6am Christmas morning call out

6am Christmas day the phone rings. It is a client panicking because their mothers dog had collapsed and was turning blue. I tried to persuade her to bring him straight into the hospital so I can put him on oxygen and give him treatment. The client refused and demanded that I come to her mothers house straight away (no merry Christmas by the way, no 'sorry to phone you so early on Christmas day', in fact no recognition that that it was even Christmas day, just rudeness!)

I got in my car, rushed to our hospital, picked up a few drugs and was nearly at the house when the phone rang again. It was the client; she announced the dog was now fine and there was no need for me to come out anymore. I explained that I was two minutes away from her house and so I may as well check on her mothers dog, just to be on the safe side as I was worried about him. She said there was no need. I turned around and went home feeling VERY pissed off that she had wasted my time, that she had been so rude and demanding and that she had not even apologised calling me out so early on Christmas day morning!

I did charge her a half call out fee which was £50, even though I did not see the dog as she was such a time waster and used up my time and petrol. I got a letter and a phone call of complaint about the bill, but after talking to the daughter and explaining how she had called me out of bed on Christmas day and had wasted my time and I had offered to still see the dog even though she refused, I felt it was only fair to charge a half call out fee. She promptly paid the fee. Hopefully she will think twice about calling out a vet and being rude in the process!

I just want to be clear, it wasn't being called out that bothered me. I am a vet, it seemed to be a genuine emergency at first, but the client was then very rude and ended up wasting my time.