Comments on: What You Must Know About Banfield Pet Insurance – A Review

By: Banfield Pet Hospital

Banfield Pet Hospital — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:51:56 +0000

Erich, Thank you for telling us about your positive experience at Banfield Hospital and for trusting us with the care of your cat. We appreciate your business and for allowing us to help your pet live a longer, healthier life.

By: erich

erich — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:58:11 +0000

I have a 10 year old cat. I’ve gone to Banfield Pet Hospital for 6 years now. She’s had shots there, two dental cleanings and will have a 3rd one in 6 months, and a couple office visits.

I haven’t had any problems there. No quality of care problems. The Vets and all employees have always been polite. I came to Banfield because (1) They are open on Saturday and Sunday and (2) They were less expensive. They charge $278 for a dental cleaning. I felt that was a lot at the time, but I called around and found everyone else was $350-$400 and one Vet was $450. I found they charge less for an office visit too – $39.95 vs $50.

This is the first year I signed up for the wellness plan. I rarely sign up for those things because it is usually hard to cancel. I signed up this yr because my cat was due for shots, I wanted blood work done just to be sure everything is ok now that she’s older, and she will need her teeth cleaned in 6 months. And if I had any concerns I could bring her in at no charge w/ unlimited office visits. With all that, it was definately to my benefit this year. But its not pet insurance. Really, it is a package of services Banfield will provide over a 12 month period for a given price. If you don’t use many of the services, or use them but feel many weren’t necessary then you won’t be happy with it.

I paid in a lump sum so it wouldn’t auto renew because I didn’t want to have to make a phone call to not continue it, and be given a hard time if that would happen. This is my first year, so I don’t know. I’ll probably go back to just paying for service next year because my cat isn’t going to need a dental again that soon.

By: Banfield Pet Hospital

Banfield Pet Hospital — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:07:29 +0000

Sendmelord111- We apologize if a visit to one of our hospitals has left you feeling this way. Please call our Client Advocate Team so we can gather more information and better understand the situation. The number is 877-500-2288. We strive to provide our clients and their pets with high quality medicine and exceptional client experiences on every visit. Banfield appreciates your feedback and looks forward to hearing from you soon.

By: sendmelord111

sendmelord111 — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:36:52 +0000

Well said! I took my cat in also for a routine visit. Two days later I had to rush her to a all night vet and shell out some more money to try and fix what Bandfield had done to her. Five days later she still can not walk well and tends to fall over after a few steps. And they cut her arm trying to get a bandage off. One of her pupils is dilated, and may have been caused by a fall she had while there. She was so over sedated that they wanted her to stay the night, but there is no one there to keep a eye on your pet over night so I took her home. When I called and talked to the nurse who cut her, I don’t think she even said she was sorry…..I was so worried for my cat these last few days. I did not have much college..but you can tell her or him for me that my roommate use to teach at Yale and later had his own lab at Harvard. And also taught at Washington University,and is published as well. And boy was he mad about the way our cat was treated!

By: Banfield Pet Hospital

Banfield Pet Hospital — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:06:37 +0000

Henry we appreciate your feedback and for telling us about your positive experiences at Banfield. As far as pricing, just like human health care, pet health care can appear to be more costly for certain situations or procedures such as surgery. This is due to the medical measures we have in place to ensure the safety of every pet we treat, such as pre-anesthetic bloodwork, which is required prior to any surgical procedure. Banfield strives to be competitively priced in the marketplace. You’ll find that many of the most popular veterinary products and services are less expensive at Banfield than at other veterinarians. To make quality pet care more affordable, we urge clients to enroll for an Optimum Wellness Plan where they can save up to 50% on high quality, veterinarian-recommended care for their pets. At Banfield we enjoy hearing feedback from our clients, so to address any other specific concerns, and to help us improve our overall service, we would appreciate it if you would call us at 877-500-2288.

By: henry

henry — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:46:17 +0000

Thank you Mikael for starting this blog. It has good information, although somewhat partial. I compliment you for starting the dialogue and making this forum available.

I went online looking to gripe about how caring pet owners get ripped off each time they go to the vet.. no matter how reputable… and Banfield is no exception.

To make my story short, I am a pet owner and love the Banfield experience. The locations I have gone too are clean, the staff are utterly above reproach. I never had a pet return to me with parasites from untidy practices (as has happened with vet hospitals). I trust the Banfield staff and doctors with the care of my pets.

With all that said, what is my complaint? Well, here we go, Banfield offers wellness plans that are attractive AND SERIOUSLY OVERPRICED. Their programs are DESIGNED to make pet owners spend mucho $$$$$. They truly do look at the pet owners as ATM machine.

I take their utmost plan but always leave a minimum of $200 shorter. Clipping nails is preventative but they charge $10, castration for a 24.lb dog costs $400 at Banfield but Humane Society charges $60, Pet suffers from pancreatitis and I still shell $500 on ultimate coverage?!

They are quick to tell you how much you save in $1000 but that is only because everything they have is OVERPRICED!!!

BANFIELD DOES NOT OFFER PET INSURANCE. BANFIELD OFFERS ONLY COMPETENT VET CARE AND WELLNESS PLAN.

..But only the rich should go to Banfield because their system is less about prevention and more about taking advantage of caring pet owners.

VETERINARY CARE IS A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS.

Each of Banfield’s locations are well-run money machines.

You will get good care but you’ll also go broke. As a pet-owner, I am angry that honest vets are a dime a dozen.

I believe that veterinary centers should be regulated. There has to be a governing body to restrict how much pet care should cost.

By: Banfield Pet Hospital

Banfield Pet Hospital — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:19:40 +0000

SUE and Mike,

In both of your cases, I know our Client Advocate Team would like to hear about your experience. We want to continue to improve our client service, and your feedback will help us identify how we can do this. The number to call is 877-500-2288. Thank you, and we look forward to discussing your experience with you.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:48:57 +0000

The only reason I had a Wellness Plan for my dog is that they had a 24 hour clinic. I found out that they shut down this clinic when my pet cut her paw and it was gushing blood. I went to the Wheat ridge Animal Clinic cause that is where the Bansfield recording referred me to. I had to pay $603.00, which Bansfield won’t reimburse at all. I wasn’t notified of the 24 hour clinic shutting down and the other 24 hour clinic was an hour and a half away. And now that they are holding up there agreement for having a 24 hour clinic they won’t let me cancel my plan that has 3 months left on it. Bansfield has unsatisfactory care and HORRIBLE customer service.

By: SUE

SUE — Fri, 13 May 2011 19:25:25 +0000

My experience with Bansfield has been horrible. My dog pulled her ACL and I went into Bansfield (using her Wellness Plan) for 5 months every time they said it would get better and would give her medication. There was no improvement so I decided to get a second opinion and at the first visit at another vet they saw her ACL was torn and needed a TPLO surgery. I contacted the corporate office of Bansfield and asked why they keep stringing my dog along; they told me their vets only handle basic things. Pretty sad they couldn’t tell me that my dogs issue was to serious for them. They couldn’t even tell me to go somewhere else. Customer Service is horrible as well. I will never take another one of my pets there.

By: Deb

Deb — Mon, 09 May 2011 08:23:39 +0000

First off, Banfield does not have PET INSURANCE, the offer several preventive care plans. So if your going to do a ‘Review’, at least you can do is RESEARCH what you are reviewing.
And just like any contract, before you sign, you must READ it all, and not assume something is stated in there. Everything I have ever been told regarding Banfield, I have read in information/contracts provided to me. It isn’t Banfields, or employees fault when a person chooses not to read what their signing and agreeing to. Last time I looked Vet’s went to school to treat and care for Pets (animals) not to be a personal reader for someone, or a translator of ENGLISH WRITING, next thing you know all the big companies are going to have a portable ‘PICTIONARY’ for all the people who assume something was written or said to them.
I have been a client of Banfield for 4 years now, I have had up to 4 pets on wellness plans, and at this moment I have 2 on a plan, and my rescue/foster is patient of two Banfields Pet hospitals.
I have had a few negitive experences because of an employee, and I notice employee never last to long!