Westway Vets Reviews 90

Charged £60 for a 5 minute consultation and referral to the chemist to pick up some eyes drops. No real value and our dog's eyes were not even cleaned as part of the consultation. When I complained, I was advised by Rob the Senior Vet at Eden Hill, that this was the standard charge for a 15 min slot (or part of). £240 per hour - wow ...... taking so much money based on owners misfortune and love of their pets. I cannot recommend this vets practice as I really do not believe that is value for money. I will be cancelling my Annual Pet Plan with these as well.

Warning !!!
I would urge anybody thinking of using this service to be extremely cautious.
I subscribed to their Healthy Pet plan for 2 dogs. In the middle of the policy, I was obliged to cancel due to moving abroad for work committments. As specified in the contract, they charged me for medication I had received which was included in the plan but was something I had overlooked.
As a result, they charged me £124. 24 for medication I had received and for not complying with the statutory policy period of 1 year.
They did not inform me about this until after I had committed myself to spending approximately £600 on Rabies vaccinations and Health Certificates for both dogs. Clearly, if I had known that I they were going to charge me for medication received while the policy was valid, I would not have used them for the Rabies/Health Certicate services which amounted to approximately £600.
So, I ended up paying 6 months quotas for each dog for the Healthy Pet policy at £266 plus the medication at £124.24. A total of £390.24 for :

1 x booster vaccination £55.08
2 x Droncit tablets 50mg £10.51
6 x Advocate 250 Large dog £108.38
Totalling: £173.97

Kuba
1 x booster vaccination £55.08
2 x Droncit tablets 50mg £10.51
6 x Advocate 250 Large dog £108.38
Totalling: £173.97

TOTAL : APPROXIMATELY
£1000.

It seems entirely unreasonable and unjustifiable to charge for monthly quotas AND the medication which was included in the policy.

What is more, during the payment process they accidently "forgot"to apply their discount for being a Healthy Pet club member. The discount was eventually applied after I complained.

Apart from the extortionate prices charged for the medication and basic paperwork (referred to as "Admin fees"), I was extremely disappointed by their lack of understanding regarding my cancellation of the Healthy Pet plan due to unforeseeable personal circumstances.

Lessons to be learnt :
1. Westway Vets are a merciless business enterprise where money is concerned.
2. Read their policy conditions very carefully and shop around.
I suspect they are one of the most expensive vet practices in the North East, if not the most expensive, whilst their approach to customer service is one of the cheapest.
I personally would certainly never use this practice again nor reccomend them to anybody.

These are not vets, there just conmen and con women, all there after is your hard earned cash, and when your cash runs out it's goodbye, they don't give a monkeys about your pet, only your cash.They were going to charge my daughter 2 thousand pounds to remove her pet rabbits morler teeth. I took her rabbit to vets in Northumberland for a second opinion only to be told it had no morler teeth they had already been removed !! you couldn't make it up. !! AVOID !!

We took our Lab Bojangles to Westway as he had been limping for weeks, Jose at Consett diagnosed a suspected ruptured cruciate ligament, within a week Bojangles was in and operated on, the staff were very helpful and considerate, it was clear they treated Bojangles with care and kindness. Thank you to Jose and all the staff at Westway.

Absolutely disgusting ! Called up on Monday as I needed a repeat prescription for me dog for his arthritis. They said yeah that is fine. I also booked an appointment for the following Monday as I wanted to get stronger medication as he is in a lot of pain. He can’t even get downstairs anymore. As a dog owner, you can probably imagine the distress this is causing us.
I call up Tuesday and they say yeah I can see the medication request is with the pharmacist it should be ready in a few days.
I call up Thursday because I haven’t heard anything.. to be told it wasn’t ordered as I need an appointment. ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS !! You have one job!! One! And that is to tell me the correct information on the phone. My dog is in pain because of your absolutely shocking service !!!!!!!
What’s the point in paying the monthly fee every month for this sort of service ?!

So thank you for letting my dog be in pain for the last 4 days! Really appreciate it. The service in the howden branch is awful too, it is clear they didn’t like my dog - which is why we have to drive further away to Tynemouth.

Brought our 8 week old kitten in, who wasn’t eating food. Claire the vet told us that she would have to keep her in overnight or she’d die, and the charge would be in excess of £1000. We decided to take her away for a second opinion, and not more than a few days later we had a very healthy, happy kitten. Disgusting how a distressed, young couple were almost forced into a situation where they had to pay £1000 or let their pet die. Months later she is absolutely fine and had no bills. Lack of care from this vets.

We have used West way for a number of years. Most recently at Consett as we live there. Our little ShihTzu became ill 3 weeks ago, vomiting and generally unwell.
Within half an hour of our call to them, she was in the surgery.
The vet concerned, gave her a thorough examination and gave us the choice of how we would like to play it.
She advised hospitalisation and ultrasound of her tummy. Yes the most expensive, but we were not in any way pushed into that alternative.
Unfortunately the news was bad and we had to have our little girl, put to sleep.
I should just like to say that everyone in both Consett and West Road, were kind but professional. I did not feel hurried and we felt our and our little girl’s care, was the best it could have been. They took care of all the arrangements including the invoice to the insurance. And because we had one or two outstanding questions, the vet who had seen her initially, rang us at home to help us with our concerns.
My only issue would be that in a large practice like West Road, and any other for that matter, it might be nice to have a little private area where grieving owners can spend their last few minutes with their beloved pet.
We were in a consulting room ,tiny, chairs needed to be brought in and not at all conducive to the situation. However thank you to everyone responsible for the care given to ourselves and our lovely girl.

Irene at Salters Westway was incredibly helpful and kind to us when we had to consider putting down our dog. She was calm and informative and liaised with one of the vets and then came back to us very promptly as promised. She made a very tough time more manageable.

Jose the senior vet at consett didn't even want to talk to me on phone as I wanted to ask questions about my dog
He also kept giving my dog medication with no explanation on what was wrong with his skin
And it's funny how they have you constantly going each month for blood tests that cost hundreds of pounds and getting no further with the treatment

I have a payment dispute with these people over a service they failed to carry out properly. They are currently withholding my pets prescription medication until I pay for a service that wasn't carried out. So they are using my pets healthcare needs as leverage to get money they aren't owed instead of resolving the dispute properly. It's very scummy behaviour from a practice that clearly doesn't care about the health of the animals that go there.

Poor communication, additional charges added on and very poor customer service

Shocking.

A vet bill I expected to be 1500 was doubled to almost 3k.

I paid 1k upfront and felt they were using underhand approaches to push me to sign to pat full amount even tho they had a duty of care regardless. They pushed me by mentioning euthanasia.

Shocked about the practice owner. I felt he had no compassion at all

Went to see vet to get dog vacationed. Called into small areas and found vet and a young boy?
Vet then give injection but our dog yelp (first time this has happened). Vet then gave nasal treatment. Vet said our dog seemed anxious so would stop, but then decided to continue and look at his ears, he then said our dog curl his lip and again said he would stop . But the once again he said he try again but then on trying he said our dog now barring his teeth, so he then again said would stop, but again changed his mind and tried put a muzzle on, he tried that but it was the wrong size so then tried another muzzle our dog had enough and tried move towards the vet stop him . the vet then Said our dog had attitude problem.
Three days later our groomer had no problem grooming for over hou.
then seven days we took our dog to an independent vet and he was able to examine him, as the this vet knew how to put our dog at easy. We are know registered with the new independent vet practice.

Basically £300 to take a stick out of his mouth! £300! Disgusting

Absolutely terrible. I was attempting to register my dog at this vets, but was told they was not interested in seeing me as they have more loyal and valuable customers to see and that I would take up over an hour and a half of the valuable time and are not interested what so ever. Very rude, would give a negative rating if I could.

Absolutely appalling behaviour from receptionist in Houghton Le Spring. We came out from the consultation room after seeing the vet and was waiting for my dogs prescriptions to be printed when the receptionist shouts across the room to a family in the waiting area, "sorry for the hold up, the dog that was in before you has severe dental issues!" How dare she reveal why my dog was being seen to other people!! And the most annoying thing is, that was not the reason why the vet took a a little longer seeing my dog, it was because she was also checking his eyes as he has a dry eye condition. The other receptionist said to me "don't worry about holding things up" as she clearly knew that the comment was unccalled for. So unprofessional will not be returning and will certainly be looking for another vet.

Saw a vet at Houghton for my dogs teeth, was given a sales pitch of how it was going to cost £1200 to have a few loose teeth removed, she kept adding stuff on to bill stating my beautiful healthy pug was considering old (she's 8 and fit as a fiddle). So the procedure was more expensive, the she recommended a further £100 worth of treatment because of the shape of her mouth and she will be more at risk during any anesthetic so this will alleviate those risks. She recommended antibiotics to take away with me today for her smelly breath. So I walked out having to pay £93 for a five minute consultation and a prescription of antibiotics. They can book my pug in in 4 weeks time for the £1200 dental work (clean and remove a few loose teeth). I will not be returning for any sort of treatment, and will looking for another vet.

Absolutely disgusting receptionist who basically lies to your face!!!! Would never ever set foot in that place again. Completely unprofessional and shouldn't be in a position where customers are upset at having to put their family pet down. I mean how dare they be upset. Callous receptionist AVOID AVOID AVOID

Honestly I have been a client with these vets for years but what annoys me is you can’t get through to your local branch there phone system is shocking!!!!!!!!!!

took my cat to see vet as she was not eating very much and I was concerned. my cat is a rescue cat and is extremely nervous,.almost agoraphobic. the vet seemed frightened to handle her, therefore my cat did not get a proper examination. It would have helped if the vet had given her something to keep her calm so she could be checked over but no. Yet the vet gave her anti-depressants and a injection to stop her feeling sick. The anti-depressants did bugger all. The vet expected me to bring her back should the drugs not working, NOT A CHANCE! I,ve recently put my cat on hemp oil and theres more of a improvement then on the drugs the vet gave her. I am looking for a new vet who knows how to deal with a nervous rescue cat and treat like some sort of aggressive monster. By the way my cat was too scared to scratch or bite.