I was sitting at dinner a while back and I got an email sent from the contact us form on our unleash.com Web site that jumped out at me. The subject line was “Disrespected” and I wondered what the heck had happened to get such an email.
Below is what was included in the form submission. The only change I made was to remove the person’s name and phone number.
On Saturday the 9th I had a 2 o’clock appointment at unleash in Tarzana But when I got there the manager and the groomer Mac Seems as if they did not want to service my dog my dog Kingston has been coming there since he was a puppy about all of my supplies there for the 1st time on Saturday I felt very disrespected not only did I feel disrespected and And racially profiled.
After I read the email, I had two thoughts. The first thought was a combination of a sign of relief and laughter. Clearly this person was contacting the wrong company. My second thought was how in the world could this person go to our site and think for even a second they were contacting the correct company.
While I’d like to think the person started at the home page of the site, I’m going to assume the only page they saw was the Contact Us page containing the form they submitted.
First I see an address in Arizona. The complaint said there was an appointment in Tarzana (that’s in California). That alone should be a big enough clue they were in the wrong place. If the address wasn’t enough, there is a big map showing two pins neither of which is in California. The right side of the page shows various newsletters we offer and blog post titles.
Nowhere is there anything on the page about pets, appointments, grooming or anything else to suggest that we are the company who disrespected this customer. The domain name unleashed.com is associated with PetCo and that is most likely who this person was trying to reach. As I was writing this post, that domain name failed to load and maybe that was how the person came to us.
I did find an unleashed subpage on the petco.com site. Yes, they offer grooming. I searched for a Tarzana location and it matched me to an Unleashed in Reseda. Most likely they were the location that supposedly disrespected the person. Included was a phone number. I’m also guessing the person had received an email confirmation of their appointment with contact information.
After reading the email, I did send a short message to the person letting them know they had reached the wrong company. No surprise I got no response.
How to Avoid This Mistake
Most of us have been frustrated with the way we were treated by a company at some point. We want to let them know about this. I know the first place I’d look is on the Web if I wasn’t very familiar with the appropriate contact info. When the emotions are running high, pay attention to the content of the Web site. Have you truly found the right company? If you aren’t in the right place, save everyone the headache of writing to the wrong company!
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