An amendment from the Ministry of Agriculture would put a cap on fees charged by pet salons to customers who cancel prepaid grooming services.
Many pet owners who have paid grooming fees in advance and later canceled have been hit with heavy fees, which has prompted a spate of complaints, ministry official Chiang Wen-chuan (江文全) said yesterday.
Under the proposed amendment, which is under review by the Executive Yuan, cancelation fees would be capped at NT$1,000.
Photo courtesy of a reader
In cases where both parties agree with not having a fixed contract-termination fee, the fee cannot exceed 5 percent of the total contract value, or NT$1,000 — whichever is lower, Chiang said.
The amendment also stipulates that operators must guarantee the welfare of dogs and cats in their care. If an animal needs emergency medical treatment during grooming, the salon must send it to a veterinary hospital designated by the pet owner. If one is not designated, the animal should be sent to the nearest facility.
If a pet dies while under the care of the salon, the operator should send the body of the animal to the animal protection agency for disposal by the following day at the latest. If the injury or death is determined to be attributed to the salon operator, the operator would be liable to pay compensation.
One salon owner surnamed Lee (李) who has been in the industry for six years said that the new law would potentially harm businesses.
Pet grooming is generally a monthly subscription service, and advanced payment allows businesses to offer discounted rates, Lee said, adding that when pet owners cancel the services — usually after a pet is lost or dies — the owner should bear the cost of the discounts they have already received.
Businesses also sometimes incur unexpected costs caused by irresponsible owners, Lee said, citing the example of an owner who left their pet dog at the salon overnight the day before going to jail.
The salon was unable to reach the owner and had no contact information for members of the owner’s family who could take the dog, Lee said.
Chiang said that under the amendment, if an owner fails to pick up their pet on time, the salon operator could charge the pet owner damages of between NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 per day.
If the consumer does not pick up the pet for more than three days, the operator should notify the animal protection agency, he said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS