Let's start with this morning. I get a text from someone asking if Desi (our black texel guinea pig) has had litters before. With the events of the last few days in mind (being the plentiful emails I've gotten from homes that want to breed guinea pigs and want to start with the cheapest two M&F rescues they can get), I didn't even respond. I feel, if people can't read the ad which talks about an adoption form, then they don't need to be adopting. And since responding would simply be telling the person that we don't adopt our rescue animals to breeding homes.... there was no point. Also, usually, if I bother to respond saying that, then I get people starting to say, "oh, wait, wait, I'll just get a female from you, what's the cheapest you've got? And can it still have babies?" And when I reiterate that we don't adopt to breeding homes, they say, "oh, then I guess I won't breed." Uh... sorry, but too late. At that point, I'm fully convinced that whether I adopt them a male or a female, they're going to find the cheapest opposite-sex pig (or other animal) they can elsewhere and breed anyway. I'm not that stupid. So, most times, I will email saying we don't adopt to breeding homes, but I will not even open emails after that.
That is, in contrast to the person who emailed about Desi and asked for pictures, but also said she could use our guinea pig care packet as a refresher since she hasn't had guinea pigs for awhile and that she would be happy to fill out our adoption form. See, she read the ad.
.... but apparently she was the only one.
Going along with that -- I feel like bullshit is coming round full swing. I had someone interested in Sammy, one of our guinea pigs. Well, I had emailed the person cause they had said they wanted to come Friday (tomorrow), but I hadn't heard from them for most of the week, so I texted to ask if they still wanted to come tomorrow. They said their cage hadn't come yet, so they were just waiting for that. Later in the day, she emails saying she noticed I had some new pigs, how were they? So I told her, they were all decently good pigs, though if she was looking for a pig to go along with Sammy, only Squirt or Bashful would work, as Wizard is a dominant male (as is Sammy). So she emails back asking if all pigs with light fur have red eyes. I explained that no -- it's like people with eye color (hair color doesn't determine eye color) -- that dark pigs can have red eyes and light pigs can have red eyes, or vice versa. So then she tells me that her fiance is afraid of pigs with red eyes. Not that he doesn't like red eyes, but that he's afraid. Really? I mean, it's a guinea pig, it's not going to suck your soul out with its red eyes. Now, don't get me wrong. Had she said, "we decided we don't want a pig with red eyes," or "he doesn't like red eyes on pigs," I would be fine with this. But... he's afraid? Give me a break. Excuses excuses. So I told her, my pigs that I have with dark eyes that are available are Bashful and Wizard. So she says, "Oh ok what they look like do you have pics? and how much are they??" I told her, they're on the website on the available chins page, pics are there too. And linked her the website in the email.
I get another email back -- "what about desi? how is she? how old is she?" And this is where my patience starts wearing out. I specifically didn't say Desi was available because I'm waiting to hear back from someone about her. She didn't know that, so no big deal, but the part about how she is, and how old she is. At some point I really get sick of regurgitating the ad information to these people. So I told her, she's your average guinea pig, and she's 1 year old, which her ad clearly states right above where you saw her pictures.
I wasn't mean about it, but I specified that she had the information available to her without me having to regurgitate it for her (I said something along the lines of "all of this is stated right in her ad). I asked (in the same email) if she wanted me to let her know if the other person decided not to get Desi. I got an email back "oh ok my bad." What does that even mean? I mean, I get the "my bad," but it answers nothing else. I would assume if her fiance doesn't like the red eyes, then she no longer wants Sammy (who has red eyes), but what about Desi? She hadn't answered my question. So I had emailed again, asking if she was sure she didn't want Sammy and asking her again about Desi. I suppose she couldn't be bothered to respond to me, because I haven't heard back, and this is someone who emails back like 2 seconds after you send them an email. I took Sammy off the hold, but now I have to relist his ads everywhere. Fun fun.
What aggravates me about the above is that if these people would read the ad right next to the pretty pictures, I wouldn't need to answer ANY of their questions. But they can't read.
Which is further shown by the next thing that happened today. I got an email in my inbox at 8:10. Apparently I didn't get to responding to it fast enough, because that person called at 8:13 to ask if I'd had a chance to look at their email. Uh... no. So, the guy on the phone first asks if I'm the rattery (rat breeding operation) in Munster. I told him, no, we are a chinchilla rescue, we have rats up for adoption though. Ok, but let's back up a step. There are several things wrong with his question. (1) The email came from PetFinder -- which only gives access to rescues -- not breeders -- to advertise their pets on. So there's no way I could have been a rattery for him to see the ad there. (2) In order to get our contact info off PetFinder, well, here's what it looks like:
Baby Rats -- 12 weeks old -- 3 females - very sweet's Contact Info
NWI Chinchilla Rescue, Munster, IN- 219-789-0026
- Email NWI Chinchilla Rescue
- See more pets from NWI Chinchilla Rescue
- For more information, visit NWI Chinchilla Rescue's Web site.
So, anyway, her first question is where did I get the rats, did I breed them, or what? Let me enlighten you with the 2nd paragraph of the ad: We did not breed these rats – these are all young rats that people have dropped off at the rescue. So, I repeated that back to them, and the girl is having a convo with mom and dad while I'm sitting on the other end of the phone.
So, at some point, she says something to her parents about coming to pick out one rat. So, I tell her, we only adopt out in pairs. She says something to the tune of, "I didn't see that anywhere," but let me enlighten you again, further in the ad:
We only adopt our rats in pairs or groups, unless you are looking for a cagemate for a rat you currently own.
The adoption fees is as follows:
--one rat: $10
--every additional rat: $5
(so, a pair would be $15, three rats would be $20)It's not on there, right? My bad, oh, it is. So she tells me, "oh, well that's not going to work then, I can only have one." So I tell her, just for her information, that the reason we do that is because rats can get depressed, stop eating, and die if kept alone. (sidebar: I have no idea how often that happens, but the rat rescues I deal with tell me this is a good reason to adopt out pairs -- not to mention, the whole thing about rats living alone can develop territoriality and cage aggressiveness -- we rarely have single rats so we don't run the risk of that very often, so it's not something I personally experience). She was like "ok" and that was it.
Really? Had she read the ad, they would have known that we are not a rattery, and that we did not breed the rats, and we do not sell single rats. They could have avoided the email and the phone call, had they just read the ad.
Common sense seems gone as well. I had someone who I thought was supposed to be coming today. On Tuesday, their text had asked "how about Thursday at 3?" So, today, I made sure I was home at 3, cutting short what would have been a longer out-of-the-house trip cause I wanted to not be late. So, 3:45 comes and she's not here. I text and ask if she's still coming, and she tells me, she meant next Thursday. I looked back through the previous texts, and clear as day, "how about Thursday at 3?" (this was Tuesday when they were texting). No "next," no nothing to make me think she meant next Thursday. So ok, I tell her that's fine, and I move her to next Thursday at 3 in my planner. Few hours later she texts again and says, how bout Tuesday at 3:30? Well, I have a doctor's appointment then and I refuse to schedule people within hours of those because it's amazing how I never end up home when I think. So I told her that won't work, and now she's scheduled for Monday. Now... this is just a case of miscommunication ... only... though this was not my lack of understanding (rather, her lack of explaining that she meant the following Thursday), yet it made me waste an hour waiting around for someone. Now, she probably thought somehow I read her mind and knew she meant next Thursday. But, as I can't read minds... this caused a lot of wasted time.
All I'm asking for is to be treated like how people would treat others. If you were setting up a date with your friends, I'd like to think you'd make sure they knew which week you were talking about. If you were applying for a job, I'd like to think you'd read the ad to see if you quality before applying (but... after today, I seriously doubt this). But if you would, can you do the same for me? Read the ad before you email? It can save you time (you can move onto another ad if the animals I have aren't what you're looking for), and it can save me time, as I don't spend time emailing you that could be spent emailing someone who is actually going to take an animal home. That's all.
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