Updated 09 July 2013
We could still remember the very first time we brought our late rabbit, Chocolate for grooming at Mas Mas, they were really passionate about their work. The way they handled and groomed Chocolate told us that we had always been visiting the wrong groomer in the past, if you didn't know, Chocolate's previous groomer hurt her a few times, traumatized and even scolded us for things we didn't understand. Mas Mas stayed in our head for years, and when we got Amber, the first groomer we thought of was Mas Mas. They did really well initially, if you had known us or even asked us for recommendations on a good groomer, we would not hesitate to recommend Mas Mas Groomers!
It has been 5 years since Chocolate's first grooming with them, even Amber has already been their customer for more than 1 year already! The thing is Mas Mas today seemed kind of different, the feeling we get when entering the shop is different, the welcome service, the appointment arrangement, and also the way Amber is handled have all changed. If you are wondering about the details, the latest review update below will explain everything.
Recently, we have seen some very disappointing stuff, this could possibly change our view towards this shop forever. As we have been regular customers of Mas Mas, we knew who the main shareholder is, we knew who were the main stylist and also who is in charged of shaving, transportation etc. Recently while browsing a Singapore based pet forum, we saw a new review on Mas Mas, this person gave it a score of 10/10. We thought wow, someone recently gave Mas Mas a full score of 10, they must've been really happy with the service! We read through, it seemed a bit advertised and stale, we clicked on the user that gave the review, this user had not participated in any topics, only joined for the sake of give his/her review:
"king been to masmasgroomers since he was a puppy for almost 6years. groomers are always very professional and friendly. I feel safe when king is in their care, open concept grooming which i can view at ease. all dogs seems to love them. thumbs up!"
While it is not impossible for a person to register and join a forum just for the sake of giving their personal review, we do take note with these kind of users and try not to include their opinions with the overall review of shops. These people can easily be friends, affiliate or even the business owners themselves trying to increase their score, or to hide the bad reviews of a particular person, or even worse which is debating and quarreling with the reviewer.
That aside, we saw another review, here it goes:
"I have an aggressive dog and they are charging at $80 too. 2 groomers handling him, I find it reasonable considering my dog will move actively and bite too. They handle it very professionally and patient too. The cut came out great"
This was posted by the owner of Mas Mas herself, after someone complaining in the review section about being charged extra, which we had covered in the previous update. We did believe and think that it was very fair to charge extras for an aggressive dog, however by voting and reviewing like a customer is not the right way to go, this is no different from cheating! If you are wondering, yes we are very sure that the reviewer is the owner herself. Do note that we currently do not have any plans to post any evidence or screenshots here though we have them, our goal is simply to share our opinions so that people can see, compare and decide for themselves.
As for the review score, we will be deducting 0.5. Mas Mas will still stay in our heart because of what they have done in the past. We will never forget how they used to treat Chocolate and Amber, we'll definitely try this grooming shop again someday, but not anytime soon.
Updated 20 April 2013
We have been visiting Mas Mas Grooming for over a year for Amber, our experience towards this grooming shop had been changing ever since, so we've decided to update our review based on our recent visits.
2 months back, we went for our usual appointment, from our previous post on Amber's grooming, we stated that:
"Everything went as per usual, only that we had to encounter inconsistent timings from Masmas again, we booked for 11 am and went in on time, the groomer told us Amber was ready for her grooming so we went ahead and left Amber with them. After 1 hour, we returned and see if Amber was done with bathing, we'd expect the groomer to have started cutting Amber's hair but no, Amber was still inside the crate, we had no idea if she was even bathed, we went and walk around the area and had early lunch while waiting, this time we didn't have to worry too much about keeping watch because we had found a trustworthy groomer."
Mas Mas Grooming although have been doing their job well in terms of grooming, always had problems with appointment bookings and being on time, of course it could be accepted if it was nothing too major, but our recent visit had made this issue into something that needed to be taken seriously, we'll get to that later.
I noticed that during the above visit, one of the main staff that was in charged of shaving and basic grooming had disappeared, we did not ask if she had quit or went for leave, the previous staff was replaced with a lady whom we think is the major shareholder of the shop, there also used to be a staff inside the other room that was in charged of bathing and blowing dogs were not present either, this gave us an uneasy feeling about their consistency, however we still left Amber with them for grooming. Before we left Amber with them, we saw the new staff that was inside the bathing room brushing one of the dogs, and she seemed to be inexperienced and unhappy about the job - unhappy face, brushing very hard, comb pulling the matted fur without consideration for the dog's pain.
Upon receiving Amber, she looked pretty well groomed to us, however when we brought her home and inspected further, we saw that Amber's armpit was not trimmed off, and it was tangled, we would understand if some of the areas were not trimmed for the sake of looking good, but armpit areas are totally not obvious and i believe most people would want it to be trimmed at least a bit. Also, we found Amber's fur a bit tangled throughout her body on the following day.
On the day itself after grooming, we had booked for the next appointment due 1 month later, we had emphasized time and time again that this appointment is very important because right on that day of the next grooming we would be leaving the country. The staff, the one whom we think is the shareholder of the shop, took down our appointment and said it was confirmed. After 1 month, we reached the shop and she attended to us, we gave her Amber's name and stated the time of our appointment, she gave us a shock look and say that there was no such appointment, we were confident about our booking with her and emphasized that we booked directly from her, she explained that they don't take in booking like that, we have to call the hotline to book from another guy so that he can tell her our booking, we found it ridiculous! If so then why did she said our appointment was confirmed the previous round? Even so, she seemed to remember about the conversation we had last month and ended up taking Amber in for grooming, even though we were relief to hear that, we knew that it was their fault for messing up their own appointments. On that day, we also found out that one of the staffs was changed yet again, but as we were leaving the country on that day, we had to bring Amber's stuff to her caretaker's place and thus unable to watch Amber's grooming, however we had gave them the full details of what we wanted for Amber's hairstyle, we told her we wanted 1 inch for her body, she doesn't seem to know what 1 inch was but roughly pointed out the length with her fingers, we agreed and left Amber with them.
Upon receiving Amber, her body was shaved to 0.5 inch! Which was 50% shorter than what we wanted, we asked about it and she used her fingers to point out the length again, which didn't look the same, we gave up arguing and wanted to book a basic grooming session for Amber 2 weeks later, she told us she didn't have the appointment book and asked us to call the hotline again, this time we did what she told us and there was some problem when we were overseas, the guy that came to collect Amber asked the caretaker what they wanted for Amber's basic grooming, whether they want to trim her or to cut her nails, we only received this news when we got back from our trip, it was horrible as we had already mentioned everything we wanted on the booking itself, the thing is with their appointment tactics, it is very hard to pass message around, the guy is not the one grooming yet we had to tell him what we wanted, and he passes the message to the groomers which usually is different from what is requested, sometimes even the timing screws up, our first experience with Mas Mas Grooming was a bit messy as it was bearable, the grooming service made up for the timing problem during that time, however it is getting worst and worst each time, we do not know whether it was because the "shareholder" lady took over the management or is it because the staffs kept changing, but we do know that from a customer's point of view, this cannot go on, a business has to be organized to work out.
We had always wanted to stick to Mas Mas Grooming for long term, however as this kind of incidents happen too frequently we will not hesitate to try new groomers.
On a side note,
We also saw online that someone was complaining about Mas Mas charging them $80 as compared to $50 usually, this was what we saw exactly:
Groomer charged me $80 for my toy poodle! Usual price only $50!!
Reason given by them:
1) because of Inflation ($30 increase),
2) My dog requires 2 groomers to groom?!?!
*It is not my first visit! Totally ridiculous!
We did asked about this and the lady was pretty surprised to know that we learned this news from the internet, she tried to explain saying that the dog was aggressive and attempted to bite her, they needed 2 groomers to handle, resulting in the increase of cost, we thought it was acceptable if that was really the case.
New Review Rating 6.5/10
Pros
- acceptable styling skills
- convenient area
- near vet
Cons
- very messy appointment timings
- no space for watching/waiting
- staffs keep changing
- staffs not experienced enough
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We brought our bunny Chocolate to Mas Mas Grooming few years back, it was great then. Since they stopped grooming rabbits we have not gone there for 2 - 3 years and a lot has changed.
Now the shop seems smaller, i may be wrong, but the last time we went the shop was covered with glass, we could see through inside on them while they groom which was really nice. They even had a sale for cats area then. Now the walls are covered with bricks and glass are also covered with wallpaper. We could still watch them groom by going inside the shop standing at the counter and see through a small corner. The bad side is that whenever customers come in we had to stand aside to let them through as the passage way was really small. Theres this problem where we booked the grooming at 3:00pm, we couldn't reach exactly at 3:00pm but i called them to tell them i will reach at 3:15pm and there were no problem since it was weekdays. When we reached they told me that Amber may have to wait, when asked how long they told us we had to wait for 1-2 hours! I thought appointment is there for the sake of time management! Initially we thought of walking Amber at the reservoir at 2:00pm and then groom at 3:00pm, luckily we didn't do that. However, the service is still great, friendly services, entertain questions and most of all good grooming result! They were also gentle, abit too gentle such that Amber was pushing her limits, licking all over the groomers, trying to run, biting and playing. The groomers could have been more strict but they didn't scold or pull her around, maybe it was because we were looking the whole time which i cannot be sure of.
Theres 3 groomers and they split jobs into 3 part, one person does the bathing and drying, one does the shaving and the other one does the cutting/styling. They are really calm and seems to enjoy whispering to the dogs while working. We saw a few dogs with alot of ticks and they cleaned them pretty thoroughly! The skills of the stylist is pretty good, they follow the needs of customers quite well and matched what we asked for. They do disinfect the grooming table and nearby area with dettol after every single dogs are done.
Full grooming for Amber cost $40.
Overall, we are pretty satisfied with the shop.
Review Rating 8/10
Pros
- good service
- gentle
- cleanliness
- good styling skills
Cons
- messy appointment timings
- no space for watching/waiting
We could still remember the very first time we brought our late rabbit, Chocolate for grooming at Mas Mas, they were really passionate about their work. The way they handled and groomed Chocolate told us that we had always been visiting the wrong groomer in the past, if you didn't know, Chocolate's previous groomer hurt her a few times, traumatized and even scolded us for things we didn't understand. Mas Mas stayed in our head for years, and when we got Amber, the first groomer we thought of was Mas Mas. They did really well initially, if you had known us or even asked us for recommendations on a good groomer, we would not hesitate to recommend Mas Mas Groomers!
It has been 5 years since Chocolate's first grooming with them, even Amber has already been their customer for more than 1 year already! The thing is Mas Mas today seemed kind of different, the feeling we get when entering the shop is different, the welcome service, the appointment arrangement, and also the way Amber is handled have all changed. If you are wondering about the details, the latest review update below will explain everything.
Recently, we have seen some very disappointing stuff, this could possibly change our view towards this shop forever. As we have been regular customers of Mas Mas, we knew who the main shareholder is, we knew who were the main stylist and also who is in charged of shaving, transportation etc. Recently while browsing a Singapore based pet forum, we saw a new review on Mas Mas, this person gave it a score of 10/10. We thought wow, someone recently gave Mas Mas a full score of 10, they must've been really happy with the service! We read through, it seemed a bit advertised and stale, we clicked on the user that gave the review, this user had not participated in any topics, only joined for the sake of give his/her review:
"king been to masmasgroomers since he was a puppy for almost 6years. groomers are always very professional and friendly. I feel safe when king is in their care, open concept grooming which i can view at ease. all dogs seems to love them. thumbs up!"
While it is not impossible for a person to register and join a forum just for the sake of giving their personal review, we do take note with these kind of users and try not to include their opinions with the overall review of shops. These people can easily be friends, affiliate or even the business owners themselves trying to increase their score, or to hide the bad reviews of a particular person, or even worse which is debating and quarreling with the reviewer.
That aside, we saw another review, here it goes:
"I have an aggressive dog and they are charging at $80 too. 2 groomers handling him, I find it reasonable considering my dog will move actively and bite too. They handle it very professionally and patient too. The cut came out great"
This was posted by the owner of Mas Mas herself, after someone complaining in the review section about being charged extra, which we had covered in the previous update. We did believe and think that it was very fair to charge extras for an aggressive dog, however by voting and reviewing like a customer is not the right way to go, this is no different from cheating! If you are wondering, yes we are very sure that the reviewer is the owner herself. Do note that we currently do not have any plans to post any evidence or screenshots here though we have them, our goal is simply to share our opinions so that people can see, compare and decide for themselves.
As for the review score, we will be deducting 0.5. Mas Mas will still stay in our heart because of what they have done in the past. We will never forget how they used to treat Chocolate and Amber, we'll definitely try this grooming shop again someday, but not anytime soon.
New Review Rating 6/10
Updated 20 April 2013
We have been visiting Mas Mas Grooming for over a year for Amber, our experience towards this grooming shop had been changing ever since, so we've decided to update our review based on our recent visits.
2 months back, we went for our usual appointment, from our previous post on Amber's grooming, we stated that:
"Everything went as per usual, only that we had to encounter inconsistent timings from Masmas again, we booked for 11 am and went in on time, the groomer told us Amber was ready for her grooming so we went ahead and left Amber with them. After 1 hour, we returned and see if Amber was done with bathing, we'd expect the groomer to have started cutting Amber's hair but no, Amber was still inside the crate, we had no idea if she was even bathed, we went and walk around the area and had early lunch while waiting, this time we didn't have to worry too much about keeping watch because we had found a trustworthy groomer."
Mas Mas Grooming although have been doing their job well in terms of grooming, always had problems with appointment bookings and being on time, of course it could be accepted if it was nothing too major, but our recent visit had made this issue into something that needed to be taken seriously, we'll get to that later.
I noticed that during the above visit, one of the main staff that was in charged of shaving and basic grooming had disappeared, we did not ask if she had quit or went for leave, the previous staff was replaced with a lady whom we think is the major shareholder of the shop, there also used to be a staff inside the other room that was in charged of bathing and blowing dogs were not present either, this gave us an uneasy feeling about their consistency, however we still left Amber with them for grooming. Before we left Amber with them, we saw the new staff that was inside the bathing room brushing one of the dogs, and she seemed to be inexperienced and unhappy about the job - unhappy face, brushing very hard, comb pulling the matted fur without consideration for the dog's pain.
Upon receiving Amber, she looked pretty well groomed to us, however when we brought her home and inspected further, we saw that Amber's armpit was not trimmed off, and it was tangled, we would understand if some of the areas were not trimmed for the sake of looking good, but armpit areas are totally not obvious and i believe most people would want it to be trimmed at least a bit. Also, we found Amber's fur a bit tangled throughout her body on the following day.
On the day itself after grooming, we had booked for the next appointment due 1 month later, we had emphasized time and time again that this appointment is very important because right on that day of the next grooming we would be leaving the country. The staff, the one whom we think is the shareholder of the shop, took down our appointment and said it was confirmed. After 1 month, we reached the shop and she attended to us, we gave her Amber's name and stated the time of our appointment, she gave us a shock look and say that there was no such appointment, we were confident about our booking with her and emphasized that we booked directly from her, she explained that they don't take in booking like that, we have to call the hotline to book from another guy so that he can tell her our booking, we found it ridiculous! If so then why did she said our appointment was confirmed the previous round? Even so, she seemed to remember about the conversation we had last month and ended up taking Amber in for grooming, even though we were relief to hear that, we knew that it was their fault for messing up their own appointments. On that day, we also found out that one of the staffs was changed yet again, but as we were leaving the country on that day, we had to bring Amber's stuff to her caretaker's place and thus unable to watch Amber's grooming, however we had gave them the full details of what we wanted for Amber's hairstyle, we told her we wanted 1 inch for her body, she doesn't seem to know what 1 inch was but roughly pointed out the length with her fingers, we agreed and left Amber with them.
Upon receiving Amber, her body was shaved to 0.5 inch! Which was 50% shorter than what we wanted, we asked about it and she used her fingers to point out the length again, which didn't look the same, we gave up arguing and wanted to book a basic grooming session for Amber 2 weeks later, she told us she didn't have the appointment book and asked us to call the hotline again, this time we did what she told us and there was some problem when we were overseas, the guy that came to collect Amber asked the caretaker what they wanted for Amber's basic grooming, whether they want to trim her or to cut her nails, we only received this news when we got back from our trip, it was horrible as we had already mentioned everything we wanted on the booking itself, the thing is with their appointment tactics, it is very hard to pass message around, the guy is not the one grooming yet we had to tell him what we wanted, and he passes the message to the groomers which usually is different from what is requested, sometimes even the timing screws up, our first experience with Mas Mas Grooming was a bit messy as it was bearable, the grooming service made up for the timing problem during that time, however it is getting worst and worst each time, we do not know whether it was because the "shareholder" lady took over the management or is it because the staffs kept changing, but we do know that from a customer's point of view, this cannot go on, a business has to be organized to work out.
We had always wanted to stick to Mas Mas Grooming for long term, however as this kind of incidents happen too frequently we will not hesitate to try new groomers.
On a side note,
We also saw online that someone was complaining about Mas Mas charging them $80 as compared to $50 usually, this was what we saw exactly:
Groomer charged me $80 for my toy poodle! Usual price only $50!!
Reason given by them:
1) because of Inflation ($30 increase),
2) My dog requires 2 groomers to groom?!?!
*It is not my first visit! Totally ridiculous!
We did asked about this and the lady was pretty surprised to know that we learned this news from the internet, she tried to explain saying that the dog was aggressive and attempted to bite her, they needed 2 groomers to handle, resulting in the increase of cost, we thought it was acceptable if that was really the case.
New Review Rating 6.5/10
Pros
- acceptable styling skills
- convenient area
- near vet
Cons
- very messy appointment timings
- no space for watching/waiting
- staffs keep changing
- staffs not experienced enough
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We brought our bunny Chocolate to Mas Mas Grooming few years back, it was great then. Since they stopped grooming rabbits we have not gone there for 2 - 3 years and a lot has changed.
Now the shop seems smaller, i may be wrong, but the last time we went the shop was covered with glass, we could see through inside on them while they groom which was really nice. They even had a sale for cats area then. Now the walls are covered with bricks and glass are also covered with wallpaper. We could still watch them groom by going inside the shop standing at the counter and see through a small corner. The bad side is that whenever customers come in we had to stand aside to let them through as the passage way was really small. Theres this problem where we booked the grooming at 3:00pm, we couldn't reach exactly at 3:00pm but i called them to tell them i will reach at 3:15pm and there were no problem since it was weekdays. When we reached they told me that Amber may have to wait, when asked how long they told us we had to wait for 1-2 hours! I thought appointment is there for the sake of time management! Initially we thought of walking Amber at the reservoir at 2:00pm and then groom at 3:00pm, luckily we didn't do that. However, the service is still great, friendly services, entertain questions and most of all good grooming result! They were also gentle, abit too gentle such that Amber was pushing her limits, licking all over the groomers, trying to run, biting and playing. The groomers could have been more strict but they didn't scold or pull her around, maybe it was because we were looking the whole time which i cannot be sure of.
Theres 3 groomers and they split jobs into 3 part, one person does the bathing and drying, one does the shaving and the other one does the cutting/styling. They are really calm and seems to enjoy whispering to the dogs while working. We saw a few dogs with alot of ticks and they cleaned them pretty thoroughly! The skills of the stylist is pretty good, they follow the needs of customers quite well and matched what we asked for. They do disinfect the grooming table and nearby area with dettol after every single dogs are done.
Full grooming for Amber cost $40.
Overall, we are pretty satisfied with the shop.
Review Rating 8/10
Pros
- good service
- gentle
- cleanliness
- good styling skills
Cons
- messy appointment timings
- no space for watching/waiting
You seems very unreasonable. I have 8dogs and all of them have different characters. 2 of my dogs are very aggressive and I find it reasonable for groomers to charge higher but give quality job. Dont forget dogs will bite and they move. Changing groomers doesn't mean anything as long as the quality is still there. Don't we change jobs too you mean groomers cannot change jobs too? Anyway do not listen to 1side of the story, from what I see I will love to patronize this shop. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous,
DeleteWe simple stated our experience for the most part regarding this post.
As for the experience encountered by another customer, we did not blame the groomers for charging higher price or anything it is that you are implying. We simply asked the groomer personally on this matter if you had read the full article. And nope we don't believe in one sided story if you are wondering, we ended that short column with "we thought it was acceptable if that was really the case." :)
Regards,
Jeryl
AmberToyPoodle Team
As for the groomers changing job, yes it doesn't matter if the quality is there, but it wasn't in our personal opinion, do not take it too harsh ya.
DeleteDear Nicole/ jeryl
ReplyDeleteMy name is Alvin, i am the manager of Masmasgroomers. I have a share in our pet grooming services and I am mainly in charge of the safety, appointments and the quality of pet grooming delivered by my colleagues. I have been reading your posts for some time. I took a while to respond, almost a year to date. And I thought it would be appropriate for me to address some issues that you brought up because I had taken your feedback seriously and for the past year I made some changes to better improve. Firstly I would like to apologize that you had a few bad experiences with our services. Especially the day when you made an appointment on an important day and it was not recorded in our schedules. Your appointment for amber was made by me and I had overlooked it to write it in the schedules, therefore when you turned up on the day of the appointment, our staff was rather ‘lost’ because she did not expect an additional appointment. Please do accept my apologies.
I have to be honest and I would also like to say that although I was initially sore with the comments that you made, I took it on a positive note and improved on the scheduling of appointments in such a way that customers need not wait longer than they should be. This has also improved on the impression customers have on us. There are some hiccups occasionally but it is very rare now. I must say that the feedback did help us tremendously with the scheduling of appointments.
Regarding the inconsistent timings which you experienced, during that period of time, I must explain that we were having some staff issues. ie Manpower problems. We had appointments ready and made on a day itself and there were many occasions that 1 or 2 of them did not turn up for work and called in sick on a ‘rotational basis’. That was the period between mid 2011 to mid 2012. We have had a large turnover of staff from 2010 to end 2012. Many applied for the job but left. Reasons I gathered from meetings and interview with them was they could not cope with the nature of the job. That being said, I believe no blame should be put on anyone and self reflection is still the correct way to go and to improve on management of staff instead. Therefore I apologize for these incidents as well. As of 2013 onward we had a complete change of staff, I must say the colleagues I have now are very professional in their work and discipline and qualified people, in the industry of pet grooming. And we are serving customers to our best ability now.
I read that you brought up the issue of a particular staff that was unhappy whilst brushing the dog and very rough while grooming. Those staffs that do not love and care for animals are no longer around. Their actions are recorded on the CCTV camera in our shop premises. As soon as we see that any staff is unhappy working here or does not really have love and care for the dogs, we hold a meeting with them and we will release them from employment with Masmasgroomers immediately. However we do hope for your understanding that on our part, it is extremely difficult to identify who really loves animals in the initial interview, because everyone that comes for the interview says that they really love dogs and care for them. It is over a period of time that we will know whether they really love their jobs. Do note however that as part of our safety measures we brief and ensure that our staff know that we have zero tolerance for abuse and carelessness in handling dogs. They are aware that the premises is being monitored by CCTV camera and we also have a Staff that is in charge of their welfare at all times.
ReplyDeleteWith this being said, I must still seek your understanding and also the public’s understanding that occasionally they may still see what they perceive to be rough handling on some dogs. We have an open window for any customers or public to view whilst dogs are being groomed. We make no attempt to hide anything even if dogs are struggling whilst grooming. The reason being
A) Not all dogs like to go for grooming. They have different characters and they may associate past events with their present situation. Some dogs do not go out at all and are purely housedogs, as feed backed by customers themselves, and they tend to be fearful as they are not exposed to areas outside of their comfort.
ReplyDeleteB) We do encounter some difficulty with some dogs that are very afraid of nail cutting. Reason being they have had experiences that groomers clip off the part where their Kwik (blood vessel) is. With dogs like these we require 2 groomers especially if it is a larger dog like schnauzers or miniature poodles as they can be very strong. It is our responsibility as pet care givers that we have to trim their nails no matter how difficult it may be because long nails cause the kwik to grow longer and the next time they go to a groomer their nails would have grown longer and even bend inwards piercing their own paws. We have seen cases like these where dogs have extremely long nails because no one wants to cut them as they struggle violently and try to bite. These dogs were conditioned to behave in this manner by wrong reinforcement of behavior and it is not their fault. We advise our customers accordingly on how to manage their behaviours and to use rewards wisely. As a good pet care giver, we do our best for them. You may see us struggle with some dogs but we have managed to give them positive reinforcement during and after the session is over. We assure them that it is ok to have their nails cut, and usually the next time they come in they feel less fear and they get better and better over a few grooming sessions because the past experience had been positive for them. For dogs that are easier to handle we go gentler on them and this is part of the conditioning process whereby we don’t want to make them feel afraid of new experiences especially if they were only here once or twice and we praise them for being cooperative so that they will trust us on the next grooming visit.
C) Dogs with serious ear infection – We often encounter dogs with serious ear infections. We have to hold them down because they would not let you get anywhere near their ears. Apart from advising the owners to seek veterinary attention we do our best to clear out the debris that cause infection and in some cases yeast and pus from their ears. This is a very serious irritation to them. Occasionally we go get complaints from customers about why the dog is shaking its head all the time after grooming. It really is because of the ear infection. When the infection is left untouched, it is dormant and just continues to infect the area with more bacteria. When we attempt to clean out the area, the skin in the middle and outer ear tend to get irritated because it is already inflamed. This give rise to the head shaking in the dog which usually subsides after a day but in some severe cases the ears start to swell up.
Just to further introduce myself a little more. I am a ex dog trainer in the military and i have 6 years of experience with search dogs and guard dogs before I came into the grooming industry in 2006. I have also undergone training with an experienced veterinary Surgeon in Allpets And Aqualife clinic. Besides that I have a valid certificate and license for Salon details (which essentially means Basic grooming) which I went to North Carolina for the tests and practical workshop. I hope you do not misconstrue my intentions telling you how qualified I am. My only intention is to assure you that I am properly trained in my area of work and I have situational awareness and knowledge in this field. In my own opinion I am still a student and i am still learning everyday. I have seen many dogs and many people in my course of work and experience, I am able to tell if a staff or colleague really loves and enjoys working with a dog over a period of time.
ReplyDeleteThere are times that the public may perceive us as being rough on a dog but in reality we have to choose between what really needs to be done for the animal’s sake or to leave the problems alone for fear that people may feel we handle animals roughly. Most of the dogs that come to us for grooming often, have been conditioned to know that it is ok and there is no harm, no pain and therefore over time they stop struggling, cooperate with us and like to be around us.
I would also like to clarify with you about the price for grooming. In 2012 we had decided to increase the price for full grooming from $40 to $45 for all small breed dogs. (Shihtzu maltese etc). And for Toy poodles and Schnauzers from $40 to $50. We decided for the increase to $50 for the toy poodle because they are more prone to tangles and they require more time to groom because of their fur texture and the amount of time required to fluff to prepare for scissoring. I had a meeting with my colleagues and I told them then the increase is also partly due to the fact that costs have gone up ie, PUB (almost a 20% increase in the past 2-3 years, Delivery Vehicle maintenance cost and fuel, Shampoo costs etc etc. In my meeting I highlighted that all these increases we have to inform our customers prior to the booking of appointment and we will only proceed if they agreed on the new prices. And I also highlighted the need to explain why the price has increased if customers were to ask us. Hence the word inflation was used. But I guess we cannot use inflation too loosely as there has to be an underlying explanation for the inflation.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the $80 grooming for the extremely difficult cases, I do not deny that this amount has been charged before, but only for a few dogs (less than 10) . It has nothing to do with the rise of costs, inflation. These dogs happen to be the medium sized breeds like Schnauzers and Miniature poodles and Spitz. I was personally informed of it and I know the exact details of it and I agreed that this amount has to be charged reason being. A much longer time was required than other dogs, We required 2 groomers for handling so that we could control the dog and not risk injuring it. Furthermore there was a potential of being bitten if only 1 groomer was handling the dog. Hence we had to charge for the correct amount that we had put in the time and effort for. We were told by the owners themselves that they have tried other groomers but they did not want to groom their dog. We do not need to be known as dog angels or best groomers when we accepted their dogs for grooming. We do not expect anyone to say that we were nice and professional to do that. But we did not want to turn away the dog as someone somehow must do the job. These dogs are usually badly matted and ears infected and have nails that pierce their own skin.
There was even an incident that we accepted a very badly matted dog and that had a severe underlying skin condition that could not be seen, due to the heavily matted fur. After the shaving was done, the skin was exposed and was very raw. We informed the owners that the dog needed veterinary attention, but on arrival they said the injury was caused by us and we need to pay them for the veterinary fees and bring their dog to the clinic. Although we were naturally angry because we did no mistake, we eventually brought the dog to the vet at Mount Pleasant clinic bedok south. The doctor verified that the dog indeed has severe skin problems and the raw skin was due to severe yeast infection. Even when this was explained to the owner via phone by the vet, they refused to believe and insisted it was us to hurt her dog and wanted us to cover the cost of the vet bill as well as grooming and transport which we did.
In relating this true incident to you which happened in early 2013, we are not asking for any sympathy or talking bad about this customer in this incident. We just want to highlight the point that sometimes some things that you observe and see with your own eyes has another truth to it. And also just to assure you and the public that as much as we are afraid of misunderstanding, we are not afraid to take up responsibility whether it was mistake made by us or even if it is not, and that. In fact we have had 3 accidents by groomers over the years before like cuts and shaves but we do not deny responsibility, we take responsibility and inform the owners and apart from bringing the dogs to the vet, we ensure that the Dogs are properly treated on a daily basis and healed before we hand over to the Dog owners.
ReplyDeleteOn our part, we always seek to improve our service, we have always focused a lot on Safety of the dogs, in the transportation process as well as in our premises, no effort has been spared to ensure their safety and well being. In the area of training, we are strict with our Staff and expect their best effort, to ensure that the Pets receive the proper care and cleaning. Another aspect of our work is beautifying and this aspect is upgrading our skills in scissoring and styling so that the Pets can also look their best. We have always wanted to excel in this industry and we will continue to do so at the same time maintaining an average price for our customer. I do assure you that you will still like our services. From a professional and business operation point of view however I must still ask for understanding that sometimes there might still be hiccups that occur in our work system but we will do our best to improve because our motto from our very first day of existence is, “WE CARE FOR YOUR PETS” and will always be.
Last but not least I hope I have addressed the points which you have brought up and I do feel and appreciate that the feedback had made us improve on our service although my initial reaction was not the same as how I feel now. I would rather have a customer tell me how they feel than to have a customer who does not tell me and never returns to us. It’s a rather long letter and I have also written other clarifications which may or may not relate to your feedback. Nevertheless thanks for your patience to read this. I can be contacted at 83830933 for any feedback or clarifications. Best Regards.
Hi Alvin,
DeleteRest assure that our posts are not made up to ruin or destroy any shop's reputation, this is a blog to voice our opinions based on personal experience.
However, when business are of concerned, people do get sensitive when it comes to money and we very much understand what it's all about, there are many whom started out working in the pet industry because they simply love animals, as time pass they get worried about generating revenue and this is the time things will become different. We do not wish to interfere how staffs are trained or hired, what's important is that our pets get to enjoy as much as possible, for us owners we simply want everything to go smoothly, some hiccups are understandable but if services are getting from bad to worst then we will move on. However because this place gave us a lot of good memories, we do hope that management can be better in future, so that we will be able to share a whole new experience on our blog with our readers.
We truly respect every single person's opinion or even debate as long as there is no profanity or excessive use of strong language. Your reply is definitely understandable and we feel that everyone should have the right to know what businesses are thinking from their point of view.
Thank you so much for your input Alvin, we read and take every word seriously, rest assure your comments will be shown to everyone.
Regards,
Jeryl
AmberToyPoodle Team
Hi Jeryl,
ReplyDeleteThank You and Best Regards
Alvin
Visit CGS Hospital to find the best grooming services for pets in gurgaon. Your pet pals receive individualised care from our qualified specialists to make sure they feel and look their bestgrooming services for pets in gurgaon Trust us to give your pets the care and attention they need, from baths and haircuts to nail trims
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