Veterinary Medical and Surgical Group (VMSG)

Ana Bechara

Our dog had a torn nail while playing at the park, he was in obvious pain and bleeding profusely. Being new to Oxnard we called the first 24 hours vet that we could find. The lady on the phone was very nice, took our information and told me that once we came to the ED the vet will see our dog within 30mins. We got there and after filling out some paperwork a vet technician came to take our dog. We were not allowed to go in with him. Within 30 mins the vet came out and, with no bedside manners, explained that this was a common thing and that she will take out the nail under general anesthesia. She answered some of our questions and we agreed to go ahead with the procedure. We had to pay 75% of the costs before they would proceed. They said it would take 2 hours, what with the anesthesia and the recovery time... after 2 hours vets comes out randomly and says that they haven't done it yet but that it will be done "any minute now". It took 2 more hours for the procedure to get done and about 30 to 40 minutes for us the get our dog. During all this time our dog was by himself inside the ED probably in a crate, as per the staff with a blanket but I cannot say if that was true. When the procedure was finally done, we had to pay before they would bring our dog to us. There was a mix up with the check but the staff was very nice in helping to fix it. At this point this was what I would say an average visit to any ED for pet or humans... The terrible part came after. Our dog who is usually a very sweet and loving dog started acting aggressive every time we would approach him or try to hold him. It has taken him 2 days to start calming down but still not back to normal. This new behavior we assume was due to the terrible experience he had to undergo while alone in the ED as there is no other explanation for it. God knows what happened in there and how he was handled. Bottom line, the job was done, the place has an okay costumer service and looks clean and the paw is healing appropriately. But the spirit of my dog is not the same as it was before this incident. I would think about it twice before going back to this ED...

Jeff Frank

Over the years, and through many dogs, I've found myself at VMSG on a half of a dozen occasions. I live in Santa Barbara so it's a 40 minute one-way drive for me. I will begin by saying that my experience with the technical skill of the Veterinary staff has been good-to-very good. They know what they are doing and they are well equipped to deal with most any medical emergency 24/7. But that is where my positive experience stops. In every other aspect this place is a disaster. The front desk and support people initially come off as courteous, caring, and professional, but eventually, in every case, you find that they are basically uninformed and/or clueless. If you ever have the unfortunate need to go to VMSG, take the entire day off. No schedule they give you will be even close to correct. And when you question why the answer is always the same. We had to deal with an emergency or "these things are difficult to predict". A 30 minute procedure will often keep you there hour after hour with no clear updates. "You can pick your dog up now" translates into you can now pay your bill and sit for the next 90 minutes while we find the time to prep your dog and bring him out. If you question "why is this taking so long" you are treated as an insensitive fool who doesn't understand the urgency of their business or that this is all for the benefit of your beloved pet. After having these things happen on multiple occasions and complaining to the staff its become clear there is a rift between the professional vets, the office staff, and the management. The staff blames the vets, the vets blame the staff and management (and/or quit), and the management, well, they are out to lunch. Of course the result is a truly horribly run business. At the end of the day all of this is the fault of management. They need to realize their customers are almost always under stress because a loved one is likely in a life threatening situation. Add to that the financial stress when they see the 'estimate' for services which no matter how unaffordable it may be for some, they must sign up for. Why create a business and operating model that then adds to that immense stress through incredibly weak customer service? In a life-or-death emergency situation, I'll probably still take my pets there, but I'll dread every second of it.

John Reed

My wife and I brought our cat here because she was having trouble breathing and really looked bad, they said bring her in so we did. They put cage and observed her for about 30 min and then came out an said nothing was wrong with her and charged us 82.00 and said keep an eye on her. We took her home and she was bad off the next day my wife took her to Ohana and the said she has A upper respiratory infection and gave us prescriptions to give her. 4 days now have gone by and everyday she is looking better. It's really sad that they did nothing at all for us and our cat could have died. My wife called now 3 times to get our money back for a night that the staff here did nothing to help us with. FYI not one person has returned her call. So I started calling and talking to Diane the office manager which by the way she is extremely unprofessional she told me that she would return my call the same day before 8 PM and I never heard back from her so I called an additional three days so I called again and finally got her on the phone she said that she would talk to her manager can call me back before 11 AM the next day oops never called me, it is been over a week and a half now and I have been calling every day leaving messages on her desk and voicemail she still never returned my call so finally I called March 15 and she answered to tell me that they were not refunding the money even though they did not prescribe her any medication all they wanted to do was x-rays urinalysis and blood work to make a spend more money. Like I said before we took our cat the next day and they prescribed her medicine without doing any of the above note they also had all of her records about her asthma problem. I will no longer be supporting this place I'm extremely disappointed with their professionalism and their code of ethics.

ABoone15

Several YEARS ago I was dog sitting for a friend. Her elderly dog had spontaneously fractured his jaw while in the care of his mother a few months prior so we knew that his bones were fragile. This happened again while she was away for the weekend and I was in charge. There was a-now well known- staffing issue at the Santa Barbara CARE facility on that very day and they couldn't fit us in. I was frantic. CARE called VMSG to consult and VMSG said to come right over and informed me that their surgeon was capable of such a complicated case. Rush hour traffic, SB to Ventura can be brutal. An hour and 1/2 later I arrived. They took us in. Did an exam and then offered to house the dog until Monday. MONDAY?! Where is the surgeon? "It's her day off"..."DAY OFF?!" I JUST called. "She's at the beach with her kids...she won't be in until Monday." I was livid. I called. I checked. I drove in rush hour traffic, only to find that the vision of a prepped doctor waiting at the ready was not even close to a reality. I informed the staff that I was leaving and they presented me with a bill for an exam that I didn't need. The dog had already had an exam at another Vet's only a few hours ago-that I paid in full. IF there was going to be a surgery then BY ALL MEANS an exam would be understandable. I was NOT going to pay for a pre-op exam for a surgery that WASN'T happening. BAIT and SWITCH. I wouldn't have made the trip if there wasn't a surgeon in house. It's been YEARS...and today I get a COLLECTION CALL for a 5-6-7-8 year old bill that I informed them I would never pay. I didn't NEED an pre-op EXAM for a surgery that was never happening as your surgeon was at the BEACH! I called George's Mom who was in the mountains and she headed home that evening after a stressful 7-8 hour ride. George was put to sleep the next day and you have the nerve to bill me YEARS later. The audacity. The whole event was so traumatic and here you are...again. Appalled.

Heather Reed

By far the worst emergency hospital I've been to. Extremely unprofessional , simply in it to make money. Brought a very sick cat in with suspected asthma attack. Observed... or do they say her for maybe 30 minutes, stated her breathing was normal and fine. Suggested $700 in labs and X-rays to verify asthma. I declined and opted to take her to my vet in the morning. Went to my Primary vet where they concluded she was not having an asthma flare up and was in the middle of a severe upper respiratory infection clearly. She went without treatment for an extra 24 hours which was completely unnecessary. Requested a exam refund of $82 due to the lack of a proper examination and unnecessary treatment suggestions. After NUMEROUS calls and promised call backs ( which never happened) to the VERY unprofessional office manager they finally decided a bad review was worth more than losing $82 and making it right. Sad that money is all that matters to them. They've lost a customer