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Comment by fanzhang | Hacker News Reader

The Streisand effect strikes again. This is what happens when the legal department has no customer empathy, and to these lawyers, everything is a nail to their hammer of a contract.

Some people mentioned that Wag should have offered more and demanded less -- absolutely!

But think about if Wag even said "sorry this happened, that's all we can say for your terrible loss" even without a compensation offer and without an insulting NDA. It probably wouldn't have pushed the owner to post this and for it to end up on HN -- and now the world knows.

I honestly believe Wag and Rover and other large companies that offer pet walking services should put up a very high liability bond for pet injury -- on the order of $10K or more. That way they have skin in the game to vet their walkers better. Most owners value their dogs above that, and that incentive is the only way to get these corporations to listen.

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Perhaps have the walkers be bonded as well?

Even if it's 1k that's a pretty serious amount of money to lose, but low enough a barrier of entry that you still have people making a go at it.

Obviously it gets returned to you when you close your Wag Walker account.

I don't think you understand how little these gig apps pay. 1k deposit would exclude a very large percentage of the workers. And frankly - who in the hell in their right mind would PAY a company a grand so start working for them? That's sketchy af.

You're right, but maybe that's the point? You're excluding people who are just desperate for money but keeping the people who want to build (or already own) a pet care business.

It’s dog walking, not artisanal mango cultivation. The vast majority of people picking up unskilled labor gigs through apps are just trying to make a buck. It’s almost the entire source of the app’s labor pool. And it’s not an inherently bad trait.

> who in the hell in their right mind would PAY a company a grand so start working for them?

In order: A bond isn't paying them. It would ideally go to a reputable third party. Anyone that works for uber paid a whole lot more for that car, sometimes specifically for the job.

Edit: Would the downvoter care to explain? I'm not even saying it's definitely a good idea, I'm just disagreeing with the particular arguments given.

Not the downvoter, but my thoughts are:

It doesn't really matter whether the bond is going to the company or a third party. The point is you're out of pocket for a large amount of money before starting to work, ostensibly to earn money.

Most people simply aren't in a position to put down that kind of deposit in order to start earning, especially not for a low-paying contract-based "gig" job like this kind of pet-walking.

I'm painting with a broad brush here, but my guess is that people who would take these sort of jobs are probably not sitting on a grand in cash.

What sounds reasonable to you about someone making $10-20 an hour having to pay $1000 just to start working? In order to make any money you have to work 50-100 hours (not including tax and whatnot). 1-3 full weeks working before you are back to where you started - how does that seem like a reasonable business model?

>>I honestly believe Wag and Rover and other large companies that offer pet walking services should put up a very high liability bond for pet injury -- on the order of $10K or more.

I'm not sure how any of this helps with the empathy part. Remember malpractice insurance with doctors?

The real deal is these people will just offload their insurance costs to customers, and then extract whatever damages you are likely to pay from that insurance.

>>Most owners value their dogs above that

Personally I think, that kind of insurance charges are not unfair either. If you value your pets life above $10K, say max $50K, so lets you get to chose whatever you value it. Then a few hundred dollars in insurance is not a lot ask for.

People even take insurance for cars they rent. Because there are always, Just in case scenarios.

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