Never in my life have I been so disgusted and felt so disrespected as I have after our recent…read moreexperience with Metro. I have updated this review to reflect further developments. My partner and I brought our cat to Metro on death's door, suffering from a severe blockage. He wouldn't make it through the night without treatment. Running a fever with a bladder that is about to burst, the staff at the hospital waited two hours before stabilizing him. Why? Upon giving a treatment recommendation they informed us they wouldn't begin any treatment until they got a deposit of $1000. Not even insert a catheter and release the pressure on his bladder.
Being that it is after 1am at this point, we don't have access to the funds we need until the next day. We even sent financial documents proving we had the funds available. Didn't matter. The doctor proceeded to tell my partner who is crying her eyes out, that our cat is in pain, and he is going to die if we don't get them the deposit, because they can't start doing any treatment otherwise. They needed a "show of good faith", as they put it. Otherwise, we were told our only other option was euthanasia or take him home to die. Despite the fact that we were actively calling family to help secure a deposit, they were content to wait before they would begin treating our dying cat.
If my pet was dying and I didn't want to bother to pay to save him, I wouldn't have brought him to you in the middle of the night and waited several hours, calling friends and family to come up with the deposit so you would begin providing even the most basic level of care. I understand that you want to mitigate financial risks, but the fact that this clinic told us as a policy, they won't start doing any treatment, even just the bare minimum basic triage of draining his bladder to keep him alive, until getting a deposit...it felt like they didn't trust we had the intent to pay them. Fortunately, after multiple attempts, we were able to connect with a family member who came through to help us get the deposit.
What came after is honestly what leaves the real sour taste in our mouths.
The next morning, the office manager Diana Stevens called us to inform us that this kind of behaviour is not tolerated at the hospital. Surely this must be an apology, right? Wrong. She had seen my one star Google Review from the night before, and it was clear she was bothered that I posted it because she mentioned it several times. However, rather than trying to understand what happened, she came out on the offensive and insisted her highly trained staff would never refuse to treat an animal because of a deposit, going so far as to accuse us of lying. She claimed they started treating him immediately (even though when I called to check up on our cat 3.5 hours after bringing him in, I was told by the staff member who answered the phone that they were just then putting in a catheter, only after we paid our deposit).
How can we not be upset when we're being told information that directly contradicts everything we were told the night before? Something doesn't add up.
Next, Diana brought out a ridiculous accusation, saying that allegedly she was told we were verbally abusive when we came in, and that as a result we will not have access to any treatment for any of our animals going forward through their clinic, and that we were to pick up our cat that day and never return (as if we ever would after being spoken to this way). Not once did she try and assess the situation and clarify any potential miscommunication.
Coming off the immense stress of the night before, to then have a confrontational call from the office manager just to berate us and accuse us of lying...I'm still having trouble processing it. My partner was crying all last night and this morning because of this experience, and I am just truly so disappointed in how the entire situation was handled. I'm not sorry for leaving my one star Google Review, as the retaliatory response from Diana Stevens only reinforced our decision to never use Metro again.
All we wanted was to be heard and to be understood. Obviously I wrote my negative review in a heightened emotional state. As someone who manages an emergency animal hospital, you would think someone in Diana's position could understand why we were so upset. Actually, when she had called us I was initially relieved because I thought maybe she wanted to clear the air. If she had reached out with even a hint of empathy, I would have happily updated my review to reflect that. However, she chose to be confrontational and accusatory right out of the gate.
Between the ethically questionable practices employed when we brought our cat to the clinic, to the bullying tactics of office manager Diana Stevens, I can't recommend Metro to any owner or their pet. An animal's life should not be used as ransom.
