AITK for refusing to pay for tests I never agreed to?
Took my cat in last Thursday for a dental clean, which we'd been putting off for about a year because she's 11 and I was nervous about the anesthetic. I got an estimate at the consultation 2 weeks before, 340 for the clean and up to 480 if she needed extractions, and I signed it and initialed the box that says contact me before any additional treatment. I was pretty deliberate about that bit because a friend of mine got hit with a huge bill at a different practice last year and for once in my life I actually read the form.
I picked her up at 5 and the bill was 622. There's the dental, 2 extractions which is completely fine and expected, and then pre-anesthetic bloodwork at 89 and a full urinalysis at 64 that nobody had mentioned to me at any point.
I asked about it at the desk and the receptionist told me they'd tried to call. I'd had my phone on me all day, no missed calls, no voicemail, nothing. She said the vet sometimes calls from the back line and it doesn't always show up properly, so I asked whether there was a note on the file about the attempt, and she said she'd have to check with someone.
I paid the 480 I'd agreed to and said I wasn't paying the remaining 142 until somebody could show me a record of that call. The practice manager called me the next morning and said the tests were clinically appropriate for a cat her age, which I genuinely don't doubt, and that they can't un-run a test.