Banfield Pet Hospital — Attraction in San Diego

EDIT: As you can see below, Banfield told me to email them after I posted this review in order to discuss these issues and they never even responded! More evidence that they don't care about their customers at all...

We made the mistake of signing up for a first year wellness plan for our puppy with this company and now we're trapped with an unsolicited second year's plan or an unnecessary $500 bill if we cancel it.

The nurses/associates who work the front desk and signed us up for the initial plan never told us that it would auto-renew without any notice, nor did they properly explain what the wellness plan actually provided: we ended up being charged for something that they said was included! We were explicitly told that the plan included a "graduation" checkup at the end of the wellness plan itself. This led us to believe that the plan wouldn't auto-renew and that we needed to bring our puppy in towards the end of it for her final first year's checkup.

The general customer service we received here over the course of the year was fairly bad. Forgotten appointments that we had scheduled earlier over the phone, having us wait for upwards of 20-30 minutes past the scheduled time when dropping off our puppy at the location, etc..

Eventually, we had to visit another Banfield location when this one stopped answering the phone for days at a time! Turns out that this place has had "intermittent closures", according to Alisa, the Manager over at the Chula Vista location (who also did not help us and whose only input was repeating "you signed the contract" multiple times).

The delays caused by the closure(s) pushed our puppy's graduation exam ever so slightly over the auto-renew date that we had no idea about, and that led to us being charged for a visit at another location in the second year's plan instead. We didn't even know we were in the second year plan! It wasn't what we asked for when scheduling the appointment and wasn't what we asked for on the day of the visit. Nothing was explained to us about which exam was actually being performed-- this was another time when Banfield made no effort to communicate with us.

The manager here (Audrey) did nothing to help us, either. She took no ownership of whether her employees had explained things properly to us, and simply told us that "she would personally keep the plan" when she knew that the entire issue was precisely about not wanting to keep the plan.

Definitely not a good place to do...

My dog loves Dr. Rudman and the staff. Before coming to Banfield College (we’ve gone to other locations), my dog would freeze and refuse to go inside the vet. With Banfield College, my dog willingly walks herself right back with a big smile on her face because she just loves the staff. It’s a testament that my dog has had a positive experience with Banfield College.

The front desk (Jasmine & Jaelynn) are always very nice and sweet. They made the check in and check out process very easy.

Zoey loves Dr. Rudman. She’s great with my dog but she is also very clear and sincere with her plan of care and recommendations. It’s just very reassuring knowing my dog is always in good care with Dr. Rudman and her team. So thank you, Dr. Rudman and staff for the wonderful care.

One thing I would like to add for the Banfield manager/higher ups is to invest in a buzz-in door opener. I see the ladies tending/checking in patients and will have to stop what they’re doing to open the door. I just think it’s a bit time consuming if they are doing this for everyone coming through the door. I think it will make in check in/check out...

I’ve been bringing my dog to different locations since he was a puppy. There are a year and a half worth of notes saying how good he has been for various locations. I brought him to the location For a teeth cleaning, they wouldn’t let me go in with him, and instantly he was noted as aggressive (they failed to clean his teeth 3 times because he was extremely aggressive and nervous). I had to pay $$$$ all 3 times they failed to clean his teeth. The last visit was $70. Now, everytime I bring him to the vets he’s nervous and hides under my legs, won’t let the vet touch him. I’m not sure what this location did to him, but he is TERRIFIED to be left alone now (both at the groomers and the vets now... even though I was getting him groomed once a month and he was perfect for them). The next banfield location I brought him to says he was PERFECT (minus being nervous, even with me in the room with him).

Edit: it’s been 10 days since I emailed the address the owner gave me and not a single person has responded, let alone attempted to reassure me that nothing happened to my dog at this location....