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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

#231

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.

The thing Wag screwed up was its total lack of empathy in trying to buy silence. > a couple thousand maximum Maximum? Many pups cost more than this and you'd be paying to replace at least. You might also be paying for any amount of vet bills if the animal isn't killed on the spot. If you hit a service or working dog, be ready to shell out tens of thousands for replacement due to the unique tasks performed (not all do…

>Maximum? Many pups cost more than this and you'd be paying to replace at least. You might also be paying for any amount of vet bills if the animal isn't killed on the spot. If you hit a service or working dog, be ready to shell out tens of thousands for replacement due to the unique tasks performed

Still a limited and insignificant amount as far as compensations go (which could reach tens of millions in other cases), which is the parent's point.

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

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Absolute idiots Agreed. You do three things in a crisis: 1) Acknowledge the problem. You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family. "We're opening an investigation" is a chickenshit message. 2) CEO needs to speak. Personal call from the top. If a dog is seriously injured or killed while on your watch, the CEO must make the call. This shows seriousness to the customer. It also ensures top brass feels the pa…

> You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family. Spoken like someone who's never lost family.

> Spoken like someone who's never lost family.

Some family members are worth less to some people than their pets. But I agree with you anyway, it was a pointless comparison. Lets just agree on that it sucks to lose someone, human or other animal.

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

#233

You should never be a dog owner. If you can't be there for them, you do not have them. I feel sorry for the dog, not you!

Nobody can provide 24/7 care, so I hope your judgement is that nobody should be a dog owner. Otherwise you're just being a judgmental jerk.

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

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Absolute idiots Agreed. You do three things in a crisis: 1) Acknowledge the problem. You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family. "We're opening an investigation" is a chickenshit message. 2) CEO needs to speak. Personal call from the top. If a dog is seriously injured or killed while on your watch, the CEO must make the call. This shows seriousness to the customer. It also ensures top brass feels the pa…

> You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family. Spoken like someone who's never lost family.

Is losing the dog you had since you were eight better or worse than losing a distant father?

Different people have different experiences. Gatekeeping grief is so massively weird to me. Guidance for the future: instead of one-upping the griever with an IG post about how you are sadder, just show empathy and move on.

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

#235
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Dogs are never culpable because they lack agency, but considering them to be at fault in an accident for the purposes of determining recourse isn't too far-fetched. Yes, it is, because "at fault" means "could have chosen to do something else that would have prevented the accident". Since, as you admit, dogs lack agency, they are incapable of choosing to do something else. The human that is guiding them needs to, we…

> Since, as you admit, dogs lack agency, they are incapable of choosing to do something else To drive this point home, a pigeon dive bombing your windshield in the middle of an intersection could be correctly caused the cause of an accident. The pigeon is a free bird. It has no custodian. Pets, on the other hand, are always in someone's custody. Custody relationships are complex, but ultimately come down to "you're r…

If a pet owner is walking a dog on a leash but isn't watching the dog's every step because she's also holding her child's hand, and someone runs a red light and hits and injures the dog, causing thousands in medical bills, that's a very different insurance situation from a pigeon.

The pigeon is a nonentity in the accident. It's as much at fault, or not, as a tree. And it doesn't need medical or cremation bills paid. Cleanup is handled about the same way as debris from a car.

In a situation where the dog or owner isn't negligent but the driver is, it's useful to talk about whether the dog was on the leash, in the crosswalk, has right of way, is walking with the walk signal on, and is visible. You might prefer to leave the dog out of it and talk about the owner, but I could see myself wanting to get straight to the point and talk about the dog. I imagine lawyers also might be inclined to cut to the chase and talk about whether the dog was following the rules of the road.

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

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Absolute idiots Agreed. You do three things in a crisis: 1) Acknowledge the problem. You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family. "We're opening an investigation" is a chickenshit message. 2) CEO needs to speak. Personal call from the top. If a dog is seriously injured or killed while on your watch, the CEO must make the call. This shows seriousness to the customer. It also ensures top brass feels the pa…

> You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family. Spoken like someone who's never lost family.

This may vary based on how functional your family is, or especially was growing up. I can relate to the dog = family thing.

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

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I know about Wag, it's sort of like Uber pool. You don't get your dog walked alone, a dog walker has the option to walk as many dogs as they can to maximise their profit. Add to this a matching algorithm that doesn't pair a consistent walker with your dog every day, and you get a situation where a new walker is pushed into taking more more responsibility than they probably should. This inherently puts dogs…

I agree with this, it's an obvious train wreck. Dog walkers have to be known and trusted. Our neighbors suspected something was wrong with their dog walker because their dog was suddenly really antsy when they got home and always acted up. They put in a hidden nanny cam and turned out the dog walker was coming over, hanging out on their couch texting and watching TV and never actually took the dog out. Poor thing. Th…

As the old saying goes, there are some things that money can't buy. Trust is one of them.

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

#239

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.

Agree. This is extremely cut and dry – something like this is a very rare occurrence, so you can afford to go absolutely above and beyond for your affected customer. For example, AirBnB changed their policy when a house was wrecked and now offers $50k guarantee they will make it right if something horrendous happens: https://techcrunch.com/2011/08/01/airbnb-offers-unconditiona... It’s also the right thing to do.

If I remember correctly, AirBnB initially gave a similarly tepid response. Then they saw the storm of negative PR and quickly turned around.

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

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Absolute idiots Agreed. You do three things in a crisis: 1) Acknowledge the problem. You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family. "We're opening an investigation" is a chickenshit message. 2) CEO needs to speak. Personal call from the top. If a dog is seriously injured or killed while on your watch, the CEO must make the call. This shows seriousness to the customer. It also ensures top brass feels the pa…

> You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family. Spoken like someone who's never lost family.

The only time I ever saw my father crying was after our dog died.

Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwGnCIdHQH0

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