Pet Peeves #5 & 6

I was looking back over my archives, and realized that the last time I talked about some of my pet peeves was way back in November. Well, today I came across a couple more. Both have to do with cheap clients.

Number 5: Clients who come in for exams but already know they can't do anything. This really gets me. A client will come in with a sick or injured pet, yet they have absolutely no money to do any diagnostics or treatment. Today I had someone who brought a small dog that had been completely lame on a hind leg for two weeks after being bit by another dog. There was something wrong with the knee and I needed to take x-rays. They couldn't afford to to that, but also didn't want to get any pain medication. All I ended up doing is telling them that their dog had a problem with his left knee, which they kind of already knew. Last week we had someone who wanted us to do a free exam on their sick pet because they couldn't afford the office visit fee. I refused because I knew that if they couldn't afford the office visit, they certainly couldn't afford any tests or medication. The client became very upset because we refused to see her pet. No, we would be happy to see the pet, just not for free. I can understand not having money to do extensive tests or treatment. But if you know going into the appointment that you don't have any money beyond the office visit, what is the point? It's very uncommon for us to see a pet and not need to do anything at all. Usually we need to do at least some testing and treatment. What do these people expect of us? I usually forget to bring my crystal ball and magic wand to work, so I'm not much help in these cases. I really wish people would realize that the exam is simply the beginning, and there almost always will be more.

Number 6: People who refuse services when you know darn well they can afford it. Today we saw a client who refused to do more than a rabies vaccine on her pet. She didn't want heartworm testing or prevention, or a distemper-parvo vaccine. She complained about it being too much money. Yet my tech had seen her pull up in a 2009 BMW that still had a temporary tag. Lady, if you can afford a brand new Beamer, you can certainly afford to take care of you pet! I know some people can't afford to do much (which is another pet peeve that I've already talked about). But don't come in with expensive cars, clothing, and jewelry and tell me that you don't have the money to do the simple things.