If you don't want to read my entire review, the short version is Tristan says he walks your dog when he actually doesn't so he can get paid for services not rendered. Because he owns the app that his company uses (Pet Check Technology), he can manipulate the program to send you an email saying that your dog has been walked when he has not actually walked your dog. I would not recommend this company for anyone looking for a pet sitter. Below are my reasons why:
(1) In my initial conversations with the owner (Tristan), he indicated that our dog walker would be Wendy. My husband and I asked to meet her to ensure that she was comfortable with our dog, and also to ensure that we trusted her with having the keys to our apartment. After meeting with her, we went forward with choosing Sitters4Critters. It wasn't until we looked at the online calendar that the company provided that we discovered that Wendy actually was not walking our dog 5 times a week. In actuality, she was only walking him three times a week, and other unknown persons were walking our dog the other two times a week. This means we had no idea who was in our apartment the other two days of the week, whether it was the same person every time, or even who this person was. This was frustrating because Tristan, at no time, indicated that Wendy was only available 3 times a week. We would have had no problem with this were we at least notified of this fact and had the opportunity to meet this second person.
(2) When we paid our weekly fee, we found that there was an additional fee of 3%. Again, in my initial conversations with Tristan, I specifically asked if there were any additional fees in addition to the flat rate of $17 a day for gas, transportation, etc. due to where we were located (Fishtown). Tristan said "Fishtown is our daily dog walking territory . . . There is no extra charge getting to Fishtown." The receipt states that this 3% charge is due to the fact that "2017 gas and employee expenses are expected to rise." Tristan lied and said there would be no additional fee for gas or transportation to Fishtown.
(3) One day, Wendy had an emergency with her child and was not able to walk our dog. We understood and tried to call Tristan to see who would be walking our dog, and at what time our dog would be walked. My husband called Tristan and left a voicemail but did not hear back from Tristan. We received no notification at all from the company until 3pm, when we received an email notification that our dog had been walked. Based on the facts below, I don't believe our dog was walked as there were no pictures of the walk, and the email notification was sent two minutes after my husband called the company a second time to see what was happening with our dog.
(4) On a day that Wendy was not scheduled to walk Warren, I received an email notification that the walk started at 11am. I did not receive a second email notification that the walk had ended. When I tried to find out what was going on, I didn't receive a response until hours later. Tristan's response was, "I think the network had something to do with it." For this walk, therefore, I received no pictures and no notification as to how long the actual walk was. I assumed though, still trusting in Tristan and the company, that my dog had been walked that day. Later, Wendy told us that she discovered that our dog had not been walked. Instead, Tristan simply sent the email notification to us while he was at his second job, stating the walk had started and forgot to send the second email stating that the "walk" had ended. He was able to do this because he owns the application that his company uses, so he can manipulate the program to send you an email saying that a walk has been completed even if it hasn't. As a result of this lie, Tristan was paid for services never rendered. When my husband and I discovered that our dog had actually never been walked on this day, Tristan stated that we had never been charged for this walk. This was a lie, as we had paid full price for the entire week's worth of walks. When my husband notified Tristan that we had been charged for this walk, Tristan did refund us for this walk. However, I do not trust that my dog has actually been walked now on several occasions because we received email notifications that the walk had been completed with no pictures of the walk and no gps record of the walk.
Edit: First, to Tristan's argument that dog walkers came on an "emergency" basis. It was every week that we had unknown persons in our apartment two times a week and Wendy was scheduled to only walk our dog three times a week.
Second, to your argument that the missed walk was due to a dog walker's emergency: this was not the occurrence that I was referring to in my post above. While there was another time that Wendy did not walk our dog due to an emergency, the occurrence I was referring to was a day Wendy was not scheduled to walk him, and she stated as such. read more
