Our dog got into one of Steve's gummies. She's little, the THC in it for his pain is strong enough to cause her damage. As we later learned, even the possible sweetener in the gummie could have wreaked havoc on her system. Turns out it wasn't that one. But... I'm stuck home with covid and I need to make her throw up.
What to do? Go online of course.
First info on how-to is giving her hydrogen peroxide mixed with water. I don't keep that in the house. Nor the next thing suggested. If I didn't have covid I could just go buy some. The local grocery store is open already at 6AM, and I could try to treat her myself. Next and last info talks about activated charcoal, and a vet does that.
I locate her regular vet's info and call. I know they have earlier hours than the store does that they are in, but get a recording that they do not open for almost two hours. Next I search 24 hour vets and find one even closer than the regular one, and call to ask my questions: does she need to come in? I get little help from the call aside from them not recommending hydrogen peroxide for vomiting. They can't even tell me how harmful her dosage is for body size.
I search further, and find a site called Just Answer. They claim all kinds of competence and have a 800 phone number, so I call. How do they work? I'm told they charge a $5 introductory use fee. If I wish I can have a membership for just $30 a month. I think it's worth a trial for $5 for questions on just how dangerous her dose of THC actually is, plus other possibilities to make her vomit. I go through the email, phone, and - thinking to be secure - Paypal authorization.
The result to that is an instant warning flashing on my computer screen that they are some kind of scam - I can't recall the exact wording since it was such a shock and so brief, adding this stress to dealing with this emergency and the sudden "what did I just do?" from seeing the announcement. Moreover, my laptop screen had just frozen. I couldn't get in or out of anything. After about three key presses meant to stop whatever, I just hit the power button for a hard shutdown and shut it off for a bit. Now what? Are they accessing all kinds of financial info? Is there new malware inside?
Top this off with a sudden influx of text alerts on my cell. If they want a text conversation we're all screwed.
I finally decided I need to wake Steve. Besides being covid negative, he hadn't taken pain pills yet for the day, so he should be cognizant enough to talk to the 24 hour vet we're going to. He gets up and dressed. As do I, since it's my card the charges will be on. I'll stay in the car. I write down the necessary info, time of the poisoning, type and dosage of what she scarfed. Upshot is a huge bill, a successful vomiting session, and a dog returning home on a "safe enough" likely high for her day.The gummies by then had been given 2 hours to dissolve. She arrived at the car perky enough at least.
Once I turn my computer on again, not opening any of the previous links which were open, my email has messages from JustAnswer congratulating itself on its help and suggesting I can ask them anything again. Time to check my financials, see what I can find out.
There is no $5. charge. There are two $36. charges! One has been denied, the other paid. First, a call to the credit card company to halt that for being a scam. Then online to PayPal to fight endlessly through their system to finally get to type something about those charges being denied due to misrepresenting their cost and signing me up for a "membership" I didn't ask for, as well as not actually getting any service from them.
The following day there was another contact from JustAnswer claiming they had the info for my question. Problem is, besides being absurdly late, it was an answer to another person's question with a different name attached to it. There was another self-congratulatory email on how helpful they were being as well. Later in the day another "answer" came through my email, along with a request to tell them how wonderful they were.
HEY GUYS, IF I RELIED ON YOUR "HELP" MY DOG WOULD LIKELY BE DEAD!
This morning I checked my financials again. There was a $36. charge on my credit card! Quick check on PayPal and it showed the money came in and went out. It also showed a denied charge. As soon as I get less pissed off, I'll contact my credit card people again and see what I can do to get that pulled back, if anything.
But...
I went back online to JustAnswer, and this time Google brought up a version of their site on how wonderful everybody thought they were. Incredulous, I followed that to see what that was about. Bad math at a minimum, it turns out. They claim over 4 stars from people, and would I like to read reviews? Yes. First was somebody calling them a scam, and from reading that I decided I'm lucky if I get off with just $36. There was a lineup of stars like on a Yelp graph, and every one had one star plus a tiny sliver of another. That's 1 plus a tiny fraction on each of 5 questions. Either they are adding all their stars together, which should have them bragging about a high 5 star rating, or they should have averaged their stars to be 1.1 star rating. Considering the one star is what you have to click on in order to even make a rating register, it's effectively a ZERO. Everybody hates you. Other comments include my issues: misrepresentation, overcharging, no actual service.
There was info about canceling the membership. I decided to call that number. I was offered several voicemail options, including canceling. Press that number. Got a series of choices about why I was cancelling. None of them covered it all, so I pressed some kind of a "more info" button. Back to the first recording. They can't even do this well? This time I decided it didn't matter, pushed a different button. I got a recorded voice giving me a confirmation number for my cancellation which I wrote down, and information that they were emailing me a confirmation. There were two emails, actually, which have been archived. I fully expect another later in the day, self congratulations type, and asking how wonderful they were.
Screw 'em!
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