First, obviously my posts this past week have been pretty sparse because we have some pretty big stuff going on this week, which I will talk about more in the future.

OK back to the topic. I really hate writing a review like this because I much rather promote the good than the bad, and ways to save money. However, I had to get my frustration out in writing. I previously discussed our use of a pet sitter in my post Going On Vacation; What About the Pets?

So our usual pet sitter says she is unavailable for our pending Cape Cod trip, and recommended I use PetSit.com to find other license and bonded agents. I searched the Cleveland area sitters, and found sSharon’s Traveling Tails service. The prices were excellent, and upon initial contact, she was available for the weeks we needed.

During my initial phone call last week, I explained to her that we are currently actively selling our house. Therefore, we keep our dogs in the garage to keep our home show worthy at all times. Our dogs happen to shed a lot, and while we are gone, the house needs to remain pristine for showings. When we are home, the dogs are in the home with us, but during the day when we are at work, they typically stay in the garage unless the temperatures are extremely cold or hot. They have a padded enclosure, as well as ample food and water. Our dogs show no signs of stress from their inhabitants and we feel in no way is it considered abuse. I also explained that she will not have access to the inside of the house, thus why the dogs stay in the garage while we are away. I have no idea really who these pet sitters are, and why would I just trust them in my house? No thanks.

We scheduled the free consultation for this week, where the sitter comes over to meet the animals and review all of their requirements (food, water, treats, etc.). As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, our schedule is pretty jam packed all this week, and thus had limited time to meet with Sharon. So both my wife and I hurried home last night to meet with Sharon to review her services. We get get home, hurry and eat dinner, and wait. Our appointment time rolls around, and she still has not shown. So I call to ask whether she is still planning on making our appointment.

An hour and a half later she calls to say she left a message on our home machine saying she did not feel morally right watching our pets since they were in the garage. What? I totally did not expect this. First, when I called initially, I gave all of my contact info including my cell phone for easy access. We do not give out our home phone because we do no use it. Nobody calls it and we do not monitor the machine. So the first sign of horrible service is she does not show up to scheduled appointments, and second, she can not keep track of clients contact information well. Those are two big signs of horrible customer service and a poor business model. Third, it takes an hour and a half to return my phone call. My first thoughts are how good of service are you going to provide my animals while I am away if you have already provided horrible customer service?

Basically what it boiled down to was that Sharon made lots of moral assumptions without ever even seeing the conditions our animals live in while we are away. Who is to say my dogs are not staying in a palace in my garage? What difference does it make whether they are in the house or in the garage? Was she trying to get access to the inside of my house to steal all of my belongings? I could totally understand if after you came over and met the animals, and then they had poor living conditions, and obvious signs of stress, then morally turning down your services. However, when you clearly are off your rocker, and spent no time actually working with your client to meet their needs, you end up losing business! The whole thing just really bothers me that she passes judgement on us without ever even meeting us or our animals. So much for saving some money. Back to find a new pet sitter; just what I needed on my plate this week.