A woman who complained to Peel Zoo about its services was called a fool and an imbecile by its owner – who, when confronted publicly, has repeated his comments, insisting 'keyboard warriors' should not take aim at small business.
A Perth woman private-messaged the zoo on Facebook, saying she sent her two children there with their au pair but received feedback that they could not see three-quarters of the animals and were finished in an hour.
Ms Harrison told the zoo she was unhappy having paid $50 for an adult and two children under five because it would have cost less for them to visit Perth Zoo.
"I was going to post this as negative feedback on your Facebook page but decided against it as common courtesy for your business," she said in her message.
She received a wordy, condescending reply questioning the "absurdity" of her statements. Owner David Cobbold assured her that all the animals – except the zoo's wombat Sherman who was moving house that day – had been in place.
"An intelligent being would never give credence to their fanciful feedback without question," he wrote.
"You have simply jumped to a conclusion ... with the feeling of self-righteous indignation that you obviously enjoy.
"Alas, I do not pander to the fatuous diatribes of misguided imbeciles. In fact, I fear I have already wasted too much of my valuable time suffering a fool.
"I whole-heartedly dismiss your conclusions and the ludicrous feedback from your mathematically challenged triumvirate ... so preposterously unfounded they cross in to the realm of fantasy."
The woman replied: "I have no words, you seem to have taken them all."
She then decided to post the exchange publicly, calling it shockingly rude and saying Mr Cobbold needed an "attitude adjustment" and perhaps some training on how to handle criticism.
Mr Cobbold mounted a spirited self-defence to WAtoday.
"In the very first sentence is 'we will not be returning to your zoo'. She's based this on the word of a babysitter and two toddlers. She's got no evidence whatsoever and she's willing to damn us," he said.
"That price of admission is from 9am to 5pm. If you choose to leave after an hour you can. But we have 78 enclosures. If it took them an hour, they spent about 45 seconds per enclosure in that case and they must have had some kind of wormhole to get them from one to another."
He said the zoo held a snake handler show every day at 10, squirrel glider encounters and ferret handling at 11, then a Tasmanian devil presentation, then bird feeding, then lizard handling, then dingo presentations, then more snake handling, then koala feeding.
"So they took on board none of the offerings?" he said.
"Why isn't this woman asking why her au pair has so little regard for the education and entertainment of her children that she can't be bothered spending more than an hour at one of the Peel Region's best attractions?
"She has a right to comment. We have a right to rebut. If she is going to jump to a conclusion and end a relationship and say 'we'll never set foot on your property again' without saying anything analytical or reasoned or well balanced, I think she's an imbecile and I have a right to say 'get back in your box.'
"Her posting this publicly is her thinking 'you can't talk to me like that – so now I'll really hurt you'.
"When does the individual business owner get to say enough is enough, grow up, your behaviour is unethical?"
When asked if it was OK to respond to perceived 'stupidity' with rudeness and meanness, he replied, "I think it's mean to be stupid. She initiated this. So we are in fact the victims."
He did concede the exchange was not "standard operating procedure".
"Of course it's not. We've grown every year for 11 years, we've attracted 45,000 people last year, we're on the bucket list of must-do experiences in WA. There's a hell of a lot of evidence we're doing something right. Others tell me they loved it so much they are going to tell all their family and friends," he said.
"You will find our customer service is exceptional. We are the best in the business. Side by side against others we stack up very nicely. But I do not like it when keyboard warriors take cheap shots."
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