Vets4Pets first visit beware.

RevolvingDoor

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Pets At Home is a pet store, it's their job to sell you pet products :rotfl:

My vet isn't a pet store though so I find it annoying when they try to push products on me.

Benzade

My seniments exactly RevolvingDoor I think sadly the days of Vets giving independent advice on products is a thing of the past and if they don't stock a particular brand they won't recomend it no matter how good it is.

To echo Krlyr Vets should stick to what they know best and leave selling pet products outside of the medication they have to prescribe to clear up an ailment to the pet shops and supermarkets as they obviously can't compete in this field. They are just making themselves look like rip off merchants when they have things like a dog toy priced at £12.99 on the shelf yet you can buy the same one at your local pet shop for £7.99 and less if you visit the supermarket.

~Chameleon~

This thread makes me laugh! People complain that vet fees are exorbitant yet whenever we try to bring in other forms of revenue to help reduce those fees we get shot down in flames for it! Seems we can't win, no matter what we do. C'est la vie!

Benzade

So that's why vets recomend Royal Canin and other overpriced gubbins on their shelves is it Chameleon? There you have it folks straight from alledgedly the horses mouth the reason vets try to pursaude us to move away from what we know and have trusted for years is to offset the cost of that pricy injection little Tiddles has just had in the next room!

But it dosen't work out that way Chameleon does it? In reality all these other products you bring in to alledgedly offset the high vets fees are that ridiculously priced that they don't sell well amongst the experienced pet owners who visit your practice. Therefore you can continue to keep your vets fees high as by your own reckoning you have no other choice.

However should you get a complete fool or pet novice who believes that your recomendations must be in their pets best interest because after all you're a vet with letters after your name that they willingly buy the ridiculously priced other products as well as the high priced treatment you have just given then surely it's a win win for the vet?

Sounds like a case of having your cake and eating it to me. As much as you wouldn't want me and my head up my own backside for a client I wouldn't want you looking after my pets best interests either if thats how you allegedly run your practice.:D

~Chameleon~

Nothing wrong with Royal Canin whatsoever. My cats have eaten it all their lives and are well into their 20s now and are still in great physical health. The reason you often see Royal Canin foods on veterinary shelves is because they are one of the very few companies to manufacture veterinary diets for specific medical needs and there are still some people who can't or won't buy online so they have no choice but to buy from their vet. Hills being the other popular one, and the first company to actually produce veterinary formulated food.

You can, however, order whatever brand you like from your vet subject to the wholesalers stocking it but most people prefer to buy from a supermarket or pet store as it's cheaper so you'll find very few surgeries actually stocking regular food, other than that they feed to patients,and neither do we push specific brands to people. We only ever recommend a particular diet when there's a medical need for it so get off your high horse and stop spouting rubbish as you obviously don't have a clue!

Shoshannah

We don't really have any toys on display in reception, but we do have some if people ask for them.

Foodwise, we stock Applaws, Orijen and our own brand of raw meat. We don't get paid by the manufacturers to stock this stuff. We sell it because we believe in a high protein diet.

If someone wants to feed something else, or buy Applaws/Orijen etc elsewhere, then that's up to them. Of course we prefer them to buy it from us (wouldn't be much of a business if we didn't), but we don't force anything on anybody.

Benzade

Oooh Chameleon I've obviously touched a raw nerve there! A pound of sour grapes for table No2 please me thinks.

Now both you and Shoshannah may be from honourable practices I don't know and in your case Chameleon I think it's safe to say for us both, we hope I never find out. But my expereince, both what I had myself and wittnessed with the other young couple I mentioned was that Vets4Pets did try to hardsell food products and other things such as pet insurance etc that could have purchased for considerably less elsewhere. FACT.

Now you say I obviously don't have a clue regards pricing but how much of a clue do you need to realise that £7.99 is cheaper than £12.99 for a dog toy?

If anyone is on a high horse here it is you. Like all professionals you think 'ordinary' people in other words the paying public shouldn't question or criticise your profession as you are above them and when they do, just like gypsies or freemasons you close ranks with a take one of us on then you take all of us on attitude. That's why you are taking my comments regarding my experiences with Vets4Pets so personally.

And if I am so full of manure as you seem to be indicating in your last post why are you bothering to answer me, could it just be that I actually have a point regards vet price structres in general?
I won't be answering any further posts you make on this thread as we are just going round in circles and the thread will decsend more into a farce than it already has become.
You to my knowledge are not or ever have been affiliated with Vets4Pets and can only comment on how your practice is run so really you have nothing of value to add with regards to advice on dealing with Vets4Pets which is what this thread was originally about.

krlyr

Benzade wrote: »

And if I am so full of manure as you seem to be indicating in your last post why are you bothering to answer me, could it just be that I actually have a point regards vet price structres in general?

But it is not "in general" - it is your one experience, in one veterinary surgeon, with one vet and one couple you witnessed.

Igottawii!!

I have to comment, I have cats and dogs and recently have started taking them to my local Vets4pets.
The vet is lovely, she adored my old boy and the kittens :-)

I took them there originally because they have regular offers on like £15 vaccinations, 25% off neutering etc I do have experience of quite a few vets as have been a pet owner for over 25 years as an adult.
She has not tried to sell me anything outside of what I have asked for, I now have all my animals signed up for their vacc for life programme at an offer price of £49 each and the kittens were both neutered on the 25% offer.
Even when I told her my younger dog is not currently insured she made no comment whatsoever, never mind have a go at me!

Like anything, you will get good and not so good vets but they all have to be highly qualified (I know I couldn't study for the length they have to!) and their advice in regard food etc is just that :- advice and at the end of the day people should realise the vet is for medical advice not necessarily nutritional and be responsible enough to do their own bit of research.

Benzade

Well Krlyr if this thread helps just one person realise that you can get certain products cheaper elsewhere and save money rather than buying everything as a job lot from Vets4Pets or any other veterinary practice for that matter then it's been worthwhile.

No offence to vets in general but you should be on your guard regards being sold extra stuff when visiting them for the first time just as you would be on your guard if you took your car into a garage in an area you didn't know or you was using a builder from the yellow pages for the first time.

In my experience the vets I have used down the years have been far removed from the homely BBC image of Farnon and Herriot that they all like to portray in their surgeries.

For anyone new to this thread those where my experiences with Vets4Pets on the day take from them what you will. I've had other niggling little issues with them during subsequent visits also each one too trivial to mention as a single issue and certainly not enough to move elsewhere but taken as a whole they start to mount up and you begin to form a picture of how they operate.