Pet-sitter mad I cancelled her and went with another after she didn't get back to me. AIBU?

[jawsnsharks]

Fully prepared to get told IABU.

In only a few short weeks we are off on holidays. Arrangements that were in place for our dog have unfortunately fallen through so now I have to find a pet-sitter at less than 2 weeks notice. Unsurprisingly, with it being high season this is proving a bit difficult as competition for spare places is fierce.

Through an online dog-sitting page on facebook I find a sitter 20 minutes from here. She asked for initial fee to come out and meet the dog, to see if it was a good fit for her (she already has a dog of her own). I felt this was a responsible approach and was prepared to be given a 'no' as much as a 'yes' without feeling hard done by that she had had money for this.

So she came out yesterday at 15:15 and was 15 minutes early for the appointment, which was a good indicator of her keenness. Appointment went well, we asked questions, she asked questions and it felt like it was a good fit. She wouldn't commit to looking after him until she had spoken with her husband which felt a bit weird as she's supposedly set herself up as a pet-sitter, but heh ho, beggars can't be choosers.

Waited all last night for a text from her (but didn't message her as it was Friday night and didn't want to be a pain etc...). This morning I waited until 10:30, what with it being a Saturday and having had no answer sent a text thanking her for the visit and asking if she had an answer for us yet. Well by 15:00 we'd heard nothing, not even an acknowledgement and holding message even though I could see she had been online several times in the day. At this point I had to assume it was a scam or she was flakey. So I started looking for anther solution. Thankfully, a kennels a bit further away has a place for the dog and even though we are paying for a full week when we are away for shorter time, we snapped the place up to be sure of the place.

So at 18:23, more than 24 hours after her visit, I message her to tell her that without an answer, and no 'holding answer' we had sorted out other arrangements. I said I was disappointed that she hadn't got back to us, even if the answer was a 'no I can't look after him'. Well! She's got very shirty with me, saying it's the weekend, she'd said she had to talk to her husband, she's been at a birthday party all day. I tried to keep the tone positive, and said that next time she should at least communicate with her customers about when they should expect an answer from her so they don't do as we did and find another solution. I even wished her good luck with her business. She's then come back with it being unreasonable and she's never had a customer who hadn't given her 24 hours before expecting an answer. I finally pointed out that it was over 24 hours at the point I messaged to say I'd found another solution. To which she's just send 'OMG' and a laughing emoji.

Sorry, I wang on a bit don't I?

TD,LR dog-sitter left it more than 24 hours to confirm arrangement then got shirty that I'd found other care for dog.

So, who was in the wrong

YABU - you should have waited longer to hear from her
YANBU - she's having a laugh. She cannot be serious about running a business if she doesn't communicate in a timely fashion with her customers.

You weren’t being unreasonable at all.

If she’s advertising as a business, why on earth does she need so much time to check with her husband if it’s OK.

Her unprofessional response (having pocketed £35) says it all.

Sounds like you had a lucky escape!

Then why did you pay her to come to your home? Personally I’d want to visit the pet sitter or kennels if my dog was to go stay there. I wouldn’t shame her online but I don’t think you were unreasonable to go with someone else, what if you just hadn’t of liked her? Why was everything on her terms?

Exactly !
i wonder how many £35 she earns without doing the actual job ?🤔

She's a scammer. Why was the meet at your house if the dog was to be looked after at her house? Surely it would make more sense for you to bring the dog to her so you could check out her house, garden, family, security, pets etc. I'd be thanking my lucky stars she hasn't got my dog and letting everyone know to be careful of her.

Im a dog-sitter…i have to be licensed with local council and have public liability insurance. I never charge for meet and greets and also offer free 2 hour trial sessions if a dog has never been left with a sitter before. I would have a meet and greet in my house so owner can see my house and garden and meet my dog to make sure theyre happy. I always respond promptly and couldnt imagine sending an arsey text to someone. She sounds dodgy but sadly there are dodgy sitters around taking advantage of desperate owners trying to find dog care. I turn down requests every day…theres a lot more dogs than sitters where i live.

hmm.. summary.. this person was a timewaster

I haven't RTFT but my first thought is what sort of business is she running if she has to check with her husband first ??? Surely she should have checked with him before she took your 35 quid. You paid her so she could see if she was a good fit with your dog which it seems like she was not for her then to dither about and check with her husband if she could dog sit. Personally I think you should ask for a refund!

She sounds a bit of a nightmare. She got £35. Expecting a quick reply was v fair. Definitely best to know now.,

Yes because that implies that even if the meet and greet was successful, whether it went ahead or not depended on whether the husband agreed. If she didn't know whether he agreed or not.. what was she doing taking £35 off you for what had a good chance of being a fruitless visit.
She knew that yet got arsey about it.

And also she knew that you only had a tight deadline... you didn't have the time to wait. You made that clear. She should have prepared herself to say yes or no at the end of the visit, otherwise what was the point?

In our area, there was a notorious kennel owner who would charge exhorbitant amounts of money and didn’t allow cancellations, was rude, many dogs got injured etc etc. I think this business attracts lunatics more than most other industries. £35 to play with a dog for a bit? On par with junior lawyers’ rate.

If it was a booking for a holiday quite a way off in the future, maybe. But this holiday is only a few weeks away and something else had already fallen through. In these circumstances OP didn’t really have time to piss about waiting.

Yes but a lot of small business owners do not work at weekends. They are entitled to the weekend off, the same as the rest of us are.

A small busines owner came in this thread and said that she never answers calls or emails at the weekend.

Then that should be made clear. OP had 2 weeks before her holiday as something had fallen through. Sitter should have said she'd let her know Monday. Them everyone would know where they stand. I've recently just found a new a sitter and at one point had 3 lots of messages on the go from different people because I needed an answer so I could book my holiday and my husband could book time off work.

I would absolutely do this. Keep it factual, post screenshots, she's unprofessional and childish as well as rude. She deserves an honest review.

You've been had I'm afraid. I've been a pet sitter for years and I never charge for the initial visit no matter how far away it is. The fact that she charged tells you all you need to know. Money before animals and that's not ok.

There's an awful lot more to good quality pet sitting than that. That said I'd never charge for an initial visit and my visit which can easily last a couple of hours or he overnight in the case if a dog, prices are less than a third or less than she charges.

I put YABU as 1. Why did you pay her to say hi to a dog? 2. I don't think there was any need to send another message after you'd booked the kennels.

Your title is also inaccurate. You didn't cancel her as you hadn't booked anything. She wasn't mad you cancelled, she was annoyed with the length of time you gave her to respond.

Are you the dog sitter @Mitara? You seem exceptionally defensive of this woman.

if not, do you really think it was reasonable for her to have charged £35, having said she had the dates available and it was just to check that she got on ok with the dog, without ever mentioning up front that she would still need to check with her husband? It certainly sounds like a great money making scheme when you look at it like that, doesn’t it?

OP you are fine to share the screenshots etc - how a business communicates with its customers is important, and the woman should have replied in a way that she would be happy with it being shared. She was unprofessional, rude and looking more like a scammer. Obviously don’t call her a scammer (without proof it’s a scam that you could get into trouble for), but definitely post as a warning to others that if you pay this, there’s no guarantee that she will take the booking and you are sharing the screenshots as the evidence of this as well as to show how unprofessional her attitude is.

If she can’t find 2 minutes to reply to a text (even if just to say “hectic weekend, I’ll give you a definite answer on Monday morning”), then I wouldn’t trust her to find the time to look after my dog.

OP is going on holiday soon and doesn’t have time to mess around with flaky people. She made a perfectly reasonable judgement call, and the dog sitter was rude in response.

Are you the dog sitter?

she should definitely post this for others to see. It seems almost like a scam on the dog sitters part, but extremely unprofessional at least. She should have “checked with her husband” before wasting OP’s money and time. And she should have let her know how long she would have to wait for a response. Maybe 24 hrs is okay if OP had months until she needed the service, but with 2 weeks to go she needed an answer quickly, and failed to respond to any of her messages.

The dog sitter has been very rude, unprofessional, and wasted a big amount of OP’s money in the process, and it’s only right that this information is shared with other potential customers so that others can make their own minds up. That’s not being vindictive, it’s sharing an honest review about the service she received.

😂

You aren’t unreasonable. If she’s charging £35 to come and meet the dog, the understanding should be that she is essentially booked for the job unless something dramatic happens at the meeting.

There shouldn’t be any question about if she’s available, she should know that already before she charges for a meeting!

Also why should she check with her husband? I'm assuming here that the op asked beforehand if the sitter was available for the days she needed,before sorting the meeting.

Definitely share the screenshot so others don't fall for this charlatan.

Sounds like she's scamming £35 a time for doing sod all.

Arthur Dailey would be proud of her.