bill s.

The
Staff is top notch! They really go out of their way to accommodate even the
Most finicky pets and people. When one of them came back on duty after having
Cared for our pet the previous day she told me how she had worried all night
About our dog who was having a pretty rough time. They truly do care.
Even though they have the specialized equipment to
Provide an $8k treatment they presented the option of going to a different
Specialty center because the other place could provide the treatment in a
Slightly different way that was better suited to our dogs specific needs. Not
Only did they present the option but they highly recommended it. In short they
Gave up several thousands of dollars in revenue because it was slightly better
For our dog. Clearly they are more interested in your pets well being than in
Just making money.

The medical staff is great but the admin staff is horrible. They make common practice of lying to cover their frequent failures, mostly associated with processing insurance authorization requests. I've had instances where they say the insurance company has approved a procedure only to find out later that they never submitted the authorization request to the insurance company. The risk there is that if a procedure is performed without an approved authorization request the insurance company can deny the claim and the patient is left with the full bill and no recourse.
When they do submit authorization requests they are incredibly bad about following through on them. I currently have been waiting 18 weeks for an authorization request for one procedure. The admin staff says they are waiting on the insurance company to respond. The fact however is that out of 18 weeks the insurance company has only had this for action for about one week total. The rest of the time it has been waiting for the admin staff to process the next step. When the insurance company asked for additional information it took over a month before the admin staff sent the requested information. The insurance company quickly responded saying they still needed additional information yet the admin staff insisted they were waiting to hear back from the insurance company. I explained more than once that the insurance company was waiting for the additional requested information and asked the admin staff to contact the insurance company to get this worked out. The admin staff agreed they needed to contact the insurance company but they never did. This went on for another 6 weeks all the while I'm in pretty significant pain waiting week after week, month after month.
Over the past 3 years I've been seeing 2 different doctors at this facility, a pain management specialist and a surgeon. Eventually I asked both of them if they could help get the admin staff to take some action. After that the admin staff decided to abandon the first authorization request that had been in progress for months and submit a new authorization request. The insurance company again asked for additional information. After 4 weeks the insurance company was still waiting to hear back from the admin staff. Then 3 weeks ago the admin staff submitted a 3rd authorization request for this one procedure that was ordered 18 weeks ago. As with the previous 2 requests, the insurance company promptly requested additional information and the admin staff has failed to respond.
Three weeks ago one of the doctors told me they have had a meeting with the partners about this. They recognize there is an ongoing problem and are taking steps to correct it. That was the message 3 weeks ago but these 3 authorization requests sat in the same state, waiting for the admin staff, until the end of last week when I had another follow up appointment. In that appointment I raised concerns again that there has still been no activity on this in the past 3 weeks since he told me they were taking steps to correct the problem. The doctor left the room to investigate and returned with the Physician's Assistant who initially said he had already provided the requested information. After I ran through the timeline of all actions taken on all 3 authorization requests for this one procedure the story changed to saying the requested information hadn't been sent because the insurance company didn't outline exactly what information they wanted. When I pointed out that if he didn't understand their request he should have asked for clarification then he said they did tell him exactly what they wanted 4 weeks ago but that message was still unread in his inbox. He hadn't seen it until now. He said he would get the requested info sent out that day, which he did.
There was an assistant office manage there a couple years ago who was trying to address these problem. Unfortunately he wasn't there very long. When I tried speaking to the office manager about the problems he told me I was lying and that I was just trying to cause trouble. He said all delays have always been the insurance company's fault without exception. When I asked him to get on the phone with the insurance company with me he kicked me out of his office.
I have spent countless hours on the phone with them and the insurance company. Multiple trips to the doctor's office to talk to them about this in person. If it was a simple matter of human error it would be easy to fix the mistake and move on. Make no mistake about it, this is not a simple human error and is not a one-time event.
Over a 3 year period the admin staff has demonstrated a consistent pattern of failures accompanied by a lack of concern. Most alarming is a consistent pattern of lying to cover their failures. It's excuse after excuse while the patient suffers and wait week after week, month after month. There are a few members of the admin staff who are good to work with. Unfortunately however their efforts are overshadowed by the failures of several others.
Again, the medical care has been great. I've had surgery here along with countless injections and have been very happy with the results. Regrettably you only see that when you can get the admin staff to process the paperwork so the medical staff can work their magic.

SHORT ANSWER: Allivet
Seems to be a disreputable merchant just after a quick buck with no interest in
Resolving problems of any type. I also
Have reason to believe they attempt to collect unrelated personal information, presumably
To be sold to 3rd parties.

DETAIL: After reading
Several reviews for Allivet a pattern became clear. There are a lot of positive reviews and a lot
Of negative reviews but few fall in the middle.
The negative reviews seem to be largely about customer service and misleading
Prices on their website.

Many of the negative reviews were based on delivery delays
For critically needed meds. To me that
Seems to be the customers fault. If the
Med is needed immediately go to a local brick-and-mortar business so you have
It immediately. At least get a small quantity
Locally to last until an ordering on-line order can be delivered.

One of the negative reviews said they had been promised $5
Off their next order if they posted a positive review but never got the
Promised $5 credit. Paying for positive
Reviews seems a bit dishonest and certainly makes the review less that objective. The only reason I can think of to pay for
Positive reviews would be to intentionally misleading to perspective customers.
This might and explains why there are so many positive reviews that appear
Lacking in substance. Things like 5 out
Of 5 stars saying "Excellent!" and nothing else.

Then you have the other half of that review. The part where that customer spoke to
Multiple people in customer service including a manager and still never received
The promised $5 credit. Assuming this
Review was accurate, the dishonest act of buying a review was backed by further
Deceit in refusing to provide the payment promised.

Several reviews mention the website being difficult to use
And that it provided misleading prices.
There were also a large number of reviews citing exceptionally poor customer
Service. For meds in tablet form the web
Site gives a price for 1 tablet, not the bottle. When ordering if you enter a quantity of 1
You get 1 tablet, not 1 bottle. The same
Thing appears to be true of liquid meds but only sometimes. The price and the quantity of 1 for a liquid
Sometimes is the bottle pictured. Other
Times it seems to be 1 oz. The website
Does not make it clear what quantity you will receive for the listed price when
You select a quantity of 1. In this way
Their prices are very misleading.

Being somewhat foolish I still decided to give them a try
Even after read all of this. Why? Because they had a difficult to find med at
What appeared to be about 90% less than other sources. This med was a liquid in a 16 oz bottle. After having my Vet review and verify this
Really was the same thing he prescribed I had him send this and three other prescriptions
To Allivet. The next day I called
Allivet to confirm the order. Since I
Wanted to pay via PayPal I had to place the order via their website. When I
Asked Allivet what quantity the prescription was written for, so I could place
The order for the correct quantity, she started asking for all kinds of
Unrelated personal information. When I
Questioned the need for this info she couldn't tell me why it was needed, only
That it was absolutely necessary and that she couldn't tell me what quantity
The vet had ordered until I answered her questions. When I said I wouldn't provide this unrelated
Info she said her computer was running slow and was going to put me on hold and
Help other customers while she was waiting for her computer to refresh the
Screen. When I told her I wasn't going
To wait on hold while she helped other customers she decided they had never
Received the prescription from my vet.
That was obviously the end of the conversation.

So based on my experience with Allivet I'm inclined
To believe the negative reviews. I'm
Also inclined to believe that many of the positive reviews are biased and unreliable
In that customers were offered a $5 credit in return for posting a favorable
Review. I'm also quite concerned with
The attempt to collect unrelated personal information. Add it all up and you get at best what appears
To be a disreputable merchant just after a quick buck with no interest in resolving
Problems of any type. It seems they may
Also actively attempt to collect unrelated personal information which can subsequently
Be sold to 3rd parties.