Legal Question in Consumer Law in Virginia

Re: Vet bills hold dog hostge

What is the difference in cost? Did you ask for a payment plan? This seems a bit outrageous. If I were you, I would argue it is their problem and demand your pet. I would never go to a vet's office as poorly run as this one seems to be. Feel free to contact me if you need further help or a referral. Good luck.

Re: Vet bills hold dog hostge

This is a case of "apparent authority."

This is a common situation, and most people do not understand this (except instinctively).

While the vet is wrong, I sympathize with the confusion and I would not take after him and attack him. He is simply mistaken about these legal ideas. But he is not alone, by far.

If the office person quoted the wrong price, that is between the boss and that employee. It has nothing to do with you.

If the employee quoted the wrong price, then that is their fault. (Unless PERHAPS, maybe, you had reason to know it was wrong, such as the correct price was posted right in front of your face. Although even then, companies do run specials and discounts.)

So you are entitled to the price that you were told, and the boss can have a talk with the employee.

Put another way, how do you know that this was an accident? If you went to court you could allege fraud, that the office person INTENTIONALLY gave a low price with full knowledge of the boss, to sucker you into saying yes, and then they hit you with the higher price later.

I am NOT saying this happened, and you should NOT throw inflammatory statements around, that you can't back up.

I say this only to ILLUSTRATE why the customer is not responsible for this. It is the boss' job to supervise and train his employees.

It might be different (possibly) if the office person told you that the price is $X then you brought the dog in and BEFORE the work was done corrected it and said, no, it is $Y.

But to tell you AFTER the work has been done, and you can't change it, is not acceptable.

Now, truth be told, unless the price they are asking is far above the going rate, it might not be worth you fighting about.

The legally correct thing you would do is to file a WARRANT IN DETINUE (known informally as "gimme my stuff" -- just joking) in General District Court.

It would probably be at least 2 weeks before that could be heard in court, perhaps longer. (You would alert the Clerk to the fact that this is time-sensitive matter.)

By that time, the vet could probably legitimately charge you for food during that time. Yes, it is wrong for him to hold the dog, but the dog has to eat no matter where he is.

So while you are right and he is wrong, it might not be cost-effective to fight it.

Now if it is $3,000 or $5,000 surgery (which happens), then maybe it is worth fighting about.