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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

#71

Post by matz1 »

setr wrote: post #69
matz1 wrote: post #50

If he care the dog so much, the question is why is he trusting it to some stranger ?

Most interaction in life eventually boil down to trusting in strangers (that you pay). Your kids? Schools, daycares, after-school programs, schooltrips, babysitting; let them do anything on their own? All stranger interactions. At most you get transitive trust. But that doesn’t amount to much. No, the main reason we’re able to sustain this model is that we believe in two big functions: 1. Most people operate nuetrall…

Its not that you should not trust anyone. If I trust my dog to someone, then I have to accept that there are risk that the dog my die horribly. Likewise, if you trust your dog to me, then you better be ready to accept the risk that your dog might die.

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

#72

Post by scott-smith_us »

gafferongames wrote: post #70
BucketSort wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, we don't know if this is the truth. Has Wag responded with their side of the story?

OH COME ON!

Please explain why wanting to hear both sides of a story gets an "OH COME ON!" from you?

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

#73

Post by _tulpa »

matz1 wrote: post #71
setr wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most interaction in life eventually boil down to trusting in strangers (that you pay). Your kids? Schools, daycares, after-school programs, schooltrips, babysitting; let them do anything on their own? All stranger interactions. At most you get transitive trust. But that doesn’t amount to much. No, the main reason we’re able to sustain this model is that we believe in two big functions: 1. Most people operate nuetrall…

Its not that you should not trust anyone. If I trust my dog to someone, then I have to accept that there are risk that the dog my die horribly. Likewise, if you trust your dog to me, then you better be ready to accept the risk that your dog might die.

Then you just find a random stranger and don’t bother paying for a service which ostensibly exists partly to guarantee some level of trust.

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

#74

Post by thisisit »

james_s_tayler wrote: post #15
toomuchtodo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bec…

It definitely seems they could and need to do more to tighten up the accountability on the platform. No doubt about that. I don't know that it's accurate to say the contractor doesn't care. If they were a psychopath I could agree with that, but most people have had the experience of having either a pet, friend or relative die and know how deeply it affects people emotionally and to know you were responsible for that…

> Edit: Platforms don't kill dogs; people do. Stop trusting people.

I disagree with that notion. Trust has always been a big problem. But when a two way market is built on a platform you trust the platform to carry out it's due diligence on your behalf. Situations like:

The walker that was with Winnie when she was killed had a different name in her bio paragraph than was shown on her profile—which makes me wonder if Wag is monitoring whether or not the people walking your dog are who they say they are. Sara asked the walker what her name was, but the walker did not provide an answer.

shouldn't happen at all.

But it's seems that most of the time platforms forgo the need for verification and think trust should solve itself because "people". It takes a harassment case (in case of Uber) etc for companies to open their eyes and realize "people" are not so simple. It takes a good and concentrated effort to run a clean platform.

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

#75

Post by lostlogin »

idontpost wrote: post #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.

Missing from the discussion as far as I can see is mention of the walker’s behaviour. I don’t know what rules Wag have, but calling the owner as soon as possible and stating what has happened is a pretty basic thing to do. Deliver the bad news to those that need it as quickly and accurately as you can, with updates when appropriate. Not answering then lying is not ok, and whatever Wags’s rules are this shouldn’t have happened.

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

#76

Post by warent »

defap wrote: post #37
yegle wrote: post #11

This happened recently: Wag! dog walker charged with animal cruelty; customers concerned about industry background checks http://www.ktvu.com/news/wag-dog-walker-charged-with-animal-... EDIT: and the settlement letter sent from Wag: https://www.scribd.com/document/397139013/SNews-Copie1901081...

Wow. The walker kicks and whips the dog until it vomits blood and Wag offers a refund and a $100 credit as settlement. Who in the world wants Wag credits after an experience like that. If Wag wants to buy these folks’ silence, shouldn’t they at least make a non-insulting offer?

This is terrifying behavior both on part of the walker and Wag. I don't blame Wag for having occasionally sketchy immoral actors that don't care about animals--that's essentially impossible to entirely prevent, especially as they continue scaling. However, their responses to these issues are extremely concerning and do not indicate a company that's managed well.

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

#77

Post by [deleted] »

_tulpa wrote: post #73
matz1 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not that you should not trust anyone. If I trust my dog to someone, then I have to accept that there are risk that the dog my die horribly. Likewise, if you trust your dog to me, then you better be ready to accept the risk that your dog might die.

Then you just find a random stranger and don’t bother paying for a service which ostensibly exists partly to guarantee some level of trust.

[deleted]

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

#78

Post by james_s_tayler »

Judgmentality wrote: post #33

I admittedly wasn't a huge fan of Wag ever because it always seemed like taking the lowest available bidder to walk your dog (instead of someone who truly loves dogs and has years of experience training them), but I'm curious how much of an influence Softbank has been since their investment. Everybody talks about how Softbank is the smartest money in Silicon Valley. Obviously time will tell, but I feel like Softbank…

To expand a little on your first point - the market of people who truly love dogs, or love them enough to think of walking them to earn money outside of the Uber for X economy, is probably tiny. Most people just have regular jobs and/or don't need the money that much and/or don't love dogs that much. You can scale the access to being a dog walker but you can't scale the "I give a shit about dogsness".

Maybe the sharing economy model is just a poor one in certain cases?

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

#79

Post by warent »

spraak wrote: post #65
yegle wrote: post #11

This happened recently: Wag! dog walker charged with animal cruelty; customers concerned about industry background checks http://www.ktvu.com/news/wag-dog-walker-charged-with-animal-... EDIT: and the settlement letter sent from Wag: https://www.scribd.com/document/397139013/SNews-Copie1901081...

I understand why people get upset about their companion animal bring purposely hurt, but I don't understand how most everyone in that same demographic has no problem killing (or having killed through their economic transaction) a cow, pig, or chicken. I don't understand the disparity or the difference. And yes I'm aware it's cultural, because some places eat animals that other places think of as companions (dogs in C…

I'm a vegan but your point is tangential to the discussion and doesn't really make sense here.

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

#80

Post by [deleted] »

spraak wrote: post #65
yegle wrote: post #11

This happened recently: Wag! dog walker charged with animal cruelty; customers concerned about industry background checks http://www.ktvu.com/news/wag-dog-walker-charged-with-animal-... EDIT: and the settlement letter sent from Wag: https://www.scribd.com/document/397139013/SNews-Copie1901081...

I understand why people get upset about their companion animal bring purposely hurt, but I don't understand how most everyone in that same demographic has no problem killing (or having killed through their economic transaction) a cow, pig, or chicken. I don't understand the disparity or the difference. And yes I'm aware it's cultural, because some places eat animals that other places think of as companions (dogs in C…

[deleted]
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