Rant about outsourcing [View all]

I have a dog and he started on 3 different meds in November. When I left the appt, I had the first months medications with me.

The clinic has "outsourced" their pharmacy to an operation in New York. I live in Wisconsin. Its an online pharmacy and there is supposed to be auto-renewal. In December I received his meds through this service and they came on time. The cost is around $50.

At the end of December I was email prompted for January meds. My account was charged on December 31. Well, as of Friday the 10th I had not received them and I had only one day of pills left. So I called the vet clinic and asked if I could refill his prescriptions. The vet I had seen was out for the day, but they had my dog's chart.

When I went to the clinic I found out that they had only filled 2 out of 3 prescriptions, and they only gave me a weeks worth of each. They wanted to charge me $41 for 14 pills, and I still would not have what I needed. I balked at this.

They said it was "out of their hands" because I ordered it through the online pharmacy (which I had been pushed to use) and they have no control over it. Besides, there is bad weather in Canada and wildfires in California, so I should know that these things take time. This service does not allow you to place the order before a certain date.

I asked why they couldn't give me a months supply of pills for the same cost. Then I got to hear all about "fill cost" and "technician time" and overhead. They said I could not have a months supply because when the order came through I would have two months supply. I asked 'what's wrong with that?' and nobody answered me.

I said, I'm not going to do this. They brought out a "practice manager" who told me she didn't know anything about the pharmacy service. She tried to negotiate with me but it all involved a handful of pills for $40-$60. I said no. When I said this I was told they would inform my vet that I was no longer cooperating with my dogs care. They offered to get me a list of veterinarians.

I really didn't think anything bad would happen if my dog missed his pills for a day or two. But the pills came on Saturday so my dog got what he needed. I looked up the tracking: the pills were shipped on Jan 7 and arrived on Jan 11. That is a reasonable amount of time. The problem is that they charged me on December 31 and did not ship till January 7.

Nobody apologized to me at the vet's office- they just expected me to eat the extra cost. And they all acted like this has never happened before, which I find hard to believe.

Veterinary care has become ridiculously expensive. Every single time I go to the office I am shocked when I'm checking out. I think there was a time when vets were smaller and more personal. Now it feels like walking into a corporation. Its all about the money.

Anyway, I may have to change vets. After 24 years, its a big deal.