With a last minute, surprise birthday vacation for me, my partner and I short-listed her for…read morecompanies to call, for two reasons. Primarily, because the language she used on her on her website seemed to suggest that she has a special knowledge and appreciation for cats a step above the rest, and, secondly, because her fees were reasonable: about $10 dollars less per day than other companies we'd looked at.
She returned our voicemail within a few hours, which was great. She also offered to come meet our cat the day before leaving out of town, which gave us more confidence in her. We were relieved that she had availability to take our job last-minute!
Unfortunately, our experience from there went rapidly down hill.
Before our initial meeting, my parter explained the nature of the trip and requested explicity, repeatedly, several times, that she please, not under any circumstances mention where we were going. She must have forgotten that, because mid-way through our meeting, she told us to "have a nice time in xx".
Although it was a simple mistake, one that could easily be chalked up to her being nervous, it was a big let down to my partner to have the surprise spoiled, and it was even stranger that she forgot this explicit instruction so quickly.
She explained to us that she would be sending pictures and text message updates during her visits (she was hired to come daily), so, naturally, we expected there to be daily updates. Granted, she didn't specify the number of updates exactly (although in hindsight that seems like relevant information to give) however, it would have been nice to receive more than 2, during the entire week long trip. Again, despite the fact the frequency wasn't communicated specifically, what could 2 updates possibly offer us for security? It only arose suspicion that she wasn't fulfilling her promise of daily visits.
Arriving home, we were seriously disturbed. Not only had the temperature in our house had dropped to 50 degrees, but our cat had grown an entire winter coat!
The fact that she not only didn't question this with us - which demonstrates a concerning lack of judgment - but allowed it to happen at all - which demonstrates gross negligence - is both irresponsible and unacceptable. Perhaps she didn't visit daily as she said she would and simply didn't know about it - we won't ever know.
Beyond that, it took her more than a week to return our key, and we question her honesty with us about it.
We reminded her a few days after our return (we got along ok with the one key that belonged to my partner, so it wasn't an urgent need), yet, she still didn't return it right away! We contact her again a few days later, and by this time a week had passed. She mentioned this time that she said that she already returned it.
Well, the key wasn't anywhere on our property (we searched!), so either she returned it to the wrong home, or was lying about it. In either case, it reflects poorly on her trustworthiness. Had she visited our home daily, she certainly would have known our address.
Now, we consider ourselves fair people and believe in offering the benefit of the doubt. Honestly, at this point we were beginning to feel mistrustful. Sensing a fib, we gave her an opening to save face ... "are you sure you didn't put it at the wrong house, maybe?" we asked.
She said that "yes, that was it"-- and that she would retrieve it and bring it by later that afternoon.
Well, we can overlook most things, but dishonesty really pushes the edges on what we'll tolerate, since the service we're hiring her for is based on trust, as we place our animal in her care. We don't know for certain that she was dishonest with us, so please don't base your judgment on that alone. What we DO know for certain, however, is that she was responsible for our cat's wellbeing and comfort while we were away but allowed her to stay in such frigid temperatures that she grew a coat.
This is really unacceptable to us. We'll be seeking out another company next time.
