Grrr...

Per my conversation with the vet's office last Wednesday I took Stimpy in for his appointment today at 2:00pm. When we arrive -on time like good little clients - as I am signing in the girl behind the counter asks if I have an appointment. I say "Yes at 2:00". She types away on her little key board and then with a puzzled look on her face asks "are you sure?" I replied "Yes. I spoke to Dr. S and someone at the appointment desk last Wednesday and made it for 2pm today" she continued to stare at her screen with a very confused look on her face, she turned to ther other girl at the desk and whispered "He already has another 2 o'clock. What do I do?" After some more quiet whispering back and forth about how someone didnt put my appointment in they decided that they could "squeeze us in" and take him back just to do the test. Ok fine, they've done that once before the Dr. will just call me back in a day or two to discuss the results. So they took him back did their test and returned him to me. The whole thing took about 15 minutes. When I go to check out the girl said "that'll be $52.37" Wha??? A little shocked at the price (I was only expexting about $35) I asked what was it for? She said it was $15 for a re-check and $37.37 for the lab work. I explained that I wasnt going to pay for a re-check we didnt even see the vet! I told her that last time they did that they just charged for the lab work and that's it. Besides he was just there on Saturday for a re-check. She looked through her little computer again, keys clicking away and said "no we've always charged for a re-check and a u/a". Whatever. At this point I'm not going to argue but if I get home and find a receipt for a u/a only I'm going to call and make them give me back my $15!

So I get home and go through Stimpy's medical file, which by now is monsterous, and sure enough I found a receipt from 10/27/07 for the U/A only. So I called up their billing department and spoke to "Judy". I explained the situation and that I was very unhappy that I had to pay the $15 for nothing. I explained to her that they were the ones who screwed up and didnt even type in my appointment so not only did I not get to see the vet to discuss with him the problems that he found on Stimpys test from Saturday, I had to pay for it too! She said she would "look into it" and call me back. Great. Thanks.

By now I'm really irritated my chest is all blotchy red (I wear my emotions on my skin, when I'm upset I turn colors like a chamelion, ranging from bright red to purple depending on how upset I am). I am still looking at my receipts stewing about the $15 I just wasted. And I noticed that last Saturday for the same test I was charged $34.89 and today I was charged $37.37. In a matter of days the price conveniently went up! So I got back on the phone with "Judy" I tried very hard to be as nice as I possibly could. I told her that I really wasnt trying to be a pest, but that as long as she was "looking into" my account I had something else for her to check. When I mentioned the price difference from then to now she said "Yes unfortunatley they did increase in the past few days". Apparently they were supposed to increase as of last February but some slacker didnt update their system...hmm maybe the same person who made my non-appointment... anyway she assured me she would look into my other complaint. So as I gritted my teeth and watched my face turn a deeper shade of red in the reflection of the window I thanked her again for her help.

Now here I sit waiting to see if they are going to give me my $15 back for the appointment that I made and they didnt, but that I still had to pay for. Times are hard, these days $15 bucks is a lot of money!

Geesh.


(Edited to add....)

"Judy" just called me back. She said she spoke to the vet and the re-check fee was for them to collect the sample and prepare it for testing. Apparenly he himself did this. They said that if he were to come in and see me they would have charged me for an "office call" which is $45, and since they were busy they were trying to make it convenient for me so I didnt have to wait. I said "well first of all I do usually always see the vet and it's never an 'office call' it's always $15. So I dont agree with that statement. But whatever I understand he saw Stimpy just not me. Fine. Thanks for your help".

Just when I was returning to my normal color. Now I'm almost purple. This still really irritates the hell out of me. It's the point. Maybe I would have liked to have seen the vet and asked him some questions about what is going on? Maybe I would have waited. I didnt have anything better to do anyway. Well lesson leanred for next time. I'm not letting them get me out of there without actually seeing the vet in person. I dont care if I have to wait.

Jerks.