This was not our first time boarding here, so I was really taken aback by my experience this time. This review is based upon the experience I had at drop off this visit. It was unlike anything I have ever experienced from an animal service provider.
On drop off from 7 am - 10 am this past Thursday, July 2, I thought I had arrived a couple of minutes late. This was based on the "welcome" I received from Patty. Instead of being greeted with the normal "hello" or "good morning" I was yelled at that, "the walkies were already inside and normally there's a $65 charge for late arrivals." This was after pulling up to the kennel drop off area, getting all dog supplies and dogs out of the car, and looking for the walkie to call in that I was here.
I apologized, and said I was worried that I may be a couple minutes late because I was stuck behind two Caltrans trucks who were on there way to a road repair nearby the facility. I was then told, "you just don't seem to get it...and would a bank wait for you if you were late..." I asked again what time drop off ended -- if in fact it was over before 10 am at say 9:45, and I was told, no and clearly I don't understand or get it that this business does these things for a reason. The berating continued and at one point, I began to walk back to my vehicle with my dogs saying if this was causing so much inconvenience, I would have my husband bring them tomorrow, since we had had a change in plans with his departure. I was told not to be ridiculous and that would be a waste of time...so I continued back to dropping off my dogs. I was so shaken, I mentioned that I did not appreciate being humiliated and I was then told, "we all have days when we feel like crying..." What? Well, let's just say I did not feel like crying. I was really taken by surprise. And honestly, I was angry at how I, the customer, was being treated.
Once the dogs were taken from me to the kennel area and Patty stopped to talk to one of the staff members near the kennel, I returned back to my car and picked up my cell phone for the GPS time (I wish now that I would have had my phone in my hand at my greeting). After all this craziness, it was 10:04 am. When Patty returned and I indicated what time it was when she was at the kennel, the whole diatribe began again. At this point, I think she has assumed I would have left, but I waited after she had walked away, as I had wanted to ask questions regarding high temperatures forecasted and how the dogs are handled during those timeframes. This was a brief conversation and I was still incredibly uncomfortable. I left upset and worried. I honestly questioned my decision to have turned the dogs over after all of that, but I also felt that I might be out any care for my dogs over the 4th if I looked elsewhere.
As a side note, this facility is not in town, it's out in the country, and certainly when you have a scheduled drop off, one would think that there would be a little flexibility in that sometimes things happen outside of our control. I could also understand if I showed up say at 10:15 or 10:30 and had no regard for the kennel's schedule. But what bothered me even more as I drove off, was that I have referred friends to this facility because I was so impressed in the past with the facility, it's cleanliness, country location, service, etc.
Today upon pick up, I will say, I was nervous about what I might experience. However, I was pleasantly greeted by Chris, whom I had not met before. As I gathered the dogs things, and she indicated the dogs would be up shortly, I prepared to write my check and we chatted about the holiday.
My two dogs were boarded together for four (4) 24-hr periods. However when I picked them up today with Chris the final price seemed too low (she initially said the total was $100.00 but that didn't align with the $19/per dog/per day). She recalculated the price, and that was based on 5 days which I questioned, since the 5th day was today, and they were picked up at 9 am. Chris was very friendly and polite and explained that this is based on labor and kennel industry standards. But I remain a little confused, because I have picked up the dogs before in the morning and not paid for the whole day. In the end, I am happy to have my dogs home, but very likely will be looking for new boarding arrangements in the future. read more