miscommunication or mistake as others have already suggested.. I spoke at length to my pal who was in floods of tears about the whole sorry tale. The practice in question suggested two differing types of bacteria in the dogs ears that they had observed in the practice lab. They then suggested the swabs needed to be sent away to an outside lab (funnily enough owned by the same group) for cultures to be grown, further investigations etc etc.
For me it’s nothing to do with the money, it’s the communication, integrity and respect. If I was to quote you a price for Architectural or legal services then suddenly slap you with a large bill for parts of that service I hadn’t told you about you would quite rightly be ****ed off?
Is my new independent vet cheaper? No actually more expensive but I’m happy to pay for the service.
wildfowler.250
Well-Known Member
It just comes across as trendy these days,(not directed entirely at yourself) to criticise the corporates which in turn encompasses the vets working within the clinics. In reality, the individual vets are doing a very good job. I doubt any of them would change their methods or preferred products if they upped sticks to another part of the country and ended up at an independent vet.
I think we’ll have to slide past the 3k bill without seeing an estimate because there’s something missed along the line, be it referral to a dermatologist, a G.A + ear flush etc. It is way higher than I would expect for a few consults and a couple of cultures.
I totally get that communication comes to the core for everything and it’s an easy way to cause upset if you get it very wrong,(I’ve had it myself with building work but I appreciate it can happen). I think most people now tend to work in estimates rather than quotes but even then, if it’s not a fixed procedure, scope for variation needs to be made clear.
John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
doctors,vets AND plumbers!
Ade8mm
Well-Known Member
Yep, the whole World is suffering the same Corporatisation. Short term financial goals long term societal fragmentation.
Bo Diddley
Well-Known Member
Could it be described as "Predatory Capitalism"
John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
When I took my dog into the vet a few years ago to have his jaw wired I said to her "if you are going over the top on the price he`s coming back home with me" She knew what that meant and I was ok with her subsequent quote.
Ade8mm
Well-Known Member
I have no issue with someone selling their business to the highest bidder, they are free to do it. Good luck to them. But there are consequences .
I am minded to think of the Welsh who sold their cottages to English for second homes. The Welsh then didn't like the idea and burned them down.
An extreme example but the comparison is valid.
In this case people can vote with their wallets and take their business elsewhere. It won't happen of course as people are generally too complaisant and/or too busy working to pay exorbitant bills and taxes to have time to really think about it (and are therefore easy pickings for the corporates)
It is VERY, VERY DIFICULT to judge how a person or group charges for their goods and services ! I actually have ended up knowing quite a few Vets and its worth picturing yourself standing in their shoes for an imaginary day .
Group ownership of what where once private vet owned practices are certainly not all roses for the owner who sells out . Missing profit targets three months in a row and you are sold on or dropped like a stone! Often recovery of the original pay out or part of it is part of the contract of sale is contractual. On the other hand they will pay the seller a big lump of money and mostly a higher set wage than they have drawn when the business was in their hands , so put yourself in that position a minute ( maybe forget that if you have always worked with a set wage doing a set job without any guarantee you can draw the same wage each month end ). The group will of course have others to transfer into your roll , if they think your not the minion they need - your gone! .
I was amazed when i was told how few vets are owner operated in my area and consider those are rural areas doing mainly farm / Equine and some companion animal work . In the large towns and cities I wonder how many vets are owner operated now? Not many i bet ? Giving the clients little choice .
Anyhow here is me pontificating about a trade i am but a spectator in and i know full well how many " experts" of everything business wise exist within those that know exactly what next months net pay packet will be .
Group ownership of what where once private vet owned practices are certainly not all roses for the owner who sells out . Missing profit targets three months in a row and you are sold on or dropped like a stone! Often recovery of the original pay out or part of it is part of the contract of sale is contractual. On the other hand they will pay the seller a big lump of money and mostly a higher set wage than they have drawn when the business was in their hands , so put yourself in that position a minute ( maybe forget that if you have always worked with a set wage doing a set job without any guarantee you can draw the same wage each month end ). The group will of course have others to transfer into your roll , if they think your not the minion they need - your gone! .
I was amazed when i was told how few vets are owner operated in my area and consider those are rural areas doing mainly farm / Equine and some companion animal work . In the large towns and cities I wonder how many vets are owner operated now? Not many i bet ? Giving the clients little choice .
Anyhow here is me pontificating about a trade i am but a spectator in and i know full well how many " experts" of everything business wise exist within those that know exactly what next months net pay packet will be .
