All the reviews suck for a reason. DO NOT take your furry loved one to this Banfield Cortlandt /…read moreMohegan Lake location. We're still absolutely shocked how neglectful this experience was.
We arrived to drop off our new kitten for a comprehensive exam after she hadn't eaten for 4 days (leaving us to blend her food & feed her via oral syringe).
First off, most Banfield-PetSmart partnerships in my hometown (California) allow a separate entrance and are of MUCH higher quality.
This one doesn't have a separate entrance, you have to needle your way BEHIND all the check-out counters. And the fact that your pet might have to walk through an unpredictable PetSmart and potentially interact with other animals without notice -- is literally beyond dangerous.
SECOND, the front office staff weren't just unfriendly and cold -- it's like they didn't even know HOW to communicate, let alone greet visitors.
I'm going to single out the woman with the neck tattoo, who literally didn't look us in the eye, didn't call us OVER to the desk, didn't have ANYTHING to say when we GOT to her part of the desk, and had literally ZERO interest in our new kitten aside from an air of annoyance.
She didn't even direct us WHERE to put her crate, and we're lucky we provided a written list of our questions because she had absolutely ZERO follow-up to ask. Astonishingly neglectful.
Then, when we were asked to pick our kitty up, ANOTHER front office woman said -- and I directly quote -- "You can pick up ____ now. The doctor is done with the SURGERY."
We didn't ASK FOR ANY SURGERY.
Understandably, we were petrified because we didn't drop off our cat for any procedure, which I explained. Cue that office worker RUDELY correcting me with -- "no, the vet is done with ANOTHER animal's surgery".
Breh. Check your phrasing, much?
There was absolutely no care for the words in her response or the worry her carelessness could cause. It felt uneducated and unnecessarily rude, which seems to be the MO with customer service in New York (take me back to the West Coast please) -- and certainly is part of this staff culture.
(By the way, the OTHER front office worker -- the girl with black hair / tan skin -- was actually super cool, very helpful, and totally deserves all the praise here, by the way. We feel bad that she's stuck with the worst coworkers EVER.)
That's just the front desk, so brace yourself for this. The WORST experience was when the vet called and we had to REQUEST she do a blood test that was supposed to be PART of the comprehensive exam.
BRO. Why else would we have dropped our fur angel off if you aren't even going to DO a blood test, especially in the case of starvation which would mean KIDNEY FAILURE for a cat?
By this point, our kitty had been there for OVER SEVEN HOURS so the fact they didn't even call EARLIER to request the blood test said wonders about the quality of service you'll get here.
The blood test came up because *we* -- the CLIENTS -- brought it up. Literally wouldn't have requested it otherwise, and for our cat who wasn't EATING for more than 4 days, why on EARTH would they not THINK to even do a blood test more promptly?
And here's MORE. After that, we took her back to SPCA to request a follow up with their in-house vet, who we trust more (which is insane that we can say that about SPCA, but don't chide us bc we're still finding a good family vet -- Banfield was just the fastest option) -- the SPCA vet requested we send notes from this Banfield center's exam.
Guess what? As of 2 days later, there's still ZERO notes on our kitty's portal. No summary for the visit, literally nothing.
I understand this center might be overstaffed and struggling, but like COME ON.
Not only did they act unnecessarily coldly and rude during EACH interaction -- they failed TWICE to do what their job description entails (blood test AND post-exam notes), ENDANGERING the life of our kitten through sheer negligence.
Do yourself a favor. Don't go to this Banfield. JUST DON'T. I'm CERTAIN at this point that a number of preventable deaths MUST have already occurred here, by logical extension of what we saw in only TWO visits and two phone calls this very week.
A family vet who actually CARES about your little angel will save their life. Do NOT go here, you will absolutely regret it.