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My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

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Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#7
Incredibly stupid decision to respond this way by Wag.

How bad to you have to be at PR to screw this up? It's not hard. Liability in the case of harmed pets is extremely limited, so you just pay it all and apologize profusely. There's no way the bad press will be worth saving a couple thousand maximum.

Absolute idiots.

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#9
This is mildly fascinating. Though not entirely unexpected.

A quick Google for "pet sitting dog died" turns up a number of these stories. It seems a number of them are through these dog sitting services like Wag or Rover.

Here's an interesting one I found not through a dog sitting service but just a roommate that had been asked to sit the dog while the owner was away.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/t7kv7/currently_...

It must be awful for everyone involved. I suspect it's nothing unique to dog sitting services but that it occurs with a certain (albeit low) frequency as a phenomenon but that it's showing up through dog sitting services because there is a (1) a paper trail of the transaction and (2) a stable, visible entity on which to lay the blame.

In the pre-sharing economy days this still happened. Only you vetted the sitter first and so you feel less justified blaming them because on some level you know you signed off on them. You also couldn't really go public and say "14 year old Jenny from Ashmore killed my dog" because you can't make a common enemy out of her and while people will feel for both of you, it's not actionable information for anyone.

It's fascinating what phenomenon our society is making visible through new structures made possible by technology.

It's awful for all involved to have this happen.

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#10

This is mildly fascinating. Though not entirely unexpected. A quick Google for "pet sitting dog died" turns up a number of these stories. It seems a number of them are through these dog sitting services like Wag or Rover. Here's an interesting one I found not through a dog sitting service but just a roommate that had been asked to sit the dog while the owner was away. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/t7kv7…

I have to say that the problem is accountability. With this Wag incident, it appears the person selected through the platform was not the person who was caring for the pet. When I select someone to care for my pet, I know who they are, and can use my own signals to determine if they’re trustworthy and responsible. Wag doesn’t care, they’re just out to “crush it” (cost of business), and the contractor doesn’t care because it’s just another crap minimum wage job.

Stop trusting platforms and acting shocked when the trust model breaks down. They are not designed for safety or trust, but to skim as much volume as possible from transaction flow.

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