Banfield Pet Hospital Creative Billing (NOT!) Portland, Oregon

A year ago I signed my cat up for the Banfield Pet hospital plan.  I understood that the monthly payments might not cover any expenses incurred should I decide to cancel, and that I would be responsible for paying them. 

First of all, I am disabled and must rely on a special van to get around.  At the time I signed up for Banfield, the medical van could be reserved for any kind of trip, but over time they lost some of their funding and had to quit providing transportation for anything outside of medical appointments and grocery shopping.  This meant that they would no longer transport myself and my cat for vet appointments. I had to cancel the contract with Banfield because I had no way of getting my pet to their clinic.

When I called to cancel, they explained that since I had already used some of their services, I would be billed for either the remainder of the year or the remaining balance of services used, whichever was less. Since I live on a fixed income, I could not afford to pay the 70 -80 dollar amount all at once.  So I sent a check for half that amount, explaining that it was the first of two payments which would settle the debt completely.

They returned my check with a letter that said that they couldn't process partial payments.  Then they sent another letter threatening to turn me over to collections.  I called and spoke to a an extremely snotty woman who said that they had no way to process my check unless it was for the monthly payment I had been making, or for payment in full. Then she said that I owed even more because of the delay! I asked her why they couldn't have just cashed my check? It seemed unreasonable to send the  money back to me just because of their accounting system. I have never heard of a company actually returning money just because I won't conform to some computer system that they use. Because of them returning the check, I now owe even more money!