Lash Veterinary Associates, Inc.

We have reviewed the information that you sent us regarding a complaint against ourbusiness which was submitted on 1/21/2015 7:29:31 am and was assigned an ID of[redacted]. Below is our response.We are not an emergency facility. We do not have staffing to monitor patients 24 hours aday. We do take...

emergency calls from clients until our cut off time of 8 pm Monday —Friday, 2 pm on Saturday, and 3 pm on Sunday which has been in effect for over 5 years.After that time, our clients are referred to 24 hour Emergency Centers which are staffedand qualified to handle emergencies. Our clients need to understand that we are lookingout for the animal’s best interest. If an emergency comes in after hours, we are not able toprovide 24 hour monitoring. We are looking out for the animal’s best interest in referringthem to a facility that can provide that service and care.We are open one evening a week to assist in meeting client’s need for later appointments.This is Thursday evening until 6 pm. We try to provide an opportunity for our client’s tomaintain their animals health. These appointments do fill up quickly. We add anadditional evening to meet our client’s needs in the summer months. The comment fromour front staff of working clients filling up the appointments was no way a demeaningcomment directed to this client. She was only stating the reason for a 2-3 week delay insetting up an appointment is because of client’s working schedules. We will work onrephrasing our comments as to prevent any further miscommunication.

Review: I have been going to this Veterinary facility for years and have spent a lot of my hard earned money at this particular facility. The doctor's themselves are wonderfull; however, the women at the front desk are rude and inconsiderate. The first time I had an issue with the front desk was when my cat was crushed by a vechile. I called in frantic and the women who answered my call stated that they were about to close for the night. It was obvious that she did not care about the state of the animal. She was ready to go home for the day. She said there was "most likely nothing they could do anyway". I decided to give the women the benefit of the doubt that maybe she was having a bad day. I took my cat to a different veterinary hospital and they were wonderful! Today I needed to make an appointment for my dog. I asked for any of the evening appointments and she said that I would have to wait awhile because people "who actually work take all of those times, along with Saturdays". I "actually work" so I am not sure what she was referring to. She said that it was impossible to get me in because when "people call and expect to get in that day or week, it is just not possible" I was not expecting to get in this week, she started laughing when she said that statement. This is the second time I have had to deal with terrible customer service at this facility. I have been working in customer service since the age of 16. I know how to treat customers/clients. I would not be surprised if mulitple people have filed a complaint against this facility for that very reason. I will continue to tell my story to anyone who asks about that particular vet office. I will continue to recommend the [redacted] Hospital. They are polite and courteous. They "actually" care about animals and are not trying to shove you out of the door or convince you to go somewhere else.Desired Settlement: I would like them to be nofitied that there was complaint filed against them due to terrible customer service, not only once, but twice to the same person. I would like to know their plan of action for addressing this terrible customer service.

Business

Response:

We have reviewed the information that you sent us regarding a complaint against ourbusiness which was submitted on 1/21/2015 7:29:31 am and was assigned an ID of[redacted]. Below is our response.We are not an emergency facility. We do not have staffing to monitor patients 24 hours aday. We do take emergency calls from clients until our cut off time of 8 pm Monday —Friday, 2 pm on Saturday, and 3 pm on Sunday which has been in effect for over 5 years.After that time, our clients are referred to 24 hour Emergency Centers which are staffedand qualified to handle emergencies. Our clients need to understand that we are lookingout for the animal’s best interest. If an emergency comes in after hours, we are not able toprovide 24 hour monitoring. We are looking out for the animal’s best interest in referringthem to a facility that can provide that service and care.We are open one evening a week to assist in meeting client’s need for later appointments.This is Thursday evening until 6 pm. We try to provide an opportunity for our client’s tomaintain their animals health. These appointments do fill up quickly. We add anadditional evening to meet our client’s needs in the summer months. The comment fromour front staff of working clients filling up the appointments was no way a demeaningcomment directed to this client. She was only stating the reason for a 2-3 week delay insetting up an appointment is because of client’s working schedules. We will work onrephrasing our comments as to prevent any further miscommunication.