When's the last time any of you took a gander at the Marshall pets site? For me it's been a good five or six years, I think. I went to check it out and I'm so, so sad at what I found. Once upon a time their site was extremely superficial (in the late nineties and early 2000's). The information was lame, the appearance of the site was lame, every thing ... was lame. They went through several employee's there. Then Rosemary became the customer service rep. She worked hard and was very polite and understanding for the most part. She really did care about the customers. She was also very quick to make amends when things went wrong; to the point where you only had to call and ask for help when a kits health went awry after purchasing it. I remember one kit I bought got infected glands from a tiny piece they must have left behind in surgery. She immediately arranged for Marshalls pay every dime of the 500 bucks it cost to fix her that same day. NO questions asked, no paper work, etc.. Later she paid for a ferret whom I bought from a pet store that said it was a Marshalls pet (complete with papers) that had no tattoos. From his looks I didn't think he was a Marshalls. I was very honest with her about my theory that another ferret got mixed in with the Marshalls babies at the holding center down south. Yet she said it was okay, that he must have run through the system and missed getting the tats somehow and once again, Marshalls took care of it. No questions. I know some of you must be thinking to yourselves that I received preferential treatment. I assure you that she didn't know me from Adam. Now I know some of you had the opposite experiences. But the point is, that when she was on the ball, this was a huge, HUGE improvement compared to how they dealt with things before where we all were ignored. came upon a new fella who had just left Path Valley (he was very unhappy with some of the practices going on there back then). Somewhere around the same time Mark (Fetter I think it was?) was hired there. He was put in charge of the web site. He turned it around so that it was friendly to the ferret community. I was stunned to find that he put my site about deaf ferrets and me as a health resource along with vets and others that we know so well here on the FML. I mean the risk there ... admitting that their fancies were "defective"? But there we all remained as health resources on that site for years. I really thought things were improving drastically at that point and I just cringed every time someone bad mouthed them. I knew it was insanely counter productive. It takes baby steps to improve in business without one loosing money or grounds as a leader in what they do. I come from a family of business men, physicians and politicians at a lack of a better word. So I know how the almighty dollar works all too well. I learned that as bad as things seemed with Marshalls, they were leagues better than other farms. I realized they need support to truly change. They had made some steps. But we sure didn't (other than inviting them to Symposiums .. .that was very cool, I admit). Well, all the sudden Mark "disappeared". Now I've come to find Rosemary is no longer in her position. And now? Today that web site is right back, exactly where it was ten years ago. Oh it's flashy. Believe me. It's a gorgeous site. A gorgeous Sears catalog styled site advertising all of their fancies vigorously and offering an inaccurate color chart among other things. ALL health, expert, etc, sources and links ... gone, gone, gone. Would this have happened if people like me didn't cower at the ferret Nazi mentality some of us all exhibit at one time or another? Would it have happened if some of us had put our negative, loud mouth efforts into working with them in one way or another. It would have taken years of intense brown nosing to have had half a chance at having any effect on them. But the point is we'll never know if this backwards step in their marketing was because a few people at their business tried to extend a hand to the betterment of ferrets and were left alone and hung out to dry, or if it would have happened anyway. Once a business changes employees and then withdrawls from the real world into their own little bubble, let me tell ya, it takes extraordinary efforts to get them to change. It's like beating your head against the wall. The change had started to come years ago, a door cracked open. And we blew it. I know it sounds like a lecture. I didn't mean it to be when I began writing this post. Initially I was just wanting to say that I was very sad at how the marketing and web site had changed so much. But I I suppose I'm having one of those overly thoughtful days. And you, my ferret family, is on the recieving end for a change. I'm not sorry for that. That is what we are all here for. For support. I just wish we'd offer that support to others outside of our family more. Wolfy ps, Please, please, PLEASSSSSSE, if you must reply to me negatively or negatively and critically about Marshalls. Don't. I of all people have tens of years of knowledge about the pro's and cons about ferret farms. You will be preaching to the choir and achieve nothing but hurting me and hurting our efforts to improve things. There are YEARS of posting about them in that way online. I conceeded that there are awful things about ferret farms. But I am saying that if they must exist for now, we should consider changing what we can not eliminate and then work with them. The in your face approach has not worked and it never will in this country. [Posted in FML 6807]