How to take Rejected Take Off Insurance Animal Insurance

It's not like Bansfield doesn't understand that she's dead. They sent us a card saying how sorry they were for our loss... oh yeah after years of treating our dog like a credit card and suggesting useless procedures and tests to milk us for what we were worth.
Last year the vet had the nerve to tell me there was "a look" in my dog's eyes and she was unhappy. My dog was and is one of the most important things in my life and I can safely say she wasn't ever as happy as she was the last few years of her life.
After a LOT of talking on the phone, they said they would "help us" with our balance... aka change the contract to fewer months. So they transfer us to the collection dept of Bansfield. Hours later we finally talk to someone who isn't a heartless asshole.

OH, they're a hospital as well as an insurance program.
I wouldn't even say "don't use Banfield"; I'd say "don't use ANY corporate chain." Find a local vet who knows and values his/her customers. Local, small practices can't afford to rip people off, or they'd run out of customers and close down.

This. A thousand times this. You might pay slightly more with a small practice, (and shop around, they are EVERYWHERE) but the quality of service you receive (both for your and your pet) outweigh any dollar amount that could possibly be saved.
I've seen the horrors of Bansfield through a friend who rescued 2 dogs. He loved them so much. Those people (for the most part) are in it for the money, not for the love of animals.

And yet when my cat was dying of liver failure, our small practice vet said that our best option was a kidney transplant for our 14 year old cat. $20k.
A junior vet let us sneak in to take her home that friday night. She died that Sunday morning.

Don't get me wrong, not all small practices are good. I worked for one during high school that was rather shady. But when you stay outside corporate you have the option of shopping around.
Did you get a second (or third) opinion for your kitty? I'm sorry that happened to her :(

Didn't have time. Zelda went in on Monday and was gone by Sunday. I'm not saying Banfield is great at all, but there are few resources for evaluating vets.


As someone who is trying to find a decent exotic vet for my parrot, I understand. I have to go by word of mouth. Trying my luck at a 3rd vet in a few weeks after the first one (who was awesome) retired and the second one was afraid to hold my bird to examine him.

could your retired vet recommend someone new?

I asked him and several people who worked there and they honestly knew no one but some random person who is really REALLY far away. I ended up getting the name of someone who isn't too far from the woman who babysits my parrot. Too bad it isn't 5 minutes from the house like the old vet was. That made the trip really easy for the bird. He doesn't care for car rides a whole lot.

It's not like Bansfield doesn't understand that she's dead. They sent us a card saying how sorry they were for our loss... oh yeah after years of treating our dog like a credit card and suggesting useless procedures and tests to milk us for what we were worth.
Last year the vet had the nerve to tell me there was "a look" in my dog's eyes and she was unhappy. My dog was and is one of the most important things in my life and I can safely say she wasn't ever as happy as she was the last few years of her life.
After a LOT of talking on the phone, they said they would "help us" with our balance... aka change the contract to fewer months. So they transfer us to the collection dept of Bansfield. Hours later we finally talk to someone who isn't a heartless asshole.

OH, they're a hospital as well as an insurance program.
I wouldn't even say "don't use Banfield"; I'd say "don't use ANY corporate chain." Find a local vet who knows and values his/her customers. Local, small practices can't afford to rip people off, or they'd run out of customers and close down.Not just quality of service, but you can tell the vets of private practices genuinely give a shit about you and your pet. I will never take my dog to a chain unless its the only option that hasn't been exhausted.

This is very true. Our vet called us personally (not her tech or the receptionist) after visiting her for a deworming pill to see if he had passed his tapeworm. That's caring.

My vet does this too. She'll also get me in on short notice, because my dog is elderly.

That's what I like about my vet. They don't see hundreds upon hundreds of people. Because of this they can spend their money on better quality equipment since they don't need as much of it, and the staff actually knows each of their customers and their animals. It just seems like less of an assembly line like the big chains tend to feel.

Banfield has long since been a disgusting shithole of a chain; I've worked for and taken my pets to other, non-Banfield chains and not all of them suck. And not all stores within each chain suck either, the office I worked at in a chain was hell but some of the other branches around the city are nice. Good rule of thumb though - stay away from chains. You never know.

Bansfield is basically Petsmart's corporate vet.

oh yeah after years of treating our dog like a credit card and suggesting useless procedures and tests to milk us for what we were worth.
Exactly. Can't stand them.....

Unfortunately, it's true. Banfield 'insurance' isn't insurance, it's a contract you enter into at the beginning of the year agreeing to pay vet bills for the entire year whether your pet lives or dies.
I thought everyone knew this?

The big issue is that Banfield isn't insurance... it's an annual "wellness plan." When you sign up you agree to a certain cost for certain services provided to your dog throughout the year, as well as a discount on additional services. You can either pay in full or your can pay monthly.

Dealing with Banfield is a pain in the ass, and I deal with them frequently (mostly through other people's pets). The only time I personally use and/or recommend one of their plans is for a pets first year only if they have't received any shots elsewhere and they're not fixed yet. Being able to pay off our barn kitties three rounds of shots, neutering and whatever else monthly as opposed to a big ol' chunk was nice. Otherwise find an awesome local vet, they are often cheaper for emergency services, surgeries, and can provide a larger array of services also. (Had a friend's dog require a blood transfusion, we moved him from Banfield to a local vet as Banfield doesn't deal in whole blood, only plasma.) There are a few reasons I do use Banfield but generally speaking, anything major I just don't trust them with. Its a convenience thing for me but I won't touch one of their plans with a ten foot pole for my adult animals.

I'm truly truly sorry for your loss and its shit they're being assholes about the whole thing. Sadly its one of those watch what you sign things. They are in it for the money, absolutely, and its shitty to see that happen when it involves members of our family.

This. A thousand times this. You might pay slightly more with a small practice, (and shop around, they are EVERYWHERE) but the quality of service you receive (both for your and your pet) outweigh any dollar amount that could possibly be saved.
I've seen the horrors of Bansfield through a friend who rescued 2 dogs. He loved them so much. Those people (for the most part) are in it for the money, not for the love of animals.

And yet when my cat was dying of liver failure, our small practice vet said that our best option was a kidney transplant for our 14 year old cat. $20k.
A junior vet let us sneak in to take her home that friday night. She died that Sunday morning.

Don't get me wrong, not all small practices are good. I worked for one during high school that was rather shady. But when you stay outside corporate you have the option of shopping around.
Did you get a second (or third) opinion for your kitty? I'm sorry that happened to her :(

Didn't have time. Zelda went in on Monday and was gone by Sunday. I'm not saying Banfield is great at all, but there are few resources for evaluating vets.

As someone who is trying to find a decent exotic vet for my parrot, I understand. I have to go by word of mouth. Trying my luck at a 3rd vet in a few weeks after the first one (who was awesome) retired and the second one was afraid to hold my bird to examine him.

could your retired vet recommend someone new?

I asked him and several people who worked there and they honestly knew no one but some random person who is really REALLY far away. I ended up getting the name of someone who isn't too far from the woman who babysits my parrot. Too bad it isn't 5 minutes from the house like the old vet was. That made the trip really easy for the bird. He doesn't care for car rides a whole lot.

MANY of their programs are a scam. They would refuse to do procedures without doing other (extremely expensive) procedures which were unnecessary. Here is what happened last year to my dog... they didn't want to do her teeth cleaning without a slew of procedures, tests, etc claiming she wasn't well enough for the anesthesia. So we said "ok we won't do the cleaning then." Before anyone says "why didn't you do all the tests" I want to reiterate they were asking for ridiculous procedures and tests. We've seen many people hold on to their dying dogs to the point where the dog is in extreme pain and knew we never wanted to be putting our dog through surgeries and unhappiness. Well, guess what? As soon as we said we weren't going to do all those tests/procedures, suddenly they could do the tooth cleaning. Suddenly it wasn't an issue for her to have the anesthesia. Magically she's fine to do the teeth cleaning when it means we won't pay for anything.
Moral of the story: they will do ANYTHING to make you pay more money at Bansfield. I strongly recommend asking for second opinions and not taking whatever your vet says to be truth at Bansfield.

I have to be honest... I haven't actually processed that my best friend isn't alive anymore. Yesterday I was in the basement and saw the box with some of her things and broke down. I think it'll take time for me to fully process what actually happened. [/edit]

I would not put any dog, especially an older dog, under anesthesia without pre-anesthetic bloodwork. I would not do a dental cleaning without perioperative antibiotics. You are the owner, and are welcome not to consent to the pre-screening/other precautions, but you are taking on a large amount of risk. I believe this is an unacceptable level of risk for my own pets, but you are obviously welcome to make your own choices.

I am not familiar with Banfield's protocol for dentals, but I really doubt the tests were useless, although I respect your right to deny them. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with the company, and I think the insurance issue is ridiculous, and wish you the best of luck in getting out of your contract.

A thousand times this. While I don't doubt they can be greedy shady bastards, everything the OP described is not a 'scam'.

Anesthesia for pets is no joke. They HAVE to do those pre-tests. It's standard in the industry. Even a dog that is young and healthy can have a mild undetected heart murmur (not all tests will catch them). That is what happened to one of my dogs and his heart stopped during anesthesia. And that was after all the tests. They revived him and he's living today. It isn't just the heart, but liver and other vital organs. If they don't do these tests and your dog died you would be even more mad.
I've used Banfield for 10 years now and I really like the doctors at my local clinic. But if corporate tried to charge me insurance for a pet that died I'd refuse to pay and tell them they can see me in court.

Professional teeth cleanings can be avoided if you brush your dog's teeth really well at LEAST three times a week. But please don't skip out on both. If their dental care is neglected, by the time they are a senior they are going to have some very serious issues as the infection spreads to vital organs through the blood stream.

I think the OP is suffering from sticker price shock...it is true that even with banfield the costs of taking care of an animal are high. But if they are procedures you are going to use anyway I do find it can help cut down on the cost.

There are several pre-tests related to anesthesia just for a healthy dog, but if your dog has some sketchy bloodwork (funky liver enzymes, for example) they usually want more specific bloodwork done so they can maybe find what's going. If you list the tests we can tell you whether they were relevant.

It sounds like your dog's teeth were bad and the vet really wanted to clean them. The cleaning itself is 100% covered so they had nothing to financially gain by deciding to do it anyway. But I'm pretty sure they at least did the basic bloodwork screenings because it could become lawsuit city without it. They just didn't charge you for it. There may be underlying issue with your dog they wanted to check for, but you choose not to explore that possibility further. That's your choice and your right, and no one should judge you for it. It's sometimes a guessing game, even for the doctors.

I 100% understand why you are steamed at Banfield. I would be too. I'd go to the media in a heartbeat and rip them a new one. But from my experiences with Banfield, the vets and corporate are two different entities. I cannot say for certain, but it seems your vet really tried to do what is best for your dog. Dirty teeth can kill a dog and if the oral hygiene is bad enough they will weigh the risks and try to do it anyway (the lesser of two evils).

I've personally had bad experiences with both. In another comment I mentioned how my vet told me there was "a look" in my dog's eyes and she could tell my dog was unhappy. Nobody spent more time with my dog than me and for the past few years she has been the happiest (tail wagging, learning new tricks, following me to every room etc). The vet would constantly change their mind in significant ways (dog needs to lose weight so we cut diet she loses the weight she needed to lose... and then the vet says she's way to skinny and we should give her SIX TIMES as much food, which by the way my dog wasn't even capable of eating). I'm not saying all vets or all Banfield vets are bad, but mine was a total nightmare.

Oh I should mention she basically told me a year ago my dog was going to die any day now in the middle of Petsmart. Held it together in the store and got in my car and lost it.
I'll have to ask about the tests...

You should consider filing a complaint with the Veterinary Medical Board for possible malpractice. All of that sounds very odd. i'm really sorry to hear about all that.

The tests were unrelated, actually. She had a heart condition and they kept pushing to do lots of tests with that and were recommending very expensive surgery. She was already 13 years old and very happy so we made the decision as a family that once her heart condition became an issue (which it did earlier this month) that we would put her down so she wouldn't spend any of her life in pain. This was their way of trying to force us to go down that road which we continuously told them we would not.

I'm really sorry for your loss. My family lost our dog about four or five months ago. I still miss waking up in the morning to find her curled up on the couch or some other comfortable spot, or coming home and not having her spring to greet me. It's not so much pain anymore, but a very fond remembrance of her life, and I'm endlessly thankful we had her for the short time we did. You'll get there too :)
Yeah, and fuck those Bansfield guys.