I love all three of the vets, and the assistants are also very nice and capable. I truly feel that my pet gets good care here. I am also very impressed with how they are fixing up this older facility... Read More
I love all three of the vets, and the assistants are also very nice and capable. I truly feel that my pet gets good care here. I am also very impressed with how they are fixing up this older facility. I also like the online capabilities, and the dog park is nice if you're into that kind of thing, which my dog is not. All that said, I am very close to moving my business elsewhere. While I can't speak highly enough about my experiences with the doctors and medical staff, their prices are too high and with all due respect, I simply do not like the manner in which the office manager conducts business. The first situation came when my dog and I were invited to take ourselves out to the dog park on a very windy, cold day. I will be the first to say that my dog is not the best behaved dog there. She gets very nervous and excited and she makes this very annoying cross between a bird chirp and a ridiculous excuse for a bark! I try with all my might to get her to stop, but she is just so happy to be around other animals. Hopefully she will outgrow this. I assume the noise is the reason we were invited to go outside, as I said, it was windy and cold. To top it all off there was a lady already out there with two dogs that are bigger than mine and one of them lunged at me and my dog. The dog owner handled it well and couldn't have been nicer, but I shouldn't have been sent outside anyway. I kind of let that go because of how much I like the doctors, but the next thing that happened has really left me miffed. I purchase my dog's heartworm medication from Pet Meds. I started doing this years ago with my previous dog because the vet I went to at that time was ridiculously expensive on meds. As a matter of fact she was so expensive that she ended up losing most of her business and sent out a group letter to all of her customers advising that she was lowering the profit margin on medications and requesting that we consider coming back. My previous dog suffered from heart disease and ended up on four medications. I spent close to $5000 on her care with my previous vet, not Northwood, and I would do it again. What I am not going to do is spend significantly more on their medications when I can get the same thing on line in some cases for less than half the price. My last vet's greed is the reason I went for an online option. She was an excellent vet in every other way. Because I had established a relationship with Pet Meds, I continued it when I switched to Northwood with my new dog. The first time they reached out to Northwood for the prescription, the office manager did not fill it and tried instead to convince me to buy it from them. I was very annoyed that he had the audacity to hold up my prescription. When I attempted to refill earlier this month, I received an email from Northwood stating their new policy is to charge five dollars to provide a prescription to an outside provider. That is total BS. I could feel the steam coming out of my ears when I read that. It's not that five dollars is a lot because it's not, and to be honest with you their drug prices are pretty competitive, it's just the audacity of charging a customer to write a prescription. Had he handled this differently, he could have been the hero. Instead of holding up my prescription the first time if he had just filled it and sent me an email with their prices that are fairly competitive, I probably would've gone ahead and ordered it from them next time. Instead, he didn't fill my prescription and it took several days for me to get back in touch with them because I was on a business trip. Now charging the five dollars, I had rather eat dirt than buy their meds! Apparently he does not realize that people don't want to be pushed into a corner. At this point I really don't know what I'm going to do, but I will deal with my frustration and put my dog's needs first. Read Less