One thing I neglected to share in my monologue about Petco...
 
There is an interesting development in regards to Petco's message boards,
which they have up on their site and maintain for people to share
information and chat about pets.  Now, I have never posted to Petco's
message boards.  What I HAVE done is send them an e-mail last week when
we were trying to figure out what to do in the case of the 10-kits in
Keene, NH (I am still saying thankful prayers that Alicia got involved
and the kits are doing well).  My e-mail asked them to please not use
Animals, Etc and to please not ship kits back to the distributor when
they are ill, and to please not refuse the assistance of a shelter mom
who is quite literally nationally known for her expertise in caring for
ferrets.
 
As per usual with Petco, I received no acknowledgement that I'd
communicated with them, and no answer to my e-mail.  BUT I was looking at
their message board and noticed a message from someone with a question
about ferret food.  I tried to log on to leave a message for that person.
 
Imagine my surprise when the message board rejected my every attempt to
log in!  I kept filling in my name and choosing a "nickname".  At first I
thought it was just a coincidence that no matter what "nickname" I chose,
it said that the nickname was already taken.  But when I started trying
weird combinations of my name, like "hlwojtowicz123987abc" and it STILL
said the nickname was taken, I got a little suspicious.  I tried logging
in under a different name, but it still blocked me (this is my work
computer, BTW, which I'd used to send them the e-mail begging them to
save the 10 Keene kits).
 
So I get home and try logging in under my maiden name from home, from a
computer I have never used to send any e-mails to Petco.
 
Bingo!!  I was in like Flynn!!
 
So, for anyone wondering about Petco policies, it would appear that
although no one could take the time to answer my e-mail and address my
concerns about those 10 little ferret kits, they DID take the time to
have their IT department block my IP address to keep me from addressing
any of the ferret questions on their message board.  So I guess they're
paying attention...on some level...to our communications!
 
Just thought I'd share that...it appears that e-mails to Petco only
result in the e-mailers getting "frozen" out of their website.
Sigh...and here I thought they weren't paying any attention to me!!  :-)
 
Oh, but they DID manage to subscribe me to their e-newsletter even though
they wouldn't let me log in to the message board!  For half a day I got
annoying little Petco e-mails until I figured out what they'd done and
unsubscribed.
 
Sneaky little devils, no?  Makes you wonder what's going on there...
 
-Heather in Mass
[Posted in FML issue 3852]