shared call out charges

luckyoldme

luckyoldme

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A while ago the lady i share with had a mare with weekly visits from the vet. My gelding needed some work done so i spoke to the vet and agreed to tie it in with her next visit. I arrived on time.... brought the horse in and he was treated. I got the bill and realised i had a £20 call out charge. It would have been £35 if i had called him out just for my own horse. The explanation is ..well we dont do exactly half. I am now looking at my own business and seeing if there is anyway i can screw an extra £5 out of each customer.
 
That is bizzare! We charge half each or a thrid or whatever equally between owners. The only time this would not happen is if one party has agreed to pay the whole call out themselves.
 
Vets practice I used, will only half the call out, so if there are 4 of you, you all get charged half, way round it is to just get the one bill between you and then you just get charged once!
 
i remember once we had 5 horses, all got the same £20 call out charge! :(

my vet now is £25 but not sure if thats cos we tie it together with my friends visit whos yard is 1.2 miles away, he goes there first, then on to mine. not sure how much it is on its own :(
 
That is very cheeky, in theory the charge is cover the time and expense of driving to you. They definately only had the same time and expenses if they came to your yard for two clients.
 
I'm glad that other people agree with me... I'm going to email them tonight and ask for proper justification on this matter. I like all the vets i have met from the practice and i know more than most that the last year has been difficult for businesses... but i think this is really tight.
 
I would book them one day each for a week to have them running back and forth if thats the way they work! Rotton things. I'd also be looking for another vet - thats what I did with my last vets when they started "playing silly". My present vets are much more sensible and helpful!
 
Well......

I once booked in 8 horses to have vacinations and teeth checks, owners left all the passports with me, I had all the numbers for the owners just in case...... guess what....
practice sent 3 vets..... at the same time WTF !
 
We do the same thing in my practice, the reason is simple - the visit charge covers not only the price of petrol/time in travelling, but also part of the vet's time spent at the call. At most calls vets undercharge for their time anyway e.g. our £20 examination fee should be for a 10 minute exam, but I struggle to think of anything I get done in less than 20 minutes after taking a history, examining the horse, discussing/administering treatment etc. By not splitting the visit charge exactly in two, we can still charge more appropriately for our time, while offering a significant discount to both clients.
 
alsiola said:
We do the same thing in my practice, the reason is simple - the visit charge covers not only the price of petrol/time in travelling, but also part of the vet's time spent at the call. At most calls vets undercharge for their time anyway e.g. our £20 examination fee should be for a 10 minute exam, but I struggle to think of anything I get done in less than 20 minutes after taking a history, examining the horse, discussing/administering treatment etc. By not splitting the visit charge exactly in two, we can still charge more appropriately for our time, while offering a significant discount to both clients.
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silly me... it makes so much sense now. not.
 
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