Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:03/03/2023

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  This company does low cost spay/neuter programs. I had made an appointment and they require the amount of $75 up front. That do these on Mondays. Website says 24 hour cancellation but because they are closed Saturday and Sunday they require cancellation on Friday which is 36 hours. They tried to keep my deposit so i contacted the PA Attorney General. In the Meantime bridge worked with me and i had an appointment this Monday. I cancelled the complaint but bridge found out so they canceled my appointment and are refusing to give me my money back or return my calls

  Business Response

  Date: 04/26/2023

  Our organization, The Bridge Clinic is a full-service, nonprofit veterinary office. We offer low, affordable rates for our community. More information about our organization can be found at www.thebridgeclinic.org.

  
  

  One of the reasons we are able to offer lower costs is by increasing the amount of patients that are seen by well-trained, efficient staff, and reducing the amount of missed appointments. One way we attempt to reduce appointment attrition is by taking deposits for appointments. Our deposit policy is spelled out on our website here: APPOINTMENTS | The Bridge Clinic | United States. This policy is fairly standard in our branch of the industry, and similar nonprofits across the country implement a deposit policy.

  
  

  At the time of *** *******'s booking, the website read: The Bridge Clinic is a full-service veterinary clinic and offers many services, from wellness and sick visits to surgeries to keep your furry friends healthy! Please make a general inquiry appointment request by clicking the button below.
  
  *APPOINTMENT DEPOSIT POLICY - PLEASE READ: Please note that The Bridge Clinic is a full-service, high-volume facility. As such, we charge a deposit to book the following appointments: new client/first time visit, all surgical appointments, more than two pets coming in at one time, or to reserve an additional appointment after a missed appointment (including cancellations not made more than 24 hours/1 business day of scheduled time).
  
  Deposits are applied toward the balance of your bill on the day of your appointment, or rescheduled appointment. Deposits are non-refundable if the appointment is not cancelled or rescheduled more than 24 hours/1 business day of said appointment/new appointment. For appointments made less than 24 hours ahead, staff must be notified by 4:00 pm of the day of booking in order to be refunded the deposit.
  

  
  

  Our website as well as Google states that we are only open Monday-Friday, hence, any Monday appointments must be cancelled on Friday (being 1 business day). We have since added further language to eliminate any further argument from clients who attempt to abuse this policy. When a client misses an appointment without proper notice, it often eliminates our ability to serve another pet with our low rates, and costs the clinic revenue.

  
  

  *** ******* has missed at least 2 appointments (7/20/22 and 2/20/23). 

  
  

  When a client books an appointment, our staff goes over our cancellation policy when taking their deposit. We perform over 2000 similar procedures with the same deposit policy per year, and our staff is trained to take deposits in each and every occurrence and explain to clients the policy for no-shows/when a deposit is non-refundable. As such, I can say with near certainty that the deposit policy was reviewed with *** *******. As further insurance, our staff also sends a reminder text message with a link to our website, which all contains the drop off instructions and our deposit/cancellation policy.

  
  

  *** ******* indicated that she called and left a message within the proper time window, however, we utilize **** phone internet phone systems, and we receive an email every time a voicemail is left. There was no voicemail or email from *** *******.

  
  

  Our staff then took a considerable amount of time (giving the benefit of the doubt), to go through our call logs from that day, and found no trace of her calling, nor leaving a message. 

  
  

  When I brought this to the client's attention, her story appeared to be shaky, not lining up as to when she left a message, why she missed her appointment, etc. She also indicated that she might have used her boyfriend's phone, but once again, we do not have record of a voicemail left (as she has said that she did), nor did she offer this information until we indicated we could find no record of the cancellation. 

  
  

  We referred her to our website that indicated our no show policy ("24 hours/1 business day"). Explained to the client that we are not open on the weekends (as it clearly states on our website as hours being Monday-Friday, so 1 business day means we would need notice by Friday. We explained that if we refunded her deposit we would have now lost revenue twice by *** *******'s recorded no shows.

  
  

  From our records, not only did *** ******* fail to cancel her appointment in the appropriate time window, but the absence of any call log or voicemail would seem to indicate she did not attempt to cancel at all.

  
  

  Furthermore, the purported use of another phone to make an alleged cancellation seems implausible to us, as *** ******* is recorded calling our office no less than seven times in the same day (during one of which calls she cursed at staff), and leaving 3 threatening voicemails, all from the same number that we have on file/searched our records for to determine if she cancelled. In this instance, we received all three voicemails without issue, but still do not have any from the day she purports cancelling.

  
  

  Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please let me know if you require any further information or documentation.

  
  

  Best Regards,

  --

  ***** ******

  Director of Operations & Outreach

  The Bridge Clinic

  o: ###-###-####