Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  10/24/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Sales and Advertising Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Despite having prior good experiences with ***** (208petsitter) we recently experience a very unethical and unprofessional situation. ***** cancelled a pet sitting booking 2 weeks prior to our October 2024 trip, telling us she had to cancel all of her bookings for the rest of the year due to an "unexpected life event". We asked to be refunded our 50% deposit money paid (with a written contract as proof) as we had to hire a replacement pet sitter. ***** is refusing to return our deposit money, despite being the one to cancel on us and our contracted agreement we have had with her for over 6 months. I have tried to reach out by phone and email to come to some kind of an amicable solution and she will not respond. In addition, her business website is no longer active. I summary, 208petsitter collected deposit money for services to be provided October 2024, cancelled providing these services, and is refusing to refund the deposit money.

  Business response

  11/19/2024

  The customer canceled two dog sitting dates and deposits were graciously held over by me to accommodate her changing schedule. I have proof of invoices sent and her agreement of cancellation policy. She was aware deposits were nonrefundable. She canceled May, 2024
  booking and canceled September, 2025 booking.
  
  I have clear documentation of our agreement, including the invoices, cancellation policy, and the customer's awareness that deposits are nonrefundable.
  

  Simply put: did the customer cancel any dates? The answer is yes.
  And for those two cancellations for her two separate bookings, there are held deposits. It's my policy and she agreed to it and I am including proof.

  
  Im a small local business and I have hundreds of happy customers. This is the first *** had a customer dispute and agreed-upon forfeited deposit.

  Customer response

  11/22/2024

   
  Complaint: 22471315
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  We had an initial dog sitting arrangement for May 2024 which we did have to cancel due to medical reasons. ****** the owner of 208Petsitter told us she would apply our deposit toward our pet sitting arrangement we had also secured for October 2024. A few weeks prior to the October pet sitting dates, ***** abruptly cancelled the pet sitting arrangement with us. She is obligated to refund the deposit we had paid her for that pet sitting arrangement.

   I initially was interested in booking her for September 2025 pet sitting, and inquired as to her availability via text. Soon after. *****/208petsitter abruptly cancelled on us for October 2024 contracted pet sitting arrangement. We requested  numerous times for her to provide a new contract with September 2025 pet sitting dates, as well as the carried over deposit amount from May to apply toward a new booking for Sept 2025, and the refund amount we were due for her October cancelation. *****/208petsitter assured us she would send an updated contract, and also stated she would calculate our refund when she returned from out of town as she stated she did not have her laptop with her. Despite all of this, including follow up requests, she never provided either of these . This was unexpected behavior from *****/208petsitter as in the past she ran her business professionally.  In addition, her business website had been shut down, and she informed us that she terminated all of her pet sitting services through the end of this year, causing us to feeling very unsure of her future intentions in the pet sitting business.

  Ultimately, as a result of *****/208petsitter failing to provide a contract for September 2025 dates,  we had no choice but to ask *****/208Petsitter to fully refund us. We let her know that when she got her business back up and running we were hopeful to be able to use her in the future. At this time is when her tone changed, and we were told she would not be refunding any deposit money paid, despite 208petsitter cancelling for the October 2024 contracted Pet sitting arrangement. I have reached out multiple times via text and email to find some kind of resolution but she does not respond to my inquiries. 

  The only contract we have been provided ( via email ) was the one for May 2024 and October 2024 which I submitted with my initial complaint and I am resubmitting again.  *****/208Petsitter's business format for confirming pet sitting bookings and collecting deposits was emailing clients via Quickbooks, and accepting payment through Quickbooks, as shown by the attachment I provided. *****/208Petsitter has only provided you portions of our text communication, she is not providing you contracts ( because there is not one for any booking for Sept 2025) . In addition, she has selectively omitted submitting portions of our conversation, which I suspect do not fit her narrative. I have saved all of our text communication and I am happy to provide it all to the BBB if necessary.

   Sincerely,

  ******** *****

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