TLC Pet Transport (Gale Lang) "Bait & Switch" tactics used on vunerable family traveling cross country Internet

My family and I are still emotionally shaken by the blatant bait and switch tactics used by this business. My wife and I have been in sales for a combined 50+ yrs and have seen a lot of things done, but I think it is a crime to make money off of selling a certain service, getting you to commit and then at the last moment changing gears after collecting a deposit and keeping it after the customer is clearly not satisfied and or fulfilled.

My job relocated me from Virginia Beach, Va. to Orange County, Ca. last Nov. 2011. My wife and I researched transportation options for our beloved 2 dogs and decided to give TLC a try. The owner Gale Lang was "as sweet as pie" stating she would be very accommodating to our needs providing 2 drivers and a private van since our dogs are 100lbs each and are aggressive towards other animals. Gale continuously stated this would be no problem providing we give her 30 days notice. I stated to her that we would give her as much time as we could as this was a corporate relo and involved the selling of a home on one coast and acquiring a home on the other.

I made that initial call to Gale in Feb 2012, and as we got closer to the move happening I periodically called to state we were still interested and I could be more accurate when we sold our property and set dates with the movers. As we got within the 30 days I called Gale to book and at that time she told me she could only provide 1 driver who would be a new female she just hired, and thats the best she could do. I felt taken at the time and expressed my concern to Gale, so she said "I will see what I can do" but will need a $100 deposit to book the drivers. I sent in $100 as we felt we were to far in to change plans. Once we locked dates with movers we had our dogs in a kennel trying to coordinate a date with Gale that would work with our flying back out west and getting our dogs their new home. Gale could not accommodate a date that worked so we ended up flying back east to pick up our dogs and personally driving 3000 miles in a rented minivan ourselves as we were out of options and dogs had been in a kennel over 3 weeks. This cost us countless money over-budget, and lost time at work to accommodate kennel and unexpected trip across the country. Gale not only did not provide a service but was completely "inconsiderate" of our needs at a very stressful time in our lives. What some companies will do for $100!!