NW E
1/5
Hey Everyone, I'm not a person to leave bad reviews. Honestly. I consider myself a pretty laid back person. However, we had quite a bad experience with Betty at Animal Junction Pet Grooming Center. How so? Well my wife had booked an appointment with them to have our standard poodle groomed. My wife told Betty on the phone that our dog had matted hair. She was very clear with Betty on this. My wife and I knew that it would take longer and maybe cost more to have matted hair cut. Betty had us book a grooming on April 8, 2021 and we were to arrive with our standard poodle between 9am and 10am. My wife drove 45 minutes to town and arrived in (not at but in) the store at exactly 9:57am. Betty then proceeded to tell my wife that she couldn't take our poodle and work on him. She said that he was too matted and that she didn't have time to work on him. When my wife persisted, indicating that Betty had known about him being matted, Betty then switched arguments and began telling my wife that she showed up late. My wife then refuted that argument seeing as it was incorrect. Then Betty went back to making my wife feel like she was the one in the wrong and that our poodle was too matted and that my wife should have expressed that on the phone previously. (This is my third-hand understanding of the conversation from what my wife told me.) My wife left the store in frustration and called me to explain. I then called Betty on her business number and told her that I was the husband of the person she just turned away who had an appointment and had clearly indicated that our dog had matted hair. Betty persisted and told me about 5 times that our dog was "matted to the skin." This "matted to the skin" terminology was supposedly what she was implying that my wife should have told her on the phone when making the appointment. I pointed out to Betty that people who are not professional dog groomers do not know such esoteric terminology as "matted to the skin" and that the fact that my wife indicated that our dog had matted hair should have been enough for her to honor the appointment and not send her back on the 45 minute drive home with nothing in hand in terms of service. She persisted in her single defensive argument that he was "matted to the skin." That doesn't negate the grooming company's obligation to honor their appointments. Now I fully expect Betty to defend herself on this review and that is fine however regardless of her counterpoint(s) there are a couple of lessons to take away here:
First, if you are a potential customer of Animal Junction Pet Grooming Center, make sure you understand the difference between "matted" and "matted to the skin" and make sure you indicate the proper condition on the phone when making the appointment.
Second, if you are the owner of a grooming company and you see that there was a miscommunication between you and the customer, be kind. Don't make the customer feel like they are the one in the wrong. Even if they were, be tactful and perhaps apologetic in tone. Try to rearrange your scheduling to accommodate as best as you can. In general, simply adhere to GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE protocol in your interactions with customers. If you are a government agency or a hospital ER department, then perhaps you have more latitude with not treating your "customers" well because they will either go to jail or die if they don't work with you. Outside of that, you should typically not try to sidestep obligations by making the customer feel like they made a mistake and the problem is on their end.
To end this pseudo-tirade, I'd like to say that Betty did call me back after my wife was about half way back home and left a message saying that if we were really really pressed to get our poodle groomed today, that she would make it work but that the cost would be double the price. I can appreciate that regardless of the motive. However, I think the take away lessons above still apply and can be helpful to both customers and Animal Junction Pet Grooming Center.
