Delivery Men

I'd like to take this time to encourage all owners of pets being dropped off for grooming to give the person actually in charge of the drop off itself a bit of information.

I know, I make fun of the notes I get sometimes.  But seriously, don't leave your delivery guy out of the loop.  In my experience at least 96 % of the clueless "just dropping off" clients are men... it's just a fact, that's why we are calling them deliver "men" in this case.   2% are teenagers who just got their drivers license and are willing to drive ANYWHERE, even if it's just to take the dog to the groomers.  That leaves 2% of friends and neighbors and the occasional wife who know absolutely nothing about the dog.

It's classic.  I ask the following simple questions, which generally get these responses.

How would you like her haircut done today?
1.   Blank stare and mild look of panic.
2.   Um... You guys are supposed to know that.
3.  I'm just the delivery guy.  (yes, many of them actually say that actually say that.)

What time will your wife/girlfriend/Mom be back to pick her up?
1.  See #1 above.
2.  Some time this afternoon. (great.. so could be 12:01pm or 6 pm or anywhere in between, really helpful)
3.  Didn't she tell you when she made the appointment????  (If she did, I probably would'n't be asking)

Sometimes, I think women do this just to mess with the guys.  Like when they send their wives to the hardware store for a box of nails.  They are always met with "what type?, how many?, what are you using them for??"  That's always fun.

So, I'm left to try and figure out what the wife "would've wanted" had she been here to tell me.  Sometimes, they are afraid to even guess what their wife  wants... so out comes the cell phone which after dialing, they hand off to me.  The wife either has specific instructions.. or she says "I TOLD HIM WHAT I WANTED"... yeah... I think he forgot.      Most of the delivery guys are in a huge rush to get the heck out of there, so you are going to have right around 45 seconds to ask the correct questions.  Most of them are just pushing the leash at you, and backing away. 

Sometimes, these delivery guys try to fake it.  They recover quickly from the blank stare stage and  go on to tell us some crazy grooming instructions that we are pretty sure the wife would never agree with.  "Just shave him."  Sure... then when the wife comes home you can play dumb and say "I'm not sure why they would've shaved him".  Yes, it's happened.  So, we track down a work number and call to "double check" what instructions we were given. 

We also have another variation, where husband and wife have completely different ideas of how the dog should look.  Then they will tell us, "well, it's me dropping the dog off, so I'm going to pick the haircut today".  In most of those cases... I have to agree, but it does make me a bit nervous.  One guy had me shave the ears off the family poodle, while the wife was away on vacation.  I wonder what that homecoming was like.  Thankfully, I never heard, but the husband never dropped the dog off again.  Sometimes they do come in together and argue over who will get to choose.  I've actually had to walk away for a bit to give them time to decide, and then I'll get involved. 

So, what I'm saying is, instructional notes are OK!  I cannot guarantee they won't help fill the pages of this blog, but they are helpful.  At least send a phone # where you can be reached.. unless you really don't care how your dog looks when I'm done with her.