Had my first Karen today, feeling discouraged…

svjoyner

New member
I had an appointment booked with this “schnoodle”. I work corporate and the way our system works is it automatically generates a price for each breed and what I didn’t realize is this schnoodle was massive!

Our schnoodle pricing is for tinier fellas, and I completely missed the fact that the groom was $61 for a XL dood. My manager came in and noticed this and adjusted the pricing. The base price went up to $117, and with various matting fees and behavioral fees it went up to $147.

While shaving the matting out of the dog, we attempted to call the owner multiple times to discuss the price change and apologize. We left a voicemail and decided to carry on with the groom, despite the dogs behavior.

This was a rescue, and he had not been groomed once as a one year old pup. He was awful - biting, snapping, thrashing. We were really just focused on getting the matting out so at the very least we can send him home more comfortable than he came in.

The owner calls back and is furious about the price. She demands the groom for $61, to which my manager politely tells her there is no way we can do that for a dog this size. The owner decided to pick up the dog half-done and we do not charge them. Keep in mind, we still would’ve done this dog. The owner just didn’t wanna pay the adequate charge for a dog this size.

A man picks up and is generally just passive aggressive. “Oh, he’s fine at home so I don’t know what you guys are talking about.” Then why bring him here if he’s such an angel at home…

My manager even gave them free brushes to apologize for the miscommunication about pricing. We shaved out all the matting and gave them free brushes…all for the owner to go on Facebook and write a lengthy post about how awful we are.

What sucks the most is I can’t defend myself due to social media policies, naturally. I should probably stop looking at it but it’s bugging me!

The owner claimed we gave the dog an ear infection despite no bath taking place. He was here for maybe 2 hours max. She said the dog is well groomed and taken care of.

Explain the golf ball sized matting on his bum then. What about the tight matting in his paws that a thirty blade was having trouble cutting through? What about the filthy condition this dog was in? He left my table covered in filth and my hands BROWN.

This made me realize what every other groomer rants about - you can try all you want to help a dog, and at the end of the day you will still take the blame for the owners neglect. Sigh.
 
@svjoyner Here’s what you can do about this situation: what did you learn, and what would you do differently in the future? You can’t change anything else, so let this experience help you going forward.
 
@preng Yup yup yup - I definitely agree. Definitely an unfortunate way to learn this lesson but I’m glad I did! For sure gonna be triple checking the pricing on every dog from this point onwards.
 
@svjoyner You can be certain that she will burn every groomer in her catchment area. Maybe incorporate a height/ weight classification on dogs that you can invoke as needed. 'Large' and XLarge' can be disputed, numbers can't. You can have discretion if you have a well-behaved muscular short-hair, you can drop him into the lower category. Photo document everything you find like matting.
 
@noel126 I’ll have to remember this for next time! Definitely a learning lesson on oodles LOL. Taking notes in our system to specify size would definitely prevent this from happening again.
 
@josh0302 Yep! My greyhound was dropped to a lower category when she would go in for a "spa-day". I dremeled her nails, single short coated breed, retired racer so used to being handled, and loved being pampered. I just could not bathe her easily in my dinky, weird layout bathroom. (Tub right by the sink, so practically half of the bathtub blocked by the sink/counter) So 2x a year I'd book her appointment and go meet my parents for lunch.

But the first time I booked her appointment, height put her in a higher one, and I was willing to pay it as well, because I felt I was wasting the groomer's time with such a simple dog. When they corrected her price in her pet profile, I just added the difference to the tip I was planning to give anyway.
 
@rexiesf7 I have a poodle and our groomer does her for a category down too and I just add to the tip.

She gets brushed daily and is very calm.

She gets so many compliments and I give them my groomers info though I’ve started only referring dogs or owners I know are behaved.
 
@svjoyner I work corporate too. Just for next time, on the rare chance that it happens again, don't take the dog from the Pet Parent until you double check pricing with a manager. Just tell them there's a problem in the system that you need manager to fix. The breed probably should have been changed to a giant schnauzer mix in the system.

Corporate charges way to little overall for grooming. I just had this conversation with one of the store leads the other day. He was shocked to hear what doodle grooms at private salons costs. Its no wonder Corporate grooming salons are losing money.
 
@mo Right! $117 for a dog that big was definitely a steal even with the price increase. Of course the price jump is jarring - but look at other local salon prices! And she thinks she’s gonna find somewhere that charges cheaper? Good luck!

I’ll definitely be triple checking pricing from now on. We had a similar issue happen when someone claimed their goldendoodle was a miniature and we had to tell them they are not getting mini dood pricing due to the size.
 

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