Marches Farm Vets
Terms & Conditions
As a Registered Client
You agree to our terms and conditions of business.
As part of the change over from Marches Vets, we have accessed your clinical histories, so that we have details on previous work done.
Office Opening Hours
Our office opening hours in Leominster are: Monday to Friday: 8.30am to 3.30pm
Ludlow office open hours: Monday to Friday 9:30 to 2:30
Prices and Charges
Our pricing system is aimed to encourage the most efficient use of our expertise and services. We are happy to discuss likely costs at any time, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Our charges consist of:
Professional Fees – visits, time and procedure charges
Medicines and Supplies
Laboratory fees
Visits
Our visit fees cover the time spent in the car by the vet and the associated costs of running that car.
Professional fees
Our fees cover the cost of employing qualified vets and the associated costs of providing a 24/7 service including all other fixed costs of running the business. A large amount of time is spent by our vets and support staff working on problems, analysing farm data and providing telephone advice. This is included as part of the overall package that we provide.
Most fees are charged on a time basis; however, some fees (for example Caesareans) are fixed so that standard procedures come at a predictable price. Additional charges will be applied to out of hours work to cover the additional costs of providing this service.
Medicines
The sale price of medicines includes their cost price as well as a mark-up to cover the costs of obtaining, storing, prescribing, and dispensing them.
Prescriptions
Prescriptions are available on request.
We are only able to prescribe POM-Vs for animals under our care. To be under our care your animals must have been seen recently, typically within the previous 12 months.
On request, we can provide the cost of any medicine that may be prescribed for your herd/flock.
Discounts
Every registered client is eligible for discount provided their accounts are kept within our standard account terms (see below). Clients with an up-to-date account and good payment history, are welcome to discuss discount options with us.
Standard Terms
Invoices will be sent to you via email or the post.
Our standard terms are payment within 28 days from the invoice date.
Clients whose accounts go over 60 days may not receive any further discount on their medicines until the account is returned to within 28 days.
We reserve the right to apply a 3.5% per month surcharge to any accounts at more than 60 days.
For accounts that are not kept within 90 days, we reserve the right to no longer provide any routine veterinary services and payment at the time is required for any medicines. Emergency work only will be provided.
Payments can be made by BACS, card or cheque made payable to Marches Farm Vets Ltd.
Any cheque returned by our bank as unpaid and any credit card payment not honoured will result in the original account being restored to the original sum with further charges added in respect of bank charges and administration costs.
Inability to pay
If for any reason you are unable to settle your account as specified, we ask you to discuss the matter as soon as possible with one of the Directors (Linda, Emily, or Richard).
Arranging visits
We will endeavour to meet your requirements in relation to routine visits but in order to plan our working day and meet your time scales we ask if you could provide us with as much notice as possible. Emergency treatment will always be treated as a matter of urgency and dealt with accordingly.
Out of hours policy
We provide a 24hr out of hours emergency service for our clients. By ringing the normal telephone number, you will be transferred to our answering service, who will pass your details to the vet on call, who will contact you.
Ordering of drugs
For us to provide you with medication for your animals, your animals must be under our care and all drug requests must be prescribed by a Veterinary Surgeon. To avoid having to wait for drugs to be prescribed and dispensed, we would ideally like you to ring your order through 24 hrs in advance. We realise that this is not always possible or convenient and will try to accommodate you as much as possible. We can give written prescriptions on request, there is a charge for the vet to do this and we require 48 hours’ notice. Any items that we do not normally keep in stock (e.g., most vaccines) require at least one working days’ notice.
General
Marches Farm Vets may contact you either by letter, phone, text or electronic means, in accordance with your data consent with Marches Vets Ltd, to allow continuity of business. Please contact us if you wish this to be amended. No addition or variation of these conditions will bind the practice unless it is specifically agreed in writing and signed by a Director. No agent or person employed by, or under contract with Marches Farm Vets has the authority to alter or vary these conditions in any way.
Complaints Policy
Marches Farm Vets is committed to providing an exceptional standard of service and care. We realise however that things can sometimes go wrong and there may be occasions when you feel your expectations were not met. When this happens, we want to hear about it so that we can try to put things right.
Most problems can be sorted out easily and quickly, often at the time they arise and directly with the person concerned. If your complaint cannot be resolved, you should then write to us. Your complaint will be handled by a Director who will either contact you, correspond with you or meet with you as appropriate to the complaint.
What we will do
We will acknowledge your complaint within five working days of receipt, informing you who is dealing with your complaint and when you can expect to receive a reply. In most cases, we hope to give you a full reply within fifteen working days but if it is going to take longer, we will get in touch with you to let you know what is happening. We will then hopefully be able to offer you a resolution, or if not, advise you on the next step.