Temple City Animal Hospital

Jen Fort

This place is used to be friendly and nice but the front desk is rude and have a bad attitude. If you can’t be nice why are working on the front desk area? I hope she’s a new person, if not I will be really disappointed.

Douglas Ure

Very helpful staff and veterinarian helped us with our new dog. She got her vaccines and overall checkup, and took great care of her. We're happy we came here.

Carrie Dam

Wait times are awful. Front office staff are rude. Clients aren’t even given a heads up that waits would be so long. I had two different appointments on two different days. The first day I had to wait over 90 minutes before being seen by the vet. The second day, the wait was 30 minutes. The receptionist will be helping me (or another client at the window) and will also be answering phones. It’s quite disrespectful. I was told that they’re short staffed. But I’ve experienced excellent customer service and interacted with staff who were hustling who still had manners. Maybe this is because of the pandemic? The customer service and wait times here at this vet have never been so bad. I’m trying to be understanding. But I’m peeved that this is happening to the animal hospital my dog and I used to love.

Ting Ni

5/27/2022 update: In the two weeks following the hospital's response to my review here, I called back three more times to get an answer to my pet's situation. Each time, the receptionists told me that they would talk to the vet and have them call me back... but it never happened. I still have not received a response from the vet who last examined my pet after 5 calls. My family and I have been clients of Temple City Animal Hospital since 2018. The vets there are nice, cheerful, professional, and knowledgable. My complaint has to do with the receptionist staff. The best is if you take care of anything you're contacting them for *immediately* (like scheduling, talking to a doctor, etc.) because they have been awful at follow-through or keeping track of message history. All of my unhappy experiences at this hospital has been in this area of their service. A few stories: 1. I was out of the country for a couple of years. My cat was diagnosed with early kidney disease right before I left. In addition to the heartbreak of my kitty's illness, I also had to direct treatments from abroad and coordinate between the hospital and my mother, who was taking care of my cat. In Nov 2021, when trying to make an appointment and ask about treatment options *while making an international call around 3:00-6:00 AM in my time zone*, the receptionist hung up on me several times because I asked to speak to another person when I found her unhelpful. I was in a country that didn't actually allow many VOIP software, so it was difficult to call internationally in the first place. 2. In Nov 2021 and Feb 2022: I tried to make an appointment by sending a message through their website messaging system. It's not functional; there was either no response or someone would ask what dates and times I want to make the appointment, when I had included that information in my original message. After responding, I would then get no follow-up. They have several receptionists, and no one keeps track of the string of communications with one client, so you have to re-start your questions with every person you speak to. I then emailed the office email address *twice* for an appointment, each time getting different people who didn't actually set an appointment. Finally I called during office hours - and this is the best way to get anything done with them - and could only get on the calendar that way. 3. On the day of my cat's exam, the vet tech said that I could leave my cat at the hospital and pick up *3 hours later* at 5:00 PM. I thought that was a long time to draw blood and get a urine sample, but okay...Close to 5:00, I called to say that I would be a little late, around 5:10 PM. *Five minutes later* while I was driving to the hospital, a receptionist called me to ask when I was picking up my cat. I usually never take calls while I'm driving because I don't have a handless system and that's dangerous, but because it was from the hospital, I was afraid that it was an emergency, *and didn't I just call 5 minutes earlier to say I was on my way but a little late?* On the phone, she says, "Oh, my colleague just told me that you had called." [facepalm]. 4. April 2022: I called on a Monday to ask about a prescription. The receptionist and I discussed the situation, and she said she would ask the doctor and manager and get back to me in 24-48 hours with an answer. *A week goes by, and no follow-up.* I call the next Monday. A different receptionist looks in the notes and does not see the details I had discussed with the receptionist from the last phone call, so I had to -of course- explain the entire situation again. In summary, their many receptionists and lack of system for keeping track of communication history, for responding to email in a coordinated manner, for holding particular receptionists accountable for follow-up on the cases they answer, have made this part of my experiences with TCAH very frustrating. I hadn't switched to a different vet because, again, I was out the country, and again, I had no problem with the vets, themselves.