Banfield Pet Hospital
reviews and complaints

My daughter's dog was limping on a Saturday, so we took him to Banfield to assess the problem. After 5 x-rays, they determined he had a broken toe and splinted and wrapped it. The bill?: $696.00! What for? Office charge, medication, hopsital fee, wrapping materials, everyone who breezed by the room while it was happening ($43 each, about 10 of those, not kidding). It would have been more had the vet foregone charging for two of the x-rays and my daughter opted not to have blood work done to make sure the medications wouldn't cause liver damage! After three days, the splint was out of position and we took him to our regular vet who stated that the splint was the wrong size, wrapping was done wrong, and the charge?: $50.00 Banfield is not only incompetent, but unethical, and frankly on the edge of immoral in how they treat customers. From what I can tell, the ONLY thing they are truly interested in is $$$$.

Our puppy (1 year and 4 months) had been a patient of banfield for the last year and we were on the wellness program. We had been very happy up until now. Our puppy was fixed at banfield and then a year later was suffering some stomach problems. I took her severa; times for stomach issues, vomitting, etc. They gave her medicine to take, gave her iv solution for two days and hand fed her for a day and took numerous x-rays (gas was what they saw on the x-rays. Then gave her the barium to see where the blockage was... Found that it didn't go far, so had to do xploratory surgery. Once they got it they called and told us what they found and they were not able to do antyhing at this point, becasue the doc did not feel comfortable doing this intricate of a surgery, but they could sew her back up and we could then transport her to a hopital and surgeon 2 hours away who may be aboe to help her (already costed $3, 000.00) to this point. We did not choose to transport her, what if she would die on the way? So.. they could not do not anything else at this point, but to let her die (or euthanize her). They did not tell of these kind of complications and they were unable to do these kinds of operations before hand. When they took my baby in they assured me that she would be ok. If only I would have known that I would never see my baby alive again. Nor would my kids... We are so very sad and lost without her. We all have a holes in our hearts and lives.

Our dog of 11 years was being treated for palliative care. When the time came to make the very difficult decision to put him to sleep I made specific arrangements with three diffierent technicians plus the veterinarian to make sure I received his ashes back. I paid almost 500.00 to make sure this happened and after two weeks I called (thye didn't follow up with me) to find out the status of my dog's ashes. After two days of gettingt he run around I was informed that someone had mislabeled the tags and my dog had gone out for mass cremation (meaning I would not get his ashes back). I do not wish this feeling on anyone. We had been waiting for his remains to come back to us. This would have been our closure and because of negligence we were not allowed that closure. I reminded them several times that day to make sure my dog was labeled correctly and this still occurred. On top of it all they took an additonal three weeks to provide me with a cremation certificate that had the wrong date on it. Unbelievable and heartbreaking. I lost my dog forever and completely as I was robbed of his remains.

I have a pet enrolled in one of Banfield's Wellness plans. My dog is normally seen in San Antonio, TX as that is where we live. I had an incident with her this last weekend while I was out of town visiting family. I was very worried as I thought my girl may have suffered a heart attack. I was in dire need of getting her seen and cared for right away.

The closest Banfield to me was located in Tyler, TX. I called at 2PM and was told that they were open until 5PM. I explained that it would take me an hour and a half to drive there, but was told that the last patient would be seen at 3PM. I asked if a doctor would be there if I arrived by 3:30PM and was told "I can't guarantee it". I then asked to be placed on hold so that the person that answered the phone would ask if a doctor would please stay to check out my girl. After 10 minutes on hold, I was told "No, but you can come in tomorrow".

My question is this. How can you advertise, and tell people, that your veterinary office is open until 5PM and then have no vets scheduled on duty after 3:30PM?
I am happy with my home Banfield office, but am not pleased with what I was told by the Tyler, TX office.

I took my cat in because his back leg was limping. They estimated that the charges would be up to $325 to $400 dollars. I said "are you serious" dont do anything untill you talk to me first. They called me in 3 hours and said they needed my permission to sudate him for $22.00 I asked if that was really necessary and they convinsed me that he was in a lot of pain and they needed to right away. Ok, so I get a call later and they say I can pick him up at 4pm and my Bill was $550 or I could sign up for the Wellness plan and save. $145 and pay $22 a month. Sure is sounds good when you dont have the money to pay your bills. Turns out my cat had an infected scratch on his back leg and nothing more. These people take advantage of anyone and everyone. The wellness plan only benefits them and no one else, sure you get a discount... so called discount but you are sure to exceed the wellness plan because they will get $22 a month from everyone and reel them in on unnecessary test that they can charge you for outside of what is covered in the plan. This is why people are spending 10.5 billion dollars more each year on there pets. We love our pets, but just because we love our animals doesn't mean Banfield pet Hospital should take advantage of people who want give good care to our pet. We can still own a pet and not be in debt! This Pet hospital should be shut down, its a trap and a very dishonest business that know that they are doing wrong to all who come in to do business with them. SAD, but I just want to warn all of you. Dont make the same mistake as I did and go here.

October 2009 we purchased an Aussie puppy from a very knowledgeable and professional breeder Two days later we had her checked out at Banfiekd At the time of the visit they insisted that she had to be vaccinated even though the breeder (vet tech and nurse) had already done her 6, 9 and 12 week vaccination At the time she was 13 1/2 weeks We took her home and at first everything seemed fine Within a week this perfectly beautiful healthy pup had to be hospitalized and went through extensive tests and procedures as we fought to save her life. Tragically she passed away 3 days later We had only had her 13 days *3 in hospital fighting for her life) I contacted Banfield about the contract and they refused to allow us out Up to this we had already given them approx $500 1 prepayment to start plan, 1 for visit and 1 for ER care (of which they couldnt provide her the care she needed). The best they did was 50% of $300+ balance. Mounds of paperwork later we realized that she died from over vaccination The staff at our Banfield was so unsympathetic and acted like they could care less. We had had our cat there for 5 years only due to some huge financial bills previously and seemed ok w/ them I guess for me the biggest issue is their insistance of procedure - most vets will only allow 2 vaccines at a time I found out later and they hit her with at least 8 shots as well as heart worm and flea and tic As a side note they also gave her Worm Shield, any reputable vet is aware that Aussies can carry the MDR gene and heartworm is a red flag Our new vet will only allow Inteceptor Banfielld seemed to have no knowledge of our dog breed In fact the vet commented about the size of her feet and commented about what a big dog she would be I then asked her if she knew anything about this breed and she did not respond They do have large feet but only get between 50-60 lbs She thought she would end up 100+ I told my husband when I got home that that vet would not care for her again I did not like her Our debt for this was over $8, 000 and an incredible amout of heartache Never again! Even our cat will not return I will eat the stupid contract costs, cheaper than vet hospital The sad fact is that we thought we could provide affordable healthcare for our pets but the reality is their costs are more expensive and their quality is poor It will be cheaper for us to pay out of pocket for our new pup vs contract and all the addl fees they hit you with Not to mention I feel more secure knowing we wont be looking at some astronomical hospital bill from Banfields ineptness. Just a side note we had not had a dog in about 18 years so we were novices to this whole thing it was only after all we went through all of thisdid we learn more than we ever wanted to about the risks etc of our pup. Really was crushed to find out that the Banfield vet was not the professional we thought she was and our trust in them was shattered.

Signed up for this plan for my st bernard puppy.

They gave her several vaccinations at age 4 months and wanted us to come back for more. I did an online study of the corona vaccination and could not find a single vet site that recommended this (They all recommend against this shot!). Told my vet I don't want this vaccination for the dog.

Went back a month later for her "spay" and was charged an extra $40 fee for the dog being larger than 50 lbs. They said they told me this when we signed up for the plan. They did not. They tried to get me to ok extra services (Anal expression, toe nail clip, etc). I told them no... Only the spay

Got back the details of the surgery... They gave her 3 more vaccinations without my approval... Including the corona virus! Extra services they charged for included a neurological exam ($25), fecal exams ($36), and eye exam (Tonomitry - $23).

I am very angry. I need a vet that I can trust... I am not against vaccinations... But I am against tests and vaccinations that are not pre-approved, and that are actually shown by other vets to be wrong. I don't want to pay for a one year plan with a vet that I can't trust.

I called their customer complaint line. Let's see what happens!

i took my puppy to banfield, she cut her paw on glass, she was bleeding terribly, they were still open, i paid 870 dollars for day surgery, they charged me for after hours dollars, they tortured her, but stitched her, in a room with other dogs cats and had her on the floor, they said to come back for a change of dressing for free as part of the service, unfortunately, this gets worse, i said she needed a relaxat and they said no, it will be ok, then then held her head on the floor pushing it into the floor, as she licked the floor, god knows how bad that was, then took her and pushed her against the cabinets, then her tale was banging like a rock concert against the cabinets, and she cryed and screamed and then pushed her head worse, she used her tongue to get some liquid against the floor, as dogs hovered around her, no one had gloves on, and when the bandages came off, the blood went alll over, it was her stress, pushing blood through the stitches but did not tare them, she was given too little pain and anxiety medicine, she will never go back there again, i went to mission pet hospital, where someone who once worked there said "she would never bring her pets there". they treated here humanily, it was a 360 degree difference

Took two healthy cats to Banfiels Pet Hospital in Pet Smart be spayed.
There was an "anesthesia mishap' on one and she was sent home in pain and blind... no sedative. Banfield was closed the next day. I took her to an Animal Hospital where they gave the cat a shot to relieve the pain.. said the cat had been blinded and had a very low temp and unresponsive — she could not even move her head.
The contacted another Banfield location and said to take her there and have her uthenized.
Healthy one day, to Banfield at Pet Smart, dead the next.
Please people take you pet elsewhere. Banfield cost more and is less experience that your local vet or humane society. It's seems to me it is all hype to make$. This is in memory of my cat that paid the price. Pass this along to all pet owners you know.

I brought my dog to a PetSmart/Banfield location for shots and was given an itemized list of costs for the visit. The costs were well over $200. I was then given a polished presentation of the Banfield Wellness Plan and shown how much it would save me on this and future visits. This was at payment time, so it was either pay for the wellness plan or the visit and I chose the wellness plan because I would obviously be in the same predicament next time if I didn't. The contract for the plan was for 1 year, but I could cancel at any time. I am 9 months into the plan now but I have not been satisfied with it for about 4 months. My usually healthy dog has actually developed health problems recently and on each outrageous bill we have saved anywhere from $5 to $75. Office visits are supposed to be included in the plan but we have been charged 3 times for these. We began taking our other dog to a vet that is much closer and she seems to be much more honest about what the dog needs. Her prices are also much lower than Banfield's.

In my opinion, it seems that Banfield uses the age old marketing strategy of increasing their prices so that specials and discounts may be offered. $30 a month should not be necessary to receive fair billing for pet health care. Unfortunately, I still did not receive fair billing anyway. Now that I am 3 months shy of completing the contract, I would like to bring my dog to the same vet that my other dog has been seeing. Unfortunately, I was told by Banfield that canceling my plan means that I pay the remaining 3 months at once. Just like their marketing strategies, their cancellation plan is deceptive. If they require me to pay the remaining 3 months, why not keep it at monthly installments? After all, ability to pay the pet care bills is what is prompting my desire to cancel.

I am disappointed in Banfield in much the same way that human health care companies disappoint when they put money before humanity.

This is a copy of the email I sent to Banfield:

Today I took my dog to Banfield (the Arlington Heights IL location) for a checkup.
It was my first time there. I was interested in signing up for the Banfield program to help keep my vet bills manageable.
My last dog I took to a different vet, and although I was happy with their services, they are expensive.

Anyway, I walked out of the Arlington Heights Banfield traumatized. The least of the problems was the lack of cleanliness there.
There was visible feces on the floor in the exam room that had not been cleaned completely. A dog peed in the waiting area and someone used a couple of paper towels, but did not completely clean it up.

The other point of concern was the lack of knowledge the staff seemed to have. I was telling them what I knew and they would say, "Oh yeah." or "Maybe". I was charged money for a vet tech and a veterinarian (? which I question are Banfield vets really fully licensed vets?) to act very unsure and unprofessional.

As I was waiting to pay my bill, a man with a Bloodhound puppy (she was about 35 lbs) came out of the back room into the waiting room. The dog was in distress and was bleeding all over the place. I asked, "What happened to her?" The person behind the desk said she had surgery on her labia and also was spayed. This poor dog was bleeding all over the floor and not able to stand up without collapsing. The Banfield employees let that dog leave there without so much as a bangage or dog diaper to cover her wound. As the owner was walking her to the car she collapsed again and the Banfield employees were watching and saying "Don't let her sit down on the salt in the road." But they weren't saying it to the people outside, they were just saying as they cringed watching that dog suffer.

They wiped up the blood with a mop and I was horrified to see the blood was just smeared around and not completely cleaned up.

How the Banfield vets, vet techs, and desk employees could have let that dog leave their office in such a state of suffering is beyond me.

I worked in a vet hospital and NEVER saw an animal that butchered sent on its way without so much as a bandage.

I would rather go broke taking my dog to my more expensive vet than to ever entrust my dog to the people at Banfield.

I hope you investigate this (and every other) location immediately. If this is how you run all of your Banfield locations then you have no business being open.

Word of mouth is what will either gain or lose customers and I will tell anyone who will listen and post on every animal message board I can about my experience with Banfield.

No one should have to endure what that poor Bloodhound and its owners did today.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE have this location investigated.

Arlington Heights *
49 W. Rand Road, Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Phone: [protected] · Fax: [protected]

I would not recommend this place to anyone who really love their pets... They do not treat your pet as family! The service is horrible, they book so many clients at the same time that you have to wait over 3 hours for your appointment and then they come back and don't even know if they did what they were supposed to do. It is just disgusting and they do not even have the courtesy to contact their clients if a payment does not go through but send your account directly to collections. Oh, and please don't even think about cancelling their disgusting service because there are more fees and penalties! What kind of place is this?

My best friend's dog went there for a biopsy and they did not even call her to give her the results and she had to go to the place in several opportunities trying to find out the results... nobody knew where the results were!

I really don't have a complaint but more of a observation more than anything. I have had several pets that I took in to not only Banfield but other vets around town. They all pray upon your concern for you pet that is a given. Most of the time people go to the vet only after the pet is in some kind of stress, that should be avoided as to not give the Vet people a leg up on your problem. Once your in their clutches they will empty your financial means any way they can. I have to say that Banfield seems to better at doing this than the other vets I have gone to. I certainly have like all the other people complaining have gotten fleeced by the money making machine which is not only Vet Services but also, Auto Mechanics, Insurance Company's, Hospitals, Dentists, Doctors ETC. As you can see the list probably would never end. The point I trying to make is that before you adopt a pet or by a used car for that matter you better be ready to pay thru the nose for service. Remember that our whole country is (all about the money) or another name for it is greed. This will never change and Banfield is just another Greedy company that has found a niche to fleece people as much as possible like all the other company's or professions I named above.

I took my cat to Banfield today, and I knew almost immediately that they were trying to sell every test possible to make money. The nurse came in, and he was actually decent — knowledgeable and caring — he talked to me about my cat's fur loss and explained that they have seen a lot of this due to allergies. He also swabbed her ears and said she didn't appear to have an ear mite problem because her ears were too clean (my cat does not go outside and has been indoors for nine years).
Then the doctor comes in, smelling like he had too much alcohol the night before, and immediately starts talking about testing for hyperthyroidism despite the fact that the cat was normal and showed no other symptoms of this (she clearly eats well and does not show any other symptoms of this problem). He then launched into the heart murmur problem, and stared off in space at one point, apologizing and coming back — probably a hangover brain freeze. I later found out was fairly normal, but he made it sound like that was the real issue, and we need to talk about procedures for this problem. I then brought him back to the real issue of her fur loss.
He said she should have fungus cultures, skin tests, and skin impressions, and blood work-up without telling me what any of those things did. Oh and he said she needed an ear mite test, but when I said I was sure that she didn't have mites and that the nurse even said he didn't think she had ear mites, the doctor looked panicked and said he completely disagreed. I should have seen that as a sign of his being scared of losing money.

When some manager lady, a completely condescending woman, came in to explain the costs, I asked her what these things would show about my cat's skin, and she used every word over my head that I couldn't understand. She made the mistake of saying that the skin tests would rule out bacteria and other problems which the fungus culture might find. I asked her if the fungus culture was for more than ringworm (because I know what that is and have had a cat with this and knew that wasn't my cat's problem) and this manager woman said, "Ringworm and a bunch of other fungus types I cannot even begin to start listing." Whatever. I made her take that $30 plus charge off and she was pissed off and rushed out of the room to do this. I agreed to only the skin tests and ear mite test because she and the doctor assured me that this was the only way to determine ear mites by some $30 test.
Well, the good nurse comes in to tell me the results (after I sat for over 20 minutes), and he says that the cat didn't have mange, and I said, "What the heck? Is that what the skin test showed? I just paid $25 to find out what I could have told you people? He said that the ear mite test came back negative — hmmm, he and I knew that before I agreed to the damn fee, so that was not surprise.
Then the nurse asked if I wanted to try the fungus test which he clearly stated,"checks for ringworm."And I said oh heck no — my cat does not have ringworm, and I am not paying for a test to come back negative.

So the doctor comes in and wants to get on the"same page" and says the cat needs blood work up and testing for hyperthyroidism, and I exploded on him saying that I would not trust him because of the BS tests they made me pay for and the one they wanted me to pay for.

Ringworm, ear mites, and mange have been around for decades — you mean to tell me that doctors cannot identify those by close observations anymore — I bet old time, down home, experienced vets can — they don't need fancy tests after seeing multiple cases of these. Tests, tests, tests for money, money, money — it's like the crisis with the human health care for profit system.

I was so stupid not to check all of the multiple bad reviews this place has received from pet owners and former employees. What a joke.

Brought my dog in for an ear infection and complaints of weight loss. Dog was eating, walking etc but did not seem to be gaining weight. Immediately after a vet whom I had never seen before at this location suggested firmly that he needed a dental with many extractions. The estimated bill was $1600. When I asked about the ear issue they offered to clean them while he was under. The dog had eaten that morning so I thought it was odd that they wanted him to have surgery within a few hours of this.
I was pressured by the vet tech to open a credit line to pay for all these expenses. I refused. But unfortunately I let them do the surgery. When I picked him up that night he did not look right. He was not really moving. Things went downhill from there. I brought him in the next day because he wouldn't eat, drink, pee etc. The vet did not seem concerned but I was. She pressured me into buying food that was 'appetizing' to dogs as well as all new drugs in a liquid form instead of pill. I took him home. The next day I brought him back in and was desperate for help. This vet printed up an estimate of things she wanted to do and when the dog started losing control of body functions before her eyes she said it was time for him to go. So basically this dog suffered needlessly for 3 days for a procedure he did not need. My dog was a walking dollar sign to them. He could not recover from surgery. If they had said he was ill or old and in failing health to begin with, I could accept that. But to put him, myself and my wallet through hell for days on end with no help. I feel someone needs to be held accountable.
This was not the first time I had been pressured into buying services and products for my dogs. Each time I went I felt as if I was with a used car salesman instead of a doctor. They upsold me every single time I ever came in. Even if it was for a simple vaccination. I was tied into their contract so I couldn't really afford starting over with a new vet. And I wish to god that I did, and got another opinion.
My dog died on Monday after 3 agonizing days that were completely UNNECESSARY.
I can be contacted at [protected]@aol.com.

We brought our purebred Alaskan Malamute puppy in for her spay. The doctor performing the spay inadvertenly removed some tissue that she did not identify before removing. The parts were thought to be connected to her bladder and their removal would be certain death for our puppy. When asked about the removal of the tissue before identifcation, the vet responded with "It was too late by then." My puppy has a 8" incision on her abdomen for a simple procedure. We do not know what the vet removed from our dog or the function of that tissue, vital or not. I will be filing a complaint with the board.