Avoid Banfield Pet Hospitals and the Wellness Plans. Read our story [UPDATE 2]
filed in bad customer service on Mar.26, 2010
If you have a pet, stay far far away from Banfield Pet Hospitals. Also, avoid their “Wellness Plan” as it’s nothing more than a scam. We found out the hard way, hopefully you won’t have to.
We very recently had a bad experience with Banfield in Middletown, NJ. I believe our puppy “Winston” got sick from unsanitary conditions and almost had a vaccination which he already had days before accidentally given to him again by the vet at Banfield.
The manager at Banfield is refusing to help and cancel our “Wellness Plan” contract, despite everything that has happened.
Here is how it happened:
3/15: We pay adoption fees for a puppy, to be named “Winston” He will be sent to us via plane on 3/19.
3/16: Winston has his first vaccination at the vet.
3/19: Winston is dropped off at the airport to be sent to us. The vet says we’ll need to have him de-wormed.
3/19: We pick up Winston from the airport and bring him home. He’s a little scared, but very curious. Soon he’s running around having fun. He’s awesome.
3/21: We go to Banfield Pet Hospital in Middletown NJ, and sign up for their “Wellness Plan,” after information about the plan is forced on us repeatedly. This includes watching a 10 minute video which we did not have a choice on while waiting 20+ minutes in the exam room. The plan cost $139 down, and $25 per month on an annual basis. It includes office visits, vaccinations, fixing the dog, etc. Does not meds, procedures, etc.
The nurses which have been handling and getting licked by other animals (potentially sick ones) are handling Winston, and letting him lick them. After doing some research and asking around I now realize this is completely inappropriate and not sanitary. If a dog is sick it’s possible to transmit the virus to another dog if both dogs lick the same person.
The doctor (Dr. Kim) tells us the vaccination he already had is “not of quality.” She wants to give him another and nearly does. My wife barely stops her and asks if it’s too soon, as it’s only been 5 days. Dr. Kim looks at Winston’s history again and says “oh yes, sorry we need to wait it’s too soon.”
We leave and get meds for a slight ear infection and a pull for de-warming him.
The visit costs $250 (including the $139 + 25 for the first month of the Wellness Plan.) The meds are extra, almost everything is “extra.”
3/24: Winston develops a cough, it’s not bad. I am convinced that the unsanitary conditions of Banfield are what caused him to be sick, as he was examined and aside from an ear infection he was in perfect health. 
3/25: The cough becomes severe with him discharging fluids. I leave work early and go to another vet which was recommended. We get x-rays of his lungs. Turns out that he has a respiratory infection and it might turn into pneumonia. We get antibiotics and pay the $300 fee. This vet visit was very different and felt really professional compared to the Banfair vet and staff.
3/26: I am upset and I want to cancel my Wellness Plan. I know I have an annual contract but I want to try an plead my case.
1PM: I call Banfield and they tell me I need to call the Wellness Center to cancel. I call the wellness and they tell me since it’s been more than 72 hours, it’s up to Banfield to cancel the contract and refund. They suggest I call and speak to the manager, and advise that they would forward my complaint. I call banfield again, but the manager is not there. She’ll be there at 4:30 I’m told.
5PM: I call again, the manager is still not there. I leave a message for a callback.
7PM: Joan the manager calls. She asks me what’s going on, and I explain the situation to her. She recommends I call the Wellness Center. I explain that they said she’s the one who can help. Joan replies with “I got your complaint from the Wellness center and I will not cancel your plan or let you out of the contract. We are also not going to refund you any of the money for the office visit.”
I tried to argue my case that the nurses were not taking the appropriate precautions, and I also mention that Dr Kim almost accidentally gave our puppy a shot which he already had not even 5 days earlier, and if it wasn’t for my wife Winston could have been really sick from having the same vaccination twice in under a week.
Joan pretty much disregarded anything I said and stuck to “we are not at fault, and we will not cancel your contract.”
I don’t think that asking for our contract be cancelled is too much. Considering that our puppy got really sick just days after the Banfield vet visit, their unsanitary conditions and nearly accidental vaccination, I believe Joan should have handled the situation a lot better.
I would highly advise against ever taking any pet to a Banfield Pet Hospital. Furthermore, the Wellness Plan seems nothing more than a scam, as even our first visit had nearly $100 of extra charges of things not covered.
If anyone has any recommendations as to how to proceed, that would be awesome. I can’t really find too much corporate information. Any help would be appreciated.
UPDATE:
3/26: I couldn’t find any corporate contacts, so I scavenged the Banfield.net website and until I found a page listing the names of all their medial staff. I compiled an email similar to this blog post and went head to email everyone who’s name I could find. I guessed that their email naming method was First.Last@banfield.net, which was correct, as I received some out-of-office responses and no bounce backs.
3/28 (Sunday): Joan, the Middletown NJ Banfield store manager which I had spoken to on Friday called me in the evening. She said that my complaint had reached a medical chief somewhere in Banfield, and he wanted to speak to me on Tusday at 2:30PM when he would be at their location. I agreed and we hung up.
3/30 (Tuesday): At about 3:40 after not getting the promised call from Banfield I decided to call. The receptionist said that the manager Joan was not in today at all, and that nobody from their corporate offices was there.
4:30: Dr. Kim, the vet which had examined Winston, and had nearly given him a vaccination which he did not need called to talk about what my concerns were. After I explained everything she said that “Dr Ortiz”, a medial chief at Banfield would call me shortly, as he had arrived to their location.
4:40: Dr Ortiz calls me, and we go through all my concerns from the top, again. He says that he reviewed the medical file and that believes that they did nothing wrong. This is the same thing that Joan had originally said to me, so we’re going in circles now.
I ask what their policy is for the techs and nurses handling the pets. He tells me that they wash their hands and not let pets transfer saliva to each other. I tell me that I know that the nurses were not washing their hands and they were going from dog to dog and getting licked in the face. Dr Ortiz does not have a real response to this, and says that he needs to look into it. Dr. Ortiz also has no answer as to why my puppy almost get a vaccination which he already had.
He now goes on to say that it’s impossible for them to cancel my plan without charging me for the whole year. I already know that’s simply not true, when in fact it’s up to the individual Banfield location which signed up the customer to cancel the plan. I inform Dr Ortiz that what he told me is not true, and they can definitely cancel my plan. After a brief pause he tells me that he needs to present the case to someone else at corporate and they would decide. He says he’ll call me back by Friday.
At this point I feel like they’re just stalling and just don’t really want to help. They are definitely in the wrong. They were unsanitary, did not handle Winston professionally. Once again, they almost gave him a shot which he did not need. Despite all this, they will not admin they were at fault. They will not even admin that they MIGHT be responsible for him being sick. They have already lost me as a customer, and instead of trying to fix the situation by canceling the plan and possibly offering a partial refund they continue to make it worse.
I will continue to post information on blogs, and reviews everywhere I can to inform everyone at how shitty this place is.
I will update if and when they call back.
UPDATE
This is a long over due update. They finally called me back from corporate a few days after the last update and said they would cancel my plan and refund the money. The local Banfield manager called me shortly after and said that they would send me proof of the refund in the mail, which I got a few days later.
So after much struggle they finally gave in and cancelled the plan, although they never took full responsibility.
Like I said in the comments below: I am sure that some Banfield places are better than others, but I will never chance taking any of my pets to another one again.
Thanks for all the comments and info!
March 28th, 2010 on 2:53 pm
I worked for Banfield briefly as a collections rep at the corporate office in Portland, Oregon. The Wellness Plans are made for one reason only, TO MAKE THE COMPANY MONEY! All day long I talked to people who were told by the hospital that the plan could be canceled at any time. I Know for a fact that the corporate office is aware of this misinformation and deliberately does not advise there hospitals to correct this. The actual production cost of the services provided by the wellness plans is often less than $100, but the “Retail Value” of the services can be in excess of $1000.00. I understand that a company obviously needs to make money, but the markup on these services is outrageous on top of the unethical lack of information given to the clients by the hospital staff (generally speaking) about their options for canceling the wellness plan. In addition to this the billing for the company is all “paperless”. You have to give a credit card to be automatically billed every month. If something happens and the payments aren’t automatically processed for several months the wellness plan is canceled to collections. At this point, even if the “Retail Value” of the services used is LESS than the cost of the plan they are going to send you to IC Systems (a collection agency) for the whole year’s cost of the wellness plan plus collection fees, if said fees are allowed in your state. This means that if you took your pet in to the hospital all you had done were 2 shots and some kind of fecal exam, and later on the payments are defaulted on (sometimes the “automatic billing system” randomly just stopped taking payments for, SERIOUSLY, no reason!) you are going to be sent to collections for up to $400.00. Granted, it is ultimately the client’s responsibility to make sure their bills are being paid, but how easy could it be to miss that 21.95 wasn’t deducted from your account? SOMETIMES the clients will be mailed a letter saying the payments are not being made and SOMETIMES a phone call is generated in the system, but by no means does this happen with every client. I would say it happens maybe 30% of the time. I know, this is all I did all day long for two months while in the Wellness Plan collections department. I have never in my life worked for a company where all day long I had to listed to people threatening legal action. I really believe that it can’t be legal that they cancel the wellness plans to collections for more then the retail value of the services that were used, and I also think this is in direct contradiction with what the actual contracts say. This is one of the worst jobs with the worst company I’ve ever had in my life. Unfortunately as far as the company is concerned there really is NO WAY that they are going to give you your money back. I’ve been researching their business practices online and I believe there are many people trying to form a class action lawsuit against them. I would highly suggest that you look into joining one of these lawsuits. Something like that is the only effective thing that is going to send a message to the public.
March 30th, 2010 on 2:44 pm
Thanks for the info. Was just doing some research on banfield because my wife wanted to use the wellness plan.
Will avoid them and go somewhere else.
Hope Winston is feeling better, please update and let us know!
March 30th, 2010 on 2:52 pm
I agree with @K.B.
Typical corporate bullshit. They care about money, not you and not your puppy. You figure the manager would have been more sympathetic.
Thanks for sharing.
P.S. Stick with private veterinary hospitals where they really do care.
April 18th, 2010 on 11:08 am
You’re dediculous. I’ve been a client with banfield for many years and much enjoy their wellness plans. When I signed my contract their reception staff did a good job in making sure i understood that this is not an insurance.Pets can get sick anywhere, perhaps the flight the pet was on, maybe you took if for a walk and caught it from some other pet. you cant blame you pet getting sick on a dr. that takes an oath to do whats best for your pet.you seem paranoid and too high strung.
April 30th, 2010 on 1:39 pm
I have worked for a Banfield Hospital for over 10 years and the experience you have all just heard is not normal for the private practice. I am a nurse who loves and adores every patient who enters the hospital. I always wash my hands before and after working with each patient including anywhere they may have licked such as arm, fingers, face etc… I do that because I value keeping them healthy. Banfield has very strict standards of quality medicine and sanitary conditions. We do not have carpet or plastic surfaces which can hold bacteria, we sanitize each exam room, kennel, treatment table etc… before and after each patient. I am suprised to hear that Winston’s owner say nurses being licked from one pet and then immediately going to have Winston lick them. I highly doubt that acually happened. It is unusual for a Doctor to not be aware of the vaccine history before deciding to vaccinate a patient. With that I would say the problem wasn’t Banfield but that individual doctor. After 10 years working with Banfield doctors I can confidently tell you that I have never witnessed this type of experience that Winston’s owner is talking about. I am very sad to hear about her experience and I know that it could have been handled differently. One important comment I would like to make is about when Winston became sick. I highly doubt it had anything to do with his examination. The puppy had just taken an airplane flight of which length she didn’t mention. So after flying on a plane with either other pets in cargo or under a seat surrounded by passengers who may or may not have been sick… it makes me wonder if he had already been exposed to his illness before his Banfield visit. Most infections don’t show symptoms immediately and he was seen immediately after they got their new puppy Winston.
As far as the wellness plans go I do love the plans becasue it DOES save people money. Regardless of Banfield being a large company, that is how they can afford to offer these wellness plan packages. The plans offer unlimited free office visits- can your current vet do that? They include every vaccination including boosters that your pet will need. It can include the spay/neuter option if you want that. I also includes a yearly heartworm test as well as several fecal testings and dewormings. The plans are only a list of pre-paid services. When Winston’s owner signed up on the plan she did sign a wellness plan agreement that listed all the services included. It also explains that anything not listed is not included. It also explains that anything else not listed in the wellness plan will be discounted by 10%. So although not everything that could happen to your pet is included in the plan- that isn’t the point of the plans. The plans are designed to cover the basic stuff you plan to do anyways but at a discounted price that has the cost split up over the course of 12 months rather than all at once. For thousands of families this is a huge help with budgeting for a furry family member! Then to help reduce cost of unexpected accidents/illness etc they offer a discount on all other services offered which includes diagnostic testing and medications. As far as canceling the plans there is another option that was not mentioned in the comments listed above by Winston’s owner. The plan can be canceled by means of two ways. Either the client pays for the cost of services recieved or they pay out the remaining years payments. So it sounds to me as though it would have been really inexpensive for them to just pay for services that they recieved aka just the office visit and medications given rather then canceling the remaining 11 monthly payments. Because they signed the agreement and signed him up they woudn’t get the membership fee back which is what it sounds like she wanted. As a whole I feel that there were many gaps in the above comments that didn’t add up.
As a whole I feel that Winston’s owners did not recieve a typical Banfield experience. It is possible that they signed up on a plan and signed the agreement without fully understanding it. There is always two sides to every story, although I am biased I still do feel that Banfield is a fabulous practice and I would never trust my pets to anyone else. I would strongly encourage everyone to find a local Banfield and just take a tour of the Hospital and decide for yourself before disregarding them based off of one person’s experience.
July 22nd, 2010 on 10:15 pm
We recently took ownership of a pet from a family member. The dog has been a patient of Banfield for over four years and has a current wellness program with them. We wanted to be sure that Lucy was a good fit so we waited a month before attempting to transfer her into our name and assume the policy. When we went to the Moorestown, NJ location to have her transferred we were shocked when we were told that we would have to sign her up as a new patient and pay a new patient membership fee of $69.95 while she was currently covered in an account in good standing. They went on to explain that was the only way they could update the information, take the previous owner off the account and name us Lucy’s owner. What they failed to explain is the crime of a predatory nature. We paid a total of $166.21 on 06/26/2110 to affect this change and purchased heartworm and tick prevention medication. I received a call last night from the same family member that we adopted the dog from and was informed that Banfield debited her account for $23.95, the same amount we are paying. Thinking this was a clerical error; I called the local Banfield clinic and was told that the previous owner was responsible for cancelling the old premium which they failed to disclose to us when we opened our account. When she called Banfield corporate today she was informed that her agreement was binding and she was responsible to pay the monthly fee until the contract expires in November. I called corporate to explain that we were now paying the premium for the SAME patient and I was told that their policy is to collect for the full contract amount regardless of duplicate premiums. Now, I have to refund my relative the same amount I’m paying for the dog’s coverage. When I asked if my dog was receiving twice the coverage they said no. When I asked if the transfer which I was charged $69.00 for had increased Banfield’s operating expense they said no. Finally, when I asked the corporate representative if they were in my shoes how would they feel; The reply was, a cold, I can’t answer that question because it’s not my pet. This is an absolute crime. They did not lose a client but now they are trying to collect twice for the same coverage on a single animal. I’m out of room or I’d explain my sales issue. Bottom line is that this company has either lost focus on customer service and doing the sensible right thing but more likely is a sales organization that is driven by greed and revenue with a corporate policy that screws their clients with no regard to ethics, moral or decorum. Their tactics of disclosure are at best invisible as they defer to small print in their terms and conditions and even twist those words to a point of distortion that is unrecognizable to the consumer eye. This organization is dirty, underhanded and feeds off fear and love of pets to upsell unsuspecting customers who assume that they are legitimate because they are partnered with a large national chain like Pet Smart. The aforementioned company should change its name to Pet DUMB because there is no long term strategy of survival when you sleep with a predator like Banfield. If you are smarter than me and performing your due diligence, do yourself a favor and check their rating history with the Better Business Bureau @ http://www.bbb.org/oregon/business-reviews/animal-hospitals/banfield-the-pet-hospital-in-portland-or-78000503 . They are not an accredited member and can’t be because they fall well below the BBB’s minimal standard requirements because of their history and practice. I’m not an attorney but if I were, I would rally to create a class action complaint against this entity that, in my opinion, is at par with Michael Vick.
August 3rd, 2010 on 1:15 pm
I just had a problem with Banfield. My dog ultimately needed ear surgery due to their failure to properly handle her medical needs.
I had a meeting with them which was a waste of time.
Did anyone pursue Banfield yet through the Court system in New Jersey?
October 5th, 2010 on 2:15 pm
I’m sorry this happened to you, but I’ve had absolutely no problems with Banfield Pet Hospitals or the puppy wellness plan. I know for sure it has saved me money based on all the visits we’ve made and how much the spaying would’ve cost us. I like knowing I can take our dog in anytime because I don’t have to worry that we won’t have the money up front to pay for the visit.
I think all situations are different and I wouldn’t say the plan sucks for everyone
October 8th, 2010 on 2:06 pm
Yesterday I took my 3 month old kitten to them for an exam. The vet techs held him down to take his temperature and started screaming. 2 hours after we got home he went to the bathroom and I saw blood dripping out of his butt. I took pictures of it. I called today and told them how horrified I am. I’m bringing him there later today so they can examine him. I can’t believe what they did to him.
October 8th, 2010 on 2:13 pm
Janee - When they took Winston’s temperature he was extremely uncomfortable, and cried. However, I have never once had the same issue with the new place we go to. Not once.
I am sure that some banfields are better than others, but due to our experience and the puppy getting so sick, I am never willing to chance it again.