Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Hanna Bennett — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 20:54:58 GMT

we've not had the letter - wonder what we have done wrong

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Bob Russell — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 11:02:04 GMT

As I understand it - it is free for the dog £20 for the cat!

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Thomas Johnson — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 10:38:29 GMT

[quote user="Niall Taylor"]

... or that we've been ripping them off for years, otherwise how could we afford to implant chips for free now, when it was £20.00 or whatever last week.

[/quote]

And how do you explain, when they bring in their dog and cat for microchipping, that it's £5 for the dog and £20 for the cat?

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Bob Russell — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 10:11:54 GMT

We no longer do any Dogs Trust work. The final straw was when they decided to require owners to buy medication through them.

Nobody seems to have thought through the idea that unprofitable practices close potentially leaving the big boys to dictate terms!

I would be interested to hear from at least one vet that has given the Dogs Trust great feedback! If he or she cares to comment please could everyone else be gentle! There are two sides to every argument!

If the law requires a chip then dog owners must comply to remain legal. There are places offering cheap and nasty chips already so there is plenty of competition and choice.

If it is going to be free it should be the government that pays (and faces all the flack that will attract) not a charity with ulterior motives.

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Clive Ansell — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 09:55:25 GMT

I can't see how or why anyone would want to source, buy and implant a microchip for £5, the idea is ludicrous. I think practices' should charge a reasonable going rate professional fee for the work. Why is anyone letting Dogs Trust set the agenda?

In addition it sends out the wrong message about responsibility to the general public. If someone owns a dog they should be fully responsible for getting it chipped, and after all the usual fee of around £20-£25 is not unreasonable at all. We wouldn't expect free car MOT's, well some folk probably would.

How many folk do cheapo bitch spays for Dogs Trust?

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Niall Taylor — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 09:53:50 GMT

[quote user="Braden Collins"]All it does is devalue our work...[/quote]

^ This

We already had three years of being forced to work for free with prescriptions this is just another example of the same thing. DT will get all the credit, the govt gets to look good by acting tough on dog legislation and clients will be left thinking either we're being bankrolled by charity (i.e. pocketing their donations) or that we've been ripping them off for years, otherwise how could we afford to implant chips for free now, when it was £20.00 or whatever last week.

It makes no sense, all it will do is further encourage irresponsible pet ownership - yet another thing they can get for free (i.e at someone else's expense).

Niall

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Bob Russell — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 09:23:16 GMT

As a profession if we take part in this scheme we will be subsidising government legislation. Why on earth should we do this any more than we do already?

The Dogs Trust will gain by advertising that they are providing 'free' microchips. We will subsidise implantation. Dogs Trust get good PR, we partly pay for it and they get a whopping free data base to use for marketing or sale.

Potentially a good little earner for a 'rich' charity. Not sure if I consider it a misuse of charity funds. I suspect they have done the sums and think it is going to be a net earner for the charity.

Don't get me wrong, I do support compulsory chipping but it needs to be seen as an important thing to do not just cheap or free. The trouble is we lose if we take part and lose if we don't because we are likely to be seen as money grabbers!

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Braden Collins — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 01:59:03 GMT

Although this issue isn't affecting us in Oz, I'll put in my 2 cents.

As a practice, we wouldn't touch a scheme like this. All it does is devalue our work and will do little to bring in good clients.

Last year we took part in a subsidised sterilisation scheme through the city council in an attempt to help get more cats sterilised before the new cat laws came in. We sterilised around 30 cats in that month. 9 months later we have only had one of those clients come back for anything (which was a euthanasia so they no longer have much use for us).

The good clients will pay for what they need. The bad ones will get what they can for cheap and cause more problems than they are worth.

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Yantha Smyth — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 20:17:39 GMT

Does it need to be vets that do the chips in normal consulting time? Perhaps a way around it would be to run a nurses ID-chip-clinic at certain times of the day when it wouldn't clash with time/staff obligations for the normal practice. That way you wouldn't be taking up the vets usual consult slots, and it would avoid people trying to pull the 'by the way....while I'm here...' stunt

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Linda Filshie — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 18:07:34 GMT

[quote user="Joyce Whitehead"]For what it is worth we had an email from petID today offering chips at £3 plus £1.25 online registration. So a very very small profit!

[/quote]

You're still paying for it in spades by the time you factor in professional time. How much does a 10 minute consult cost in your practice- £20-35? Even if you do a chip in 2 minutes there's an opportunity cost of £4-7 every time you chip - that's time that could be spent with actual paying clients.

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Joyce Whitehead — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 17:58:24 GMT

We have also discussed this in our practice. I feel that this is a misuse of charity money too. I would be happy if there was some sort of qualification such as receipt of benefits, or a limit in number of dogs. But the way the letter is worded suggests that any number can be chipped for any given owner. What is to stop a breeder of something expensive like Bulldogs having a litter chipped and then including this in their sale at £1500 or more? How daft that is. I'm not sure whether we can make any limitations ourselves on who this is offered to (that is if we do it at all). For what it is worth we had an email from petID today offering chips at £3 plus £1.25 online registration. So a very very small profit!

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Ian Mostyn — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 15:19:09 GMT

I have spoken to someone at Dogs Trust today who says they are unaware of any pricing problem and they have had great feedback from vets about this offer. They will add my comments to their "spreadsheet" and someone will look into it. I guess they haven't fully thought it through.

Ian

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

karen jones — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 19:11:52 GMT

We have decided not to take part in this scheme. If you can't afford £12 to chip your dog then you can't afford a dog. I read the letter that we use out own chips which we buy and they give us £5 plus vat for each one we implant. The neighbouring practice phoned today to ask us what we were doing and we found we were in agreement . Just think that as a charity they could spend the money so much more usefully.

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Michael Woodhouse — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 17:36:26 GMT

What if I offer a £5 discount on microchipping?

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Mark Frost — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 17:33:21 GMT

Having the same thoughts today, I think its a bit of a cheek asking professionals to provide time and a service for free (placing the chip), but this has been debated plenty - however this £5 will actually cost most practices money depending on which chips they use, especially as petprotect who appear to have the cheapest chips are not allowed due to their database, before you take into account the time taken.

Should we be provided with free chips to implant I would consider involvement as I am broadly supportive of the concept.

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Bob Russell — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 16:02:17 GMT

I have to say the whole thing seems a bit of a cheek. We are expected to subsidise the charity who I dare say will get significant money from the new database it will generate! Each name and address is probably worth quite a sum to them and unlikely to be much of a benefit to the practice. Good clients generally already have their pets chipped.

Do I really have 'Mug' scrawled across my forehead?

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Ian Mostyn — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 15:11:25 GMT

I have been reading this letter today and I can't seem to find a microchip that is under the £5 + VAT price to make it work. Ignoring us giving our time for free there is a triplicate form to fill in for each client. We usually register chips directly through the PMS so this is an extra paperwork burden and we are meant to be losing money as well! I have tried phoning Dogs Trust to ask if they have a special supplier somewhere but the right person is off until 16th January (!!).

I will post a reply when I hear from Dogs Trust

Ian

Re: Dogs Trust - 'free' microchipping.

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Mon, 20 Jan 2014 13:48:42 GMT

Not had this letter yet.