My dog was groomed at Petsmart. She has had the same groomer since she was a puppy. Unfortunately something happened to my 6 lb. Shih Tzu when groomed on 5/26/09.
After I picked the dog up from the groomer, I noticed her eye was red. I thought maybe it was irritated from the shampoo. I got her home, fed her and cooked dinner and then, I noticed her eye was all swelled up and blood shot. I called the groomer, but she had left for the day. The groomer who answered the phone was quick to say nothing happened. Later, the dog's groomer called. I told her the dog could not close her eye lid and her eye was all bloodshot. Her suggestion was to clean it with saline solution. Neither groomer mentioned proptosis (eye popping out of socket) which is an injury that can happen to shih tzu's while being groomed and considered an emergency.
Awhile later, I called Petsmart and spoke to the manager who remembered the dog being groomed. She told me to bring the dog to Banfield Clinic at Petsmart the next moring. I told her I have my own vet I like and was a lot more affordable for me. She told me, they would like to see the dog and this would be all paid for by Petsmart, and if I needed to bring her to emergency animal hospital, not to worry, it would be taken care of, the most important thing was to take care of my dog. We have no reputable animal hospitals in the area, so we waited out the night and took her to Banfield.
As an aside, when this little shih tzu was a puppy and weighed about 3 lbs, Banfield gave her antibiotics that were meant for a large breed dog and it took 2 days for anyone to realize it even though, I kept calling saying my dog could not swallow the tablets and any medicine I was able to get in her, she would puke up. I've never been to Banfield again. Needless to say, I really preferred not to go to Banfield, but not realizing the seriousness the eye injury, I thought I would go there first, so they could see the eye.
The Banfield Vet immediately diagnosed the problem correctly, but said this can happen from stress. The Banfield Vet sent us immediately to the local veterinarian ophthalmologist as her eye had come out of the socket. As soon as the specialist looked at the eye, she said, this happened from a trauma to the eye and that in order to save the eye, she would have to have it operate immediately, but the dog would likely be blind in that eye.
When we got home, we spoke to the groomer about how the dog was doing and we asked her about how do we seek reimbursement as this was caused by an injury to the eye. She transferred our call to the store manager.
This is when everything changed. This was a different manager. He told me, he was the store manager and that nobody had any right to say that Petsmart would reimburse us for this, that he only paid for Banfield as a courtesy to us, and he is not paying for this. I attempted to explain the injury, but he was basically disinterested. I, then, replied, this specialist appointment was arranged by Petsmart, and we were told this would be taken care of by Petsmart. I told him the specialist said the dogs injury was due to ocular trauma. His reply was you can forward me a copy of your bill and he would send it to the corporate office, but that is all he was going to do and that no one has the power to authorize any payment. It is understandable that Petsmart would need to get the medical records to make certain this was an injury that happened while being groomed, but this manager seemed very disinterested in helping us get this resolved.
I, then, made a call to the Petsmart Corporate office and was told this complaint would be forwarded to the appropriate department and in 1 to 2 business days, I would get a phone call back. I have called 2 other times about my complaint since then 5/27/09, but I never received a call back.
On one call backs to the complaint line, I got to the operator who transferred me to the answering machine of the Southeast District Safety Manager who told me this was to be handled by the store manager. I explained, I felt like the manager blew me off. He said, I could forward him the medical records and bills and he would forward them on to corporate vet and I could work with the district manager.
I, then, called back to corporate office as I preferred to handle this matter through corporate and not with local management who seemed more interested in covering up what had happened then investigating. I was told my complaint was escalated and to wait for a call back from corporate. He told me not to do anything until I spoke with corporate.
A few minutes after hanging up with corporate complaint line, the district manager called, he said, he was told that I had my dog groomed, nothing happened, then few hours later, I called with a complaint. I explained that was not correct and explained the entire incident. He told me to forward my records and bills to safety manager as he would look into it.
Basically, I was left with the decision to either forward everything to regional people who seemed dismissive and lacked any compassion or await phone call from corporate office. I still never got a call back from corporate even though my complaint was supposed to have been escalated.
I don't blame anyone. Accidents happen. I just want this dog taken care of as promised and as it should be, as well as, to talk to someone with some sympathy for what my animal and family has been through.
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