A spoon full of "free" helps the medicine go down!

Back in September we ran a Birthday Survey. One question in this survey was something that we'd long wanted to know for certain - how much are people actually paying for their prescriptions.


The price of a veterinary prescription is important, because it is another cost barrier in the way of your cat or dog getting the medicines they need to keep they healthy or make them better. At Pet Drugs Online we've always taken care of the other end of the equation by keeping our prices as low as possible.


For a long time our customer call team had used the figure "between £5 -£10" when asked the average price of a prescription; but we knew this figure was increasingly anecdotal and decidedly less factual. Hence the question in the survey, and we were a little surprised at the results.



While 23% of customers paid £9 - £12 for a prescription (which seems reasonable) 12% paid £13 - £15, 11% paid £16 - £20 and 13% paid a whopping £26 or more! That is a lot. You need a prescription to purchase one our best selling drugs, a tube of eye ointment and a £26 prescription fee would double the effective price!


So we had a think, and a chat and come up with a cunning plan. It is not perfect and it can't help everybody, but it is a first step in the direction of cheaper prescriptions. Our plan is this: if you pay for a consultation with one our 200+ partner vets, then they will write a prescription for free. That's precisely £0! Of course you may not want to change vets, and while UK-wide, the network of partner vets is not yet comprehensive (eg there is little coverage on M4 corridor, but loads in Southampton).

The full details of the service can be found on our site and there's a funky little "enter your postcode to find the nearest partner vet" tool too. Have a go on it, you never know what may be around the corner - just across the road from the post office.


We'll look to do more, but it is a start...
Cheers,
The Pet Drugs Online Team

We’re on the move!

Now if you try to call us this Saturday morning (16th Jan 2016) you’ll find we’re not in. That is because we’re moving to bigger premises this weekend and all the phones will be in the back of a van! So our apologies about that. We’ll be back up and running for Monday (18th Jan 2016)– and our course you can drop us an email in the meantime.

We’re moving now for the 5th time in 11 years, each one motivated by a desire to improve and introduce new systems, aimed at making sure you get your order faster and with less hassle. I could witter on about automated stock picking and the like - but what this really means is that orders will move from website to warehouse to envelope to your door more efficiently than ever.
Now that’s all very corporate and the sort of thing you are supposed to say when moving; but it is also rather exciting and highlights how quickly we all become set in our ways. So here’s the deal. We’ll all try to remember to drive to a different location on Monday morning, while you just need to send all postal communications for Pet Drugs Online to:


      Pet Drugs Online
      Unit 7b, Burnett Business Park,
      Gypsy Lane, Keynsham
      Bristol
      BS31 2ED


Now it is odds on at least one member of staff will forget and get out of their car on the 18th with that “where is everybody” feeling. So we will of course have a mail re-direct in place to scoop any postal waifs and strays, as we all adjust to the new address.

The Pet Drugs Online 'journey'

Luckily we’re not moving far and above is a map showing each of our short hops around the historic county of B&NES. We reckon our entire journey is only 24.8 miles, an average of 6.2 miles each time! So no too far if we do get lost on the commute next week!
Cheers,
The Pet Drugs Online Team