DR DOO DOG WASTE PICK UP

Dr. Doo picked up dog waste for us for several years.  She seemed knowledgeable and conscientious.  At first I was optimistic, until very early on she started lecturing me about all the ways in which I should change my yard for her convenience.  I was to block this area off, I had to clip these bushes, I was to time my mowing for the day before her visits, etc., etc.  (I could understand her demand that we not be watering on her service days, so while it was carping in tone, I didn't really mind that.)  Even though our yard had a very small search area and should have been the easiest thing she dealt with considering she wasn't asked to pick up on 90% of the property, I learned to avoid going outside on Tuesdays so that I would not be presented with some concern or complaint.  She also raised our monthly rate early in the service.  When I asked her if that wasn't a bit abrupt with us having just begun service, she snipped that she hadn't raised them for some time and was due.

The original scheduling involved her coming on Tuesday afternoons, and I tried to plan around that as much as possible.  At some point, she started showing up in the morning, and one day she caught me outside and began complaining about some petty matter (I can't recall what it was).  I told her she'd originally said she was going to come in the afternoon, so I'd planned for that.  She grew defiant:  "Well, sometimes I HAVE to come in the morning!"  She further explained that she was losing business.  I suggested to her that if that was the case, maybe it would be wiser of her not to alienate people who could afford her fee and were not in danger of canceling the service.  Perhaps I was supposed to just put my tail between my legs and be argued with about how the world should revolve around dog waste; I do not know what would have made her happy short of that.  The fact that we paid our bill promptly and in full each and every month evidently didn't factor.

We never complained to her about missing any waste, and in fairness, she was pretty good at picking it up.  In fact, we never complained at her at all, except to make sure she put her bill in a place where we could find it and pay it.  Earlier this month, we put some leaves in the dog kennel for various good reasons.  We got a tart phone call advising us that we had put leaves (oh my god!) in the kennel and she would no longer pick up in there.  Fine, I thought, although I had not planned to complain if she missed a bit for that reason--I would just pick stray waste up myself.  So I took to raking the waste out of the kennel, to meet her ultimatum so that she would pick it up.  Evidently that wasn't satisfactory, because a couple of weeks later, I got a letter from her canceling our service and refunding the last week's prepaid service.  I honestly didn't mind, as that means I can now safely go outside on Tuesdays without worrying about some complaint.

This was a good example of someone very capable at her work, but lacking perspective (sorry, no one is going to do a bunch of work just to make it easier for you to pick up dog waste; they hire you to make dog waste go away, period).  I was quite dissatisfied with her basic customer relations skills in person.  I can respect someone being a perfectionist, which is why I put up with the complaining long past the point in time when I was ready to just do the work myself and save the money and annoyance, but it's really bad form when a service provider complains so often that her customer hides from her just to avoid petty negativity and confrontation.  I never felt she valued us as a customer, and that she would not value us unless we optimized our back yard for her convenience (and so far as I could gather, there was no limit to what might be asked; if I did this, what's the next demand?).  If she could be quiet and just do the work she was paid to do, she'd be a model service provider.  She was conscientious about hygiene and did a thorough enough job.