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Author
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Topic: Ugly Situation with Veterinarian
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cauldronkitty
Knowflake Posts: 7
From: Georgia, USA
Registered: May 2009
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posted October 06, 2009 04:00 PM
 
Hi everyone-
I am a very infrequent poster but having lurked the site for ages, I know that a lot of you have good advice to give in difficult situations.
We've been going to this clinic for 11 years. All that time we've had a payment plan with the vet and they were fine with it. Every time we took one of our cats there we asked and they said okay.
In June, we took Lilly to them and it turned out she had jaundice and liver problems. She had to stay a few days and had a feeding tube put in. We asked if it was okay to do the payments like always- they said it was okay.
Lil's bill wound up being over 3000 dollars.
They tried to get us to sign up for a medical credit card, whereby we could get a certain amount of credit and pay the monthlies to the credit card company. We didn't qualify.
We got pulled into the office and told that this was "too much" and "not to bring our cats in" until the bill was significantly lower. Also, we got told that we were "too soft hearted" at the veterinarians!!!
They condescended to let us pay off what we could by January, after that we are looking at them setting a payment schedule (the figure they quoted was 300 a month. That would sink us.)
Okay, having felt mugged and victimized, we were dealing with that. NOW, we get a bill showing that they've slapped interest on top of us scrambling to pay up before January and 'robbing Peter to pay Paul.'
We are still going WTF? I suspect it must have something to do with the clinic's financial situation, but of course they're not going to confide in us.
So, I mean what can we do? I've thought about Return to Sender Spells, etc. I don't want to be in conflict, but this is too much.
This is what we feel like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGYXLVFZT2I IP: Logged |
Dervish
Knowflake Posts: 291
From:
Registered: May 2009
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posted October 06, 2009 09:17 PM
If you take care of cats with chronic health problems, try to see if there's a no-kill shelter in your area. Failing that, the humane society. Groups like that usually have vets who are willing to work for free or at least on a sliding scale, at least if you have a chronically sick cat. What little experience I've had with vets have been pretty bad, too. Though in my case, I found out that a homeless cat who came to me had antifreeze poisoning and it was the day before Thanksgiving. If there was to be ANY chance of saving him, he'd need help IMMEDIATELY. But as it was like an hour before closing and it was Thanksgiving the next day EVERY SINGLE OFFICE pretended to be stupid (or maybe they really were that stupid) and refused to see him until next Monday, which as I pointed out, he'd be dead by then (and he died the next day, no vet willing to see him). And to think I was willing to pay full price, too. What I've heard others say about vets have also left me cynical of the profession, too. IP: Logged |
GypseeWind
Knowflake Posts: 1670
From: Dayton,Ohio USA
Registered: May 2009
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posted October 06, 2009 09:19 PM
That really stinks, sorry you have to deal with that. You've given them your business for 11 years and now they are treating you like this. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that it is probably a reflection of their own financial state.Unfortunatly, they did provide you will a service and you do have to pay for it if you don't want to be turned over to a collection agency and then have your credit damaged. Maybe you can pay the agreed amout and then renegotiate the terms at a later date when tensions aren't running so high.
Also, if you could give them a lump sum, somehow, that would probably reduce your monthly payments.
Is there any way you could borrow some cash from another source to do that?
Or since you mentioned the month of January, maybe you could arrange a large payment with your tax return?
I don't know what else to tell you.
You seem like you have a big heart to take care of your animals like that, so to me, it seems that good will come back to you.
Best Wishes. IP: Logged |
pire
Knowflake Posts: 687
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted October 07, 2009 07:14 AM
sorry about that. i don't have a cat but i find 3000 dollars (something like 2000 euros?) very expensive for a cat. i would never ever pay something like that for a cat, unless i'm very rich. and loving the cat ain't the reason. but either i would go somewhere else, or i would ask them to put it down. this amount is unreasonable.IP: Logged |
pire
Knowflake Posts: 687
From:
Registered: Apr 2009
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posted October 07, 2009 07:22 AM
i love animals, i will soon get a dog, i can imagine the dilemma. but i wouldn't argue when it comes to a human family member but to a cat, even family member, this is out of proportion. what happens if you go to court? or let them claim the money until they get exhausted and go to court. if you get some info with a lawyer before, just to be prepared, they would tell you if the unreasonable amount could be proven and then cancelled by the judge.  IP: Logged |
cauldronkitty
Knowflake Posts: 7
From: Georgia, USA
Registered: May 2009
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posted October 07, 2009 10:57 AM
Thanks for replying. Dervish- I'm sorry you lost your kitty. That was wrong that you couldn't get any help for it, and I do believe that vets should uphold the same standards as human docs. At least it knew that someone loved it and wanted to help it get better. GypseeWind- I'm in the process of paying it off. I wanted to pay the bill- just not feel like I was owing the Mafia instead of someone that I (formerly) trusted.
What's so bad is that I know this doctor can do so much good. When Boo got a cancerous tumor on his hip, this doctor took the tumor out and stitched it back together again and again when the wound would reopen because of the stress of its location. I've seen him examine cats in the gentlest manner... I know he didn't start out as a hard***, but I'm not seeing the person I used to know. pire- I know 3000 dollars is a lot, but the reason we were paying the high prices is because we could pay on installments. That sure came back to bite us on the butt! IP: Logged | |
Lindaland
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