Raped by the Vets again!!
Discussion
We have a pretty good relationship with our local vet, due to a dog with Atkinson's disease & previously another dog always in need, so we keep them busy. For the Atkinson's treatment we get a discount for the daily drugs which appears ok.
However have just checked online for the last lot of non prescription drugs & fook me they are taking the Michael!! The online price average is about £14.00 & they raped us for £43.27 !! for the same product, it was an off the shelf purchase.
So I think our long standing relationship is about to end quite abruptly, or should I give them the option to rethink their pricing. We pay them enough in regular visits & check ups so I have no qualms that they don't get enough from us at a very good rate.
Any vets care to comment
However have just checked online for the last lot of non prescription drugs & fook me they are taking the Michael!! The online price average is about £14.00 & they raped us for £43.27 !! for the same product, it was an off the shelf purchase.
So I think our long standing relationship is about to end quite abruptly, or should I give them the option to rethink their pricing. We pay them enough in regular visits & check ups so I have no qualms that they don't get enough from us at a very good rate.
Any vets care to comment
jonah35 said:
Surely you expect a professional veterinary practice to charge more than a website??!
Yes I do expect them to charge more, we have been paying maybe 25% over the odds for Florinef for the past 8 years, approx £38's worth a month, we are happy with that as they provide us a good service. However raping the same customer for another product at 3x its market rate I do not consider good practice
Question, why should the vets have a higher margin on retail products out of interest?
cptsideways said:
Question, why should the vets have a higher margin on retail products out of onterest?
Possibly because they are several qualified veterinary professionals in a shiny building that has to pay business rates and tax and veterninary nurses, and not some Albanian bandit in an attic?But ultimately yer pays yer money and takes yer choice
Our vet was charging a 50% premium for ongoing/permanent drugs for arthritis and pancreatitis for our late GSD. When we found that we could get them that much cheaper online (both drugs were permanent, taken daily) the vet was not at all worried about writing us a prescription, but didn't offer to discount the drugs. Prescription cost £9 and lasted 3 months, so we were quids in regardless (£65/month instead of £100).
Edited by CAPP0 on Saturday 18th October 14:05
Simpo Two said:
cptsideways said:
Question, why should the vets have a higher margin on retail products out of onterest?
Possibly because they are several qualified veterinary professionals in a shiny building that has to pay business rates and tax and veterninary nurses, and not some Albanian bandit in an attic?But ultimately yer pays yer money and takes yer choice
When you have a dying dog that was saved by their efforts supported by about 6 staff over 3 days of intensive care, plus they diagnosed a very rare disease in short time, we were more than happy to pay for it.
I'll give you an example. I bought a can of Vetkem House flea spray recently from Viovet. Had I bought it through my work at cost plus vat it would still have cost me approx £16.
Even as an employee at a vets with a good discount I am still not able to beat the cost from an online site!!
Most drugs we can't buy in for the price those same drugs are sold online.
We also have extensive overheads compared to online sites.
Even as an employee at a vets with a good discount I am still not able to beat the cost from an online site!!
Most drugs we can't buy in for the price those same drugs are sold online.
We also have extensive overheads compared to online sites.
Our local vet seems to have got wise to the online drug buying. The vet charges us roughly twice the price of what I can buy the drugs online for. The vet won't give us a prescription for more than 1 month. The dog has to have 2 tablets of the same drug to make up the right amount of dosage. The vet charges £13 each for a prescription, so that's £26 a month. About the same saving as what I would get if I bought the drugs online. With this charging scheme, I wouldn't be surprised if the vet is making more money from you, buying online, than if they sold you the drug direct.
dudleybloke said:
bexVN said:
Most drugs we can't buy in for the price those same drugs are sold online.
So why isn't the business buying them online?I should add that I do not run a vet business I am an employee only so this is not necessarily completely right just my observations!
Edited by bexVN on Friday 17th October 08:19
cptsideways said:
Is that not what the £200 h/r fees are for?
When you have a dying dog that was saved by their efforts supported by about 6 staff over 3 days of intensive care, plus they diagnosed a very rare disease in short time, we were more than happy to pay for it.
As others have said, veterinary care is a free market so you can try to find a cheaper practice, just don't be surprised if they aren't as well equipped to help next time one of your pets have a crisis.When you have a dying dog that was saved by their efforts supported by about 6 staff over 3 days of intensive care, plus they diagnosed a very rare disease in short time, we were more than happy to pay for it.
Vets have traditionally undercharged for their professional time and made up for this on drug sales, as they used to have pretty much a monopoly on sales of animal drugs. If the trend for owners to use online pharmacies continues, vets are likely to respond by charging more for their time - just compare vet fees compared to private doctor fees.
Also worth being aware the practice probably hasn't deliberately set out to rip you off - most practices have a standard mark up on the price they're charged by their wholesaler, so the price you're being charged partly reflects what the practice is being charged, certain wholesalers charge surprising amounts for some products.
I'm confused. Surely the cost of vets should never exceed the cost of buying a replacement animal?
More seriously though I'm amazed at what vets can charge, and it's a problem caused with insurance that's become so prevalent in the last 20 years or so.
Prior to that, if you animal needed expensive long term care, you'd have it put down unless you had money to throw away.
Now, because insurance has been around for so long, the vets are offering treatments, and getting insurance to pay for it, that would never have existed previously.
Problem is, the people with no insurance are left having to pay insurance company level fees for even relatively simple treatments.
Dentistry is the same. And the NHS will no doubt go the same way eventually.
More seriously though I'm amazed at what vets can charge, and it's a problem caused with insurance that's become so prevalent in the last 20 years or so.
Prior to that, if you animal needed expensive long term care, you'd have it put down unless you had money to throw away.
Now, because insurance has been around for so long, the vets are offering treatments, and getting insurance to pay for it, that would never have existed previously.
Problem is, the people with no insurance are left having to pay insurance company level fees for even relatively simple treatments.
Dentistry is the same. And the NHS will no doubt go the same way eventually.
As above we lost our staffy recently I would have quite happily have sold my business house cars and the shirt on my back if it meant her still being here
Currently typing this lying on the couch with our latest arrival a 9 week old staffy sitting on my chest sleeping. Even after only being in our lives a week she means more to me than anything in the world.
In regards to vets I certainly can't fault ours service is fantastic and they all seem to be animal people. Cost wise I don't think they are that bad, but I am glad I have ours insured in case anything happens dog insurance is via more than and something like £300 a year. About the same as the. Wife's focus
Currently typing this lying on the couch with our latest arrival a 9 week old staffy sitting on my chest sleeping. Even after only being in our lives a week she means more to me than anything in the world.
In regards to vets I certainly can't fault ours service is fantastic and they all seem to be animal people. Cost wise I don't think they are that bad, but I am glad I have ours insured in case anything happens dog insurance is via more than and something like £300 a year. About the same as the. Wife's focus
As with human medicine, the technology available to assist animals has developed greatly esp in the last 20yrs. This obviously comes with a cost that can be high. It's true insurance has enabled these technologies to be used more readily but it is just a natural progression aswell. I paid out 2k last year in an attempt to save my Jimmy's life last year, not knowing if insurance would cover it, on credit card (the amount some people would spend on a holiday). I couldn't save him (broke my heart) but I was able to know what was happening to him and how to support him in the best way possible.
Re non insured pets, we do the best we can and often cut our losses to help them out. We are not heartless b
ds.
Re non insured pets, we do the best we can and often cut our losses to help them out. We are not heartless b
ds.Edited by bexVN on Friday 17th October 22:57
I would expect stock the vet needs to have on the shelf for infrequent but urgent use to have a significant mark-up over what it costs to order in. They've got money tied up in it and it has a shelf life. Things you could order and wait for, or of which they have a high turnover, less so - but you're paying for convenience. Go and see if your local main dealer is as cheap as the Internet for car parts.
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