AVOID
Companion Care - Salford M5 3TP
My visit to this vet was one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had.
I needed a health certificate to take my dog abroad. Cost was meant to be £320.
I sent them all my dogs documents a long time prior, specifying my situation multiple times, making sure everything was in order. “No need to bring anything” as it was all in their system.
They rescheduled my appointment to 30 minutes earlier but the vet was over 40 minutes late on the day.
The vet, Elena Cortese, was completely unaware of my case. I felt uncomfortable as she admitted to never having seen a form like mine before and almost made me feel guilty to put her through such task (a 3 page document to read and sign).
She was asking for assistance to multiple people on the phone about pretty much anything. Her insecurity led her to even ask whether to tick "dog" or "cat" on the file, despite my dog being right in front of her.
At some point, I was being asked to translate parts of the certificate and help her understand English words, which was shocking to me. I was fortunate to be an Italian speaker; communication would've been impossible otherwise.
The medicine she wanted for the dog was not available so she had me rush out to find it at the store as if it was my fault.
Chemicals, by the way, that my dog already had in his system but she discredited everything, including the proof previously accepted by the clinic. It didn’t make any sense.
Everything was disorganised and lacked coherence. Her closing the wrong tabs on the computer, not hearing my answers, misplacing objects and medicine, asking other vets to intervene, making me leave and come back. My dog was becoming increasingly anxious as 5 hours passed by and she just couldn’t wrap the visit up.
For the vaccine, she called my old vet to double check. They were about to send her proof electronically, but after getting all the info she needed (a long time on the phone for no reason) she told me she wanted the physical copy. It was frustrating since I don't have a car and that clinic was in another town. If I had known earlier, I could have taken care of it without all the anxiety as she kept talking about closing soon.
There I go rushing WITH my dog (which is huge) on public transport. Luckily my old vet was exceptionally available and signed the paper for me very promptly.
After all the trouble, I finally got back in time with the document she wanted. But guess what? She still gave me a hard time, arguing about missing details she forgot to mention earlier!
There was also another family leaving her office disappointed because of the same miscommunications. I was in shambles.
The time was over and I had already booked the trip and paid for everything (over 2k). The people at the reception always said I didn't need anything else to prove my dog's vaccination, the copies were enough and they had all the information needed.
After arguing in different languages at the front they agreed to let me go with the certificate but she didn’t even know how to print it correctly! She had to call someone, again, to use the printer. An absolute incompetent till the end.
Cherry on top: they wanted to charge me £600!!!
Had to spend another half-hour arguing to prove that it was not my estimate.
And after I left it wasn't over. The Salford vet4pets kept contacting me about a document they had forgotten to keep. This ongoing communication left me with the impression that something was faulty and the documents they had just provided could be rejected at the airport. It was a disaster through and through.
24 April 2023
Unprompted review