So, I've seen jobs on an MSC board "about" taking your dog for a "face"-to-face visit. Anyone know how difficult or involved the questionnaires are? It says there's 57 questions, but if they're mostly yes/no, then that's not a big deal. How much narrative is involved??
Thanks!!

Dead easy. I've done two of them, one cat and one dog, and may try to pick up a third tomorrow.

For the ones I did, you're trying to see if a certain product is mentioned and in what context. If they don't mention it (neither of mine did) then most of the questions are N/A.

If they do mention it, you need to report what they said about it (that's the only narrative required), and who told you about it (Vet, technician, cashier).

The hardest thing for me was remembering to look all over for displays of product, brochures, or posters advertising it.

If you do one of these, go about 10-20 minutes early so you can wander around the lobby noticing posters or brochures, although that backfired on me the other day when they took me right in. But there were no posters anyway.

Some of these shops have to do with whether they discourage you from trying to buy the product somewhere other than at the vet's. It depends on which scenario you do, I think there are about a half dozen different scenarios.

One of the vets I did carried the product and recommended it; the other didn't carry it at all. So you really won't know what you're going to find until you get there.

Is this a chain vet?

I accepted one of these for my cat. He is a rescue cat and still a bit on the wild side plus he's huge. I couldn't stuff him into the small crate I use for my chihuahua so I decided I would just put him on the leash......brilliant idea I thought....NOT! I carried him out to the car and put him in. He instantly exploded running front to back and back again. I waited until he finally seemed settled in the back seat and quickly opened the door to get in. All at once, that 20 pounds of cat exploded from the back seat, dragging the leash behind him. He tore the handle in two pieces as he ran into the woods behind our house. I called and called but he did not come out. Finally I really got worried about him being trapped in there with the leash on so I got up the nerve to go to the edge of the woods. I heard a faint meow and saw his eyes looking through about 10 feet of brush and briars. He had the leash wrapped around a tree. I had to get our pick ax and chop my way to him. Then I had to cut him loose. Needless to say, I have not tried that again. I did take my dog and the report was easy enough but the vet bill was over $100 so the $40 reimbursement did not cover all of it.

Linda - I hope on top of all that the woods didn't have any poison ivy or poison oak!

plmccut Wrote:
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> Linda - I hope on top of all that the woods didn't
> have any poison ivy or poison oak!


Oh yes, plenty of that as well. I came in and immediately took a shower!

Sounds like a Cettie adventure.

Ouch, $100 for an office call? Or did you have work done? Mine came to $81, over the $69 max reimbursement, but I had a lump aspirated and that added $35 to the $46 office call.

Do they have these shops on the West Coast? I have been looking for a vet shop.

veggiegirl Wrote:
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> Do they have these shops on the West Coast? I have
> been looking for a vet shop.


They have them in California. I haven't done one yet as my dog is not due for a visit until Nov. I am hoping they continue to have them a few more months at least as I don't really want to do it 5 months early.

So I have question. How do you schedule these? I get the notices and they have like a 2 day turnaround. Can you pick one up then extend the date based on the date of your appoinment, or do you need to have an appointment made so that if you get one, you can get it done within the couple of days they give you?

And - the purchase that's required. Does that mean "purchasing" my dog's exam? The one vet I went to did not have the product I was upposed to ask about, so my only 'purchase' was an exam and shots. If they carry the product I am inquiring about, do I have to buy it? (That's like half the reimursement cost right there...)

IF they don't carry it, you don't buy anything and just tell them on the report that they didn't have it. If they DO carry it and you are supposed to purchase, then yes, you have to buy it.

I scheduled my first one the day they came out, and after that I kept being told my profile didn't qualify to do them. I had to contact them and they had to assign me my second one manually.

If you're concerned, you could call and make the appointment (you can cancel or change it if you can't get the job) and inquire what the exam fee will be and then apply for the job if it's worthwhile to you. That way you'll know what the date is.

I'm willing to do a third (they only allow 3) but it's still giving me the error message and I don't feel like sending any more emails about it. I also think the other vets in this town are higher priced and none of my other animals need to go to the vet now so I'd probably end up out of pocket if I did another.

It's a very confusing program, frankly, with so many scenarios and the instructions being so vague about all the "what ifs" you might encounter. And I don't know why they even have you ask about prescriptions; the stuff doesn't require one!

I have a feeling they started doing this project for the OTHER medication they want you to listen for them to recommend. THAT stuff is taken internally and probably requires a prescription, but the one they want us to buy which is for external use doesn't.

I don't know if it is exceptable, but could you say what MSC does these vet shops??

In this particular case, even though the client has not been named, I'm not comfortable saying who the MSC is either because they made us agree not to disclose anything about the shops. We've discussed it with enough vagueness here to keep anyone from guessing who the client is or the purpose of the shop. But I won't name the MSC either. It's one of the popular ones here that can be found on the list at the bottom of the page.

itsasecret - the offers i get are for shops in like 2 days...can you pick up the shop then call them with an appointment next week? are these july shops? or do they want you to have the appt in the next couple days?
anyone have any experience?

on the 1st one I did, my own vet was able to get me in the next day.

I don't know. I'd suggest emailing the scheduler. I think they're getting desperate to get these jobs done, I get multiple emails a day about them. But if their system is screwed up for people other than me, people may not be applying because they think they don't qualify.

I think I got a "next day" appointment on my first. The next one, that they had to manually assign, I think I had three days and I did it on the third day. It took them two or three days to assign it to me because of the glitch and lack of communication.

I'm busy for the rest of the week. If they're still on the board over the weekend I'll try to get another one. I have six cats and two dogs and have only used one of each so far, LOL. I could do the whole campaign myself if they wanted. And if I ran out of scenarios I could trap some of my seven ferals and keep going.

yeah, i got my dog shots that need a 3 week booster. A week and a half ago. If I can get another one, we can go for the second round of boosters....chain animal hospital so they could do the follow up at a different location. fingers crossed.

itsasecret Wrote:
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> In this particular case, even though the client
> has not been named, I'm not comfortable saying who
> the MSC is either because they made us agree not
> to disclose anything about the shops. We've
> discussed it with enough vagueness here to keep
> anyone from guessing who the client is or the
> purpose of the shop. But I won't name the MSC
> either. It's one of the popular ones here that
> can be found on the list at the bottom of the
> page.


After reading the first post, I had to laugh when I got to this one. If you think the first post is vague, you should read it again. LOL

So... I thought, from my brief scan of this, that only the flea stuff was reimbursed. You get a vet visit/exam reimbursed, too? And shots etc.?

If so, I might have to look into these further.

And, in the brief scanning of the info on these, I assume the client is one of the flea stuff manufacturers? It certainly isn't the vet chain, since it says "any vet".

jschilz, I don't know what you're seeing in the first post but there is NO hint of either client or MSC there or the nature of the shop.

Stormcloud, there are many scenarios for these shops. If you read the details of each it will tell you if there is reimbursement for a purchase, for a vet fee, or if there is just a shop fee. They all have different requirements.

Once I saw the questionnaire, it was obvious to me why they wanted a high level of confidentiality and what they were likely going to do with the information, which is why I'm not saying anything specific about the shops.

The client may not be who you think it is. Based on the information that will be obtained from ALL the scenarios, I can see why it's important that information about what is being "shopped" does not leak out or it could taint the results. Anyone taking the shops makes a special agreement not to reveal so please be careful what you say here.

I too look at these Dog & cat shop's couldn't understand if it paid for office visit plus $45.00 because around here a office visit is $45.00 or more.

itsasecret Wrote:
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> jschilz, I don't know what you're seeing in the
> first post but there is NO hint of either client
> or MSC there or the nature of the shop.
>


Maybe there are multiple MSCs doing vet shops. The one I know about is "clearly" referred to in the "original" post.

Good catch. I still had to read it twice, lol.

I just scrolled up to the first post...Um, yeah. Very clearly stated. Couldn't be much clearer unless the words were in caps.

I'm not as devious as the rest of you..... LOL

It's about as plain as the nose on my face now.....

completely missed that.


jschilz Wrote:
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> itsasecret Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > jschilz, I don't know what you're seeing in the
> > first post but there is NO hint of either
> client
> > or MSC there or the nature of the shop.
> >
>
>
> Maybe there are multiple MSCs doing vet shops. The
> one I know about is "clearly" referred to in the
> "original" post.

The vet shops are pretty easy. I have had one for my kitty and than for my dog. It was nice to get them all ready for the summer months.

How can you concentrate on anything besides how your beloved pet is freaking out at the dreaded doctor's office?

I hope I wasn't out of line with my hint... I'm still kinda getting the hang of where the boundary is on what is & isn't allowed. I didn't know how widely known these shops were & was trying to shed more light on which shops I was talking about without coming right out & saying it...

eliseWAH89 Wrote:
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> I hope I wasn't out of line with my hint... I'm
> still kinda getting the hang of where the boundary
> is on what is & isn't allowed. I didn't know how
> widely known these shops were & was trying to shed
> more light on which shops I was talking about
> without coming right out & saying it...

You didn't mention the MSC and the client in the same post, so I think you're fine, and apparently, a lot of people didn't pick up on what I did so, you're probably doubly fine. I wasn't trying to imply that you did anything wrong. I was just giving a little jab to the person who said something about the vagueness of the thread.

I am about to do two today. It is rather confusing. I got the scenario 5 and it does not say what I have to buy since the purchase is required. I asked the scheduler and I got the reply. But she did not answer to the prescription...I hope it'll go fine. And I hope my vet carries the product :O

Hope they DON'T carry the product, unless you actually want some. If they don't carry it, you don't have to make the purchase. They seem to be paying a flat fee no matter what happens on most of the shops.