i have never reviewed a business on yelp before, but my experience with right at home pets was one that needed to be shared.
I travel for work and am out of town 5-15 days per month. friends had been taking care of my cat while I was gone, but when they reIocated i began interviewing pet services to provide daily visits to feed/water/hang out with my cat. I talked with several different companies and decided to go with right at home, as they checked most of the boxes.
on the days I was out of town, i would receive an e.mail update and photo after each visit and there was never anything major to report.
within a month or so, there was a staffing change and cat sitter number two was doing the visits. not long after that, cat sitter number three was doing the daily visits. i wasn't thrilled that 4 people had now been in my home while i was away - from a security standpoint as well as a stability for my cat standpoint, but I continued receiving updates and photos and I assumed everything was okay.
i did find it odd that more often than not i was told that my cat stayed in her bed/cave for all or most of the visit and the pictures i received were often of her in her bed. my cat is burmese and while she can be a little shy initially, she is the most social cat i've ever encountered and craves human contact. when i'm home she follows me from room to room and the minute I sit down, she's on my lap.
there were also times i returned home to find the food dish empty, which was unusual, and what seemed like more waste in the litter box than there should have been.
i decided to buy a sensor that would notify me every time my door was opened and closed. I really, really wish I had done it sooner. on the first visit after the sensor was installed, the 25-30 minutes I had (pre) paid for lasted all of 12 minutes. on the second day, the normal visit time came and went - with no notification about the door opening/closing and no e.mail from the cat sitter. i waited and waited and finally a few hours later, the sitter from rahp e.mailed saying they had forgotten to e.mail me earlier, but had in fact stopped by to feed/water/empty litter box like usual and everything was okay.
shortly after I got that e.mail, my landlord texted me to let me know he was going to stop by to install a ceiling fan. I asked him to check the food and water bowls when he got there and to take a picture - they were empty. he filled the bowls and I called sandra to tell her what happened.
I asked that she not contact the person yet because I assumed they were just behind schedule and would stop by later. they never did. I could not believe that someone would deliberately leave my cat alone and without food for 24+ hours (i'm assuming they were planning on showing up the next day) and then send an e.mail assuring me my cat had food and water and everything was fine.
I highly doubt these were isolated incidents and the fact they happened on day one and day two after the sensor installation seems to support this theory. I have to wonder how many times they've no showed before - and how many times they've done the same thing to other people's pets.
sandra stopped by my place that night and checked in on my cat and followed right up with me, but after that I was less than impressed with the way she chose to handle the situation. it's not about the money, but had it been me in her position I would have immediately refunded the no show day as well as the previous day with the 12 minute visit - and that would have just been for starters while I figured out what else I could do to regain the trust of my customer.
I also would have had no choice but to terminate that employee - what they did was unconscionable, they could never be trusted again and they put the reputation of my business at risk.
sandra did not terminate the employee, which left me with no choice but to terminate our business relationship. I could no longer trust them being in my home and I certainly couldn't trust them to visit, feed and water my cat in my absense. sandra never offered any kind of refund, nor did she offer to return my keys so I had to have the locks changed on the building door as well as my apartment door.
i highly recommend anyone using any pet service consider installing some type of sensor so they can have piece of mind knowing their pets are being taken care of as promised.
the one and only good thing that came out of this is that I found a truly first rate cat sitter that is reliable, honest and whose pictures usually show my cat sitting on his lap. read more