Would you complain or just cough up the cash..?

[Racing_Gal]

I had the vet to Tazz on Monday, they are a small local practice and come from 0.9 mile away from my yard. (I've just driven it in my car to check!) Had the horses flu jabs done in April...the call out fee was £11.00 (£10 per call out plus £1 per mile travelled from the surgery) as it has been for the last few years. I've just had the bill from the visit this we had on Monday and the call out has gone upto £21.50. I know petrol prices have gone through the roof but £21.50 to come not even a mile seems very steep! I thought maybe that included other things to but looking down the bill I have been charge seperatley for examination and the medication. I have used this practice since I moved here 7 years ago and spent ££££'s with them, would you complain or just pay?

Tell me if you think I'm been silly!

 

[Sunny08]

Feel happy mine is £35 just for call out + petrol then on top of it! Then a further £35 to examine the horse! I get my vets bill and think it must be april fools day!

 

[scotsmare]

You could phone them and enquire - it may be an error but I rather suspect not. My vets call out is £27 plus VAT.

 

[carys220]

I think you should call them and ask why it has gone up so dramatically.

 

[Quarrybank]

I'm 2 miles from my vets & they often come on the way to or from work & it's still £35 call out plus examination, plus drugs. If I can, I now take them to the practice myself to save the call out.

 

[Racing_Gal]

I would of taken her down there if I'd of know how much it had gone up, the only reason I have them come to me is because it was cheap lol

By the looks of it, there still cheaper than allot of vets, (call out fee) Was just a shock when I openned it!

 

[Dressagebabe]

I would think at £10 per call out +£1 per mile they were very much the cheapest Vets on the planet and has realised that all the other Practices in the area were far more expensive so has decided to move with the times - and quite rightly so, It costs a Vet well in excess of £125k to train for 5/6yrs at Uni which comes out of his own pocket, once qualified around £800k to buy premises and set it up a rather humble Vet Practice and then staffing salaries, drugs bills are huge at the moment with fuel prices & discount on line pharmacies so it is not a case of having a licence to print money, merely a way of surviving with a decent enough salary to retire after being burnt out from working 100hrs per week.

 

[Nic74]

That's exactly what happened to me. Our vet has charged £12 call out plus VAT for the past 3 years and suddenly it's £23.50 plus VAT! I was annoyed as he manages to send advertising stuff to us most months (they are always doing some special offer or another) so I thought a 'by the way, sorry but we are having to increase call out charges' might have been polite rather than just landing it on us. Even if he's across the road doing somebody else's horses or cows or whatever he charges the full amount. It's a rip off, he would earn more than me in a day without doing any vet stuff, just 5 calls outs would do the trick!!

I complained about it as I knew the vet was coming to us on his way back from somewhere else, and I got mine for £17.50 in the end.

 

[Nic74]

[ QUOTE ]
I would think at £10 per call out +£1 per mile they were very much the cheapest Vets on the planet and has realised that all the other Practices in the area were far more expensive so has decided to move with the times - and quite rightly so, It costs a Vet well in excess of £125k to train for 5/6yrs at Uni which comes out of his own pocket, once qualified around £800k to buy premises and set it up a rather humble Vet Practice and then staffing salaries, drugs bills are huge at the moment with fuel prices & discount on line pharmacies so it is not a case of having a licence to print money, merely a way of surviving with a decent enough salary to retire after being burnt out from working 100hrs per week.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's still no excuse for making money out of travelling. Vets charge enough for their consultations and treatments, and maybe if they didn't charge rip off prices for stuff people would buy it from them and not online. I get my dog flea treatments for £13 for 3. My vet charges £10 for one. It's profiteering.

 

[Mrs_Wishkabibble]

My vet charges £50 plus VAT callout. I would be pleased with a £21.50 callout fee.

Maybe you could take the horse to them next time and use your time and fuel instead or even hack there?

Edited to say - I do understand they could have informed you of their increase on charges though so would maybe call them?

 

[Tiffany]

I think it's a reasonable call out rate although if they had advised of their new rates before they came you could have made the choice of whether to still use them or not. The vet I use always advising in writing when they increase their rates or if a vet leaves or new one arrives

I'd give them a call

 

[Keltic]

My vet is excellent he does not charge a call out if he is in the area! he is lovely with the horses too so a real win win situation

 

[Nando]

Our call outs are £30 even if they are passing the door on the way back to the practice! When I had to have one of mine put down on an emergency call, I got charged a basic call out and an emergency one - where's the logic in that?!!

Fab as vets are, and lets face it we couldn't live without them, I guess we are simply a captive audience when it comes to call out charges, examination charges, vat etc and there isn't much we can do about it!

 

[MistletoeMegan]

[ QUOTE ]
I would think at £10 per call out +£1 per mile they were very much the cheapest Vets on the planet and has realised that all the other Practices in the area were far more expensive so has decided to move with the times - and quite rightly so, It costs a Vet well in excess of £125k to train for 5/6yrs at Uni which comes out of his own pocket, once qualified around £800k to buy premises and set it up a rather humble Vet Practice and then staffing salaries, drugs bills are huge at the moment with fuel prices & discount on line pharmacies so it is not a case of having a licence to print money, merely a way of surviving with a decent enough salary to retire after being burnt out from working 100hrs per week.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not entirely accurate.

£125k on uni? How exactly does that add up? And a qualified vet doesn't have to start a practice from scratch, they can go down the same route as most newly qualifieds by working as a salaried vet; if they want to become a partner then they do the same as someone in any other business would, they buy a share... yes that requires a lump of cash, but becoming a partner is not a requirement of becoming a vet.

I appreciate that vets work very, very hard and for the service they provide I have always considered mine to be good value for money, but given that the average profit per partner in the East is well into six figures, the portrayal of all vets as poverty-stricken is wholly inaccurate.

 

[kit279]

My father is my vet but even he made me pay for his petrol costs last time I asked him to come up and check one of mine over... I think it might have been cheaper for me to get my local vet out instead...

 

[Donkeymad]

They may have made a mistake, so it might be worth a friendly query, but it is probably a catch-up rise. My vet charges £50 call-out before he even gets out of the car, but he is worth every penny.

 

[kickandshout]

if complaining makes you feel happier than why not -- whether it will make any difference -- i doubt it ?
we as horse owners are here to be exploited wherever a price rise is.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

You'll probably find that they have introduced a banding system so within a 10 mile radius it's so much, 10 - 20 mile radius a bit more and so on. Can't blame them. What I do find odd is that you can't share a call out. If a few of us at the yard need the vet, they split the call out fee for us 2, 3, 4 etc ways. Have you asked if they would do that coz it would save them time and money too.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

call out fees are normally splittable if more than one peep has them out on the same yard?

 

[Racing_Gal]

I'm on my own yard so no one to share the bills with

 

[saskia295]

TBH, callout is callout, regardless of milage. They can't have one rule for one and another rule for someone else. My friend lives less than 100 metres from her vets practice and got charged call out!!! I'm afraid it is just one of those things.

 

[Orangehorse]

You might say you were surprised as you hadn't been notified of any rise.

Our practice charges a call out charge, plus extra if at the weekend or evening. They do usually only charge once for that though, because if they are asked first they will do two species, e.g. cattle and dog or horse even though a horse call-out is usually more than a farm animal one.

 

[Dressagebabe]

Megan2006: It is exactly true! A salaried Vet earns between £28k and £35k depending on length of time qualified, this salary can be earned in a hair dressing salon, Sainsbury's as a department manager a Human Consultant's Secretary! not really requiring huge brain skills and the expertise of diagnostic skills from something that cant tell you whats wrong.

The Uni fees are easily in excess of £125k over the 6 yrs as my neice has recently qualified from Cambridge, to acheive this her parents had to re-mortgage their home. The only way a Vet can earn a decent wage in six figures as you put it, is if they are one of the leading Specialists - certainly not an average Partner that owns his own practice. Taking on this responsibility of owning ones own Practice is seriously stressful without covering the hours they do and having to make sure what they do for the animal is as accurate as possible- the highest suicide rate is a Veterinary Surgeon.

Buying on line will soon be a thing of the past again and then you will have to rely on the expertise of your Vet. Animals are not a necessity, purely a luxury (unless guide dog etc) for this reason alone we, on many occassions find ourselves treating animals to save the owners pocket and not for the absolute best welfare of the animal.

 

[Dressagebabe]

Mowgli: A Vet can earn a huge amount more purely by staying in the operating theatre and just do small animal surgery! If most of the Vets choose to do this your call out fees would be astronomical and the rate of survival for colics and genuine emergencies would be far less as there would be only a handful of Vets around that are prepared to come out for a miserly £23 unlike a plumber that charges £125 call out!

 

[kizzywiz]

My vet bill has just arrived, visit 10-15 miles £28 + VAT, so £32.90, think thats reasonable

 

[cob1]

My vets are 20 miles away and its about £30 callout and £ 2 per min consultation plus meds. Luckily most on the yard use them so normally we can share call out. They are fab so i dont mind, and sometimes if you ring, they will give advise over the phone and sometimes meds if it is an existing problem and send them in the post.

 

[kbsaff]

My vet is six miles away. I pay £70 call out and £54.00 "advice" everytime. Then on top of that I have any treatment.
My vet was out the other day as pony's ears were itchy (really itchy and bleeding, not just a tickle)
it cost me £384 fo rhim to come through the gate, advise, bottle of ear drops and a steroid injection.
I nearly died!

 

[ISHmad]

Call out fee for us is £52!!!!!! I need to print this off and show our vets I think. They are about 8 miles away...

 

[Daphnelia]

Why remorgage the house? Do vets not get student loans like the rest of us?

 

[Dressagebabe]

Snow_pony: Unfortunately they dont anymore, it has to be funded by the family!!