Banfield Pet Hospital

If I could give lower than 1 star, I absolutely would. After more than six years bringing my dogs to this Buckhead location (and 9 years on wellness plans), we will NOT be returning. After our last visit, I no longer trust or have confidence in the new vet or the nursing staff. My dogs’ well documented concerns were not reviewed, there was no follow-up until I asked at pickup, the vet forgot to call me, and one of my dogs was even prescribed medication that was meant for the other. There's way more... I will be filing a complaint with corporate.

The only decent thing about this experience was probably the receptionist who spoke kindly to me and had a positive attitude. I scheduled an in-room visit because my dog is a rescue who’s been attacked and does not do well around other animals. The vet tech walked into the room and said no more than a few words before handing me a marker and asking me to circle the problem area I wanted the vet to look at (skin issues) which I found perplexing as I had asked for an in-room visit. They proceeded to take my dog into the back and left me in the room without explanation. After a few minutes I returned to the desk to ask what was going on. They apologized and said it was a “miscommunication” and brought my dog back to the room with me. After a decent wait the doctor finally came into the room. The visit took maybe 5 minutes if not less and didn’t feel comprehensive at all. Said they’d give me a prescription shampoo, medicine for itching and said they’d be back to give him his yearly rabies vaccine. Another 15 minute wait. When the doctor comes in, he calls my dog the WRONG NAME. I was trying to be extremely polite throughout all of this despite my frustrations so I quietly laughed it off and the doctor corrected himself. After giving the vaccine the doctor AGAIN called him the wrong name, this time not correcting himself. It felt like I had to remind them several times about him not being near other dogs. I had to ask if there were other dogs outside of the room so we could leave. I made a note when I scheduled the appointment and even called ahead of time to hopefully make the appointment go smoother. Overall it just felt like they could’ve cared less that we were there, and even less about the requests I had made. I’ve gotten better customer service at the drive-thru. The entire interaction took an hour and half for less than 5 minutes with the doctor. They never even offered something to wipe off the marker on my pets fur…just walked out with a green circle on him. I’ve literally never had someone ask me to do that at a vet appointment and I’m honestly still shocked/confused. This was a great lesson in learning to speak up for myself because I should’ve said something sooner. As someone who works in hospitality i tend to be too polite and I wish I had expressed my emotions more directly. I will not be coming back.

I normally don’t write reviews, but after what happened during our last visit, I feel it’s important to share my experience so other pet owners can be more cautious. I brought my 10-year-old Bichon to this hospital for a dental cleaning and planned tooth extraction — a procedure that my brother and I had discussed and scheduled with the clinic months in advance. We intentionally chose this timing so she could have both the cleaning and extractions done under ONE anesthesia session, since she’s older and we didn’t want to put her at risk twice. The dental cleaning and anesthesia were both included in her wellness plan while the extraction was not, something I was well aware of from the beginning after several conversations with the vet previously. When I arrived in the morning, the front desk staff greeted me and asked if I was there for the “oral exam.” I said yes. After my dog’s weight was taken, I asked if she would also be getting a physical exam, and the staff member said yes. Because my dog has an eyelid mass and I recently got pet insurance, I asked whether a diagnostic could be done on the mass so the insurance company could better determine coverage. The staff member said the mass would need to be removed to perform a diagnostic, and I responded, “Forget it then,” because I didn’t want my dog going through two procedures in one day. That was the end of the conversation — or so I thought. At no point after that did she mention the tooth extraction, nor did she ask if I still wanted to proceed with it. She never said, “Do you still want us to do the extraction?” or anything remotely similar. Later that day, my brother got a call saying my dog was ready for pickup — only to be told that no extraction was done. When I went to pick her up, the same staff member told me she thought I had declined the oral surgery because I said “forget it.” She claimed she “assumed” I didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t covered by insurance, even though the extraction had nothing to do with insurance and had been planned for nearly a year. She even admitted that she saw in the computer that my dog was there for extractions — but still didn’t think to clarify before canceling it. This was not a small misunderstanding. Because of this assumption, my elderly dog went through anesthesia unnecessarily and will now need to have it again for the same procedure. It’s frustrating, stressful, and potentially dangerous for her. On top of that, the staff’s attitude at pickup was unprofessional and dismissive — instead of acknowledging the mistake, she repeatedly tried to blame me and even said I “should have communicated better”, even though the entire plan had already been clearly discussed with the hospital for months. On top of this, they told me that I would have to pay for the anesthesia next time out of pocket when it was their fault. I have to pay again to put my dog into risks that she didn't even need to go through in the first place. I’m extremely disappointed by the lack of clear communication and accountability. For a medical facility that deals with animals’ health and lives, assumptions like this should never happen. A simple question — “Do you want to proceed with the extraction?” — could have prevented all of this. I hope management takes this incident seriously and improves their check-in and confirmation process. For now, I can’t in good conscience recommend this clinic based on today’s experience. My dog has been going to Banfield her entire life and had the wellness plan, but this incident will definitely make me move her to a different vet.

The Vet Dr Grant said he checked my cat and he was perfectly fine. I knew he was not being truthful. He had my cat at 10 lbs. My cat weighed just under 3 lbs. Told me I just needed to change cat food. Went to Howell Mill Rd and Banfield Hospital and my cat had a serious health problem. Do not trust Dr. Grant.

Update: The provider involved actually reached out to my wife and apologized — and then took steps to address my complaint with his staff. While my family is still upset that this happened, we’re grateful that our negative experience turned into a learning opportunity. The provider at this location conducted a staff education session to reinforce the necessity of providing water and toileting to animals whose stays have been extended and sought feedback from us regarding his communication with other patients in the future. PROS: The tech staff were quite compassionate and caring, they remained professional and empathetic despite the following events. The provider involved in the below incident took serious steps to ensure a resolution and change at his practice. CONS: Unfortunately I had an extremely negative experience with a provider at this location. My cat has moderate to severe anxiety and at our old Banfield location, we would be called and not proceed with visits if she was exhibiting anxious/aggressive behavior - we would sedate and reattempt the visit a following day. To my dismay, this location's provider saw it fit to attempt to examine the cat MULTIPLE times against instructions and our wishes, instead opting to repeatedly antagonize an already anxious and misbehaving cat over a FOUR HOUR span. The provider was aware after TWENTY MINUTES that the cat was behaving aggressively and couldn't be seen, but did not call over the span of four hours despite our explicit request to the contrary. He then had the gall to pawn off explicit care related questions to his subordinates, ignored medication related inquiries, PATRONIZED my wife to both our faces, and left the room when I began questioning his care decisions regarding continued attempts to manipulate the cat instead of calling off the visit to reschedule and reattempt sedation. This decision unnecessarily prolonged the visit and placed further stress on my cat, when retrieving her she still had an elevated heart rate, notably elevated temperature to the ears and face, rapid respirations and avoidant behavior, she also had no opportunity to toilet, eat, or drink during this time and was not prepared for a visit of this length - had we had forewarning that the visit could extend this long we would've provided food and water to her crate and ensured she toileted immediately before transport to the vet.