Petlog rip-off charges
We have recently moved house, and obviously needed to inform several organisations about our new address. For the most part, you get no confirmation until the next bill or correspondence arrives. Some even send a nice letter saying:
Thank you for taking the time to inform us of your updated details
except one: Petlog.
For those who don’t know, when you have a cat or dog, you can have it ‘chipped’, i.e. a small device, the size of a grain of rice, is inserted under the skin at the nape of the animal’s neck. Each chip has a unique serial number. Petlog (part of the Kennel Club) hold a database of these chips, referencing the id to your address should your pet ever be lost.
We informed Petlog of the new address and the reply was:
Thank you for your revised details. In order to action this request, we require a payment of £7.50
What?! No-one else has asked for payment. Cheeky *******!
I have sent a letter in reply:
Petlog
4a Alton House Office Park
Gatehouse Way
Aylesbury
Bucks
HP19 8XU18th January 2007
Dear Sirs
Re: Change of Address: chip number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We refer to your letter of 16th January.
We must point out that in moving house, we have informed more than fifty companies and organisations, both large and small, and Petlog is the only one to have the audacity to demand a payment for thirty seconds of keyboard work.
By the time you had written your letter, you could have changed the address on your database. In fact in writing your letter you have actually typed our new address. This time could have been far better spent typing it into the database.
The amount is not even nominal. Let’s be generous and say it takes two minutes to change the address: are you seriously suggesting it costs you £225 an hour to employ clerical staff, or are you employing high court barristers? Maybe your office processes are inefficient and require serious scrutiny.
My guess, however, is that it is really a ploy to sell your ‘petlog+’ package with ‘added extras’ which represent very little value to us:
‘Free’ changes of address Having just moved house, we are unlikely to move again before the cat dies, so no value there. Especially as everyone else does it for free.
Add holiday travel details When we go away, the cat is in the cattery, we give our details to them, again no value.
Lost Pet Posters I am perfectly capable of producing my own posters, probably to a much higher quality.
The extortionate charge of £7.50 cannot be justified in any way. You don’t even include a reply paid envelope. You are playing on the emotional relationship between a pet and its owner.
I guess being part of the kennel club, you are aiming your service at those with pedigree dogs and cats costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds, however, we are talking here about a non-pedigree domestic cat with a purchase value of zero.
As far as I’m concerned, I paid enough for your service when the chip was fitted.
Yours faithfully
UPDATE: 23rd April
Well, it’s over three months later and no reply from Petlog
Already paid for their services, so no bill to pay. They have already performed more work and spent money on postage than it would have cost just to change the address. This is the whole point – it does not cost £7.50 to change an address on a computer system. They are simply trying to sell an additional premium product that has no value to me (or other commenters above).