Let me start by saying that for the first two plus years of using Christina and this company, I had very few complaints, in fact I thought she was warm, friendly, and helpful. Her invoices often aren't timely and they switch walkers without prior notice, but I completely understand that given how peoples schedules change. Let me also say that I have spent the last 10 years working directly with business of varying sizes and am therefore pretty patient, but I am a firm believer that the true measure of a company is how they handle a situation that goes wrong rather than how they handled it when things go well.
With that preface, one of the company's walkers was walking my two dogs (a 12 pound chihuahua mix and a 75 pound lab shepherd) when the walker lost control of my lab when another dog from the neighborhood with whom he does not get along came outside. A dog fight ensued and my neighbor put his arm in the middle to break up the fight and was therefore bitten (barely a surface bite that did not require stitches) by either my dog or his, though his assessment was it was mine. My dog has a history of not getting along with some dogs and I was full disclosure about that from the beginning and I was assured that it was no issue and they have experienced walkers, and again, they would have known these habits of my dog considering they've walked him for over 2 years. Neither the walker nor Christina informed me that this incident occurred, instead my brother saw a picture of my house, my full address, and a warning about my dog and the incident on NextDoor over 2 days later. When I called Christina she said she had plans to call me that day and the she was there to support me and because her walker was supposed to be in control of my dog at the time, she would be financially responsible for anything that happened. I had no reason not to believe Christina as she sounded warm and genuine and while I was a little annoyed that she didn't tell me and about the incident in general, I completely understand that things happen and I was happy to work with her. In the coming weeks, I was visited by animal control twice (the first time my dog was deemed perfectly friendly) and was served with a notice to appear in court. Again, Christina was right there, apologizing and being supportive. As I was working through the next steps, including immense fear that I would lose my dog, I contacted a lawyer who suggested I get the Four Dog Paw's insurance information in case I was sued considering it was her company who was supposed to be in control of my dog. When I requested that information from Christina, that's when everything changed. She dropped my dogs via email at 5pm when I had a walk scheduled the next day (clearly I needed the walks for a reason with my schedule) and demanded a final invoice be paid. I held off, waiting to hear the results of my court hearing, which was a code violation with restitution rather than a lawsuit. Between the court fines and fee for my lawyer, I was in about $2k at this point and I was given a year of probation (even though I wasn't on the scene). I sent Christina an email reminding her of her promise to pay and I requested she at least waive the final invoice. Not only did she not respond to my email, a month later she sent another invoice as if I never sent an email. Again I implored her to waive the cost considering the financial and emotional damage this has caused, and again, no response. About a week ago I received a third invoice saying if I didn't pay, she would file with the Denver Court. At this point, I'm exhausted with the whole ordeal, so I paid it. I think this is a deplorable way to run a business and considering these are animals and things happened, she should be better equipped to handle these situations (she later told me that had she known about my dog, which she did, she wouldn't have had this walker walk him since she can't handle any dog that's not completely calm and consistent. Seems to me that person should never be walking two dogs at once then since there are too many factors). It's shameful that someone who I thought would really stand by me during an incident that was a direct result of her company's neglect would turn this way. Buyer beware here. It's perfectly fine until it's not. read more
