Complaint Review: Banfield The Pet Hospital

My sisters cat started acting like he was sick; loss of apetite, lethargic and so she took him to Banfield, inside PetSmart, because since we moved to Glendora we havent yet found a good vet. They gave him a complete examination, and because she thought it might be fleas that were making him sick because if a cat ingests a flea while grooming, he or she can become infected with immature tapeworms carried by the flea , they gave him a dose of a flea medication. After about 45 minutes or so, they told us that the cat was fine and they gave my sister a prescription for medication. He seemed like he was getting a little better, but not like he was before.

About a month or so later he began showing the same signs as before; loss of appetite, lethargy. My sister was real worried about him, so we decided to take him to a vet that we went to before moving to where we live now. This Doctor is one of the best, if not the best. We should have gone there first. It's far but, I realize now, totally worth it. Not only does he KNOW what he is doing, but his fees are very reasonable, and very importantly, he is caring and it shows. Even when its bad news, he is straight and to the point, but you can just feel the caring in his voice.

When we were called in to the exam room, he did a quick physical exam and knew, right away.  He told us the cat had a tumor.  My sister showed him the papers from Banfield showing the results of their diagnosis. He said for us to go back and get our money back because there was NO WAY that they could have missed it. He said to tell them to call him. He knew what was wrong right away, he still had to run some blood tests and unfortunately when we got the results back, they weren't good. Her cat was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas and is dying.

My mom and I went to Banfield to tell them and to let them know my sister would like her money back, they obviously don't know what they're doing. Its true, even if they had told us, it wouldn't have changed that much, but for one thing, next time they make this kind of mistake, it may just result in an unneccesary death, and thats not right. They said they won't give us our money back, that the doctor who examined our cat is not there, he was just there for training of their protocol. 

(Now that is irony, they have a protocol: how to misdiagnose someones pet and then not tell them)  So they feel they are not responsible. They Are!!! and I'm going to make sure everyone knows it.