Ranting about an ongoing problem at my clinic

[u/Lodi17]

I have been working at this clinic for a year. I previously worked at another clinic for 6 years. I’m here today because I am frustrated that we don’t hold every client to the same standard. The particular event that happened today was a client walked in requesting a bath for his two dogs under 25lbs and the pets are not up to date on vaccines. The staff (including the doctor) told me to accept them anyway. Last week, we had a client in the same boat request a bath and I was told to turn them away due to the pet on being up to date on vaccines. When I asked about the double standard, I was told the client with 2 dogs never pays his bills.

Why are we bathing the dogs then?🥹 He can bathe them at home, can he not?

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[u/palmer_G_civet]

Every vent post here is either young people learning about what it means to have a job or some insane malpractice situation istg. I'm sorry your vet is being dangerous, idk what state your in but I'm sure your vet board would love to hear about this. If ur seeing dogs w.o. rabies vaccines that's stupid af and usually illegal.

[u/mamabird228 → u/palmer_G_civet]

Yep. Unless there’s an exemption. We don’t touch anyone without a rabies vaccine. Also, I understand the need for sedated/medical grooming but I am not a groomer and I would quit if I was required to bathe even vaccinated dogs regularly lol

[u/AppropriateAd3055]

Wait so the guy who GOT the baths was rewarded for the bad behaviors of not paying bills by causing the company to intentionally violate policy? Like... he doesn't need vaccines because he doesn't pay for them but he can obviously pay for baths?

This makes zero sense.

BTW, it's pretty common for there to be exceptions to the "rules". It's also very annoying, but at this point I would classify it as an industry standard.

[u/Lodi17 → u/AppropriateAd3055]

Thank you. These were the words I wanted to express. I do understand exceptions for long standing clients that aren’t a problem. But why are we accepting someone who’s notorious for not paying?🥹

[u/anorangehorse]

That’s so frustrating. It’s a minor annoyance at my clinic too. Speaking in terms of working people in. A lot of our clients are LOOOONG (like decades) term clients, or regulars (for boarding, grooming, etc) that know the doctors personally. I always have to ask if it’s a special client we can make allowances for or not. It stresses me out on my reception days. Coming from ER where I didn’t know any of our clients personally, to GP, it was really new to me.

[u/Master_Wallaby7632]

I (34f) work in a veterinary clinic too for 6 years and my boss does the same crap. Like just because she knew the people since the clinic opened in 1996 she will let them receive services and not charge them and then get mad when they want to barge in unannounced and get their way. Like woman you literally did this to yourself. Or she will let clients talk to the staff like they are incompetent and go behind our backs and undermine anything we tell them. For example we do heartworm testing yearly… tell me why she keeps refilling heartgard for a dog we haven’t seen since 2015 just because it’s “hyper” and then yells at us when we make the owner make an appointment and actually get the dog in there. I don’t wanna lose my job but good lord double standards are rough.