Dangerously incompetent.
I was leaving a condo building on Causeway Street and saw three dogs tied to a handrail by the entrance at the street. Two small brown dogs and a small, black pug-like dog. They were tied by their leashes to a handrail. Nobody in sight.
They were a foot from the double-doors to the street. Anyone could have grabbed them when the doors opened. It would not have taken much for those three dogs to become bait at a dog fight.
I waited to keep an eye on them. One of the dogs was barking incessantly. The building manager came from her back office, where she heard the barking, through the elevator lobby and into the foyer to the street where I was sitting on a chair watching the three dogs.
Five minutes passed and a chipper young woman emerged from the elevator lobby with a fourth dog, Henry, a neighbor's french bull dog. She looked surprised when she saw the building manager and me.
I asked her if those were her dogs. She said that she worked for DogParty and had left the three dogs unattended while she went up in the elevator to get Henry, the french bull dog.
I told her I was concerned about the safety of the three dogs. The dog party woman stood smiling and blathering all sorts of platitudes and nonsense. Not once did she suggest that she would do anything differently. That's scary.
I would not trust my dog with these people, they are dangerously incompetent.
*note: here is my reply to Erin's comment here and a private message she sent to me asking me to remove the description of events, above.
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Erin --
I appreciate your predicament, but am not at all happy with your defensive attitude and aggressive list of excuses and distractions. You make bold claims, such as, "I take this matter very seriously. The dogs safety and well-being is our top priority." Yet, the incident described occurred, and, to be honest, you cannot prevent it from happening again. I have used services similar to yours in the past and I have heard all sorts of promises and hyperbole regarding the level of service to be expected. I have also experienced the myriad of problems encountered when something as simple as a lack of common sense is the root cause.
You mention that I am not a customer, so what? The event described still happened and still shows the risk the dogs were exposed to, regardless of your best intentions. Your intentions and your predicament are not correlating to the execution you manage in your business. Focus on that, not altering the truth.
You write that you have taken steps to correct the problem, that's encouraging. Work on it. You do not mention firing the employee in question. Has she been fired? If not, why? What genuine 'corrective action' has been taken? I ask not for my sake, as I clearly would never trust my dog to your care, but for the sake of potential new customers who are considering your service. Will they be expected to trust their dog(s) to an employee with little or no common sense and a lack of responsibility?
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HERE IS THE TYPE OF COMMUNICATION THAT FRIENDS OF DOG PARTY THINK HELPS. THIS IS THE COMPLETE TEXT OF A MESSAGE SENT BY MATT P. OF BOSTON ON 14-JUL-2011. MATT P. HAS WRITTEN A POSITIVE REVIEW OF DOG PARTY ON YELP.COM AND HE SENT ME THIS PRIVATE MESSAGE AS A COMPLIMENT, PRESUMABLY IN RESPONSE TO MY COMMENT ON DOG PARTY. (SOMEBODY AT YELP.COM SHOULD CHECK ON MR. MATT P. -- HE SEEMS A BIT OFF.)
"You need to shut your mouth buddy.. You keep on making up stories and posting lies and you'll going to have to answer for it. Hope to see you soon."
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IT TURNS OUT THAT MATT P. OF BOSTON WROTE A POSITIVE REVIEW OF DOG PARTY AND TRIES TO MALIGN ME AS AN AGENT OF ANOTHER DOG SERVICE (A LIE) THEN MISREPRESENTS THE FACTS. HERE IS WHAT HE WROTE IN HIS REVIEW. BEAR IN MIND, THE FOLLOWING QUOTE IS A FICTION WRITTEN BY MATT P. AND NOT MY OPINION.
"First of all, I know the area in the lobby where the dogs are tied and it's 100% safe and secure with a video monitor and security woman watching while the dog walker walks the 2 minutes down the hall to pick up the other dogs."
MATT P. MAY KNOW THE AREA IN THE STRADA LOBBY, HE CLAIMS TO LIVE THERE AND THREATENS ME WITH A CONFRONTATION IN HIS REVIEW, THEN HAS THE NERVE TO REFER TO ME AS A LOWLIFE. SHEESH! THE FACT IS THE AREA WHERE THE DOGS WERE TIED, RIGHT AT THE ENTRANCE DOORS, IS NOT SAFE. THE DOORS ARE LOCKED, BUT OPENED BY ANYONE AND EVERYONE FOR WHOMEVER SHOWS UP AND WANTS TO ENTER. THERE IS NO GOOD CONTROL OVER ENTRY. ALSO, THE TWO MINUTE WALK DOWN THE HALL TO PICK UP DOGS IS AN ABSOLUTE FICTION. THE FIRST SIX FLOORS OF THE BUILDING ARE OFFICE AND HAVE NOT DOGS. ANY DOG WALKER PICKING UP A DOG WOULD NEED TO ENTER A SECOND LOBBY, WAIT FOR AN ELEVATOR, GO TO AN APARTMENT ON 7 OR HIGHER, THAN RETURN. NOT TWO MINUTES BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION.
I HAVE TO WONDER ABOUT MATT P.'s REVIEW AND OTHER POSITIVE REVIEWS OF DOG PARTY, GIVEN THE REAL FACTS. read more
