Ups, Downs and In-betweens

                                        Nancy Drew, Animal Welfare Sleuth

I've written about this before, so it may be getting old to some of you.  But the last two weeks have been rife with people with no conscience, no sense of responsibility and OMG such entitlement issues.

Part of this blog post is just me venting, because I have to spend hours investigating so many sketchy requests and part of this is so that the people who donate to us know that I am as thorough as I can possibly be when spending the charity's money on pet food and supplies.

The month of January was quite busy, as we had a ton of requests from people who were seasonally employed and lost their employment, people who had expenses related to the holidays and needed some help (which required me to give some lectures about pet food comes before presents) and people who have jobs that are affected by weather and lost a lot of hours due to some extreme weather conditions in many parts of the country.  Towards the end of the month however, we started receiving a lot of questionable requests.

I personally handle every request that comes through from our website.  This gives me the ability to recognize some things that don't seem kosher.  Email addresses that look familiar, but don't bring up anything on search, because a number or letter was changed or the email was changed just slightly but still looked familiar to me.  Then I would have to do some digging.  Nancy Drew style.

I use Google maps, Facebook searches, real estate site searches, and a lot of different tools when I think something is suspect.  Most times, people don't expect that.  You can't tell me that you are in a different apartment (therefor a different household) than someone else and ask for pet food without my looking into that.  And I can't tell you how many times I have caught people lying about such things.  When confronted (albeit, politely) they become defensive, combative, insulting and downright nasty.

Last week, I received a request from "Jane" (not using real names here).  Jane had previously sent a request in September that we had granted.  Jane needed cat food, dog food and guinea pig food.  It wasn't a big ask and we granted it the first time without questioning it, since Jane had explained she had lost time from work due to a car accident and just needed a little help.  Jane was fairly specific about the cat food she wanted ("No fish flavors, please.  He won't touch fish flavors"), which we accommodated.  Jane lives in a 4 unit multi-family home.  She is in Unit 1.  

On the same day last week, we received (within 5 minutes of each other) a request from "Jack" and "Jane".  Coincidentally, Jack lived at the same address as Jane, in Unit 3.  Jack was requesting dog food, guinea pig food and cat food ("No fish flavors, please.  He won't eat fish").  I looked at both requests and they were word for word, exactly the same.  I looked at this building on Google street view, and it was quite small.  I did not believe this could be such a coincidence.  I then searched for "Jane" and "Jack" on Facebook.  Lo and behold, there was Jane's facebook profile which proudly stated "In A Relationship With Jack"

So, I sent an email to Jane, asking her if she knew Jack and wondered why they were requesting the same exact things.  I did this quite casually, allowing her enough rope, if you know what I mean.

She answered that she didn't really know Jack, that she had seen him around the building walking a dog, but she didn't know if he had any other pets, since she had never been in his apartment and only knew him by first name only and they weren't really acquainted.  I responded to her email with one word "Really?" and a screenshot of her Facebook profile.  I never heard another word back.  Needless to say, both Jane and Jack or anyone else in that building are permanently banned from receiving assistance from us ever again.  Bad enough when someone gets caught trying to be greedy and double-dip and I know they will never own up and apologize, but some people go on the attack.

Take "Mary" for example.  Mary received food from us two years ago for her three dogs.  Then Mary applied again last year.  On the same day Mary applied, we received an application from "Joe" who had one dog and lived in the same building.  Mary had not included a unit number on her original request, but the second one specified Unit 2.  Joe had specified Unit 3.  Of course, this raised a red flag.  Being that this building was located on a private road out in the country, I was unable to find this building anywhere.  Not on google maps, Zillow, or anywhere else.  So I emailed Joe and told him the situation and said I needed a picture of this building with the units clearly marked, or I could not help him.  He obliged.  It was a VERY small building, but there were 3 doors, each marked with a number.  I sent him a small bag of dog food and sent Mary a larger one.  Last week, we received a request from "Anne" with the same distinctive address (this time, Unit 3) and again another request from Mary on the same day.  Anne also had two dogs.  This was just too much for me to ignore.  To recap, first request from Mary alone, second request from Mary and Joe on the same day and third request from Mary and Anne on the same day.  So I emailed Mary and asked her what was going on and why this was happening.  Mary came out swinging.  She claimed she didn't know Joe or Anne and wasn't responsible for anything they did.  She also claimed it was a large apartment complex and couldn't possibly know who was asking me for what, and plainly said I was rude for even asking.  She also complained that "just because other people asked in my complex that my dogs were going to have to starve for it" and how horrible and cruel I was for making her dogs starve.  She then threatened to "Never use us again" and that she was going to tell everyone she knew to "Never use us", which I don't quite understand as a threat, because ????  She continued to email me into the late evening hours, telling me how much she didn't appreciate my insinuations and asking me if I intended to let her dogs starve.  I calmly explained that her dogs are ultimately her responsibility, that we had sent her assistance twice previously and that we don't do that indefinitely and that because of her very, very rude emails, and the situation being so questionable, that I was definitely not going to send her anything.  Keep in mind, that I am always businesslike and professional in all of my communications with people, no matter how I feel or the abuse they heap upon me.  She then emailed me back (at nearly 11:00 pm) with a profanity-laden email telling me "I don't need you no more anyway, I got the funds now and I'll feed my own dogs" and telling me to F-off and again, telling me she was not going to "Use Us'" or tell anyone else to again.  To which I responded that I didn't understand what she thought we did, and if she thought we somehow benefitted from sending food to people, explaining how our organization works and is funded.  I also told her that she didn't need to worry about "Using us" again because I would not be allowing her to, that she was banned from ever receiving assistance from us again and wishing her good luck in her future endeavors.  This was met by another profanity-laden email telling me to "stop harassing her" or she would have her lawyer send the next email and would be suing me for harassment.  To which I responded by telling her that I was only answering her emails, which she had been sending me for over an hour, late at night and that if she had the funds to hire a lawyer, that that was good news, because it meant that she could indeed afford to feed her own dogs.  I also told her that I did not appreciate being threatened and that we have lawyers of our own who would be happy to respond to any legal action and to please not contact me again, as she would be exposing herself to fraud charges.  And that was the end of that.

Sigh.

We sometimes get people asking for specific order information for orders we have placed for them.  We don't provide order numbers for good reason.  We will provide tracking numbers when available, but never order numbers.  What some people fail to understand is that it is not their order.  It is ours.

A number of times, people have contacted me telling me they called Chewy or Walmart to find out what was going on with their order and why it had not been delivered yet, when I had given them a delivery date and it was halfway through that day and it had not yet arrived.  Of course none of our vendors will give them any order information, nor can they, without an order number.  I tell everyone that any questions regarding the assistance being sent has to go through me.  I respond to emails constantly throughout the day (and evening) because orders are often delayed for a number of reasons.  But when people really push for order numbers, I have to push back.  Questions about the order I placed for you?  Ask me.  I will check on it, run it down, track it, update you.  But no, I will not let you speak to the vendors directly about the order that I placed and we paid for.

Case in point.  "April"

April requested food for her cats.  A large number of cats.  That is not unusual, since cats are rarely singles.  We often get requests from people who have six cats or more.  They're a bit like birds on a wire.  One shows up, then another, then another and before you know it, you have far more cats than you ever anticipated having in your home.  April was a first time requester, and she said that she had been disabled and was just waiting in SSDI to be approved and needed some help.  Again, seemed legit, seemed reasonable.  She passed my pre-check and I placed an order for her from Walmart for a large bag of cat food, delivery in two days.  On this rarest of rare occasions, I was out to lunch with my husband when I received a phone call from a number I didn't recognize.  My phone has a screening feature, which I use for such things.  The transcript from the screen was (as anyone who has ever used Talk To Text can relate to) difficult to understand.  There was something about pet foods and an email, but made no sense.  So I sent a text message to the number and asked who it was and what they wanted.  Keep in mind that this is my personal phone number and is not available anywhere on our website as a contact number and I do not provide it to people except in circumstances where we are coordinating vet care.  April told me I had sent her an email about cat food, told me her name and then proceeded to tell me that she needed an order number, because she "knows" her local Walmart does not deliver and she needed to pick it up.  I assured her that her local Walmart does indeed deliver, but this was a shipping order, and would be shipped to her.  She then said she couldn't wait two days and needed to pick it up today and if I would just give her the order number, Walmart said she could pick it up.

I told her we don't do pickup orders.  And we don't.  Why?  Because there is no accountability regarding shipping addresses, email addresses and that pickup orders can be returned for cash.

When I returned home, I cancelled the order.  April kept texting me.  I asked her where she got my phone number.  She told me it was on the website.  I informed her it was not.  She then told me she googled it.  She had to look through some things to find it, I assure you.  I told her there were several good reasons why she should not be calling or texting me and all charity communications were done by email, and that she could email me.  I also told her I had concerns about this entire exchange and had cancelled the order unless she could provide me with something that had her name and the address she had provided, a bill or a piece of mail of any kind with her name and address.  And April went radio silent.

So that was my week (and I've had a few more today, which I won't bore you with) .  

Sigh