Hi all-
 
I wrote to Family Pet Centers and the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside in
Massachusetts.  That was about 2 weeks ago.  In my letter, I expressed my
concerns about ferrets going without food, unclean cages with flies in
them, and the general lack of knowledge amongst the staff/disinterest in
learning about ferrets.  My letter made my points, but I remained
restrained in my comments.  Today I got a letter from the Holyoke Mall
management.  It reads:
 
______________________________
Dear Ms. Wojtowicz,
 
Thank you for your letter received on July 22, 2002 making us aware of
your unpleasant experience at one of our stores at the Holyoke Mall,
specifically Family Pet Center.
 
Customer Satisfaction is our #1 priority at Holyoke Mall and I apologize
that this has happened to you.  You seem to know a great deal about
ferrets and I understand your concerns.  This store would be fortunate
to have an employee such as you working for them.
 
I spoke with Joanie, the store manager of Family Pet Center and she said
she has a copy of the letter and that her director of operations has also
bene involved.  Joanie said the following changes have been made in
response to your concerns:
 
Changed the bedding to a more suitable material (recycled newspaper)
Changed the food dish to a heavier ceramic bowl
Ferret feedings are four times a day
Placed a rubber mat in their cage
Now will wet down the food for the baby ferrets
 
Listed below is the address of Family Pet Centers' home office:
Corporate Office: DC Retail
                  55 Carter Drive
                  Edison, NJ 08817
 
Thank you again for making us aware of your unpleasant experience and you
caring, and I hope you will continue to patronize the Holyoke Mall.
 
Sincerely,
Lisa Wray
Marketing Director
Holyoke Mall at Ingleside
______________________________________
 
Now, for those of you who caught that line about the "rubber mat placed
in cage", believe me, I was on the phone within two seconds of finishing
the letter.  Rubber mat???  Good lord, that is the last thing I would
have suggested.  I called the store and spoke to the assistant manager.
He told me there was no rubber mat in the cage and assured me he did
know that ferrets should not have any access whatsoever to rubber.  I
half-believe him, so I'll be checking next time I am in.  I did identify
myself as the person who had complained and he seemed aware of the
complaint.  I think the rubber mat was either an assumption on the part
of the marketing manager when she wrote the letter, or a
misunderstanding.
 
This is one reason that I really stress writing letters, well-stated and
well-thought-out letters, to get concerns across.  People rarely take the
time to write letters anymore, and it is too easy for a company to ignore
e-mail communication.  Letters let them know you ain't kdding...you're
upset!!
 
I have had quite good luck taking the time to write letters in response
to situations where I have been aggrieved.  Last year, my family went to
the first night of Harry Potter and stood in line for 2 hours.  A jerk in
front of us raced into the theater with literally an armload of shirts
and sweaters and started draping shirts and coats all over two rows of
seats (the best seats in the house, I might add).  He prevented anyone
from sitting in what ended up to be about 20 saved seats.  Several of us
complained to the manager, who said he couldn't do anything because the
theater had no rule against saving seats.  The jerk's group showed up
about 15 minutes before the show started.  They got better seats than we
who had been in line 2 hours.  I wrote a letter to the movie theater's
home office as well as to the mall management.  About 2 weeks later I got
a letter apologizing and telling me that as a result of my complaint,
they now limited the number of seats a person could "save" to 3 seats,
and they enclosed 10 free movie passes.  We went to the movies for free
for about 2 months, all because some guy was a total butt-brain and I
complained about it.
 
I had a similarly bad experience at a photo studio (in the same mall)
when they took our deposit, took our family portraits, then when we got
back they had loaded the film wrong and only 2 of our poses had come out.
They offered no discount and no apology, in fact the guy just shrugged
and said, "Well, that's Murphy's Law."  The manager wouldn't even come
out and get involved.  When I asked if we'd get a discount, they said,
"Well, how much are you going to buy?" I wrote a letter to the Holyoke
Mall outlining the scenario and got a free portrait package and a $25
gift certificate to any store in the mall.
 
Writing letters gets people's attention.  They have to open it and read
it, then do something with it.  They know that someone who is serious
enough about a complaint to write a letter will probably be following up,
or contacting someone higher on the food chain if they don't follow up.
 
I'm not saying this works as well with larger corporations...believe me
I have sent letters to both Petco and Marshall's outlining my concerns.
I heard nothing back.  But I have written to two smaller pet store chains
located in the area, and had results.  They responded to my letter and
made some earnest efforts to improve conditions.  Whether the
improvements will last, I cannot say, but I will stay on top of any
situation like this that I register a complaint about.
 
In addition to my letter, I enclosed a bunch of back-up material
confirming what I was saying about ferrets needing to eat continuously.
I'd suggest that anytime you write regarding ferrets, back it up with
some documentation so it isn't your word against the pet store's as to
what's appropriate for ferrets.  Non-animal-dealing people tend to think
that pet store employees know a ton about animals just by virtue of
working in a pet store.  That's how people learn wrong information.  When
I was first researching ferrets six years ago, I talked with pet store
employees that had ferrets.  I was assured that ferrets were, "Just like
cats, you can let them out with the cats and they'll roam around the
neighborhood and come back." I thought, "Cool." Only through researching
and talking to more knowledgeable people did I find out what a bad idea
that was!!
 
So, thought I would share...and urge anyone with pet-store problems,
especially on a scale, to WRITE!!  It takes some time to sit down and
put thoughts down in a reasonable and intelligent manner, and to get your
point across without being hostile or negative or coming off as a "ferret
nut".  My family teases me all the time, and anytime I gripe about
something they say, "Uh oh, here comes another letter!" or groan.  But
they were pretty happy to get 10 free movie passes, so...!
 
I'd be happy to help anyone with editing or proofreading any letters they
might want to send.  I'm not an expert, I just write a lot of letters!!
Sorry the post is long, I'm hoping BIG will wave it through.
 
-Heather in Massachusetts
 "Are you writing ANOTHER letter???"
[Posted in FML issue 3861]