Dr. Menks' Mobile Vet Care

Review: My pet [redacted] who I had for 15 years has recently pastaway, we choose dr [redacted] because of all the good things we had heard. We drove him there almost 20 mins away from our home the very night we found him deceased. On arrival to thier office we were greeted by a very nice lady who helped me unload my deceased famliy member and get him in respectfully and safely. Standing there in that office with the nice lady and my fiance, we tried at that time to pay for their service that had not even been renderd yet. The nice lady there whom I would expect to be a trained professional in her field and for the buisness told me at the time I physically pulled my wallet out to pay for their service, she specifically stated if it is easier to just pay when we pick him up in two weeks then that would be acceptable. After discussing this with her and my fiance for about five mins we all decided that would work best. The next moring I began to receive phone calls from the buisness owners stating that I left without paying, and how I tried to explain I had forgotten my wallet. I was told by one of the owners that they were watching on a closed circuit camera and saw the whole thing, I explained to him that was dishonest and if he had really been watching he would have seen us trying to pay, then he proceeded to tell me to come pick up my deseased family member, the issue I have with thier ethics is just this, we are dealing with a deceased member of my family not a cell phone bill or something of less importance we are dealing with the loss of life....the money was never an issue we were doing what we were told we could do. Then for them to call me at work the very next day stating to come pick up [redacted] or bring them the payment or he would just sit there untill we did one of the following. All I want is for them to be held accountable for their ethics and proper training of all their staff if it was such a huge policy of theirs we should have never been able to leave untill we paid.Desired Settlement: I want an apology for the stress they caused and for them to admit they lied about the watching of the event, and lying about me saying I forgot my wallet. But above all I want them to properly train all of thier staff so something of this importance is never mishandled again....this has been a hard time for me and my family and now with the way this has been handled a little harder. I just want ethics and accountability to prevail.

Business

Response:

On Sunday evening at 9 pm I (Dr. [redacted]) received anemergency page from a man named [redacted], who explained to me that his dog just passed away. He was very emotional about the loss of his beloved dog and family member and I consoled him, wondering if the pet had just passed due to old age. He explained that he had gotten into a dogfight and did not know why he died. I offered our cremation services. [redacted] inquired about the cost and I quoted him the amount for a 40-50lbs dog - based on [redacted]’s informationregarding the weight of his dog.

I explained that I was sorry that we had to talk about the financial aspect right now, however since we have never seen [redacted] we would have to collect the fee when he dropped off the dog. [redacted] accepted that.

Unfortunately a couple of minutes went by and I was paged for a horse emergency and had to leave, putting my Associate Veterinarian in charge of the cremation.

When I returned from my emergency [redacted] just left the facility, very distraught and emotionally upset due to his loss, so I did not want to engage in a longer conversation with him. When he had left I inquired with my Associate if [redacted] took care of the bill and she explained that he had forgotten the money and that she felt sorry for him and hadallowed him to pay later. Unfortunately it has happened in our line of business that some people do not pick up their loved one’s remains and also don’t pay their bill, leaving their remains with us. Since I had no client-doctor relationship I did not feel comfortable paying for the occurring costs out of pocket. I had my staff call [redacted] the next morning to explain that we offer various means to pay and that we could take care of it over the phone etc. My assistant handed me the phone, rather upset and explained that [redacted] is screaming, cursing and yelling at her. This did not change as I picked up the phone. [redacted] was very upset, yelling at me that it is not his fault that my professionally trained staff had apparently no idea what they were doingalong with explicit language. He went on to explain that the person from last night had assured him that he could pay next week. I told him that I was sorry that our Associate vethad giving him the wrong information and reminded him of the conversation the night before when I explained that he would need to pay when he dropped off his dog. I alsoexplained that both of us know how hard it can be to lose a friend, however as a business owner I cannot pay for the service that I may not get reimbursed for. [redacted] stated thathe did recall the conversation and then said he did not care and called me “f… liar” and wanted to pick up his beloved family member. I explained that he could do so. Now [redacted] was threatening to sue me for emotional hardship etc.

[redacted] called approx.. 2 hours later, screaming for at least 5 min to another assistant of mine. Telling her that money was no problem, because he owned the restaurant named ‘[redacted]’ in town and he would have plenty of money to sue us and he was going to sue us for everything we owned.

At this point I called my husband and office manager. My husband did not let [redacted] intimidate him, he explained to[redacted] that he had two options: either pick up the remains or pay for the services. [redacted]’s fiancé got on the phone with my office manager and the two of them came to theagreement that she would call in a payment and we would proceed with the services. She also agreed to keep [redacted] from contacting the office due to his demeanor. Two hours later [redacted]’s fiancé paid for the cremation over the phone. The body was picked up by the cremation company the next morning and will be returned to her when the remains are returned to our office.

We are sorry for [redacted]’s loss but the loss in itself does not justify cursing at the owners and employees nor does it warrant threats of any kind. We strive to make our clients feel comfortable and provide caring quality medicine at and affordable price anytime anywhere. We did not charge an emergency fee because we understand and sympathize with the loss of a pet and we were trying to be nice.

[redacted] stated the dog was a Great Dane in which he did not know why it died. In reality the body was a mixed breed dog which had multiple bite wounds to the head, neck andfront leg areas, it weighed 75lbs not 40 to 50lbs as we were told by [redacted], his dog also was not very old. [redacted] does not own “[redacted]”, he works in the kitchen as a kitchen manager and [redacted] is owned by a large cooperation. To set the story straight the owners and employees of this business here are professional, do not lie and keep their composure even while being yelled and cursed at. We did not call him at work we called his cell phone. Our associate veterinarian also called him back personally to apologies for not making the collection of the monies from a new client more essential and reverting to how we handle this very situation with clients that we have an established relationship. She now knows if the situation with a new client arises again, she is to collect the monies before any services are rendered, whether it is at the time the animal is dropped off or the following day.

Maybe if [redacted] had brought his dog to a veterinarian after ithad got bitten it may still be alive? Our staff came in and waited for over an hour and a half for him to get to the clinic after he had stated it was only going to take twenty to thirty minutes. Given what we have to work with, I feel we have done everything we can to rectify this situation and will only fulfill what we have been paid to do. There did not seem to be a problem other than when the payment for services was due. We wish the best to [redacted] and his fiancé and look forward to getting their loved one back in their possession.