AIBU refusing to pay this vet bill?

[NicoAndTheNiners]

I have an elderly, poorly cat who I took to the vet last week. Vet did a consult and said he wanted to run blood tests which I agreed to. He never said how much they were. £140 when I got to the desk which I nearly fell over at but paid. He said he would ring with the results either that evening or the next day.

I was out when he rang back and he spoke to my teenage dd. He admits he didn't clarify who he was speaking to. He told her some of the blood results and said he'd like to "do some more tests" He said he wasn't sure what was wrong and was going to speak to someone and ring back the next day.

He rang the next day to say he thinks the cat has a terminal condition, we can do more tests to confirm. I declined as when I asked how much it will be £hundreds. Cat is 15yo.

I've been back at the vet today about something not to do with the cat and they called me over and said I need to pay £48 for the extra blood tests. I asked what they're on about and they said they'd run an FIV test after the other tests. I said I hadn't agreed to this extra and wouldn't have done.

Vet came out and said he'd spoken to someone on the phone who said ok. DD said she had no idea it was another blood test, that it would cost more money. She thought when he said he wanted to do more tests that I would need to take the cat back in for these tests and that's what he was going to ring about the next day.

I haven't paid. They've said they will knock it down to £40 and give me till next month to pay. I am close to ringing them up and saying it's not happening. There is no way I would have said yes to another £48 of tests and dd had no clue he meant to charge more or that she was actually agreeing to anything.

Problem is if I fall out with them its 8 miles to the next nearest vet. So maybe I should just pay to keep the peace. But I did that 5 years ago when my dog died during a routine dental and they billed me £300 for the dead dog. Now I just feel like they're fucking useless and taking the piss.

Did your dh get the practice owner to confirm what the practice policy is on 1) taking instructions from somebody over the phone when they a- know it’s not the registered keeper, b- know they are talking to a minor and c- know the cat is at home rather than the vets, so that most people would assume that the cat would need to be taken to the vet to do the test; the possibility of doing the test without the cat being there wasn’t mentioned this leading to the very reasonable expectation by your dd that when the vet arranged to speak to you the next day it would be to arrange the test not discuss the results.
And 2- what is their policy on performing tests without mentioning price at all in a phone call? Particularly given that you (or your dd) were given no sense of it being emergency treatment that was needed ASAP otherwise something awful would happen. As it happens the test is not that expensive in the expensive world of pet medicine (albeit still more than enough to want to be able to make your own decision about!) but what would have happened if it had been an £800 test? Or an £8000 test that your particular insurance didn’t cover - their cavalier attitude could have landed you in serious financial trouble.

Think you need to get an answer from them to these questions before you pay even half - because hopefully they will realise that they have broken their own guidelines/gdpr and so you shouldn’t pay.

I think I'd try speaking to the practice manager, but if that got nowhere, pay the £24 (reluctantly) and change vets.

This should be something vets confirm when you register your animal - who it is that can authorise treatment. It's not just about money - you might feel strongly about, e.g. your elderly animal not being put through an operation, even if palliative treatment would be more expensive in the long run.

what is their policy on performing tests without mentioning price at all in a phone call? Particularly given that you (or your dd) were given no sense of it being emergency treatment that was needed ASAP otherwise something awful would happen

VERY good point. I'd be interested to hear the response.

@stacktherocks

Oops! Didn't notice that when I typed it and have only just got back in.

Mind you, I think it he relieved if that was all it cost to keep my car in the road each year! X

grrr! Bloody auto-correct!

*I'd be relieved if that was all it cost to keep my car on the road.

As regards pet insurance, a lot of the time it really isn't worth it. As long as you are able to access money for an emergency then you're better off without insurance unless you've never claimed on it.
So yes ... start off with a new animal on insurance. As soon as you make your first claim, take them off it as the premiums skyrocket.

ferrier that isn't true for all insurance companies. I claimed around £2500 in my first year and it hardly rose. Once again I claimed £2000 ish in my second year and again the premium hardly rose. If I had cancelled after the first year I would have had to find another £2k which was far more than my premiums. Then we had another scare this year through an accident which could have happened to anyone and we were looking at a possible £5000 for a spinal operation. Fortunately we didn't need the operation but if we had then the insurance would have paid up.

As I said before you need to choose insurance carefully. Cheap isn't always the best long term.

Some vets definitely make up a figure and double it.
Our elderly dog fell sick, we couldn’t get him into our regular vets as a matter of urgency (he had lost weight and started to pee everywhere) so I took him to pets at home.
What a mistake.
Pets at home charged me £95 for some random blood tests and then did extra blood tests without talking me they would be an extra £125. I refused to pay for them. Turned out the dog was diabetic and at 17 I wish someone had mentioned it would never really get easier and that given his age it would be kinder to put him down.
Anyway, there are certain blood tests they perform on diabetic dogs that gauge how well the insulin is controlling their diabetes. Pets at home charged £90 each time (every few weeks at first) I found a local vet who charged £45 for the very same test. How is that fair? They charged £45 for a vial if insulin, local vet £30 (online £16) and their markup on syringes were extortionate.

My advice to anyone with an animal with a long term illness (and no insurance - our rescue was too old to insure for a reasonable price) is to shop around!!!!

Certainly not cheap. In fact two at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Kennel Club for the dog (that might be PetPlan) I forget, because she never came off the insurance she was sold with and I can't switch it now because she has an existing condition. Claimed £2000ish in the first year but paid over £1000 every year subsequently.
Similar story with Tesco. Much cheaper and stayed cheap until claimed about £200. Now suddenly paying about 3x as much.
I wouldn't bother if it were just me deciding. Pay the insurance premiums into a savings account instead. 99% of us will be in profit.

Get them to halve it and I'd pay xx