Help with refund on a vet call out fee

Kasutei

So here's what happened....i'm dog sitting for my parents while they are away. Suzie is 13yrs old and had a brain tumour 2yrs ago, it's been under control since then and apart form being old she's had no problems.
My parents left me an emergency credit card and Suzie currently has no insurance.
Yesterday she had a fit, she's never had one before. In a blind panic i forgot the name of her vet!! stupid i know, so i got on to 118118 and asked to be put through to an emergency vet, they got me through to Anrich who said they would send the Practice Manager out to pick her up, when he got here he admitted that he was not a vet and therefore could not assess her and my options were that he could take her to anrich or take her to her own vets (i had remembered the name by this point) i opted for her to be taken to her own vets as they had all her history and they knew her. He took her and i followed after her vet called me to say she had arrived and i would be better coming after 2pm so i wouldn't be charged for out of hours.
I got there and she was doing ok, i told the vet that i had been charged £70 for her being taken there and he advised me to ask for it back because the guy had dropped her off, refused to sign any forms and gone, and as he wasn't an actual vet all he had provided was a taxi service basically.
So i want to get on to anrich and ask for the money back or at least a reduced charge because she wasn't assessed, just picked up and dropped off, so i can't see why i was charged for a Vet call-out when i didn't get a Vet.
Has anyone got any ideas on how i should go into this? thanks in advance

Elle7

This is a confusing one...

Was it an emergency? Was she still fitting when you phoned Anrich? Usually they'd send someone to see her at home, as an emergency. However, if it wasn't an emergency (and the vets telling you to come in later suggests it wasn't) then sending the practise manager to move her would probably be acceptable.

If you'd phoned your vets originally, and someone had to open the vets to see her out-of-hours, you would have been charged for this, so paying seems only fair. You could contact Anrich and explain that you felt it was a lot to pay for what was essentially a taxi transfer, and see if they'll give you money off, however. It could be that the priority was to get her to a surgery, and the practise manager was closest.

As for insurance, if the fitting is due to the brain tumour, she won't be able to be insured for this if it has lapsed. It is a pre-existing condition, so would be excluded from new policies.

I hope Suzie is okay, and I'm sure someone with more info will come along soon. I'm just going off my experiences!

bagginslover

You should be paying something, as someone was called out to you, but you could argue that it should be at a reduced rate as you were charged for, but didn't get a vet.

Whether or not it was an emergency, that fact should be the one to focus on I think. Unless of course that is just a call out fee, and having a vet would have cost more.

The other thing you'd need to remember is, did you get asked if it was OK for it to just be the practice manager? Were you given a choice? If you were (difficult to prove from a phone call I know, and in your panic you might not have heard correctly or even remember properly, very understandably) they could argue that you agreed to the charge even though it wasn't a vet coming, and so have to pay it-not saying I think you should have to, just trying to look at all angles.

Kasutei

The guy who came just wasn't bothered, he was saying "i'm not a vet, i can't assess her" when i phoned, all i wanted was a vet to visit her at home, as i don't drive and obviously she needed treatment.
On the phone to Anrich i explained that she was coming out of it, and the women said she'd send the practice manager that was it.......i didn't know that the practice manager wasn't actually a vet, only found that out when he got to the house.
It's a puzzler lol, just seems like charging me for a vet visit is a bit much seeing as they didn't actually send a vet, i know at the end of the day i did call them out.
This is all just on the advice of Suzie's actual vet, who said that being charged for vet visit was a bit much.
Thanks for the replies guys

Elle7

Okay, well first things first I'd say you need to clarify if this was a call-out charge (IE, simply someone who could drive coming to get you and taking you to the vets) or if the charge is a call out fee + the cost of a vet - I get the feeling it will be the first, and had a vet come and treated her at home, it would have cost a lot more.

If it is just a call out fee, I don't think you have much of an argument - you could possibly investigate the distance from your parents house to the vet you went too, and if its closer then the vet Anrich would have taken you too, ask for a discount based on that.

If they have charged you for a vet, agree to pay the call out fee only.

£70 seems very, very cheap if it was the cost you'd pay for a vet to come - how unsociable was this?

Suzie's vet does have a bit of a conflict of interests, wanting you to return Suzie to them. Were they familiar with Anrich, and their call out charges?

Fridaycat

I've known it to cost £70 for some people to see a vet out of hours at the surgery, when they have taken their pet there. So £70 also seems cheap to me to send a vet out to your house and out of hours.

So I agree with others that this is probably just the standard fee and if you had had a vet visit, it would have cost an awful lot more. Sorry

bagginslover

Elle7 wrote: »

Okay, well first things first I'd say you need to clarify if this was a call-out charge (IE, simply someone who could drive coming to get you and taking you to the vets) or if the charge is a call out fee + the cost of a vet - I get the feeling it will be the first, and had a vet come and treated her at home, it would have cost a lot more.

If it is just a call out fee, I don't think you have much of an argument - you could possibly investigate the distance from your parents house to the vet you went too, and if its closer then the vet Anrich would have taken you too, ask for a discount based on that.

If they have charged you for a vet, agree to pay the call out fee only.

This is what I was trying to say, only in my usual style I made it sound far more complicated than I needed to

Sagz_2

£70 for a taxi service seems a bit steep to me - I'd ask them if this is a standard fee for transport or if they have 'accidentally' charge you for a Vet call out that you didn't get.