Banfield Pet Hospital La Jolla, California

Dr. Smith will nickel and dime you to a l hefty bill plus upgraded plans and special food. Trying to just find out if my dog was ok was nearly impossible to get an answer through the pressured sales pitch. My partner and I felt so uncomfortable with how she only cares about the sales and not worried fur parents. While waiting 10 minutes along with several other people I witnessed a woman almost cry as the dr. Wouldn’t give up pressuring her with her sales tactics. Definitely more focused on selling things than people and animals. Even though we have their wellness plan we took our baby for a second opinion only to find out the extra $300 for food and tests were not needed. We feel totally taken advantage of not going back as of now.

It is virtually impossible to get an appointment in an urgent situation at this location. They do not care about your pet and simply tell you to call another location or try the emergency hospital. I am giving up and looking for another Vet.

Took my white Siberian in to update his shots. Everyone was very helpful and nice, from the front desk to the clinical staff. The front desk person was professional. She answered my questions. Overall, it was a good experience. I just think ppl expect the front office staff to be extra friendly. I mean it’s like going to the doctors office for yourself. Do you want someone to be serious and professional, or do you want someone who sounds like the cashier up front to treat your dog medically?? However, I do think they are understaffed just like the Encinitas location, but that’s Banfield’s fault not the doctors or nurses.

I love the La Jolla staff. They took excellent care for my pet. They treat you with respect and plenty of concern for my pet. Very professional. Highly recommend!

Banfield always takes cares of my pets so wonderfully

Can be difficult to book an appointment when you need it due to the high volume but they know how to take care of sensitive breeds!

I have been getting all of my puppy care through the La Jolla location. Mona, one of the techs was so incredibly helpful when I brought my 2-month old puppy. I was clueless of all the different options I had for care but she walked me through what I need to do over the next year with him and at the end the vet came out and gave me a full personal report. I am so happy with the help and attention I have received here.

They will try and take your money, be aware and be ready. Good vet otherwise!

Absolutely atrocious customer service and inflated costs and made up tests when you go to cancel membership. Save your time and money and go literally anywhere else.

Watch out for the crazy lady at the front desk who will be just unhelpful and rude and can’t even communicate properly.

Worst place to take your pets to. All they care about is your money. They just prescribe unnecessary drugs to get more money out of you! If you love your pet this is not a good place to take them to.

This is going to be an extensive but thorough review. The Banfield hospital is located inside of Petsmart, they have their own reception area. When you come in you are greeted by friendly assistants. Their check in is pretty quick and easy. Our vet is Dr. Smith and we refuse to see anyone else that isn't her. This woman is pure GOLD! She has seen our golden retriever since she was 8 weeks old, she's now 1 yr 5 months. We bought our golden from craigslist and by the second day she was pooping out her intestines lining. We rushed to her to Banfield and were helped by Dr. Smith. She diagnosed her with CPV, fleas, worms etc. Dr. Smith tested her and talked to us about our options: 1. keep her at the hospital for 24/7 hour care for two days costing around $1,00 or option 2. Taking her home and giving the medicine ourselves, syringe feeding and watching her health, costing us just the medicine. Given we were a young couple with little money we chose option 2. Dr Smith guided us through her care and introduced us to the puppy Wellness plan to save money on future office visits, all vaccines and future spay. Dr. Smith was upfront with us about our puppy having a slim chance of surviving but fought with us to help her survive. Sofie is a strong puppy today because of Dr. Smith. FYI never buy puppies from craigslist :( We ended up spaying our golden so the plan covered that. All our office visits costing $60 are also covered, as well as all her vaccines. We recommend the wellness plan, its about $47/month for puppies and $40/month after they're 1 year old. Dogs are just like tiny babies, if you take good care of them by giving them what they need to grow strong; like their vaccines, brushing their teeth, giving them their heartworm medicine, and fleas medicine, then you wont need to pay for all those high medical expenses because of the neglect. Long story short: Dr Smith: 5 STARS (kind, caring, knowledgeable, intelligent, understanding) Banfield hospital La Jolla : 4 STARS (great location, staffed well, easy to set up quick appointments, most assistants are good, and best because of Dr. Smith). Sofie is our golden retriever you can check out her instagram @sofiethegoldengirl

We've just moved here from Seattle where we also had a good experience with Banfield. Our dog has lots of allergies and problems and on just arriving in San Diego he ended with a bunch of infections (eye, ear and skin). The vets did all the appropriate tests (they were very clear with me on costs and did not do an unnecessary tests). They could tell that I was overwhelmed with all of my dog's conditions and talked through everything in detail with me- even staying late to do so. I greatly appreciate their support.

Bad customer service. Long wait times even when you are the first appointment of the day. Phone calls are more important than actually clients standing in front of them. This review is after 6 months of being a client and nothing has gotten better.

We always have a pleasant experience. My dog had a bad allergic reaction and after the hospital, Banfield did post op care. They were thorough with testing and our vet answered all of our questions.

Still not sure I shouldn’t give them one star. First the Good: Dr. Smith was great. The Front Staff and Techs were also great. The not so Good: Dr. Azad was not the best for me to work with. I didn’t get a good feeling about anything he told me. I felt he was accusing me and basically trying to get me to spend more money by being very tight lipped about my cats condition. My cat that we adopted at 1 year old had Kidney issues. We learned that 6months after adopting him. In August he had many tests that we paid for and signed up for the Wellness plan. DON’T DO THAT! We were given some vague options with hefty price tags and no real prognosis. 6 months later Dewey took a very sharp turn for the worst. Took him in, saw Dr. Azad again. he wanted to do the same tests to see what was wrong. It seemed very obvious that his Kidney issue was getting the best of him. He wanted to us to do blood and urine test $300, and Hospital IV $200+? I asked about the connection between his kidney test in August and got a blank stare and a basic statement of we don’t know unless we run a test. Whatever. I think we can make a connection. Dr. Smith knew when she saw him in August he wasn’t doing well based on his numbers. We ended up leaving with $170 bill and doing IV at home. That was this Monday. Today is Wednesday and I had to take Dewey in to be put down. He took a very bad turn in 24hr. I really think Dr. Azad should have seen that. Dewey was drooling blood, but he wanted to run test. IDK, maybe I expect too much. But I did feel like I was looked at like a paycheck and that Banfield just wants to squeeze every penny out of me. The Bad: The Wellness Plan. I called to cancel after my cat was put down. Guess what?! That’s right, Dead Cat? Still have to pay for the rest of the year! They will tell you about the dollar value of the services you’ve used that you can pay back for what the rest of paying the plan back will cost and Oh, that’s cheaper. “So would you like the pay the $275 now for your dead cats contract? Or you can just let it continue to bill until its paid.” My Own Snide Interpretation: Sick Cat, Worried Blood and Urine test: $300 Wellness Plan: $40 a month. Nothing comes of any of this but a suggestion I pay more money for “maybe” solutions. Retuned because he’s drooling with blood in it. $170 prescriptions and IV’s. Less than 24hrs later: Return to have Cat put down. $120 Called to Cancel the “Wellness” plan (what a joke that label is) and was told that’ll be another $275. Awesome. I’m still waiting for a call back from them because I haven’t agreed to that yet. In short, Dewey was a sick cat that drew the short end of the stick in his 2 years of life. And unfortunately the end of it was somewhat tainted by the services and experience at Banfield La Jolla. I do not recommend.

The absolute worst place for pets. I have waited the year to finish my plan to never return. However with one week left on my plan I wanted my dog to get checked out for a little pimple he has on his head. They wanted to take blood tests , biopsy, and worst of all when I declined and said no for the treatments they told my wife it was covered by our plan and renewed our plan with out consulting me or asking for permission. I made them cancel the renewal and when they canceled it, they also canceled my current plan that expires in two weeks. All these people care about is your money. They Try to sell you on drugs that your pet doesn’t need. All their prices are three times more expensive than anywhere else. I also didn’t learn that they price match until only half way through my pets plan. Long story short these people are scammers , don’t care for your pet just try to scam you for every $ you are willing to give them! STAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!!!!

I baught my dog in for an appointment and I had to call my husband to make sure he was on board with doing some costly lab work. The Doctor said she would be right back. Instead I heard through the door someone asking if anyone had ever checked on me (waiting for over 15 minutes now), the aid came in and said the Dr went on her lunch and whould not be able to see me. I would now have to leave my dog there for hours or make another appointment. Waste of my time... little did they know I could hear them talking in the back about how they forgot about me entirely. Poor customer service!

Wonderful vets and assistant. My puppy got all the love and attention she needed.Just make sure that you read the ingredients on your dog food as meat should be the very 1st ingredient, if it's not, DON'T BUY IT! I was given wrong advice by a Bandied vet several months (owned by Mars and Mars request they push their dog food!) ago and some wonderful employee's at the store educated me on what to look for when buying food. Do not buy high end food thinking that it's the best, read the ingredients and you will be as mad as I was when you find out it's all about politics even for our dogs. Money talks but being educated stops it.

Worst place for your pet! Alls they care about is getting your money! Don't get the wellness plan its a scam and doesn't cover most stuff. Plus its a annual contract that you cannot cancel until the annual date. SCAM SCAM SCAM!

Absolutely atrocious. They DO NOT care about animals here at all. They care about milking profits from what they assume are rich people who live in La Jolla.

Expensive and bad services, don't go.

This is a disgusting way to take advantage of pet owners in distress. Sold me a health plan that was advertised as covering the emergency dental procedure I could barely afford for my dog, then afterwards said it only covered the basic checkups and all else was still out of pocket. Every single visit, the Vet tries to sell unnecessary, expensive prescriptions. I have even been charged for medications and procedures that the Vet had ordered "just in case". Obviously not recommended.

This is the worst pet hospital. They told you that something will be covered when they tried to sell you their package, but denied later after your bought it! They don’t care about the pets, they only care about money! The worst, don’t go there!