This is the WORST vet EVER! It was a Sunday and my regular vet was closed. I made the difficult decision to have my beloved cat euthanized because she was suffering. I did not want her to have to go through another day of suffering. I went to Banfield because 1) they were open on Sunday and 2) it was close to my house - thinking that they could not screw up a euthanasia.

When I got there they put us in a room and put on a marketing film on a monitor to watch until they had time to send someone in. It was one of the worst days of my life, so the last thing I wanted to do was watch a film! We were the only customers in the place. I could hear the vet and the technicians in the back room playing with a puppy for about 20 minutes when finally a tech came in. She was completely clueless that I was there to take care of a very difficult task. She kept going in and out of the room bringing a little puppy in with her like it was all a big party.

In the meantime I am crying and suffering and my cat is very afraid and upset. She gave us an estimate of $405 to put my cat down! This included a private cremation and a wooden memorial box which was $238. She showed me a brochure with many different boxes and I asked if the price would go down if I got the cheap plastic one. That question cost me another 45 minutes while she left the room in search of the answer. I finally had to go find her and demand that she get on with the procedure. She said that no matter what box I got the price would not go down - which I knew had to be incorrect, but at this point I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

They wanted to take my cat out of the room to prep her and I said no, that they needed to do it in the room with me - my cat was already scared enough. That cost me another 20 minutes and when they finally came in to prep her, they were not compassionate at all. Finally we were all ready and the vet came in to give the shot. The veterinarian was very unprofessional and not compassionate. I was shocked to find out that THEY WOULD NOT LET ME HOLD MY CAT WHILE SHE WAS PUT TO SLEEP!! This is unheard of - all vets let your hold your pet!

Anyway, when the deed was done I went out to pay (any other vet has you pay first so that you can just leave immediately after putting your beloved pet to sleep - but these morons were clueless). Well, when I got home I realized that she charged me for the cremation two times. So I had to call the next day to talk to the manager to get it straightened out. Later in the week they called me to come pick up the remains. When I got there they gave me the remains in a cheap metal box that I could have gotten at the 99 cents store. This is what I paid $238 for! I flipped out on the girl (the same moron from Sunday) and she said she thought I wanted that cheap box because I had asked about the price. I yelled at her and told her that she made one of the worst experiences of my life so much worse than it already was. The manager called me the next day to tell me that the cremation place was "building" me a nice box for the remains and that they were going to engrave my cat's name on it. Well, when I got the box that they "built" for me, it had a "Made in China" sticker on the bottom. At this point I had to see the humor in all of this.

Well, that is my horror story about this place. I would bet any amount of money that most Banfield's are the same horrible way. I have heard other terrible stories about Banfield too. Do yourself and especially your pet a favor and STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE.

By the way, since then I had my other cat of 14 years put down at my regular vet's office. The entire procedure, including the private cremation cost me under $200. They were extremely compassionate, discreet, quick and THEY LET ME HOLD MY CAT!