I take down and section enough trees that I have an opinion on chainsaw blades, and that opinion is that you definitely do NOT get what you pay for when you purchase chains in a local shop or specialty store.
My last experience was in the shop that sold me my chainsaw.
That shop sells $18” chains for about $28 — the same price they sell them for at Lowes.
When I mentioned I was buying chains for $4.75 apiece, the salesman said he had “concerns” about these cheaper Chinese-made trains. They “stretch” he said.
I looked at him weird.
“All chains loosen,” I replied. “It’s why the saw comes with a wrench, and why there’s a bar chain adjuster.”
Apparently his normal clientele did not use their chainsaws enough to know how to actually put on and tighten a chain.
It’s actually a common problem, but it’s not one at this house.
“Concern trolling” is a core competency in the world of sales.
The most common manifestation is the phrase “you get what you pay for.”
That might be true in some cases, but more often than not, it’s bullshit — the catch-phrase of the up-selling salesman.
What’s this have to do with dogs? Quite a bit.
Dog breeders are big on the idea that the more you pay for a dog, the better it’s likely to be.
That’s mostly bullshit
It’s also bullshit that the more expensive the dog food, the better it’s likely to be.
Provably not true.
Then, there’s veterinary care, where a large part of the job of most “vet techs” is to upsell and tack on every nonsense service, test, and procedure they can think up.
Concern trolling is the most lucrative part of nearly every veterinary practice.
It's concern trolling that gets customers to:
* Vaccinate their adult dogs for diseases they will not get because that first-year round of distemper and parvo vaccines are actually good for life;
* Put their dogs on heartworm medication all year long, even when it's snowing outside;
* Buy their flea and tick medications from their vet rather than order online for half the price;
* Run tests for parasites (worms) and diseases (Lyme) rather than simply treat for less.
* Come in every year for a "teeth cleaning" (complete with anesthesia) and a "well dog checkup."
The concern trolling vet tech will say they are “concerned" your dog is not "up to date" with yearly vaccines.
He or she is "concerned" about your dog's weight -- and has special food to sell you.
"It's standard practice," they will tell you, to have your dog's teeth "professionally cleaned" every year and for it to come in for a well dog “checkup" because “that's what you do for yourself,” right?
Can you feel the concern?
If you are a dog owner, the proper response to being concern-trolled is to push back with your own concerns.
A vet pushing annual or every three-year parvo and distemper boosters should be asked if he or she has been keeping up with any of the literature of the last 30 years. Surely he or she has read Ron Schultz, the leading expert on vaccines? Surely they know that parvo and distempter vaccines are good for life?
You have concerns!
Annual teeth cleaning? No, actually you do not get anesthetized every year to have your teeth cleaned, and you also do not have a full blood workup to boot. That does not happen. And no, it's not going to happen to your dog either. Anesthesia is dangerous, dental cleaning and scaling for humans has not been show to be effective, and dogs are dead at age 15, not age 80 like people. Surely the veterinarian knows all this? And what dental school did he or she go to again?
You have concerns!
And why would you test an asymptomatic dog for Lyme? If a dog is asymptomatic, the dog is fine. Leave it alone. Surely they know this is the correct protocol?
No? You have concerns!
And why would you run a fecal worm test that, with the vet bill for it, is far more expensive than simply dosing the dog for worms with an over-the-counter wormer? Surely the vet knows this too, right? Right??
You have concerns!
A heartworm test on a dog younger than 6 months? Surely the vet knows that dogs cannot get heart worm if they are that young?
You have concerns!
And surely they KNOW that heartworm cannot be transmitted if the temperature at night has ever fallen below 56 degrees any time in the last 30 days? No? Then maybe the vet needs to read up on heartworm before prescribing anything? Concern troll right back!
Of course, if you are too timid to push back, are a people-pleaser that avoids all confrontation, or are the kind of person that folds to any and all claims of authority (see the Milgram Experiment), you are free to carry on by flushing your money down the drain.
As always, do what you want. It’s a free country, even if the upselling is all very expensive.
