Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Driving To The Rescue

So... I wanted to share with you the reasoning behind the fact that we rarely deliver.  While yes, I'm sure I've posted about us bringing chins with us to expos, or driving to Chicago for people who don't have vehicles, or whatnot, for the most part -- we do not deliver.

This comes into play, not all the time, but now and then.  Just today, I had an email that asked if we could deliver the chin, or if the people had to come pick up.  Then yesterday, I had another... wanted to share this with you, as it's (to me) a good example.

Hi I was wondering how big Snowy is? and can you drive or transport her to me? Snowy would be really important to me. I did a crazy amount of research on chinchillas. I would really love Snowy as my amazing pet but I live a bit far away. So it is really hard to drive 100 miles to get her but if you can transport her that would be the most amazing thing. Thank you for reading this please Email me back 

So...  sorry, but the answer is no.  The short reason is this -- not saying 100 mile isn't far, but... if the chin needs a vet... is the vet going to come to them?  No.  Perform surgery in their living room?  Also, no.  I acknowledge that a vet may be closer than that... but more often than not, when you run into people who can only adopt if they get the chin delivered, in talking with them, you find out that they either can't afford the extra expense of the travel to get the chin, don't have the time for the extra travel, don't have a car, and so on.  Not to paint everyone with the same brush... but 14 years of doing this, and that is 99% of the reason why they need it delivered... and then I worry about vet care.  If the chin gets sick, should I also drive back and be the chin's personal chauffeur to take it to the vet?  Some people might think so!

Little aside... I had one person, awhile back, who asked about our health guarantee.  I told her, 7 days, replacement only.  She asked, well, what if something happens on day 8?  I told her, I'm flexible, and that would likely be fine.  Well, what about day 10?  I told her, probably not, but it would depend what happened (for example, if chin started declining around day 6, vet care was sought, etc).  Well... what about if she had the chin two months and something happened?  Can't make this up, I tell ya.  I told her, the reason for 7 days, is because it would be pretty difficult to kill a chin within 7 days, assuming you're feeding and watering it.  You take it home and it keels over day 2... short of you stepping on it, if you just woke up and it's dead in its cage... probably nothing you did.  But after about 7 days... if you started, day 1, giving it unhealthy treats... using a non-safe type of bedding... etc etc... it could die after a short period of time, and it wouldn't be our fault.  Two months, definitely not under the guarantee, unfortunately, this is not a dog where we can do genetic testing to guarantee health.  Anyway, the point here is... this lady basically wanted a lifetime guarantee that her chin would never get sick or never have any health issues, and if it did, she wanted us to pay for them, throughout the entire life of the chin.  Hate to tell ya, but that's not quite how it works.  I nicely informed her, I didn't think she'd find what she was looking for, as no one that I know of offers that sort of guarantee for their chins, but hey, if she found it, more power to her!

The thing is... you can't guard against everything.  Even in well-bred, pedigreed chin lines, things happen.  Hence, we have our health guarantee.  But, as mentioned above... we can avoid problems waiting to happen... which I tend to see as people who can only adopt if the chin is hand-delivered to their doorstep (in most cases).

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