The episode of the Tonight programme (ITV1), ‘Pets Undercover’ featuring ThePet.net’s Marc Abraham has been moved a week, so will now be shown on Monday 16 March at 8pm.
Take a look at our previous blog post for further information on the programme.
Filed under: In the media, News Tagged: | In the media, ITV1, Jonathan Maitland, Marc Abraham, Pets Undercover
The subject of vets over charging, and inflating invoices after treatment has affected my wife and I.
Recently used an equine vet to treat one of our ponies, and at the time of the visit were offered the chance to pay there and then, clear that particular callout and fee. A 5% discount would be given, which we thought was a great idea, especially in these economic hard times. The vet at the time of that visit, at least twice, clearly said that his calculations, if wrong and we owed the practice any money at all, would be ‘pennies’. As any reasonable person, I took this to mean exactly that, between 1 and 99p. At the very outside, and if wildly off in his calculation, the maximum of £5. He worked from his book, and calculated a fee inclusive, of just under £64.00. To save messing around with loose change, I paid him £64.00, under the impression again that we may well be in credit on the account by a few pennies. I also understood that if it was the other way, we may owe the practice a small amount, again the ‘pennies’ refered to by the vet. The sting in the tail. The end of the following month an invoice arrived, and to our disbelief it stated that we in fact owed an additional amount of almost £30.00……From the original calculations this was a leap of almost 50%.
What upsets us is the attitude of the practice involved. Members of staff have lied about making telephone calls to us the very same evening, then changed their story to ‘we called you the next morning’ to say the amount would be this additional money. No one called us before the invoice arrived. The first we knew of the extra charge was when the invoice hit the door mat.
The practice staff maintain they have done no wrong, and of all things we now have the vet who was attending actually stating he made it clear it would be this amount. At no time did he say this. The practice havent explain why a calculation was made, if all along the higher figure was known and had been told to us. Everyone so far we have communicated with at the practice is unable or unwilling to explain, and are unwilling to meet with us face to face, to discuss why in that case did he calculate one figure and ask us to pay that, when aparently knowing and saying now after the event, it would be the higher figure?
We have requested to meet face to face and hear from the people involved exactly what they said, in defence of this additional charge to our account. The practice involved have not done so, and seem unlikely to, but have now written to say that this outstanding amount has been passed to a debt collection agency.
I find it bizarre, and unprofessional, to sweep us aside and not be accountable to statements they are using to substantiate their claim. Their own staff have been untruthful on the events in this. Upsetting for my wife and I is the clear implication that they now leave us as liars, and by default, apparently justly the eyes of the practice, responsible for what we beleive is either an error in calculation made by their vet at the time, or if not, a deliberate attempt to hike up the bill and pass it on in some hope that we would not question it and pay.
Is this what all vets do?????
If anyone from the programme can offer any advise on this, or have come across such behaviour and may be have had complaints from other prospective viewers on other incidents involving invoicing, this may be something worth following up.
Thanks Ian
The subject of vets over charging, and inflating invoices after treatment has affected my wife and I.
Recently used an equine vet to treat one of our ponies, and at the time of the visit were offered the chance to pay there and then, clear that particular callout and fee. A 5% discount would be given, which we thought was a great idea, especially in these economic hard times. The vet at the time of that visit, at least twice, clearly said that his calculations, if wrong and we owed the practice any money at all, would be ‘pennies’. As any reasonable person, I took this to mean exactly that, between 1 and 99p. At the very outside, and if wildly off in his calculation, the maximum of £5. He worked from his book, and calculated a fee inclusive, of just under £64.00. To save messing around with loose change, I paid him £64.00, under the impression again that we may well be in credit on the account by a few pennies. I also understood that if it was the other way, we may owe the practice a small amount, again the ‘pennies’ refered to by the vet. The sting in the tail. The end of the following month an invoice arrived, and to our disbelief it stated that we in fact owed an additional amount of almost £30.00……From the original calculations this was a leap of almost 50%.
What upsets us is the attitude of the practice involved. Members of staff have lied about making telephone calls to us the very same evening, then changed their story to ‘we called you the next morning’ to say the amount would be this additional money. No one called us before the invoice arrived. The first we knew of the extra charge was when the invoice hit the door mat.
The practice staff maintain they have done no wrong, and of all things we now have the vet who was attending actually stating he made it clear it would be this amount. At no time did he say this. The practice havent explain why a calculation was made, if all along the higher figure was known and had been told to us. Everyone so far we have communicated with at the practice is unable or unwilling to explain, and are unwilling to meet with us face to face, to discuss why in that case did he calculate one figure and ask us to pay that, when aparently knowing and saying now after the event, it would be the higher figure?
We have requested to meet face to face and hear from the people involved exactly what they said, in defence of this additional charge to our account. The practice involved have not done so, and seem unlikely to, but have now written to say that this outstanding amount has been passed to a debt collection agency.
I find it bizarre, and unprofessional, to sweep us aside and not be accountable to statements they are using to substantiate their claim. Their own staff have been untruthful on the events in this. Upsetting for my wife and I is the clear implication that they now leave us as liars, and by default, apparently justly the eyes of the practice, responsible for what we beleive is either an error in calculation made by their vet at the time, or if not, a deliberate attempt to hike up the bill and pass it on in some hope that we would not question it and pay.
Is this what all vets do?????
If anyone from the programme can offer any advise on this, or have come across such behaviour and may be have had complaints from other prospective viewers on other incidents involving invoicing, this may be something worth following up.
Thanks Ian
Hi Ian
Unfortunately as vets it is very common for our clients to default on their bills, and it seems they might have confused you with this kind of person – we are frequent users of debt collection agencies! If it is not resolved by the practice manager (try this first, they are usually reasonable and realise mistakes happen), I think you should talk to the royal college.
Younger vets almost always dislike talking about/invoicing money (myself included, I found it one of the hardest parts of the job, not really covered in vet school), and I guess he got the price wrong or forgot something, and no-one’s realised this. When they do I am sure they will prefer to sort it out and keep you as a client. Unfortunately we get so used to real defaulters, genuine clients sometimes get mistaken for them.
I hope you get it sorted,
Jamie (a non-equine vet).