Giving up on Twitter working with my blog. See you in a few months.

Testing this blog thing.

Crashing Twitter, apparently.

Thinking of adding Twitter to my blog.

I guess the Brambleton Veterinary Hospital folks have run out of ideas.

Lessee… first we have the vet, Dr. Linda Jennings, calling the SPCA here in Roanoke, VA, demanding that they fire my wife (who didn’t even work there) because Dr. Linda Jennings didn’t like us complaining about the lousy service we received.

She lied to the people at the SPCA, and I was able to prove that. She also made a fool of herself by making the call.

Then people from the vet’s staff post to this blog, identifying themselves as such, and make more provably false statments, including about my credit. When it’s pointed out that such conduct might be in violation of the law, those posts stop.

Then we have those same people, who are clearly not very bright, saying more stupid things here in a language similar to English but not quite at the high school level. Again they lie, again I prove this.

Meanwhile, other former customers and people in the Roanoke animal community join in with their stories about how bad Brambleton Veterinary Hospital is. It’s pretty impressive, actually, how many people have had rotten experiences with Dr. Linda Jennings.

Then a customer, Diane Whitmore of Roanoke, weighed in, claiming among other things that I was screaming at the staff of Brambleton Veterinary Hospital. I said she was lying. She said her integrity was important to her and she wouldn’t even exaggerate.

So I posted the audio of our interaction and instantly proved she was not telling the truth. So much for her integrity.

The pattern keeps repeating: They lie about me and about what happened, I turn around and prove they’re lying. They move on to trying other lies. Repet.

But I guess they’ve given up and are now simply resorting to childishness: nasty posts with name calling and personal attacks, etc. (I have removed them but saved them.)

Incredible. I have no idea why anyone would trust their animals to Dr. Linda Jennings or anyone at Brambleton Veterinary Hospital here in Roanoke, Virginia.

* * *

All that said, I don’t plan to post any more about it. If they want to add comments, thus driving traffic her and keeping my comments at the top of Google hits, that’s fine by me.

But if they’re smart, they’ll let it go. I don’t have a lot of hope, though.

Comments are closed.

Diane Whitmore, a customer of Brambleton Veterinary Hospital, posted here, among other things, that I was “screaming,” in the vet’s office and that she actually feared for the safety of the staff at the vet. She claimed to work in airline security, and she said that my behavior was the worst she’d ever seen.

Oh really?

Let’s listen in. Here is audio of the last three and a half minutes of my visit to Brambleton Vet. It starts as I’m on the phone with my wife telling her about my conversation with Dr. Linda Jennings.

You can hear my first interaction with Ms. Whitmore at about 49 seconds in.

I would appreciate it if you’d take the time to listen to the whole thing. Ms. Whitmore claimed the following:

As I left he was still in the office screaming and it was severe enough I called back to make sure the techs were OK. I was actually worried about their safety. (Emphasis mine.)

You be the judge. Please tell me if you think that was the case. (The audio ends as I leave the vet’s office.)

Ms. Whitmore claimed that her integrity is very important to her. Let’s put that to the test — compare her post here with what you hear on the audio. That way you can reach your own conclusions about her accuracy and integrity.

(Note: I corrected a typo in this entry on 6/6.)

Comments are closed.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I stopped posting about the horrible experience I had at Brambleton Veterinary Hospital in Roanoke. Yes, there are some things still going on behind the scenes, but I was content to let it go.

Right now, if you Google “Brambleton Vet,” this site (and those that link to it) start in the third position and make up a large portion of links on the first page. I.e., someone searching for information on Dr. Linda Jennings or Brambleton Vet will likely find this.

Had things stayed that way, eventually these posts would have become dated and fallen down the Google hit list. In other words, the best thing for Brambleton Vet would be to let it lie, as I was content to do.

That’s still a good idea. Because every time someone posts here, it just resets the page date and keeps the whole business high on Google.

Something to think about.

Comments are closed.

A co-worker came to me today — he had planned to take his dog to Brambleton Veterinary Hospital and was looking for the phone number when he found my site instead.

Needless to say, he’s chosen to go somewhere else.

But he gave me some interesting info.

Apparently, Dr. Linda Jennings DVM had a previous partner, Linda Eick. After some kind of disagreement (”fight” was his term, but I don’t know if that’s accurate), Eick left to start her own practice: Big Lick Veterinary Service. And Eick is apparently a wonderful vet.

In fact, it can take a while to get an appointment at Big Lick. Ditto for Cave Spring, Roanoke Veterinary, and every other vet in the area.

Except Brambleton Vet. In fact, you’ll probably find that you have no problem getting an appointment there — they have a lot of free time.

We had only gone to one other vet in the area, and only for an emergency, so we had no idea that typical waiting times were longer. Had we realized that Brambleton Veterinary Hospital had much more free time than other local vets, we may have thought twice.

So check this out. “Jackie,” who claimed in one message that she works for Dr. Linda F. Jennings DVM, has been posting other comments using different names.

She posted as “Anonymous” once, and then as “animal lover” in a couple of places.

She’s not very bright. I explained at the beginning that this whole problem resulted from Brambleton Veterinary Hospital’s nasty attitude, and the staff’s refusing to let us take our dog home.

Yet “Jackie” persists in claiming we were trying not to pay.

Well, consider this. Apart from the fact that we were long-time, multiple-animal customers, PJ had a drainage tube in his leg and stitches that had to be removed.

In other words, Jackie dear, we had to come back to the vet. It wouldn’t make sense that we would try to skip out on a bill. (Add to this the simply fact that we paid every bill over the past two or three years that we’d be going there.)

It seems the people at Brambleton Veterinary Hospital are getting pretty desperate. But the cool thing is, comments like Jackie’s … er, “animal lover’s,” just help show a pattern of misinformation and character attacks.

So I went to see my attorney today. It was actually about something else (updating my will to reflect a life-insurance change, if you care), but while I was there I asked whether he handles things like personal/business cases. I also mentioned slander.

Well what do you know, he does. (It’s not his primary practice, but there are other lawyers in the firm if it comes to that.)

I’m not going to say anymore at the moment, but I left the office with a smile on my face and some paperwork in my hand.

(Oh, and for you language nitpickers out there: A lawyer is someone who practices law. When one is representing you, s/he is your attorney.)

We brought PJ to a new vet today to have his stitches checked out. Turns out that Dr. Linda Jennings DVM, or her staff, gave him the wrong dose of medication.

According to our new vet (more soon), PJ should be getting 375 mg of Clavamox, but he was only given 250-mg tablets. And yes, it’s available in 375-mg tablets.

According to Pfizer, the recommended dosage for Clavamox is 6.25 mg/lb. PJ weighs about 60 lbs. Do the math and you get 375 mg.

The vet knew this; the vet tech was very clear that we should give him the 60-lb. dosage of pain meds.

But not only did they give us the wrong dose of medication, the people at Brambleton Veterinary Hospital charged us for the larger dose. (When I get home I’ll snap pictures of the receipt showing that we paid for 375 mg. and the tablets that read 250 mg.)

So let me be clear: The staff at Brambleton Veterinary Hospital in Roanoke, Va., was not only nasty and rude to us, but they gave our dog the wrong dosage of medication.

Good thing we went to another vet.

Update, five minutes later: You know what? As much as I would like to think this happened because the vet was evil or incompetent, I realize that’s probably not the case. Most likely whomever stuffed the pills into the envelope simply grabbed the wrong dosage.

Obviously they knew the correct dose — it was on the bill. It saddens me to say so, but I think this was an honest mistake.

Update, 5 more minutes later: Karen called the vet (!) and the woman who answered, Christina, was friendly and polite and offered to swap out the meds immediately. (I can’t imagine she’ll be working there long. :) 

When Karen told her she was uncomfortable coming to the office, Christina said that she was at the desk and there wouldn’t be a problem. When Karen got there, the office manager saw her and “made a beeline for the back,” Karen said. Christina swapped the meds and we got a receipt to document the error.

Oh, and Karen reports that the office was otherwise empty of customers.

http://www.kantor.com/2007/05/14/avoid-brambleton-…

Dr. Linda Jennings DVM said that I came into her office screaming and cursing her staff. And “Jackie” wrote in one comment that “they were in our office the morning after causing a scene.”

So, to defend myself, I present this brief (52 second) clip of me in the office. This takes place after one member of the staff brought PJ out. Was I angry? You bet. Was my tone harsh? A bit, certainly. Did I curse or abuse anyone? Nope.

But check it out. (MP3 format)

Because current employees of Dr. Linda Jennings posted here to share their impressions of Dr. Jennings, I thought it would be appropriate to share some comments from a former employee of Brambleton Vet. Unlike the current people, she doesn’t have a vested interest in one side or the other.

Jessica asked that I not use her last name. Except for adding paragraph breaks for clarity, I haven’t edited these except as noted.

Her first note:

I actually used to work at the Brambleton Vet. It was my first job out of high school and it was horrific. I knew I would never take an animal there after working there. I had similar things happen with Dr. Jennings. She is very rude and would leave surgery early for a golf game and just hand over responsibility to someone else. I worked there in 2000, so I’m not sure who is still there. Still, I find it hard to believe it has improved much.

She followed up with this:

There was one incident that probably stands out most in my mind that I can share. I worked in the lower level where the kennels were and we bathed, walked, and fed the dogs that came in for an appointment (or were there beeing borded). I remember two of the ladies that worked there and how unpleasant they were.

One day a dog came in for a bath and nail clipping. The woman started cutting his nails and cut the quick right away. He started to bleed and tried to get away, but she just brought over people to help restrain the dog so she could continue to trim his nails, and continue to cut the quick! No one did anything about it and the dog was hollering and barking and crying, bleeding all over the floor. I couldn’t believe she would conitnue and that people were letting her. I said I would go get someone, went upstairs totally distressed, and no one upstairs seemed to care either.

I can’t say whether those people still work there, but in general, I found that the wellbeing of the animals was not addressed consistently. This may have never happened again, but in the time I was there in 2000, I saw many things like this. This, however, stuck out in my mind because it was so distressing to be there, and perhaps I was not immune to the amount of blood. But this was a simple nail trimming and does not call for tough stomach.

She also mentioned some other things she heard about while there, but as I can’t confirm those stories I won’t include them.

A couple of people claiming to work for Dr. Linda Jennings have weighed in, in one of the comments sections. They tried and, I think, failed to make some points.

So let me ask some questions.

1. Why would you not allow my wife to call someone who could have provided a Visa number to pay for your services immediately? She offered repeatedly to have a friend or family member do that; you would have had your money immediately.

2. Let’s say I was the horrible, mean person you want to make me out to be — that I stomped my feet and called you bad names. I paid our bill in full and on time and in cash. How does that justify Dr. Linda Jennings calling what she thought was my wife’s place of employment and demanding that she be fired? How is that in any way professional?

2a. In that call, Dr. Jennings claimed that I came in to your office screaming and cursing. I have proof that this isn’t the case. I realize you aren’t lawyers, but take a shot — how is that not slander?

3. How can you explain the office manager (TP or KP or whatever his name was) claiming that my bringing my wife her checkbook was somehow evidence of fraud? He said he was suspicious because Karen got the checkbook 10 minutes after she called me (from your phone), and he expected it to take 20 minutes.

4. How do you explain the vet tech saying that she wouldn’t give PJ pain meds until we sorted out the payment issue that you created? If he got his meds, why not say so? If he didn’t, do you consider it professional to leave an animal under your care in pain because you don’t like his owner?

5. How do you explain the pet sitters, former employees, and other people involved with the local animal community who have posted here supporting my impression of Dr. Jennings? Is it a vast conspiracy?

6. Why did you lie about what I said in your office? (I didn’t call anyone a “F**** B****”) Why did you lie about who came to your office on the 15th? (Just me, not both of us.) Why did you lie and say my wife cursed at you? (She most certainly did not.) Why did you lie and say that my wife waited to inform you she didn’t have her purse? (She told the staff immediately, in fact.)

6a. Do you think this pattern of lying is a result of a medical condition?

7. We have brought our three dogs and two cats to you for the past couple of years and always paid immediately and in full. Yet you refused all our offers of payment. On the other hand, the emergency veterinarian was happy to take our check even though we walked in late at night and she had never met us before. Explain.

8. Dr. Jennings claimed that a significant number of your regular clients pass bad checks on to you. Doesn’t it strike you as odd that regular customers would be willing to sever a relationship in that way if they were satisfied with the service?

9. Was it Dr. Jennings herself or one of her customers who was willing to suborn perjury? You said in one message that someone had clients who would be willing to testify to things they didn’t see, as I pointed out. Thank you for leaving that message, by the way. It could come in handy.

The cool thing about sharing all this info about Dr. Linda Jennings DVM and Brambleton Veterinary Hospital is that people start getting in touch with interesting information.

For example, in case you missed it in the comments of a previous post, Beth Brown wrote that a friend of hers had to drop off a dog at Brambleton Veterinary Hospital

…and had mistakenly left a good dog training collar on her dog. When she went to pick up her dog, they told her that her dog was very aggressive and had tried to bite the vet tech. What my friend discovered after speaking with them for a while is that they tried to remove the plastic BARBED good dog collar by pulling it over the dog’s head - very painful.

I bring that up for a reason. I do not know the following first hand, but it comes from a first-hand source I trust completely.

A few years ago, the local animal-control shelter (as opposed to the SPCA) had a dangerous dog on its hands. The people there felt it was enough of a threat to the community not to turn it over for adoption.

But Dr. Linda Jennings DVM, in whose neighborhood the dog was found, raised a fuss. She demanded the dog be turned over to her. And then she promptly offered the dog for adoption via an ad in the paper. And she told people it was a good, sweet dog.

In other words, she decided her judgement of a stray dog was better than that of the local animal-control officers who spent time with the animal. And she was willing to give a dog that Animal Control felt was dangerous to a family. (My source actually called her and asked about the dog. Dr. Linda Jennings told her the dog was good with children. Wow.)

Shelters — at least good ones, like we have in Roanoke — don’t just give away a dog to anyone. They carefully screen applicants and sometimes even make a site visit. They will never allow a dangerous dog to be adopted by a family with children, that’s for sure.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that Dr. Jennings did ask a lot of questions and was careful about who adopted the dog. But her telling someone that this dangerous dog was good with children — well, that doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence.

But let me say again, I am getting this information second-hand. And although I trust my source, you should keep in mind that you don’t, and you should take it with a grain of salt.

I love WordPress. Is there nothing it can’t do?

Now all my current and future posts about Dr. Linda Jennings DVM and the horrible experience at Brambleton Veterinary Hospital in Roanoke are all in one spot.

So those of you who don’t want to subject your friends and family to the general inanity of this blog can simply point them to http://www.kantor.com/category/brambletonvet.

OK, get this. Dr. Linda F. Jennings of the Brambleton Veterinary Hospital — who I wrote about here and here — had threatened to sue us if we told people about the horrible treatment we got from her and her staff.

That’s foolish on the face of it, but then she took a trip to la-la land. She contacted the local SPCA and demanded that they fire my wife.

Dr. Linda F. Jennings, there are some things you need to keep in mind.

1. Only in the movies can you say something like “I’m going to get you fired.”

2. You have to be more than a vague acquaintance of the person you’re making the demand of.

3. If you call someone you hardly know out of the blue to complain about someone they hardly know, you don’t look like the brightest light in the night sky.

4. If the person you’re trying to get fired gave you a well-written and reasonable letter of complaint, it doesn’t help your case to fax that to people. (But thanks anyway!)

5. Finally, if you want to get someone fired, it kind of helps if they actually work at the place you’re calling. My wife doesn’t work for the SPCA. She’s a volunteer. We help out at functions and foster puppies and kittens.

Dr. Jennings also called the SPCA’s vet, whom she had never met, to complain about us. [blink blink] How would that conversation have gone?

“Hi, I’m doctor Linda Jennings of Brambleton Veterinary Hospital. You don’t know me, but you should know that someone who you may have seen around the SPCA is a bad person.”

“Huh? Is this some kind of joke?”

Now keep in mind that Linda F. Jennings DVM had threatened to sue us for daring to tell people about the treatment we got from her and her staff, yet she thinks it’s perfectly fine to try to ruin our livelihoods by getting Karen fired. (As far as she knew, Karen actually did work there.)

And remember, we had paid our bill in full and on time. So what did she have to complain about? “Hi, you don’t know me, but I think you should fire someone who doesn’t actually work there because she didn’t let me push her around.”

So today I filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and a local vet group. Tomorrow I’m sending one to the Virginia Board of Veterinary Medicine’s Enforcement Division detailing what I consider to be Dr. Linda F. Jennings’s unethical conduct.

Still watching twittervision…

Watching Twittervision!

For those of you thinking, “Oh, sheesh, not more” — don’t worry, these will end soon. But the nightmare of bad service is still fresh in my mind and I need to get it out of my system.

So I’ve found out a few more things about Brambleton Veterinary Hospital and Dr. Linda Jennings. First, besides responses here, I’ve gotten a ton of e-mail from friends. Some were flabbergasted, but others were, well, not surprised.

Apparently, according to at least two people, Brambleton Veterinary Hospital’s service issues are well known in the local pet community. Specifically, one person said, Linda Jennings is known as the vet you don’t take your pet to. (Not that she is a bad vet. She probably gives excellent medical care. But — as I saw first hand — she’s a nasty person to deal with.)

And apparently, a few years ago, the local animal-control shelter (as opposed to the SPCA) had a dangerous dog on its hands. They felt it was enough of a threat to the community not to turn it over for adoption.

But Dr. Linda Jennings raised a fuss and demanded the dog be turned over to her — and then promptly offered the dog for free via an ad in the paper, telling people it was a good, sweet dog.

In other words, she decided her judgement of a stray dog (it had been found in her home neighborhood) was better than that of the local animal-control officers who spent time with the animal. But not only did Dr. Linda Jennings get the dog out of the shelter, she gave it away — potentially putting someone at risk. (She apparently told people the dog was good with children.)

The more I learn, the more I wish I had done my research on Brambleton Veterinary Hospital first.