So I wrote a complaint to the Craigieburn Animal Hospital due to an emergency vet visit I tried to book in on 28/12/2021. It was a public holiday and I could only contact the nearest emergency 24/7 an... Read More
So I wrote a complaint to the Craigieburn Animal Hospital due to an emergency vet visit I tried to book in on 28/12/2021. It was a public holiday and I could only contact the nearest emergency 24/7 animal hospitals.
In this interaction, they put my wife in tears and made me extremely angry.
Below is the complaint email showing what I wrote to them.
I expected them to acknowledge the experience and hopefully learn from it before I took it further.
I guess I expected too much....
Instead they sent me a hand-written statutory declaration denying everything and what "really happened".
ORIGINAL EMAIL :
"Hi,
My wife called this morning to discuss the condition of our cat, Mickey who we noticed had a bit of trouble urinating in his litter box. Being a public holiday, we decided to call the closest emergency vet which happened to be your practice, the Craigieburn animal Hospital emergency mobile number.
A male answered the call and my wife explained what I just said above. And he had a blunt and negative tone and sighed "Uh... I hope it's not like yesterday. Same situation and the cat was euthanized"
And she was shocked and started to cry.
He told her that she should be monitoring this more and that he's likely to be euthanized but come in if she wants to... But it's probably too late.
My pregnant wife called me in tears and in disbelief and also broken hearted thinking we were going to lose our cat today.
I called immediately afterwards and spoke to him myself to get an explanation and to ask if this is what he said. And he replied with
"Yes I did say that. Yes your cat will probably be euthanized. No, I didn't make her cry... It's not my fault your cat has a blockage.. so don't put that on me. Come or don't.. I'm in emergencies and you're wasting my time"
I was that furious and did not want to release my anger on such a disrespectful person, so I just hung up.
I called Whittlesea vet. They said it's not a blockage. Just a simple treatment and Mickey had an injection and was good to go with medication to take.
How does one get away with assuming the worst on a phone call to the family? You can assume based on knowledge of what's said on a call but do you really think it's okay to not just say "if it is a blockage, it does have risks, but bring Mickey in urgently and we can see what we can do" instead of "if it's like yesterday, he'll be euthanized"
Where's the love for animals? Where's the respect for your customers and family members?
This was a dumb and heartless act.
What's the difference in calling an ambulance and them saying "if this was like our patient yesterday, you will die" ?
I'm so shocked an appalled by this and before I take this as far as I intend to.. I will give you an opportunity to acknowledge this.
However, based on the interactions we had, I am not confident in what your response will be. But then the avenues I will take will be media, sharing it with everyone we know, social media and the vetinary board will be notified.
And now, I await your response.
Kind regards"
How is someone meant to complain to an organisation when the person who receives the complaint can just sent it and ... Is that it? How ridiculous.
DO NOT DEAL WITH THESE PEOPLE. GO TO AN ANIMAL HOSPITAL THAT CARES. Read Less