Marshall and his crew were a heartbreaking disappointment. After weeks of discussing the decision to have our dog put down, we finally decided that it was time. The next day we called to schedule an appointment with Athens Veterinary Clinic. We called as soon as they opened at 9am and asked some questions. The woman that answered the phone said their schedule was completely full that day but if we'd like, they could do an emergency procedure after hours for an additional $100. I told her we would like to do that and asked if we could set it up for 4:30. She said yes. We then went about the rest of our day coming to terms with the decision we were about to make. We took her on some walks, cooked her a steak for her last meal and made sure that her last day with us was a good one.
At 4:05pm the vet office called and asked us if we were still coming in. They told us that we had the time wrong and they close at 4pm and they weren't sure why we would think it was for 4:30. I had appointments all day until 4:30 and never would've scheduled for 4 because I knew we couldn't make it in time. We went back and forth for a while. How rude she was, the heartlessness in what she said, and the tone in which she said it was mind blowing. And it ended with, "we're wrapping up with our last patient in 5 minutes so you need to be here by then." I said "I won't be rushed in to killing my dog. We'll be there at 4:30 like we scheduled or you're cancelling on us. She said, "then we're cancelling."
I can't express what we felt at that time. Coming to the realization that all the emotions that we had gone through for the previous 24 hours was all for nothing. And then realizing we would have to go through it all over again once we rescheduled.
The next day I called the clinic to talk to Marshall. The woman that answered the phone told me that Marshall said he would not be talking to me and we were no longer allowed back as patients because of my behavior and because I didn't show up for a scheduled appointment. Athens Vet scheduled this appointment wrong, blamed me for it, cancelled on us as we were putting our dog in to the car and then kicked my family out as patients. We now had to find a vet that could do this procedure for us that had never seen our dog as a patient before. And after having made the difficult decision to say goodbye to a member of the family, I have a new found disgust for Marshall and his team. They understand the emotions behind a decision like this and they didn't care one bit. They were just mad that it inconvenienced them and they took it out on us during this time of grief. I actually spoke with Marshall directly a few days later to try to express our feelings and get his perspective on the situation. He repeatedly said, "I'm sorry you feel that way but we didn't do anything wrong."
I will never recommend this clinic to anyone. read more
