We recently moved to the city and have had trouble finding an independent groomer, so I wanted to give the local PetSmart a try because I'm running low on options. I made an appointment online for a Monday morning at 8am. On Friday I received a voicemail that the online system doesn't work and so the groomer had been double booked. The groomer who left the message seemed nice enough and apologetic (and it's not really her fault if the system doesn't work), and she offered to take him at 7am instead. She asked me to call back just to confirm.
I called back around midday on Friday (a few hours after the call from them), and I was met with the classic number prompts. I routed myself to the grooming section and someone answered the phone right away and said "PetSmart Grooming, hold please". Fine, understandable. I then waited 5+ minutes on hold, and the phone started ringing. Someone else picked up and said something I didn't really catch, but I assumed I was still speaking to the groomer section of the store and explained the situation. This surly person said "this isn't the grooming section, I'll transfer you", to which I said "I did call the grooming section, I was just on hold for a while, I didn't call this department, sorry I guess something got mixed up", "I'll transfer you to the grooming section".
I then sat on hold again for another 5+ minutes before someone answered very surly, and I explained the situation. She then SIGHED and said "well I guess I'll put this dog down first" (I'm sure she didn't intend that to sound so ominous). She came back and I explained again that I had a message to just bump my appointment back by an hour, not a big deal. She then started slowly looking things up. At this point, given everything that had happened, everyone's rudeness and that they're clearly understaffed in the grooming section, I decided I did not want to take my dog here after all. I asked if I could just cancel instead and she said fine (did not care in the slightest, they must be busy enough that new people don't matter), then we had a fine lengthy back and forth where she could not comprehend my dog's name, but at this point I didn't care anymore and just wanted to cancel the damn thing.
I won't go here for a groomer, hell I won't even buy stuff here. I'm told a new place is opening in Burlington and I'll happily go there instead.
If you're lucky enough to still be in Toronto proper, look up Debbie's Grooming, she is amazing and we'll miss her! read more