2 reviews for Banfield Pet Hospital are not recommended
These reviews are not recommended because our content quality algorithms have determined them to be less useful for users researching this business. Our content quality algorithm makes decisions based on a number of proprietary evaluation factors, and is constantly updating and improving over time. Even though these reviews are not displayed by default, they still factor into the overall number of reviews and the average rating for the business.
Utah
1 review
1 helpful vote

Banfield is a Thieving Company - DO NOT USE THEM!
January 10, 2023

I am extremely unhappy with how my family's whole experience has been with the financial situation at Banfield. The uncooperative, unyielding "assistance" on every level really surprised me negatively (except the helpful staff actually at the hospital who just don't have the ability to do anything to help with the account - THEY deserve a raise for what they do to try to help). The account is in complete disarray and my family is being blamed for it. This week (first week of January, 2023) my son, who had given his dog to my daughter and her husband several years ago, received a collections letter with a ding on his credit report of 25 points, stating that he had a delinquent account for a whopping $651. The dog has not even been in his care for many years. My daughter and her husband had paid off the final bill for the dog's last services March 28th, 2022 and closed the account. The person with whom my daughter spoke on the phone verified the account was clear, all was paid off, and it was now closed. My son-in-law had been asked to "sign the receipt" prior to this at the hospital and it turns out he had been handed a renewal form for another year of the dreaded annual contract at Banfield that committed them to 12 monthly payments of over $50. He didn't even know that because the intent had been to close the account down. Now we find out that they have to pay $651 for absolutely nothing. No services for the dog. No vaccines. Not even a toenail clipping because they didn't even know they had a wellness plan since they had intended (and it had been confirmed) that this had been closed and they were good. No effort has been made to reach out to get the bill paid for the unintended Wellness Plan, even with the email and cell phone. The address on the account was from when we created the account for this dog back in 2012 - 11 years ago. I haven't lived there in over 4 years and my daughter hasn't lived there in longer. She kept trying to tell staff at Banfield to update the account to her information and all she managed to get them to do was change email and cell phone. Naturally, ONE notice letter was, of course, mailed to the old address (so says the corporate finance office). No other effort was made before it was immediately sent to collections. Had we known this was an issue, we would have used the wellness plan, albeit begrudgingly because we thought it was cancelled. But we would have wanted our money's worth. Again, we didn't even know there was an open account because of how this went down. We never even used the services. Does anyone in billing care about that? Not in the slightest. No efforts have been made to believe any of my family who have tried to get something fixed. This is theft and deceit, in the form of a signed contract and there's nothing we can do because the wonderful, amazingly understanding billing people could only repeat, "Well, I have a signed contract here." I'm insulted, very angry, and disgusted with this business for being so deceiving and for making absolutely no effort to make this right for the customer. When it comes to Banfield Pet Hospital, I unequivocally will encourage people to go elsewhere if they want to hang on to their wallets. Nobody cares in the billing departments or at corporate in the financing department. It's just, "There's a signed contract." So no effort to help or make it right. The principle of this thing is a lot more important to me than even the $651. Whatever you do, do NOT use Banfield Pet Hospital! Go to a different vet for your pet's care if you don't want to be scammed or run through a boatload of disrespect and poor treatment ending up in a ruined credit score and a hefty bill for nothing. They are walking away with $651 and we get nothing for it but a 25 point credit score ding. Unbelievable. Go to Copperview Animal Hospital instead. They are amazing!

Tip for consumers:

Do not sign up for the Wellness Plan. You cannot get out of it! They signed us right back up again after trying to cancel and didn’t tell us. They are so dishonest!!!

Products used:

Vaccines, pedicure for the dog, and the dreaded Wellness Plan. It’s a total SCAM!!

Date of experience: January 10, 2023
Florida
1 review
3 helpful votes

Money hungry, irresponsible, unprofessional, worst experience of my life
April 5, 2021

This is regarding the Banfield on Causeway Blvd in Brandon, FL.
If you are looking to spend more money, have your dog leave in worse shape, and be given completely absurd and unfounded advice, boy do I have the place for you!
What an awful experience from start to finish. I took my girl here 3/29/2020 for a bandage change. Just over a week after she had her toe amputated due to a mast cell tumor. She remained totally asymptomatic and had perfect bloodwork. Dr. Brake, the best vet ever, located at Banfield Carrollwood, took an aggressive approach by removing her whole toe, rather than the bottom third, in order to achieve clean margins. My husband, the doctor, and I were all feeling cautiously optimistic. My dog was healing day-by-day, but we ran into a few hiccups along the way. Day one she was in a ton of pain, she escaped from her cone on day three and removed some sutures. Dr. Brake was on vacation, but still took the time to email each day and asked for pictures of the surgical site to monitor her progress. She had some inflammation, to which he recommended hydrotherapy. That seemed to helped tremendously. Then Thursday night, another cone escape. By then, the area was infected and extremely bothersome. My baby licked and licked (or maybe even bit the area), undoing great healing strides and exposing the bone. I took her to Banfield Carrollwood Friday and Dr. Martinez (also an amazing vet), recommended another antibiotic and daily bandage changes. They also gave us a massive cone that she can't get out of. It literally looks like a satellite dish- it's the best! Then Sunday morning, I got a call saying the practice shut down for the day due to a covid exposure. My baby still needed her bandage change, so I frantically called several other locations. And this is when my mental anguish truly began.
This location was able to see her and able to see her quickly. We were happy to take whatever we could, we just wanted to help our girl heal. We had an 11am appointment and they asked for it to be a drop off. There were two doctors, and one just entered surgery. We said this would be fine, because what else can you do? I called to check on her close to her being there for 4 hours, which was absolutely ridiculous! If they didn't look at her until 3pm, why didn't we just have a 3pm appointment? Anyway, the doctor called me back and said my girl broke out of the cone and messed with the site some more! She was supposed to be taken care of there, but they didn't even watch her, and she was in even worse condition than when she arrived. I was livid! How could this have happened?
The doctor informed me she would need to be sedated and scrub the area clean. And that the area was looking and smelled necrotic. She told me probably seven different times she would most likely need her entire leg amputated and the cancer had spread. We were told by her and the nurse to get an appointment with an oncologist basically ASAP. So around 4pm, they gave my girl partial anesthesia and cleaned her wound, and they made us pay for it too. Even though it was their fault. She was extremely dysphoric and this whole thing could have been prevented if they cared about the health of the animals, rather than profit maximization.
So the Friday after, we received our histopathology report stating my girl had a low grade of cancer, no cancer spread into the bone, and we achieved completely clean margins. Absolutely no cancer in her body! If it were up to Brandon location, they would have amputated her leg then and there for absolutely no reason! My girl is thriving now!
I decided to call this location to update them on my girl's progress. I don't ever want anyone else to spend three hours crying like I did, because these quacks don't know what they're talking about. I asked to leave a message for the doctor. The receptionist was extremely confused. She kept asking for my phone number and I said that wasn't necessary, but gave it to her anyway. She also told me I didn't go there, that's because they didn't put my name in their computer correctly, shocker there. And I told her the good news. I wanted it to be a learning experience for her and to know my girl actually was cancer free when she saw her.
Later that afternoon, a tech called and wanted to go over her results to make sure I understood everything. Yeah right, they were saving face and they know it. She told me my dog does have cancer, but it was removed. Yes, that is what being cancer free is. She also said that there is always the possibility the cancer can return. Thanks for that optimism! Lastly, she told me that my girl still may need her leg amputated because the bone was exposed, you know that right? Of course I know that, I'm the one bringing her to the vet every single day. The day after, we had a bandage change with our vet. He told us he is extremely happy with her progress. He thinks there is an extremely low chance the cancer will ever return. He said she is healing wonderfully and showed us pictures of how she is doing. He thinks worst case scenario, she is going to have a larger scar and a little bit of a prolonged healing time. She is walking around and playing and acting like herself again. The infection is gone and she is free of pain. She also can come back in three days instead of daily, for her bandage change since she is doing so well.
These charlatans in Brandon tried to scare me, and admittedly, succeeded. They want me to feel like I was wrong, or better yet, they are right. They made such a detrimental and sweeping conclusion after spending merely minutes with my girl. Meanwhile, our primary vet and the other vets at Carrollwood have been seeing my girl every day. They are all so pleased with how she is doing and how quickly she is healing. If you have money to burn, want to have a nervous breakdown in Petsmart, and feel like profit is valued over your pet, come on down to Brandon Banfield on Causeway!

Date of experience: April 5, 2021
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2 reviews for Banfield Pet Hospital are not recommended