Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by yegle | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

yegle

This happened recently:

Wag! dog walker charged with animal cruelty; customers concerned about industry background checks

http://www.ktvu.com/news/wag-dog-walker-charged-with-animal-...

EDIT: and the settlement letter sent from Wag: https://www.scribd.com/document/397139013/SNews-Copie1901081...

View on HN

Wow. The walker kicks and whips the dog until it vomits blood and Wag offers a refund and a $100 credit as settlement.

Who in the world wants Wag credits after an experience like that. If Wag wants to buy these folks’ silence, shouldn’t they at least make a non-insulting offer?

This is terrifying behavior both on part of the walker and Wag. I don't blame Wag for having occasionally sketchy immoral actors that don't care about animals--that's essentially impossible to entirely prevent, especially as they continue scaling. However, their responses to these issues are extremely concerning and do not indicate a company that's managed well.

If that was my pet, I might settle for the opportunity to kick and whip each and every cofounder until they vomit blood.

It seems that by accepting the token compensation reflexively (before thinking about other alternatives you might have), the case can be argued to be settled and the company will have an advantage over you in case you change you mind after learning about the options you might have had for a better settlement.

And credits are cheap and can be provided almost instantaneously. Sometimes they also expire (you have to use them in 14 days or whatever, or you lose them), so it can be a free settlement for companies in the "best" case.

Think about the minimal cost of a case going to trial. Maybe $2,000 to pay outside counsel for one appearance to request dismissal? The costs balloon exponentially from there. I don't understand why Wag wouldn't offer at least $500 or $1,000 to avoid that.

All that, and the following undated blog post that does not refer to any of these serious problems:

https://wagwalking.com/daily/how-wag-strives-to-earn-your-tr...

It gives the impression that Wag is just telling the rubes what they want to hear and hoping they can sweep any problems under the rug.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com