I'll Call You.

Sometimes I get those customers into the store where I can just tell that they'll be trouble.
Especially when said customer is a new owner of a pet.

Because they tend to be rather...idk...protective? paranoid? about the health of their pets.

Like I had one customer who once called the store every single day, sometimes more, to check in on their guinea pig that had been returned to our care for treatement, despite our assurances that the customer would be called as soon as the guinea pig was better. 

In this case.
We had a customer buy a skinny pig a few days ago. 

Possibly like last Thursday or so? 

And they brought it back to us yesterday. Concerned that the skinny pig may be sick.
Because apparently he was sneezing and had goopies in one of his eyes and the his stomach was making weird noises...

But like upon investigating closer after returning the skinny pig to our care....me and my managers couldn't see anything wrong with the skinny pig.
The eyes. Clear.
Breathing. Normal. No sneezing whatsoever.
And no idea what they were meaning by weird noises the stomach was making.

I had told the customer that I would call them this afternoon.

As we would need to observe it and that there was a potential that we wouldn't be able to get it into the vet right away due to the pandemic---or you know procedure as policy dictates when we need to take the skinny pig to the vet and so far he wasn't showing any signs of illness.

This morning was the same.
The Skinny Pig looked healthy. And after conversing with my manager, as I had mentioned that these customers seemed to be the type to want to know every single detail of what's happening to their skinny pig and that I had already told them I would call them today with an update, it was decided that I would call them this afternoon and let them know that the skinny pig appeared to be healthy, but that we would be keeping him here for a couple more days for observation. That way we could ensure that he was healthy and that in case he did develop goopies/respitory issues we could get him to the vet.

As it was. We saw no reason to take him to the vet.

However.
Before I could call the customer as I had told them I would.

They came into the store. The small family.

*exhales*
I don't know why they didn't wait for us to call them, like...I did say this afternoon and it was barely after 1pm when I had to deal with them. I literally was about to call them as i was waiting until I'd finished with the bedding change I'd been working on all morning. 

And they apparently went straight over to the vet located in our store to check in on their skinny pig.

Again, I don't know why they didn't wait for us to call...or at least called us first.

Unfortunatly for them. 
Our vet in the store had no idea what they were talking about.

Because our vet doesn't see 'exotics' aka rodents, reptiles, birds, etc. 
They only really see cats and dogs.

But for whatever reason, the people at the vet told the customer that the skinny pig was probably up at a vet clinic in the next valley over. 
Which O_o huh???
That's like a 20-30 minute drive away from us.

Why would we ever take the animals that far away??
*shakes head*

The customer then found our Head Manager, who is new to the store, and wanted answers to which they repsonded that no, the vet we go to is closer...

But head manager told them the wrong city. Saying a place like fifteen to twenty minutes south of us. 
*exhales*

Nooo the vet we take them to is a location about halfway between us and our sister store. 

But the skinny pig hasn't been taken to that location yet. Because he seems healthy.

*exhales*

So I had to explain to the customer that we weren't seeing anything wrong with him,
To which the customer was like THEN WHAT COULD BE WRONG?! IS IT ALLERGIES?!

Lady I don't know. It could have just been stress. It could have been dust in the eye. It could have been nothing. Like who knows. Allergies could be a factor but from what triggers I'd mentioned, they didn't seem to have any of them present.

It took like a good fifteen or so minutes to satisfy the customer.

Because nothing seemed wrong they were wanting to take their skinny pig back today.
But I told them that we wanted to watch it for one more day to make sure. As being returned yesterday only to be sold again today could be stressful for the skiny pig and we wanted to make sure no symptoms would show up.

Honestly if I thought they wouldn't be a nuisance I would have told the customer that they could come get it Thursday.
But I could see them coming in tomorrow anyways to check in on the skinny pig.
So I told them that I would CALL them tomorrow morning between 10-11 and let them know.
If he still appears healthy I would tell them so and they could come get him tomorrow.

Considering the fact that their version of "afternoon" is only the hour after 12pm....

I'll probably call them earlier then 10 because I won't be surprised if they decide to come into the store between 10-11am anyways despite me telling them I would call them.

I'm hoping that the skinny pig still appears healthy.

Because I really don't want to have to deal with/reassure customers who keep coming into the store to check in on their pet when I have other tasks that need to be done and a skeleton crew to run the store. 

Guess we'll see what tomorrow brings. *shakes head*

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi