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Wag, the ‘Uber for Dog-Walking,’ Is Drawing Uber-Like Scrutiny

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Re: Wag, the ‘Uber for Dog-Walking,’ Is Drawing Uber-Like Scrutiny

#31

Post by stronglikedan »

ghaff wrote: post #16
pryelluw wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same with cleaners, car wash, landscaping, etc. These are all services that people put more scrutiny into.

Landscaping, maybe. Cleaners and car washing are pretty commodity though. I agree with the broader point that there are a lot of tasks you don't want done by a random person who signed up with an app but those aren't the best examples.

I hired a cleaning service through Groupon once. I opened the door to four people walking right by me without saying a word (they didn't speak English), and one "front person" who barely spoke. I had never had a cleaning service come in before, so I had some questions. I was also expecting one person that I could follow around the house to make sure they didn't take anything, but all I could do now was have faith in my fellow humans (in an industry notorious for theft). That was very off-putting, and I can't see how anyone would hire someone to clean their house whom they didn't completely trust. I know people do, but I will never again.

EDIT: Just saw your response to the other comment where you thought it was dry-cleaning. It may well have been, but I'll leave my story here anyway, since it's sort of in context.

Re: Wag, the ‘Uber for Dog-Walking,’ Is Drawing Uber-Like Scrutiny

#32

Post by nicholasjarnold »

jedberg wrote: post #2

Here's why I'd never invest in the Uber for dog walkers: Once someone finds a walker they like, they'll just do a deal with them. Dog walking isn't like needing a ride. Usually when you need a ride, you need it now, and you don't care who provides it. With dog walking, it's usually at a scheduled time each day, and you care a lot about who is providing the service. Dog walking is not a good candidate for the Uber mod…

Anecdote in support of your claim: A friend of mine who now lives in SF was recently visiting and this 'uber for dog walking/sitting' business came up. He said that it's very common for people (himself and his friends with dogs who live in the city) to do exactly what you state: Find someone who doesn't suck using the service and make a deal on the side with them for cheaper than what they would pay through the service.

Re: Wag, the ‘Uber for Dog-Walking,’ Is Drawing Uber-Like Scrutiny

#33

Post by checkdigit15 »

minimaxir wrote: post #7
jedberg wrote: post #2

Here's why I'd never invest in the Uber for dog walkers: Once someone finds a walker they like, they'll just do a deal with them. Dog walking isn't like needing a ride. Usually when you need a ride, you need it now, and you don't care who provides it. With dog walking, it's usually at a scheduled time each day, and you care a lot about who is providing the service. Dog walking is not a good candidate for the Uber mod…

Sounds like the same reason Homejoy failed: https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/31/why-homejoy-failed-and-the...

Indeed, dog walkers are even listed in that article (from over two years ago) as being prone to "platform leakage". From the fourth-to-last paragraph:

"As soon as you find that cleaner, that dog walker, that landscaper who’s right for you, you want them in your pocket, at your disposal at all times, without needing to go through a searching-platform process again."

Re: Wag, the ‘Uber for Dog-Walking,’ Is Drawing Uber-Like Scrutiny

#34

Post by [deleted] »

jedberg wrote: post #2

Here's why I'd never invest in the Uber for dog walkers: Once someone finds a walker they like, they'll just do a deal with them. Dog walking isn't like needing a ride. Usually when you need a ride, you need it now, and you don't care who provides it. With dog walking, it's usually at a scheduled time each day, and you care a lot about who is providing the service. Dog walking is not a good candidate for the Uber mod…

[deleted]

Re: Wag, the ‘Uber for Dog-Walking,’ Is Drawing Uber-Like Scrutiny

#35

Post by alistairSH »

schwap wrote: post #25
ghaff wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Landscaping, maybe. Cleaners and car washing are pretty commodity though. I agree with the broader point that there are a lot of tasks you don't want done by a random person who signed up with an app but those aren't the best examples.

> Cleaners and car washing are pretty commodity though. You'd just let a random person who signed up with an app into your house to clean?

Through an established maid service? Yes. Though, like the sibling post, they did an awful job and I eventually found a private person to do the housekeeping. I have no idea how those housekeeping services stay in business - I tried several and they were all terrible. Nothing illegal or sketchy, just not good at cleaning.

Re: Wag, the ‘Uber for Dog-Walking,’ Is Drawing Uber-Like Scrutiny

#36

Post by ryen »

jedberg wrote: post #2

Here's why I'd never invest in the Uber for dog walkers: Once someone finds a walker they like, they'll just do a deal with them. Dog walking isn't like needing a ride. Usually when you need a ride, you need it now, and you don't care who provides it. With dog walking, it's usually at a scheduled time each day, and you care a lot about who is providing the service. Dog walking is not a good candidate for the Uber mod…

I'd also liken it to child sitting. Once we went through several trial runs with urbansitter folks we found a few we can fully trust and just use text and venmo to handle our on-going sitting needs.

Re: Wag, the ‘Uber for Dog-Walking,’ Is Drawing Uber-Like Scrutiny

#38

Post by thrden »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #8
jedberg wrote: post #2

Here's why I'd never invest in the Uber for dog walkers: Once someone finds a walker they like, they'll just do a deal with them. Dog walking isn't like needing a ride. Usually when you need a ride, you need it now, and you don't care who provides it. With dog walking, it's usually at a scheduled time each day, and you care a lot about who is providing the service. Dog walking is not a good candidate for the Uber mod…

Also regulation will not work. In Vienna for instance certain dog breeds need a “license” which is for the human/dog pair. So you can’t get any random walker, the walker needs to do a license with the dog once.

That is absolutely insane, I don't understand why the government would have the moral authority to do such a thing. Vienna seems like an extremely overbearing nanny state.

Re: Wag, the ‘Uber for Dog-Walking,’ Is Drawing Uber-Like Scrutiny

#39

Post by cpwright »

jaclaz wrote: post #12

Random idea, but here (Italy) it is common enough for hunters to have dogs fitted with a GPS locator when they go in the woods hunting, those are often costly, but there are simpler/cheaper versions intended for use where there is good coverage of cellular networks. I wonder why - since this service is so innovating/high tech - they don't simply provide their pet walkers with a number of such devices, I believe they…

We tried the Whistle 3 for our do. It only wants to update every 10 minutes unless you're in "track mode" at which point is every 60 seconds. A dog can cover a lot of ground in that time; so it's OK if the dog just wandered out of your yard; but not useful if he's taken off after a deer (particularly because our local park has marginal cell service).

The ones hunters use are only about a 2.5 second delay.

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