The Village Vets

Reviews 3

M.

M. Arnett

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE...THEY ARE SCARY DISORGANIZED. This is not my regular vet. I adopted a wonderful dog thru an amazing rescue organization and as part of that adoption, my dog needed to be spayed and microchipped at one of their "partner vets"...which turned out to be Village Vets in Decatur. I called the day before my appointment to make sure there was nothing additional I needed to bring, and they confirmed they had everything they needed already. So I was rather surprised when I arrived and they said that they didnt have any of her medical records, and the form I was filling out stated that I would be charged for a heartworm test if she didnt have one on file. She had just had one in January, but since they didnt have the records, I would be charged for that. I went home and e-faxed them the records. I called them to make sure they received the fax, as I dont trust fax machines. Whomever picked up the phone could not have been more rude...I was clearly bothering them. They sounded as if I had just asked them to solve world hunger...rather than to check their fax machine. A few minutes later, I received an email. This person (on their Reception Team) was wondering if (the name that my dog had when she was with the rescue group) and (the new name I gave my dog when I adopted her) were the same dog. This seemed odd to me, as I had clearly explained it to the reception desk staff that very morning, and the paperwork that I filled out that morning should have helped to put two-and-two together. This is not rocket science here. I replied that yes, they were the same dog, and that the records were complete...no additional vaccines or medications had been given other than those records. Seven minutes later, I get another email from the same girl in the Reception Team saying: "Im sorry I cant find a file under your name. Have you filled out the online form to transfer ownership? When is her appointment?". Seriously…At this point, email is clearly not working, so I called her. She was clearly exasperated when she answered the phone, and I did my best to clear up the confusion. However, the fact that she was unaware that my dog was actually in her facility at that very moment was just insane. What kind of records do they keep there? Does the left hand know what the right is doing at all? If this is how their OFFICE is run....what is going on back in the back with the MEDICAL personnel? Do THEY know which end is up? Im honestly wondering if they do....because my little itsy bitsy Chihuahua (she weighs all of 7 pounds) came out of her spay procedure with an incision that is almost 4-inches long. It takes up almost her entire abdomen. I have owned female dogs all my life...every one of them has been spayed. I have NEVER EVER seen a spay incision that has been this long....EVER. To top it off, when I picked up my dog, they forgot to give me her microchip tag and information. When I called the following day, they gave me grief about it. They tried to say that they only send that to the rescue group. Which makes NO SENSE, as I have already adopted this dog. I legally own this dog. The dog wears the identification tag....not the rescue group. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE. I will never go anywhere near The Village Vets again...even if it is an emergency. NEVER AGAIN.

LE

Lesli VanSchaick

soon after we moved to atlanta our 15 year old dog was diagnosed with end stage cancer and had to be euthanized. Village vets did this for me and didnt charge me. I thought I had found the perfect vet. They were so compassionate. A year or so later at 3am my other dog woke me coughing and gagging. I immediately took her to the VV ER. The arrogant doctor that night treated us as if I were wasting their time. I was told that my dog was fine and they released her. The next day we returned to the regular vet because my dog was worse. Dr. McVety was amazing and did X-rays, blood tests and ultrasounds, we learned that my dog had pneumonia and a collapsed lung. She saved my dogs life and I will be ever grateful. If I had listened to the ER vet I may have lost my dog. Since then we have seen several other doctors and experienced good customer service. Today one of my dogs had a laceration and needed to be sedated and stitched up. The front desk told me they were busy with real emergencies like vomiting and a dog that got hit by a car. He suggested I come at 7pm to the ER vet. I tried to get in at several other vets and couldnt so I called village vets back to try to get an appt for Sunday. This time a very nice woman took my call and explained that they were booked and again suggested I see the ER vet. I explained to her that its expensive and the last time I was basically laughed out the door after paying $200 so Id prefer to see a regular vet. I explained what happened previously and said I was wary. She agreed and asked if Id like to speak with the tech that was on tonight. I agreed and a few minutes later the tech got on the phone, already with a chip on her shoulder, and said hi I hear you have issues with the ER vet. I explained that it was more complicated than that. After trying to explain and getting nowhere, I asked her if there were other ER vet clinics, she told me who and where, I said ok and that Id figure it out. At 8:30pm I showed up at village vets ER with my dog who was bleeding with an open wound. They asked for my name and shortly after said, oh were refusing service to you. It seems there were complaints and you have issues with our pricing. I was shocked. Nobody I spoke to earlier said anything to me about refusal of service. Why would I drive my dog there? The woman left to go speak to management and then returned and repeated the same thing. She also said that the tech told me I needed to go to another vet because if I had issues with their misdiagnosis and prices than they werent the vet for me. First nobody said those things to me. I asked for refs of other vets. I told the receptionist that they were liars. She said no they arent, im taking their side. What? Is this 2nd grade? My dog is bleeding! Any ER vet that would refuse service to a bleeding dog needs to have complaints filed against them. Ironically, Village vets #1 core value is excellence. Its on a sign by their register. Excellence. Yet I mention that Im wary because I received less than excellence service, and they respond by refusing service!! Unbelieveable! I will never give another dime to village vets. It is unfortunate that their egos are so big that you cannot disagree with them or complain without them taking it out on your dog, who they are in business to care for.

RO

Rodney Ho

We have been going to Village Vets Decatur (and its 24 hour hospital) for several years and until recently received nothing but the utmost in professional care. But we will never go there again (or any vet clinic or hospital owned by Will Draper) after experiencing the worse encounter with vets in our 25+ year history of going to vets. We recently spayed our English bulldog puppy at a local vet, but Friday night we noticed complications and brought her to Village Vets’ 24-hour hospital for care. Dr. Elaine Streithof was on call, came into the room and announced our dog had a “suture reaction” and told us what we should do to clean the suture area. We then asked questions about whether that meant she had an infection or not, and what could be the cause of her suture reaction. She seemed to immediately take offense at being asked questions, She put her hands on her hips and then wrapped her arms across her chest. She became visibly hostile and refused to answer our questions about the nature of the infection. Then when we asked a question about our puppy’s wet cough and hacking which began after surgery. She asked tersely if “we ever had this breed” because if we had we would know it’s “normal.” We felt insulted and judged by her for owning a bulldog, and even when we kept explaining the cough began after the surgery she refused to listen and kept repeating over and over “its normal.” Dr. Elaine Streithof’s bedside manner made us feel so uncomfortable we literally had to ask her to leave the room. We decided to share our experience with management assuming they would want to know since Dr. Streithof’s behavior was antithetical to their stated philosophy of care. We were completely wrong! Six days later we received a call from the co-owner of Village Vets Dr. Will Draper. He had heard third hand how we had felt, sounded skeptical of our experience and came across as defensive about Dr. Streithof, who he had hired eight years earlier. Instead of starting the call off with something like “I heard you had a bad experience with one of our vets. I’m sorry you felt that way, please tell me what happened,” he began by saying “I’ve spoken with everyone here about what happened. Do you have anything to add?” He later explained he was taking this as an ‘investigation,’ that vets should stick together and not be critical of each other. We have never had a customer complaint handled this way with management seeking to ‘investigate’ and invalidate our personal experience or feelings. After almost 45 minutes on the phone (which was ridiculous enough but that’s how long he lectured and defended), he did apologize and offered a refund but the damage was long done. It was clear the attitude we had experienced with Dr. Streithof was an attitude held and supported by the people at the top. Initially we thought we would keep using Village Vets and just avoid Dr. Streithof, but after speaking with Dr. Will Draper we will never come back. A hospital with this philosophy of care is NOT the kind of place we would ever want to take our pets even if they employ some good staff.