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Class Action Lawsuit Says Banfield Pet Hospital Didn’t Deliver Promise
By Dominic Rivera
A class action lawsuit filed by lead plaintiff Gregory Pero against Banfield Pet Hospital alleges it does not deliver the promised discounts and savings under its “Optimum Wellness Plan,” which covers more than 1 million pets nationwide.
“Banfield aggressively markets, advertises and sells the plans that purport to offer deep savings and discounts for preventative pet care services and related pet care products,” class action the lawsuit states. Pero alleges that Banfield did not provide the promised savings and discounts, instead upselling unnecessary pet care to its clients.
Banfield’s Optimum Wellness Plan charges a one-time membership fee of $49.95. There is a monthly payment, which according to Banfield could come to about $32 for an adult dog under the cheapest plan. There are reports that pet owners are paying even more and racking up bills when they take their pets to Banfield, according to the class action lawsuit.
Pero’s adult dog is under the mid-level plan costing him $479.40 per year. He says Banfield promised a “minimum annual savings” of $1,008.61. He said that he would have never signed up for the Wellness Plan of he had known about its true costs. He also allege that Banfield “routinely inflates medication costs and tacks fees onto lab tests, further overstating the plans’ benefits.”
“In truth, many plan clients save nothing and others save far less than promised. The savings depend on Banfield providing bundled pet care products and services over the course of an entire plan year. However, Banfield does not actually provide all of the bundled products and services to plan clients and/or the clients do not need all the products and services, and as a result the purported savings evaporate,” the Banfield Pet Hospital lawsuit states.
“Importantly, if the client cancels during the plan year any savings may be wiped out, leaving the client with little more than a history of overpayments. The advertised minimum annual savings also ignore the costs of unnecessary pet care products and services upsold to clients, as well as bogus ‘hospitalization’ and ‘professional service’ fees that Banfield assesses on top of other charges for services supposedly rendered.”
Banfield outlets are located in PetSmart stores but is not named in the lawsuit. Mars, the maker of M&Ms, Twix and Skittles, as well as Pedigree and Whiskas pet food brands, owns the majority stake in the company.
In his class action lawsuit, Pero alleges that for the past four years, “Banfield has misrepresented — and continues to misrepresent — the nature and amount of savings and discounts to be realized through the purchase and use of the wellness plan.”
Aside from asking that the lawsuit be certified as a class action, Pero is seeking damages for unfair business practices, consumer law violations, fraud and intentional misrepresentation.
All class action and lawsuit news updates are listed in the Lawsuit News section of Top Class Actions
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288 thoughts onClass Action Lawsuit Says Banfield Pet Hospital Didn’t Deliver Promise
Banfield killed my puppy they overmedicated her, I had their insurance which was supposed to cover many things but convenient for them NOTHING WAS COVERED and it was out of pocket and they wanted me to pay the policy still for a year after they killed her and their response was “your dog dying is not our problem, our problems is having you pay for the remainder of the medical care policy” HOW CAN I FILE A CLAIM, please help.
I feel taken advantage of. I have had a terrible experience with Banfield—please let me know how I can join you in this battle against them. Feel free to email me . . . zaleskitj@gmail.com
I worked for banfield from aug 2017-oct 2017. They didnt even bother reading the medical history for my dogs. Both my dogs had seen a banfield vet in sept, but he quit and went to non banfield hiospital. The 2nd time I brought them in, one of my dogs was given her rabies shot a year early, and the other was given the bordetella – JUST TWO MONTHS AFTER THE PREVIOUS VET GAVE IT. I am moving and was going to accept the transfer offer for banfield but after my experiences with how they treat their clients AND employees I decided I would rather not be associated with such a terrible company.
I googled searched potential Class actions lawsuits against this company because I don’t agree with how the are selling themselves.
I needed to get immunizations and found out it went to collections due to my credit card changing. My credit union automatically renews with trusted companies, but I guess they did not trust this business, so the charges did not continue.
Banfield said since I used $800 worth of services and the contract was cancelled, all my savings are void so i still owe them $500. I have receipts that say my balance is $0, so this is obviously misleading. I was also informed after one year of the puppy plan, my contract would go month to month. Apparently it is a yearly renewal that you never see because they don’t charge extra for a renewal. They just renew automatically.
I am a veteran and my husband is active duty. We can not afford for companies to take advantage of consumers in our situation.
I appreciated the follow up calls to get their vaccines and we rarely used the services. I don’t appreciate feeling as if we were taken advantage of. We can not afford to just pay $500 dollars.
The lady we spoke with said it wouldn’t be cleared until we pay it all in advance. I am so frustrated. Would love the opportunity to have them change the way they do business and mislead trusting consumers.
My dog(my baby) was in kidney failure for 3 years. Despite the wellness plans I purchased and the blood tests I had done I was never told one of my dogs major organs were failing. My dog died suddenly after a couple days in the hospital doing everything we could to save him. Nothing could be done and I lost what I considered to be my child. These people are criminal! Do not trust them with your animals!!!
I’m going through something similar. They are criminals.
martins.donnalee@gmail.com Banfield sold me a microchip when my dog was missing.Scanned my dog called me I ask them to do a sexual abuse test on her when I got there they released her to the person who took her no exam I would love to take them out of business I reported vets to the board of veterinary medicine
I’m in the same boat here. How can we file a class action lawsuit?
their not there
I am attempting to leave there program now. After being overcharged for years. I have moved out of there coverage area. I can not get them to stop debiting my account so I am working with my bank to stop them. I would gladly join in a suit against them
I would love to be involved in a class action lawsuit as well. Thankfully my pets are still alive (although after reading some of these posts I wonder if they have been taken care of) but they have been fraudulently taking money from my account for my sons dog. (I apologize, the apostrophe key is not working on my computer). Since they put his dog under my name for some reason, maybe because he lives at home, when my son got a new debit card and they could not take any more money from his account for his Wellness Plan, instead of contacting my son or me, they, without my consent or knowledge, updated Crash to my checking account. Someone, either in the store or in corporate, took it upon themselves to pull up the screen and they checked to update Crash to the same account Maggie, my dog, was on. Now they are maintaining that I authorized this update on January 23, 2015 when I brought Maggie in for her teeth cleaning. They said I updated all the animals, but if thats the case, why is my other dog, Thor, still coming out of our other checking account? They cant give me proof at the actual Banfield location that I authorized this. They told me I had to call corporate, and when I called them they told me I had to go to the store. Its such a huge scam they deserve to be shut down. I am so livid right now! And they are still telling me that I need to pay the remaining balance of the account to get out of it! And I am going back and forth with them through the BBB, and its not doing any good.
Hi Joyce, I am looking to do the same thing. My e-mail is info@carlinolandscaping.com Keep me informed and send my your e-mail. My Dog Bella died of Cancer as they sent her home with antibiotics. I brought her to tufts University in Grafton MA one of the best hospitals in the country and they knew right away what was wrong and rushed her into emergency surgery. Please let me know what you can do or what you find out as these people need to be put out of business.
Our banfield closed with no prior notice as they forgot to send out letters. I spent all this money and was offered no refund as they explained I could drive to Greenwood and still get the services that I paid for. Greenwood is 45 minutes from my home why would I drive 45 min when there are other good/great vets available right here in bloomington, I feel a full refund should have been given as I paid for months of service that I never received anything in return.