Stay Away!
We were extremely disappointed in Cera's pet sitting service and ended our vacation a week early because we were no longer comfortable with Cera watching our animals.
TLDR: Cera left our pets outside unsupervised at least twice. We cut our vacation short, and Cera was unprofessional in her response to the situation.
The first day of our service, we thought Cera would arrive much earlier. We had left at 10 a.m. and texted Cera she could stop by any time. Early afternoon we texted to find out when she would be there and she said she was trying to get there by 4. Unfortunately, she didn't arrive until almost 7 p.m. We hadn't planned on the dogs being alone that long and would have put our smallest dog in a crate. We believe he had an accident on the floor during this time which we found after we got back, because the urine stain was not on the carpet when we left.
Our security videos indicated Cera left our dogs outside unattended while she was upstairs in our house at least twice (there is very limited view of the backyard from the upstairs rooms that were accessible). During our meet and greet we had specifically asked to not leave the dogs outside unattended. We were unsure how long they were outside the first time, but the second time the video indicated they were outside for more than 20 minutes.
Cera continued to claim they were outside for only 30 seconds while she went to the bathroom, but the video is clear and shows Cera letting the dogs outside and immediately going upstairs. There is no further movement downstairs until Cera comes down to let the dogs in, which we believe only happened at that time because we texted her not to leave them out unattended.
Lastly, after coming home and letting Cera know why I was home early, we were very disappointed in how she reacted to us. Before I had even followed up on our refund, Cera blocked me from messaging her, or commenting on her FB page or leaving a FB review. At that time I felt like her response meant she didn't plan on giving us the rest of our refund.
Ultimately we received a refund of $200, but there was disagreement on how much the refund should have been because Cera later informed us she charges by the calendar day, meaning if she starts on Friday night and ends Saturday morning, she charges for two days. This was not clear up front. Ultimately, she worked less than 42 hours and charged us for 3 days of dog sitting.
There were several other things we saw and occurred that made us glad we came came home early but it was disappointing to feel like we needed to cut our vacation short.
Transparency is a hallmark of a good company and it's a shame she blocks people who have legitimate negative experiences from leaving a review on her FB page. We know she disagrees with the things we have written, but the facts are we have video evidence the dogs were left outside without supervision and we were uncomfortable leaving them with Cera any longer.
If you consider Cera for any services, she has indicated she is not insured and does not meet other requirements by law to provide care in her own home, which is a service she offers. This is not a requirement for pet sitting in other peoples' homes, but we will ensure our next sitter is insured and bonded for a better level of comfort. read more
