ASPCA

Sep 4th, 2020

Nightmare best describes my experience. The whole concept of the hospital is skewed to be ridiculously inefficient. There is a reason that the aspca is rated a C+ only by Charity Navigator. (Do not confuse with SPCAs as they are much better.) They do not serve pets with chronic conditions like diabetes or cancer ("because of our funding"...???) They do not take walkins, pets seen only by appointnent. They only see emergencies. But, here is the problem. How is it that you are seeing emergencies only when you are giving appointments 11 days away? Clearly they are seeing pets that are not the kind of emergencies that should be triaged as an actual emergency if they can wait for appointments 11 days away. I had a seriously ill pet. Seriously ill. An actual emergency. But when I called for an appointment I was told that the only thing they could do was an appt 11 days away. My pet was unable to stand and was barely conscious. They could only recommend other places to go. But I could not afford anywhere else as the aspca had screened me and I had been approved for the financial assistance program. They did get credit for this, but no longer which I will get to. I was told that maybe there would be a cancellation the next day so I should call the next morning which I did. No cancellations. Pet holding steady but really not good. I repeatedly asked why they said they only saw emergencies, but also could not see "emergencies" for 1 -2 weeks away. They seemed not to get the incongruence of this. Finally on day two I said I was coming in and would ask for a triage person to come down to look at my pet. They said they did not triage pets without appts any longer. But I went anyway as I was really a desperate Mom. This was a terrible experience with me being told they would not send someone down to the lobby to look at my pet. I saw 5 people with pets coming in who answered "yes" to the guard asking and verifying that they had an appt. I assure you that not one looked even remotely like an emergency e.g., I saw a happy little cute dog walking on a leash standing up on his back legs begging for a treat. Meanwhile my pet is unable to pick up his head or to stand. Finally, one nice person intervened and called upstairs. She managed to get someone to come down but I was warned that he would only be assessed for life threatening vital signs and if he was stable enough to be able to be sent elsewhere, that is what would happen. He wasn't. He was in fact dying. And finally as I went to pay my bill, it was $386. I was dumbfounded as this was about the same as standard fees. I asked the checkout person what cost so much and I said "But what about the discount?" She answered that a 40% discount had already been applied. I said it did not look like it. I was in shock from the whole experience at this point. I gave her my card. Note that this meant my not being able to pay my rent. (Really.) Then, after she put the card through, I asked what happened that the fees had so drastically changed. She said that I had not said that I was part of the financial assistance program. I said I had! She said I said "discount" not "financial assistance." REALLY???!!! So I asked for her to please cancel the transaction and put it through under the financial assistance program that I had been approved for. She said that she could not cancel a transaction. I said "Of course you can do that!" "Not our policy." I asked for a manager who came and said, nope, not our policy. I said: So I can cancel at my bank and then you can put the correct amount through? Nope you will then have to pay in cash from now on and will still owe the amount we put in but will have to repay it in cash. I should add that both these people were seriously just plain not at all nice.They seemed to be really angry at me. At this point I am trying to reach a director or corporate to complain and see if I can get it straightened out with them doing a cancellation but, guess what? I cannot reach anyone but the same people I spoke with yesterday. No I do not recommend.
Jul 30th, 2020

g crooks playing on your sympathies
Jul 12th, 2020

Terrible customer service. Their plans pay out less than almost any others and you have less time to file a claim. They also can and do frequently change the price of their plans even if you have had them 4 or 5 years they start to charge more and more to the point where we started at 55 and are now at 100 a month. Get HEALTHY PAWS
Apr 7th, 2020

The staff were friendly and professional. Thanks for communicating!
Mar 17th, 2020