No Call No Shows, and Deposits

So, if you've talked to me lately, you know my patience / tolerance has gone down to an all-time low.  We've had more tire kickers, missed appointments, "family emergencies" *rolls eyes* and whatnot, and not only is it frustrating to me... it's unfair to the animals.

I think I posted about the one rat, where he had a deposit put on him, and then the person missed the 14 day cutoff for pickup, then asked for an extension to the weekend, then missed their weekend appointment.  They didn't respond to my question if they were still coming, so I sent another message, basically saying they had so many days to pick him up, and whatnot.  They then replied, saying they had been evicted, lost their place, had a cat and worried about his safety, yadda yadda.  That may all be true, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they're lying.  But think about the rat.  How many people, in the meantime, could have potentially adopted him... if they'd just told me all of this, earlier on?  And yes, in case you're wondering, there WERE people who asked about him in that time, that I told, oh he's on hold.  Well... he's still here.

Fast forward to today... took him off hold when this happened, and had someone else come and want to adopt him.  We set the appointment for today for pickup.  They called yesterday to ask, could they come a half hour later than their scheduled time.  I told them, that was fine, though I had someone a half hour after that, so it would need to be a quick appointment.  No problem.  I suppose you know from my writing this, they didn't show.

So I texted them... they had a family emergency.  Because of course they did.  Now... I realize, family emergencies do happen.  But apparently, they happen at some exponentially high rate to people who are adopting animals, as almost every missed appointment is due to a family emergency.  What's the chance?  Not very good.  Someone, out of those people, is not being completely honest.

So I replied saying I was sorry to hear, and asked when they wanted to reschedule.  I still have not heard back. 

I feel like I talked about this at an earlier point in time, this year, and maybe I intended to put it up... but never did....  We are now going to implement the policy that if you have a deposit on an animal, and then no-call no-show your appointment, you forfeit the deposit.  In case you think this is overly harsh, let me tell you, this would only have affected like 3-5 people in the course of the last 16 years... so no, it's not going to completely change how we do things and affect a ton of animals... but hopefully it will entice people to send a message when something happens.  Do things come up?  Sure!  But does it only take 30 seconds to send a text?  Also sure!  And it's really that simple.  Don't want to lose your deposit?  Call when you can't come.  That's all... it's really that simple.