Hello Tri-Community Residents,
I want to share yesterday's experience at Desert Mountain Veterinary at 655 CA-138, Pinon Hills, Ca 92372.
We have been taking our family members there for years with no problems, and received excellent service with a great attitude. However, yesterday I had a very bad experience that I feel I need to make everyone aware of.
I took Jazzy in for the required physical examination a few months before the scheduled appointment. Today was the fastest I could get her in because they were booked up. After the examination I was given an estimate with options. I was told I could pick the options that best fit our financial situation. I chose to pay for IV fluids for her during the procedure, I chose to pay for CPR if necessary, and I chose to pay for post-op pain meds. I declined to pay for blood testing because she is young and strong.
Our appointment was at 8:15 yesterday for a spaying ovariectomy or ovariohysterectomy. I had trouble getting her in the truck because she doesn't like rides like my dog Missile does. I noticed how strong she was trying to get her in my truck. I dropped her off on time and left because they said it would take all day. I received a phone call at 9:42 am just after I dropped her off. They stated Jazzy had defecated in her kennel and that she had worms.
They wanted me to fill a prescription for dewormer and I declined. I advised the receptionist on the phone that Jazzy had already been treated with pyrantel pamoate/praziquantel "7-1 dewormer 12 days ago, and she is getting her second dose on day 15 as per the directions".
She then stated "so you're declining to fill the prescription" and I said "yes" Because she's already been treated and I already have the medication. They said normally they don't do the surgery if the dog has worms, however, they did not articulate that to me on that phone call, that they definitely decided not to do the surgery, nor did they say you can come pick her up now. The phone call lasted 1 minute. I assumed they were going to do the surgery based on the information I gave them.
I continued to work through out my day. At the end of the day, I received another phone call from the Desert Mountain Veterinary at 3:07 PM, they stated that they did not want to do the surgery today after all stating "Jazzy was not reacting well to the pre anesthesia." They wanted to do blood work to make sure she was not anemic and send Jazzy home with deworming medication, to do the surgery at a later date. They asked what my thoughts were on that.
Me thinking about our previous conversation on the phone earlier that day at 9:42am, outlined above.
I replied, "at this point, I'm just going to come pick up my dog and find another vet I think you're just wasting my time."
They replied "ok" without hesitation.
Once I got there to pick up Jazzy, The receptionist asked "are you here to pick up Jazzy?"
I replied "Yes." I then went to sit down on the bench by the window facing the receptionist. There were two of us customers in the waiting room. The receptionist asked us "so who's going first" and we looked at her kind of confused. The other customer that was sitting right next to me said "I was here first, but I'm early so he can go first".
The receptionist said to me "I can bill you out now" I replied, "for what you guys really didn't do anything but waste my time."
She said "Well Jazzy was on IV fluids all day." I said, "You know what, can you go get the Doctor, I want to talk to him about this situation." I was told that the doctor was not there and they would have him call me. I always have paid them in full right when services were rendered but this time they didn't do the spay procedure I asked for.
They finally brought my dog out, and the receptionist handed me a standard client termination letter printed from online with the companies letter head on it.
This is when the receptionist raised her voice and said "your not listening to me, we have your dogs safety in mind.
I told her "I'm hearing everything you're telling me" , " I can't believe you're raising your voice to me, that this is how you treat a customer that spends thousands here."
All I wanted to do is get my dog spayed. I did not want to pay for dewormer medication as Jazzy is already being treated with medication. If they had told me to come and get Jazzy in the morning, and told me that they weren't gonna do the procedure today and that we would have to reschedule until Jazzy had finished her deworming treatment, none of this would have happened. Instead they kept my dog there the whole day, on unnecessary IV fluids that I only paid for to be administered during the procedure. I told them I was going to make a post about what happened to me here today. Three employees yelled at me and said "get out now" right after I told them that.
My dog came out fully alert and when she got out of the truck after the short drive home, she immediately ran o read more