Post #3639560

Have you ever considered using an app like Wag! or Rover to take care of your pets while you're away? Maybe don't. Story time! Note in advance: Every pet and every person are just peachy. We went on vacation last week and used Wag! to find a pet sitter for two dogs. We also have a cat, which was not part of the booking, that we put in the basement and made sure all needs were met. Day one was okay, we had somebody come out and do their thing as expected, but they told us that evening that they had a family emergency and had to drop out. Day two "D"¹ (name matters later) came out. She was great, the doorbell camera suggests that she was very sweet and the app shows that she's in pre-veterinary school - perfect! Later that evening, the booking showed a separate person, we later find out that the booking disappeared from "D"'s app. Let's pause here and talk about instructions, which were very explicit and given to each sitter. 1) Dogs are to remain in their room (dining room), which has a door to the outside, and the kitchen. A door separates those rooms from the rest of the house. 2) Cat is not to be disturbed. He will meow at you through the door. He is fine. (note here, the basement door is in the kitchen) Day three (really, it started at like 11:30PM and because WTF, she got paid for day two, and "D" did not) Melissa S.², the fourth person (third cancelled), came out. Day four and beyond, and oh my, dear reader, should you sit down for the rest of this. On Melissa's morning and afternoon visits, you could hear the dogs greeting her at the front door, which is not in the designated area - uh oh. At around noon, I see her letting animal control into the house(?!?!?!?!). The doorbell battery died at this point, so I couldn't see when, or how, they left. We didn't hear anything from Melissa or Wag! and didn't know the status of the pets. After a few hours, we asked Melissa why the fuck she let them in and what was going on. She responded hours later (T+6:00), very briefly, that she had called them, and that I should talk to them. We asked whether the animals were still there, and she confirmed that they were. Huh? Several more hours later (T+8:00), we receive a call from Wag!'s Safety and Compliance department. He explained a little bit of what happened, but didn't have any information about results. He says that he put in a new request for a fifth sitter, but that none were available at that moment. I told him everything I knew at that point and he asked me to email him evidence. Day five "D" shows up (T+20:00) and of course the dogs greeted her at the door. Once she gets in, she sends us this - https://photos.app.goo.gl/TSgKfCcyPrL1PXZJ8 - you can see why we designated a particular area. Their bowls had also been moved to the living room(???), showing it was intentional. The rest of the booking continued without any issues. Later that day, animal control returned my call. She was PISSED - at Melissa. The more we talked, the more you could tell just how pissed off she was. Apparently Melissa had been calling "relentlessly", and each time was asked the following questions. She also called other cities to try to get them to do something. 1) Do the animals have food? (Yes.) 2) Do the animals have water? (Yes.) 3) Do the animals have a place to use the bathroom (Yes.) 4) Do the animals appear to be malnourished? (No.) Animal control says she eventually came out just to stop the calls. Her story: She says she was there for five minutes. She arrived, inspected the dogs, and was quite happy with everything. She then went into the basement to check on the cat's environment and noted that their food bowl was empty and that...she couldn't find the cat. Melissa had previously gone down there (uh oh) to check on him. (I found out later that when she went down there, the cat ran out and the dogs went down and ate the food. All was later fixed by "D".) Animal control tells me that she inspected the house and said that "how people live is none of our concern, as long as the animals are well taken care of". She then left, pissed off at having had her time wasted. I sent an email to Safety and Compliance with all of my evidence, but have yet to receive a response. We realized last night that the cat's food and water bowls had been moved to the third floor(?!?!?!?!), where, yes, it is in fact quite messy - and outside of the designated area. tl;dr 1) She left the dogs outside the designated area, where they caused property damage then left them alone and roaming the house for 20 hours! 2) She lost my fucking cat and locked him out of the basement where the remaining necessities (water, litter box, etc.) were, on the hottest day in several years - 100F (the basement is very cool year round). 3) She wandered around my entire house. 4) She had the audacity to add the cat to the booking! 5) Chargeback! Each sitter is a separate charge ¹ Protecting the innocent ² Not innocent not protecting