I’ve quietly followed the Prestigious Pets lawsuit for the last few months. It’s no secret that I think it is a ridiculous lawsuit that was stupidly and self-destructively initiated by Prestigious Pets, operated/owned by Kalle McWhorter. This entire damage of this situation has been entirely self-inflicted from the very beginning.
It could have been stopped at anytime by Prestigious Pets and Kalle McWhorter. In fact, it seems at every turn, they were looking to pick a fight and get revenge against the Duchouqettes. Court documents and exhibits provides ample evidence of this.
I am not going to try to write one huge article that demonstrates all this. The case has grown into an elephant generating hundreds of pages of court documents to read through. So, I can only eat this elephant one small bite at a time.
At a very basic level, there were the email exchanges between Prestigious Pets and Michelle Duchouquette that showed that Prestigious Pets was not all they represented themselves to be. I have emphasized certain phrases and sentences to show Michelle’s growing frustrations over Prestigious Pets.
October 5, 2015
Prestigious Pets accepts the Michelle’s assignment to pet-sit Barley and Bogey (with 10 additional minutes) from October 16-20, 2015 for a fee of $240.00.
Prestigious Pets: “We have you on schedule. Thank you for booking!”
October 6, 2015
Michelle: “Were quoted $20 and $5 for the visit. Why is it now $20 and $10? Thanks, Michelle”
Prestigious Pets: “Morning Michelle, So sorry for that. We updated the invoice to reflect the $5 instead and resent it to you. :)”
October 8, 2015
Michelle: “Hi, I don’t see that a corrected invoice has been sent and we were also billed for the wrong amount and that has not been corrected. Thanks, Michelle”
Prestigious Pets: “We resent over the new invoice. The overcharges is currently pending and should be back in your account within 3-5 days. :)”
October 14, 2015
Michelle: “Hi, I still have not received the credit or the revised invoice. Michelle”
Prestigious Pets: “Hi Michell (sic), The accountant said that refund should be in your account any day now. If you need the confirmation number we can always get that from the accountant. :)”
October 22, 2015
Michelle: “Hi, The credit was finally received. I would like (to) share my feedback on your company and services.” (Long list of feedback and criticisms follows)
“The over-charging on the invoice was yet another issue that was unacceptable. We never received the corrected invoice and it took multiple requests to get the credit. We would like our keys returned. Thanks Michelle”
October 26, 2015
Michelle: Hi, While I understand you would like to address my concerns, we have no plans to use Prestigious Pets in the future and I don’t want to spend the time to go through the various issues. We would like the keys returned. Thanks, Michelle”
Prestigious Pets: PP sends a long email about how returning the keys is not a problem and refers to the client agreement. PP offers different options to deal with the keys including destroying them, sent via certified mail for a $15 fee, or scheduling a walk/visit when Michelle is home and to return the key at the same time.
October 28, 2015
Michelle: “I asked for the keys to be left when Amanda left the house. This was on our notes to her and if there was a question about where to leave them, she should have brought it up with you. I have attached the picture of the note that was left for her asking to leave the keys.”
Michelle makes another complaint about the care of her fish.
“I want the keys returned. Thanks, Michelle”.
Read the Prestigious emails from the court documents below:
My Comments
Prestigious Pets (PP) was clearly tone-deaf which frustrated and angered Michelle. If you look at the timeline, Prestigious Pets took way too long to issue a simple refund. PP was too concerned with their own internal accounting system when a simple hand-written check quickly mailed off to Michelle would have immediately fixed (or at least minimized) the aggravation Michelle felt.
And regarding the key return request Michelle repeated in several emails, it’s clear that PP wanted to enforce the petty collection of the $15 fee. I have used Certified Mail. It doesn’t cost $15 to send one or two keys via Certified Mail. She should have just returned the keys quickly even if that meant she had to eat the few dollars to send it.
From what I gather, Kalle wrote most or all of the emails. She tried to be “friendly” with the email smiley faces but she ultimately became obnoxious, difficult, and entirely tone-deaf.
Ultimately, PP just couldn’t accept that Michelle couldn’t be turned back (understandably) or satisfied and the rest is history.
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