We've used Animal Care Clinic on church street in Concord as our dog's vet since we moved here. We've always loved the vet and have felt Buddy was well cared for.
Today we took him in for a routine teeth cleaning. He had his teeth cleaned 2.5 years ago at this clinic so we has an idea of what we were in for both care and cost wise.
We were given an estimate of $200 and were told if there are extractions it will cost extra.
Fine.
They called me after the surgery today to tell me that they had to remove all of Buddy's front teeth.
I was very surprised.
Imagine our absolute shock though when we went to the vet to pick Buddy up and the bill came to more than $450 dollars. Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked That's 250% of the estimate.
They did not ever tell us it would be THAT expensive.
They did not give us the option to refuse extraction.
We had a very long conversation with their business manager who basically told us that when you hand over a pet to the vet you're giving them a blank check to do what they feel needs to be done.
Um, no.
There is no reason they couldn't have called us during the surgery and said ""we need to take out 11 teeth by our count. Here are the options. Here are the health consequences for your dog if we do it and here is what could happen if we don't.""
Nothing.
We had NO communication until after the fact and even then it was non specific... in the form of ""we had to remove some teeth.""
For us $200 is a WHOLE WORLD away from $450.
and we did NOT hand over our dog and a blank check.
The business manager refused to acknowledge the unfair business practices. We will be taking our dog elsewhere for his heath needs.
Pros: The vet seems to care for the health of the animals
Cons: They feel you hand over your pet and a blank check
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