A Vet Visit

So at work we have this guarantee with our animals.
Where within two weeks if an animal you purchase gets sick, you can bring it back to us and we will take it to the vet for you, treat it until it's better, and then if the animal recovers...call you so you can come get your now healthy pet back.
As part of this policy when the customer returns the animal we issue them a refund -give them their money back- just in case the animal doesn't make it so they don't have to come later to get a refund. And then when the animal is better the pet parent repurchases their pet. 

The key to all this is that if the pet parent wants their animal to go to the vet, they need to bring the animal back to us. They can't take the animal to the vet themselves and then expect us to pay the vet fees. Nope. The animal comes to us we take it to our vet and cover the fees for the visit and the treatments.

So.
Today I got a call and later a visit from a customer who purchased a guinea pig from us a week ago.
Where she stated that the guinea pig was sneezing and had goopy eyes and such.
After verifying when the customer bought the guinea pig --as it's common for them to be a bit sneezy the first day or two of coming home as a stress response-- I told the customer that they could bring the guinea pig in and we'd take it to the vet for them.

But the customer wanted more details on the process. 
Cue my explanation above.
They wanted to know a time frame on how long the guinea pig would be in our care.
And I told them that likely it would be 7-10 days. But it would depend on what the vet said and what medications needed to be given to help improve the guinea pig's health and once the guinea pig was healthy then the customer could come get him.

She then asked what would happen if she took the guinea pig to the vet herself. Like if the vet would keep the guinea pig as well.

No. What the vet would do would look at the guinea pig, prescribe meds and then give both meds and guinea pig back her to treat on her own. 
However. She would also be in charge of the vet bill. 
As we don't cover vet bills unless the guinea pig is brought back to us first and we take it to our vet. 

When the customer came into the store she asked if there was a halfway measure. Some sort of compromise where we could take the guinea pig to the vet but then she could do the treatments after that point.
Unfortunately for her. 
No.
It's against our policy to sell unhealthy animals. So if the customer returns the guinea pig to us it will remain in our care and we will do the treatments until the guinea pig is healthy.

Because like...if we allowed the customer to take the guinea pig back...and something happened (like it died) or the illness got worse and it needed another vet visit...there would be nothing we could do if the two week period had passed. Because after 14 days...we no longer guarantee our pets. So the customer would have to take the guinea pig to the vet herself if something went wrong and have to pay the second vet visit herself.

While if the guinea pig remained in our care and the guinea pig didn't recover in the expected time frame, we could do another vet visit...and it would still not cost the customer anything.

Honestly.
It seems like a rather clear cut solution.
Bring the guinea pig back to us. You save money. We take care of the treatment. And you get your guinea pig back nice and healthy. 

But the customer still was dithering over if she should bring the guinea pig back to us...or just take it to the vet herself.
Why?
Because her daughter has already bonded rather strongly to the guinea pig.
And basically the customer didn't want her kid to be without her guinea pig for a week or two. 

*exhales*
Like...I get it. You don't want to make the kid sad.
But at the same time...I'm pretty sure your little girl will survive a week or two without her pet. 
And the guinea pig will probably recover faster if it's in a quiet place where he's not constantly being handled and such. 

Still.
The customer hadn't returned the guinea pig to us before I left for the day.
As when I last saw her she said she needed to think it over. 
Though I did warn her that the longer she waited to come to a decision the harder it would be to get the guinea pig better and the sicker it could become. 
As it was. We wouldn't be able to get the guinea pig into a vet until tomorrow at the earliest because of how late it was when the customer came into the store to ask more questions.

Sooo guess we'll see. 
Hopefully whatever the customer decides, the guinea pig will get better so the little girl can have her pet. 

-Sarnic Dirchi