Rover.com rover.com unethical tampering of communications/information Nationwide

Sent: Wed, Mar 1, 2017 9:29 am

Hi. Wow.

Does this mean that if a customer picks her/his dog up early, that I (as sitter) am going to have to report that every time? What about when the dog's people arrive early or come late? That extra work time for a sitter never gets noted/recorded or reimbursed.

These particular customers were last-minute customers and were fully informed before booking--were okay with it-- that ^^^^ would be there to greet them. I was trying to help the customers out in a pinch and accommodate their wish to go skiing early. I did offer to come meet them at a different location and have the dog stay in my car briefly. As happens with a lot of people coming through ~~~~, they just want to get their dog situated fast. Just reread Rover's sitter-customer emails of our dialogue (as the last Rover support person did) as this was all emphasized. There were no surprises on my part.

Let me also inform you/Rover that I never communicated to the customers during the dog's stay that I would not be able to provide overnight services for them, as Rover reports and accepts as fact. Again, check the sitter/customer emails. I also saved all my texts with these customers and would be happy to forward those to you to show you that the customers had other unknown people pick up their dog early in order to avoid an incoming winter storm. I also never did tell these customers that their booking would end early, so please don't state that as fact.

 
These people had questionable emails to me right from the start, as was already brought to Rover's attention, which the customers attributed to their Rover account being hacked.

You/Rover really need to be careful how you address these matters and take action.

What I'm understanding from your email is that these customers called up to lie about me, maybe get a refund? Is this what you're saying?

Or, if you do have some policy where sitters are to report every time someone picks a dog up early, then I can tell you right now that I will no longer use Rover.

Maybe you/Rover should consider "pausing" customers who abuse the system just like you "pause" sitters. If these customers had told me their dog was not house-trained and chewed household items, I would not have taken this dog. He damaged objects and urinated on carpets. It was also not a safe situation for all parties--and I let them know this--that they did not inform me that their dog was not trained for leash walking--could not be walked on a leash. That's an extreme risk.

Let me just say that I care a lot about what I do, taking good care of the dogs entrusted to me, and trying to help people out, while getting paid very little. So I must say that your email is a real turn-off to me.

Sincerely,

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Sent: Mon, Mar 6, 2017 10:25 am

Hello again, Customer Support.

Rover never informed me that a refund would be given to the client. Rover did not review my case before siding with the customer. Please review my online review of these clients, and please review the Rover emails.

These customers reportedly had their day of skiing, had dinner, but had changed their departure time to get an early start out of ~~~~ to avoid a snowstorm. They never communicated a need of another sitter. My Rover fee is still $30 (from which I receive $25) for the day whether the overnight for the dog is included or not. Please honor and review my rate. In other words, these people would still have had to pay$30 for the day regardless if the dog slept here that night or not. (I encourage Rover to add more rate categories to help avoid such sitter/customer/Rover problems, which have the potential to turn into thorny issues.)

The customers' dog was in my care for eleven hours, which I can prove with the customers' last text. I gave this dog a lot of love, walks, food, and play time. He was never alone the whole time he was here nor was he confined to a yard, kennel, or crate.

It’s interesting that the customers claimed their Rover account was being hacked and wrote me they would not be using the Rover emails anymore as a means of our communicating. Fortunately, I saved our texts and can forward them if you need to see them even though I believe that forwarding texts does not give the actual time of when a text was originally sent. It would therefore probably be best for me to take photos of my phone screen with the texts, upload them to my laptop, and then email them to Rover if Rover needs the times on the texts along with the customer's phone number showing at the top of the phone screen with the messages sent and received.

Please inform these customers that I would not consider future contact with them, either. After their misrepresentation of me, I sent them my reply via Rover as I have the right to do.

I challenge Rover's hasty decision that involved no investigation or discussion with me before a refund was quickly given to the customer. I worked hard for a mere $25, and I do expect to receive the $25 payment for my services—a very small amount--for eleven hours of care that this dog had--not even including the texting, phone conversations, and emails before and after with these customers. This comes out to a dollar-something of earnings an hour for me.

This dog suffered no harm while under my care. He did, however, damage my property, which these customers do not get charged for as Rover does not consider that. They led on that he was housebroken and chewed only on his toys.

Please also note that you state Rover requires a meet/greet for sitters and dogs. Realistically, that doesn't always happen based on emergencies or other situations such as people wanting a quick drop off. Although I offered to meet and greet these customers outside my home—to pick up their dog--they chose to deliver the dog to my home, knowing that I would not be present and that ^^^^ would receive him. So what are you saying?

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*****, I am very sorry that you continue to speak untruthfully to me, Rover, and now the public.  Fortunately, I have our texts and emails as proof.  I tried working with you for the care of your fun, spunky dog that you wanted to drop off without much notice.  I was up front about everything.  You were not.  In response to your claims above:

1)    Before we met and booked the stay, I asked for pertinent information from you about *** in order to take precautions for you, ***, myself, and others. I rely on people being honest with me.  You did not indicate or voice any possible concern that *** is not leash or house trained (yes, he urinated on the carpets) and chewed household items (wood, plastic, cardboard).  Through Rover, you wrote to me that *** is “well trained” and “doesn’t bark or chew.” You also did not inform me by phone or in writing—but told ^^^^—that you wanted *** to have a salve on one of his paw pads before and after walks.  This too is information I as a sitter need to know beforehand in order to address the issue of the flooring or possible proper bandaging for ***.  And when you say you had to “[relay] all the information” to ^^^^ because I wasn’t around, what exactly was “all” your information that you relayed to ^^^^?  All ^^^^ knew about was the salve.

2)    I gave you the option of my coming out to meet you for picking up *** myself or having you come to my residence and having ^^^^ greet you at the door.  You chose the latter because you were wanting to go skiing for the day but also not wanting to arrive at the house before 9:30 AM.  As our emails show, I could have met you when you dropped off *** at the house if you had agreed to come earlier. I was doing you a favor by letting you come at a later time of your choosing.

3)    You state in your review of me that *** “can obviously not be walked off leash this young as they are notorious for running off,” then were you not concerned about my not having a fenced yard due to his inability to walk in a controlled manner with a leash on? And yet you were properly informed via email and on my rover profile about there not being a fenced yard.  Also, the fact that you’re stating—stating only after the visit--that it’s a requirement for *** to be leashed, then why did you not inform me of that important factor before the visit?  I learned on my own that I could not hold *** back, and I certainly didn’t want to unintentionally choke him as the leash tightened with his bolting.  By the way, *** at ten months old is not too young to start leash training.  There are huskies his age and younger who are leash trained. One dog trainer online at iheartdogs.com actually encourages that huskies start leash training at eight weeks old.  In any case, you then write in your review “the fact that [dogsitter] thought it was okay to let [***] off the leash in a new neighborhood worried us.”  Like I said, *** could not be held back with his fiery spirit.  And how were you not aware that you/he were coming to a new neighborhood?  Were you expecting me to walk him somewhere else?

4)    You state you did not feel that *** was safe with me.  Let’s not skip over the fact that I was the one who communicated to you after I had *** under my care that I had concerns about him due to his not being able to be walked on a leash and his picking up objects to bite/chew/swallow.  You state in your review he was apparently “not given his two chew toys” during the stay.  I did not take his chew toys away, believe me.  I even sent you a picture of him with a frog “toy” of ours that he chewed part of the legs off.  Let me assure you your two toys were available for his chewing the entire time.  In fact, we played tug with his rope toy over and over.

5)    Also, you were the ones indicating to me that you wanted to pick up *** early so you could get a head start in driving home for your long trip in order to avoid a winter storm coming in.  I wrote to you prior to that that *** was “doing fine” and was “happy.” (I sent you photos.)  He also by that point had been running around like crazy outside and, luckily, was keeping me within sight and listening to me if I called him (unlike what he was doing before).  You also indicated that you were “not sure if *** would settle down to sleep” that night, which you didn’t explain after I texted you a question about this.

6)    Also, I have no idea who picked up *** since this couple who picked him up did not match your Rover profile photo.  The male just asked how *** was during the stay while the female put *** in the car.  I was communicating with you throughout ***’s stay about how he was doing and what he was doing.

7)    You state that the “whole experience was bizarre.”  What I myself found bizarre were strange emails sent to me from your account that you said you didn’t send.  Your concern was that hacking of your account was going on.  Rover got involved with this issue but did not find hacking. I’ve never had that kind of website experience with any customer before.

Finally, let me just say that I love dogs and I love helping people out in this way.  All my other reviews on Rover are 5-star.  I don’t get paid much for the time and love I put into caring for animals.  Thank you, though, for reminding me about needing to be much more careful about what people I choose to work with and welcome into a private home.  Kennels where people might just drop a dog off and let the dog sit in a cage or cement dog-run all day with other stressed-out dogs can charge more than what I receive for my fee.  It is unfortunate that dog sitters such as myself who enjoy dogs and want to accommodate their people need to be much more on guard as well as charge a higher price for the time commitment involved and the special attention given to each dog and the people involved.

We all take risks.

Best wishes to you and ***.

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Sent: Fri, Mar 10, 2017 10:37 am

Hello again.This has been a troublesome case. House property was damaged by a dog not housetrained, who required extra care and whose people were not up front about his behaviors/needs.  The fact that the customers "*****" supplied an erroneous phone number to Rover is worrisome.  Also, the Rover photo did not match the couple who picked up the dog that night. 
I believe I was not duly compensated for my service and time.  Rover does not split a day and a night fee, but isn't that what you were doing in this situation?  Please consider adding these day versus night categories to your sitter rates.

Although this case is closed, it's been a learning experience.