Surprisingly large vet bill

[johnrobbo1980]

Hi, any advice on this would be greatly appreciated, bit of a long story but here we go..

 

My girlfriends dog had a bad leg so we took him to the vets, suspected cruciate ligament damage so booked him in for an x-ray, we were advised if it was cruciate then costs could be £2k ish, only verbally by a lady who worked in the vets. She has insurance so we checked and insurance covered first £1500 of a cruciate so were expecting £500ish bill.

The dog went in for his xray, they operated there and then he stayed overnight and came home the next day with a buster collar on and leg stitched up. We caged him as advised so he couldn't move around too much on it. Next morning came down to find he had chewed all stitched out because the buster collar the vets had provided was too small (he's a big dog) so we called the vets, they said bring him back in, they put him under and re did the stitches and he came home later the same day. No mention of costs, not asked to sign anything, this time they heavily bandaged the leg and put a shoe on so he couldn't get at it. He went back for numerous check ups to check the scar was healing, stitch removal etc, and during none of these visits were any costs discussed with us or were we advised of how much the whole thing was costing (at any point).

 

He is now nearly fully recovered a couple of months down the line and this morning she received a letter from the vets giving he a warning of overdue payment saying that she owes them £2060 so we called the vets (couldnt speak to accounts as its a saturday) receptionist pulled the flle up and said yes that it was owed after insurance, range the insurance who have confirmed they have paid £1,500.

 

There wasn't even a breakdown of costs. I expect to find on Monday that they have charged for the second part of the operation under the assumption that the insurance will just pay it when in fact it was due to their own error of not giving him a correct buster collar or bandaging over the stitches in my opinion.

 

It is a company called pet medics we have used who are part of a large group of vets. I'm not sure where we stand on this, my girlfriend has no income and doesn't own her own house, has no credit etc, so if they chase her for it the won't get anywhere but that is only a last resort we would much rather sort it fairly, I was going to pay the bill for her expecting £500 ish.

 

I can't imagine any other industry where you could not advise somebody of costs and just send a letter owing £x so how can a vets get away with it?

 

Any advice greatly appreciated before I call the vets on Monday to sort (when I have calmed down )

 

Thanks

[citizenB]

First of all you should ask for a breakdown of costs - this is your right and should have been automatically provided.

 

Then you should advise that you were not prepared for these extra costs as you had not been advised of them.

 

That you are unable to pay this in a lump sum and would request they will allow you to make the payments over a period of time in monthly instalments.

 

You might find once you receive a breakdown of the costs that there might be a duplicate cost or something you could challenge.

 

It is wrong that they automatically assumed that all costs would be covered by the insurance.