Dear Friends in the Veterinary Community,
Allow me to first take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support and use of 24PetWatch microchips. With over 4.1 million cats and dogs registered to our database and over 1.2 million microchips sold last year, 24PetWatch continues to be the leading provider of RFID technology in North America. It has been my great pleasure working with the veterinary community to our mutual benefit all these years, and I look forward to maintaining this valuable relationship.
As you know, we are committed to providing you the most competitively priced microchips on today’s market, easy registration through our web-based insurance claims application, EVE, and free registration to the 24PetWatch database for your clients. However, at this time, I would like to address what we feel is a continued confusion in the marketplace over the concept of microchip registration versus maintenance.
By definition, registration is a one-time act. Through EVE, the registration of microchipped pets is seamless, efficient and free of charge for pet owners and their pets and will remain so as part of our commitment to you. However, our commitment to free registration did not apply to indefinite, unlimited changes to contact information at the request of your clients. Yet there remains the perception that registration includes the ability of pet owners to change their information in the 24PetWatch Database over the lifetime of their pet at no cost to them. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Today’s communication environment is very different from the one of 10 to 15 years ago. Pet owners, like the rest of the general population, change cell phone plans and e-mail addresses with increased frequency and with each new wave of technological advancement. This growing velocity in the rate at which information changes and is exchanged is evidenced by a 24% increase in inbound calls to the 24PetWatch call center in 2010 alone.
To preserve the value of our services and keep up with the pace at which information is changing, we have had to invest in more manpower and infrastructure to support the integrity and accuracy of our database, fundamental to lost pet recovery. Thus, it is important for us to ensure that our veterinary partners and their clients understand the distinction between registration and database management services, and that the costs of managing these two services are different.
Effective January 1, 2012 (please note the 2012 date), all owners of pets registered with 24PetWatch, regardless of the brand of microchip, will be asked to pay an annual or lifetimefee to help support the ongoing maintenance of the database and the monitoring services that we provide. Pet owners who register in 2011 will begin receiving invoices as of January 1, 2012 for an annual or lifetime membership fee depending on their preference.
Microchips registered prior to January 1, 2011 will be “grandfathered in” meaning pet owners who registered prior to that date will only pay a maintenance fee if they make a change to their information. As has always been the case, those registrants who choose not to pay maintenance fees will not be able to update their information until they decide otherwise.
Currently, the annual fee is $14.95 and the lifetime maintenance and monitoring fee is $39.95. Registered pet owners will receive information explaining the maintenance fees one year post registration beginning January 1, 2012 and reminder notices will be sent to you periodically over the course of 2011 regarding the implementation of this program.
Ongoing fees are becoming both reasonable and customary aspects of companion animal microchip services, as evidenced by our competitors’ own maintenance policies and the willingness of your clients to purchase annual and lifetime memberships from us at 24PetWatch. The implementation of maintenance fees will also bring us further in line with AVMA policy, passed at the 2007 Convention recommending microchip registration databases should be financially self-sufficient, rather than relying on the marketing or referrals of other products and services.
As a trusted member of the animal welfare community, we appreciate your efforts to communicate these changes to your clients. I look forward to our continued relationship through 24PetWatch and providing you the quality care and service you have come to depend on.
Best,
Mark Warren
