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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

#271

Post by spuz »

ransom1538 wrote: post #32
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.

"It takes years or even decades to build community trust. It takes about 15 minutes to destroy it." - my old boss

This is not entirely true though. It took Wag's lawyers more than 15 minutes to draft that NDA. Even after submitting it, and the story being posted online, there is still a chance for them to turn around and admit they fucked up. This isn't a totally unresolvable situation for them, they just need to figure out when they are going to finally decide to do the right thing.

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

#272

Post by ejstronge »

avar wrote: post #259
dbg31415 wrote: post #121

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…

Their FAQ at https://wagwalking.com/faq claims: > Do you walk my dog with other people's dogs? >> No! Here at Wag!, your pup is our sole focus on each walk. We believe that each pup has different needs, and the best way to serve those needs is through a one-on-one experience. In the case that you have multiple dogs in your household, we will walk those pups together per your request. So either that's a straight-up li…

It seems that some Wag walkers do walk more than one dog at a time:

http://www.ktvu.com/news/wag-dog-walker-charged-with-animal-...

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

#273

Post by madaxe_again »

throwaway713 wrote: post #245
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #215

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…

There was a comment that is now removed that said: > Spoken like someone who's never lost family. in reply to the parent's comment that said: > You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family." My comment will probably be flagged as well, but fine, I'll sacrifice some karma to show my support. I lost my mother due to cancer when I was eleven and I personally find it offensive when someone tells me they know "w…

Ah, we’re playing grief top trumps, are we?

How about losing a child? Have you done that? Well, I find it offensive that you can say you experienced grief over the loss of your mother. Until you’ve lost a child you can’t say you know grief...

What a daft stance. Grief is grief. What someone feels is entirely subjective.

I think you might want to consider counselling, as you seem to be harbouring some real anger over what was presumably a long time ago. I know it’s not easy to deal with the untimely death of a parent - been there - but lashing out at others and holding your grief above theirs isn’t a healthy mechanism.

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

#274

Post by onetimemanytime »

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.

To be fair, we know one side of the story. We don't know how many apologies they got before, during or after the settlement offer. Nor do we know what was offered as settlement. A settlement that includes non disparagement is not that unusual. We screwed up, or it happened on our watch but if you take the money consider it closed.

Wag has raised $300 Million (wikipedia,) so if they did it save a few thousand, they are dumb.

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

#275

Post by syshum »

russdill wrote: post #136
cgriswald wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The law is not on the pet owner's side here as far as vet bills. Pets are treated as property, so the max amount due is the cost of replacing the dog.

Citation...

My understand of civil liability would be whom ever caused the harm is responsible for the actual damages done, not simply some raw actuarial table, so if I have vet bills, actual hard costs, then whom ever caused those costs would be responsible for them.

I have a hard time believing any jurisdiction would simply toss those costs as unreasonable because the dog is only worth X by some subjective analysis of dog bluebook

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

#276

Post by onetimemanytime »

Sholmesy wrote: post #251
throwaway713 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a comment that is now removed that said: > Spoken like someone who's never lost family. in reply to the parent's comment that said: > You killed someone's dog. This hits like losing family." My comment will probably be flagged as well, but fine, I'll sacrifice some karma to show my support. I lost my mother due to cancer when I was eleven and I personally find it offensive when someone tells me they know "w…

As someone who has lost friends and family members, as well as pets, it feels the same. I see this dichotomy quite a bit in the public discourse, regarding dogs especially, where 1/2 the world treats dogs as family and the other half thinks they are some play toy/object. We have been living with wolves/dogs for a long time now, we're responsible for how they have evolved, and part of that is how they have evolved to…

>>As someone who has lost friends and family members, as well as pets, it feels the same.

No doubt to many it feels the same. Others may feel that their pet is more valuable than the entire world. But let's be realistic, if a driver kills your dog you will not be awarded $x-$xx million. Now if they run over grandma or worse, a child...

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

#277

Post by [deleted] »

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?

[deleted]

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

#278

Post by beaconstudios »

askmike wrote: post #250
nicky0 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But being Amreica, someone has to be to blame. It can't just be an unlucky accident of circumstances.

I don't agree: I'm not from the US and generally think everyone is over reacting with constantly (threatening) to sue everyone else. But here the problem here isn't that the dog died, it's how Wag has handled the problem afterwards, and how their (poor) communication suggests that they didn't really do their due diligence in vetting the walkers. EDIT: a similar thing happened in my country (the Netherlands) where an…

I think the incentives in play force companies to act callous. It seems to me that companies are wary to act with empathy lest they get sued and the court takes it as an admission of guilt (or at least evidence of culpability, or something the jury will pay attention to). It's like that old advice where you should never say "sorry" after a car accident (as a Brit, apologising is a natural impulse even when not at fault) because it can be taken as an admission of fault.

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

#280

Post by Dylan16807 »

3dfan wrote: post #252
Dylan16807 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general you can freely promise to pay someone else's bill and then not do it at all. There's no contract if you're not getting anything in return. It does make you an asshole though.

Citation? The way I learned it is: Any statement of intent, no matter in which form, is creating a contract that you are bound to abide. You sound like you would argue that it obviously was not a contract but a joke because 'why would a company pay something without getting anything in return'. But that would not hold. Companies spend a lot on customer relationship management. So the customer here could safely assume…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consideration

http://theexaminer.com/features/commentary/promise-make-gift...

https://dolanlawfirm.com/2017/01/oral-promise/

A happier customer is not valid consideration for a contract. That would turn every pending gift into a contract and that's not how the law works.

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