Pampered Pets & Plants, Inc., Susan Luffey, Kelly Stilts Pet Sitting agency claiming 80 employees, bailed on us 4 weeks before our wedding, no backup plan for employees who leave! Prescott and Prescott Valley Arizona

We hired Susan Luffey and Pampered Pets and Plants Inc in Prescott Valley several months ago, to watch our many animals while we go to England (where my husband is from) for our wedding and a family reunion in July.

We have 12 animals (9 cats and 3 dogs) from a closed animal rescue, and we have some unique circumstances.  All of this was fully explained and accepted by Susan Luffey personally by phone and email.  She assigned Kelly to us and the same was explained to her by me over the phone and by email…  As we got closer to the time, we could not get Kelly to response via voicemail in less than 3 days., and it took her 48 hrs to send me her email address, which is in a man’s name.  Then we found out that she could not text or email from her phone, and that she shared her cell phone with another person.  At this point we asked for another sitter to be assigned.  This was about a month ago.

Susan wrote me back personally and had a compromise for us on how Kelly would contact us every single day in England, at least three times a day (one contact for every visits, 3 times a day) and Susan sang Kelly’s praises and told us how reliable she was and how she really was the right person for our unique situation, so we trusted her.

Last week a few hours before our first scheduled meet and greet, Kelly cancelled due to illness and being in the emergency room.  (Fair enough)  So we rescheduled three more visits before our trip.  Lats night a few hours before we were supposed to meet with Kelly again for the first time, we get this email and voicemail on my phone from Susan:

“susan 

6:37 PM (17 hours ago)
to me

Hi Rita,

I just learned that Kelly is not going to be able to meet with you this evening for the get acquainted visit.  Kelly has had a family emergency and will not be available to pet sit in July.  I do not have another pet sitter available, as we are booked. I have also left you a voicemail on your cell phone letting you know.

I am very sorry about this and I want to help you secure another pet sitting company!  Here are two websites that you can review for other pet sitting companies.

www.appsa.net

www.azvalleypetsitters.com

I am happy to help narrow down a company for you if you would like.

Best Regards,
Susan 

Susan Luffey, Owner
Pampered Pets & Plants, Inc.
http://www.pamperedpetsandplants.com
602-547-1121 office
602-993-4135 fax
602-403-3516 cell
“They’re not just pets…..they’re family”

I immediately called Susan and asked what was going on and she would not give me any real answer or explanation as to why we were being dumped or why she could not get anyone else in her employment to help us.  We have never met either person, and up until yesterday had nothing but pleasant conversations via phone and email.

Susan’s website boasts that she has 80 employees.  How do you have 80 employees but you have no actual backup plan in case one of your employees bails on your client?  Kelly could genuinely have a family emergency, but I don’t care.   I wish her no ill will, but once again, we don’t care.  Pampered Pets lured us in with their website and telling us over the phone how reliable they were and how we had nothing to be worried about, but they have no backup plan in case their employees “get hit by a bus”…how is that possible if your job consists of  caring for living creatures?  What was the plan if this happened while we were in England?  The animals would starve to death and not get their needed medication, and we quite likely would come home to several deceased pets, in that instance.

And Susan’s solution to this, is to offer us names of websites?  That is not acceptable!  How do you run a pet sitting service when you don’t have a backup plan to care for the pets?  It is inconceivable that she has 80 employees, yet not one of them could fit our times in between some of their other visits.

So we really have no idea what happened here, but we are posting this complaint so people realize that per Susan, if they cancel on you, she has no backup plan for your pets.  In particular I am posting this, because I googled the heck out of Susan Luffey and Pampered Pets and Kelly and could not find any complaints against them.  Had I read previously from someone else, what in am now writing, I never would have hired them…  There is simply nothing Susan can say or do to make this right and now we may actually have to cancel our wedding because so far we cannot get anyone else to sit for us with our unique situation, because it’s going to be in July in Phoenix, and everyone is leaving town to get away from the heat.…

I find the last sentence on Susan’s email signature to be completely ironic and nauseating, given that she was apparently going to let our pets starve to death if Kelly had waited until we left town to have a family emergency or got ill...

“They’re not just pets…..they’re family” 

Really??????