I'm on the fence about this place. My initial visit was for rabies shots for my 2 dogs, 'senior' dog exam and blood work for 1, and to address red staining in another. We ended up getting their 'preve... Read More
I'm on the fence about this place. My initial visit was for rabies shots for my 2 dogs, 'senior' dog exam and blood work for 1, and to address red staining in another. We ended up getting their 'preventative' packages, thinking it would save us money in the end, but now I'm not convinced it was the best way to go. One of my dogs had already had a yearly exam a few months ago, so all that testing wasn't all that necessary - which I specifically told the vet not to run, but they did it anyway (the office staff told me it was automatically run with the package deal). Guess it doesn't matter what the owner requests. The other dog did need a senior physical and blood work, plus several booster vaccines (in addition to the rabies), so it may have been a better deal for her. I have accident and illness coverage on both dogs and was unable to use the office visit charge against my deductible for the one dog that needed red stain treatment. Since the exam charge was included in the package deal, its unclear if it can be applied toward the deductible. We were at Frontier for 2 hrs for all this on a rare sunny Sunday afternoon. I can't help thinking this may have taken just 45 minutes at my previous vet. We've recently moved and Frontier is much closer to home now, so I do want to like this place. I'm just a little skeptical of their pricing. My previous vet charges $48 for an exam. Frontier charges $57 (I think, only because $28.50 was taken off my bill for each dog, which would have been the new client exam discount), and during the exams I was never once asked what kind of food they were on, and whether they'd vomited recently or had diarrhea. Something my previous vet ALWAYS asked. We spent almost $800 on the 'preventative packages' and meds the one dog received for red staining. I specifically asked for an itemized invoice so I could see for myself what the prices of every single thing was. That's apparently not something they can do easily, as I was told they'd have to snail mail it to me. The invoice I ended up walking out the door with showed just the package deal price with line items with $0.00 in the Price column. So at this point I have no idea what their prices are. Also, in addition to the package prices there's an add on line item stating: ADD29: Add-On Pt/Ptt for $35.00. Both dogs invoices have this add on and I have no idea what its for. I was on the phone for a good 20 minutes today with them trying to decipher their invoices and forgot to ask about that $35 charge for both dogs. I can tell you I won't be getting preventative packages in the future for the very reason I don't know what they're charging. Their flyer says its up to 26% off their regular prices, but that doesn't tell me anything, really. Guess I'll wait for the snail mail invoices and do some comparative pricing then. I was just disappointed overall with the pitch on preventative packages and like other reviewers have stated, it came off in the end feeling like a scam, especially for the one younger dog who'd had an exam recently with another vet. Not to mention he apparently got an unnecessary parasite intestinal screen, bloodscreen and heart worm antigen test against my request to forego those. Read Less