Rover

I hired a 20 yr old woman to pet sit and house sit. Her reviews were great. She was an absolute nightmare. Left my dogs in their kennel 16 1/2 hours the first night. I found this out because my ring doorbell monitors all movement. She put them in at 4:30 and didn't come back until 8:30 in the morning. I texted her and she said she had to p/u a friend in Denver and would not be back until morning. Their kennels were soaked with urine. My poor babies! Then she tore the front of my kitchen cabinet off in front of the sink. She thought it was the silverware drawer? We just had them refinished! I wrote out a 2 page instruction for her and she didn't read a damn thing. She didn't feed the pups hardly at all. The canned food was still in the cabinet. The pups were dying of thrist when we go home yesterday, their still gulping down water today. Asked her to water the flower in the baskets outside... their all dead! I am so mad I could spit. First time I used Rover and last. I was dumb enough to pay her cash and a very good tip up front. If I could give no stars I would.

This was the second time we used Rover.

First Time: The woman gave my pet the wrong food, and he passed away 3 months later. He was a medical cat. My lessons learned were that I went with a cheap sitter and probably did not look for reviews as much as I should have.

Second Time: This was just last week while we were on the other side of the nation. I had three walkthroughs with this person, he had plenty of great reviews. I come back to a house where my window sill was broken, my pets did not have water, my dog was crated most of the time, and worst of all: There was evidence of drug usage in my home. My car also seemed like it had been driven, and my pets were not very happy.

I am very sad about this service. I have spent both times really doing my due dilligence with trying to provide proof of these incidents, and they always come back with a generic message saying they essentially will do nothing and do not care. How can a pet service be this way? I trusted this for the last time. Thanks for making my financial status and home status worse with trusting your service. You are bad people.

I hired a sitter through Rover to take care of my two cats while I was away during the Christmas holiday. On Christmas Eve, the sitter sent me a text message asking me to give her a call. When I called, she gave me an odd story about having her tonsils removed, getting a rental car, and then the actual point of the entire conversation - she had lost the keys to my apartment! I called the Rover emergency line, and they suggested I call a locksmith. This really wasn't an option since a locksmith cannot just give keys to someone who does not live there, and I felt very uncomfortable giving another set of keys to this very irresponsible person. This would have also locked me out of my own apartment! Since I am new to San Antonio (husband is active duty military) I did not have anyone else I could call to help.

I ended up canceling most of my vacation plans to come home and make sure my cats were ok. Needless to say this ruined my Christmas and plans I had with family and friends.

This was my first (and last!) experience with Rover. I thought they would be able to help in the event of an emergency, but they did nothing. (They did offer me a $100 credit after this whole fiasco. No way in hell I would ever trust them again!) I'm not even sure if Rover did anything about this careless sitter. My advice - stay away from Rover and only trust someone you know or a boarding facility to take care of your animals if you will be out of town.

This is the second time. The first time I used them I had a lady come to my house specifically to make sure my dog was walked many times a day. I paid three times the other sitters, hoping I would get good service. I think she maybe took him out once a day, and arrived at my house with a cold.
I thought I'd try again. Just booked Destiney D...to take care of our 5 mo old puppy...OMG...she was hired and paid well to come at noon and at 5. Well, we had a camera. She took the check and she came only at 5. The puppy had an accident. I told her I knew she never showed up earlier. She said oh sorry she had a flat tire. I said so you don't call the owners and tell them? So we could get backup for the poor puppy alone? You work for a company and say because you care about dogs so much. But you would act like you came and never did and I caught you. DONT USE ROVER. They hire anybody! AND just because they do a BK check, doesn't mean these are good honest people, with integrity. Our poor puppy! Probably traumatized forever. DONT USE ROVER!

I am extremely irritated and pissed off with this company. I have been on here for I believe 3 years maybe more and never once have I been informed that there are village codes on dog boarding and you can get fined! I have been dog boarding at my current location for 2 years and recently had a competitor complain that I am running a kennel without a license. I didnt realize I was breaking laws because in IL the kennel law is 5 or more dogs. My town doesnt allow ANY dogs to be boarded for profit. You all take my money that I work hard for and don't even care that I and probably a majority of others are breaking laws without realizing it. Getting a kennel license is unrealistic for people on this site like me trying to make a living doing something we enjoy. You're lucky someone hasn't sued you, maybe it's time it happens. You need to tell people when they sign up to check with their village about codes and laws on how many dogs can be in a house for profit. You wont be getting my money any longer since I can't use this app for dog boarding anymore and I will make sure to tell everyone I know not to use you

3 or of 3 of the bookings we made with Rover cancelled shortly before the service was to be provided. I'm not sure if this was genuine problems or people just finding out when we would not be home.

Rover.com
This was the worst experience I have ever had! We usually board our dog with a private sitter while on vacation.
This person has no business being a dog sitter. Her home is completely unfit for animals. The entire property is covered in trash and debris. The inside of her home is covered in trash, urine and dog feces. There was no air conditioning (it's in Las Vegas!). She had 10 dogs in a one bedroom one story apartment. When I dropped off my dog she was at the curb and seemed so nice. It was dark. We were in a hurry, I didn't think about it. I must have caught her off guard when I came to pick up because I came to the door and actually had to come inside to get my dog. The most horrific conditions I have ever seen in this place. My dog wreaks of urine, was completely dehydrated and seemed so traumatized. The sitter tells me during pick up that one of her dogs picked multiple fights with my dog. The crate that I brought is completely covered in urine. The sitter clearly left my dog in there for long periods of time without potty breaks. I had to beg for updates and received only a few out of focus photos during the 4 day stay. The sitter would not respond for hours. I am in shock and disbelief that this happened. Willow is resting peacefully now but I am traumatized and appalled that this person is watching dogs in those conditions. I am so disgusted. There aren't enough words. Customer service at rover.com is a joke. They won't do anything. There is no screening of their sitters. On top of everything she caught a mild case of kennel cough! DO NOT USE ROVER.COM

I have been on rover for 7 years as a carer. It used to be Dog Buddy a wonderful platform, amazing customer service. They used to charge just the first booking. If the cliente repeated the service, no fee would be charged from carers. Unfortunately Rover took over Dog Buddy. Rubbish rover it is.
First, not phone number allowed before the booking is confirmed. Ridiculous, because we can ask the clients number on meet and greet.
Second, rover won't back the carers up nor the client if an incident happens. So clients pay fee thinking their dogs are insured. It is not. If something big or small happens to the dogs, rover won't pay anything. They leave the situation to be solved between carer and client.
Third, rover just count "repeated client" if the client repeat the same service. Ridiculous. If a client books day care and then boarding, this client is not a repeated client. Yes, can you believe it? It's a joke. Listen to this. If a client leaves a 5 star review in your profile and doesn't write anything, rover doesn count as a review. That's it people. If you have 10 clients that gives you 5 star and doesn write anything on your profile- you are still a carer with no review. Rover is rubbish.

It was great at first however the sitter didn't show up after my dogs were crated 8 hours plus thanksgiving eve. I couldn't get ahold of her and ROVER customer service said it's too late at night to call her? She abandoned her job and my dogs were to suffer. My husband was going to book a flight home to get to the dogs... ROVER DID NOTHING TO HOLD THE SITTER ACCOUNTABLE... when I got ahold of sitter another time to cancel she cursed me out called me a effing B***** and said she will handle the cancellation on HER time and lied abt fees etc what a NIGHTMARE

Poor Quality Control:
In the past, I have used this pet sitting service for my 2 toy poodles (7 lbs. each) in Florida and have been happy. But the experience in NYC was extremely disappointing so I question how they screen both the sitter and the apartment the pets will be staying in. My experience demonstrated that they do a very poor job of both. Plus, some of their sitters are extremely expensive – daily rates run from $100 – $75 to care for one dog.

I was dropping my dogs off at the sitter's apartment on the Upper eastside – a very tiny and cluttered studio – only to find a huge Doberman Pincher was being cared for, in addition to her own dog. The apartment was so small and cluttered that it was completely UNSUITED for more than one small dog – meanwhile, she was going to have 4 dogs there.

The Doberman went at one of my poodles and she went into a panic and shook in fear. Thus I was unable to leave my dogs there, and Rover was unable to find a suitable replacement at that last minute – so I was really stranded. A very negative situation that makes me think I may not be using them in the future.

While they do suggest that you have a so-called "meet and greet" before booking a sitter, I was unable to do so because I was in coming from out of town. Just the same, you have to expect that Rover, Inc., has done a minimal amount of screening of the sitters and apartments.
PS I have proof of purchase but it's a PDF file that was not able to upload.

I cannot believe most of these reviews, sorry. I have built up a nice clientele through Rover due to my genuine love of animals, and my professional approach. Sitting for pets is very therapeutic for me since I have lost the last of mine 2 years ago. I treat each and every one of them like my own. I would never do anything to put one in harm's way. I only take 2 at a time to ensure their safety and to properly care for them. I have had owners lie to me about their pets, and have had my house destroyed a few times, but I put that on people being inconsiderate. Not the animals. I take precautions now, stock diapers and make sure I have lots of toys for them to chew on. Rover does take 15% of the fees, and I haven't had any issues where I had to deal with them yet. I hope I never do. But it is a great resource for people who do their homework, take advantage of the Meet and Greets, and be selective WHO you leave your precious furbaby with. I scroll the other sitters from time to time, and I can tell you there are some I wouldn't trust at all. It's a scary world out there, but protect yourself, go with your gut.

I had an account for 2+ years. Someone hacked my account and sent mean messages to my clients, to which someone complained. Rover closed my account because of it.

Went to Vegas for 5 days with my boyfriend after doing a meet and greet with "Danny" from White Rock, BC. Although he seemed a bit odd, he was certainly nice enough and seemed to like my Golden Retriever. I have cameras both front and back at my place and noticed that they had little movement. When I texted Danny he said that he had slept in and would do better. Still no action on the cameras. I again asked him why he wasn't taking my dog out and he assured me he was. Upon our return home, we noticed the back camera had been unplugged, my dog had no food or water (neither did the cats) and was left unattended for 5 days. My pup had made his way into the garage and eaten the contents of the litter box because he was so hungry. Of course this made him extremely sick, he lost almost 6lbs and was hospitalized for 2 days. Bet bill cost me just under $2000. Rover told me that they don't cover vista and brushed it off. I have filed a complaint with the BC SPCA who (thankfully) are taking this matter seriously. Do your research and you will see that there have been Rover pet sitters who have lost peoples dogs and even sold them! Moving forward if I don't have my regular pet sitter, I just won't go away. WORST EXPERIENCE EVER.

Rover does not care about pets. I had to leave town for a family emergency, and the rover hotline refused to even look for another sitter for a cat that needs daily meds while the owners are in another country with limited cell service. The woman on the emergency line screamed at me repeatedly and finally said I needed to either skip a family member's funeral or neglect the cat and face potential legal repercussions (although she screamed again and said it wasn't her job to know when I asked what they laws were in my state regarding sitting companies and emergencies). Not only is it apprehensible to scream at an employee (albeit, a freelance employee you've never met) who is in a state of emergency, but suggesting I might "just neglect the cat" goes against every single thing a pet sitting organization should stand for. Thankfully, I was able to contact the owner's fiancé who was able to contact his friend so that I could give him the keys on my way to the funeral so the cat could eat/get her meds. Please do not work here or use this service if you have any concern for the safety and health of animals. I have multiple repeat clients with 5 star reviews and I have since messaged every single one of them saying I am leaving Rover for another platform. There's a reason there are so many stories of pets being neglected by rover sitters; clearly the company condones that, and therefore all decent sitters will eventually work elsewhere.

I am from Illinois and have used Rover 2 times in the past and was very happy with the person, Bill, who was my dog/house sitter. To make the story short, while I was in Mexico in March 2019, I called and texted Bill all day and I couldn't get a hold of him. I called Rover and they have no emergency plans for anything like this. Luckily, I called my daughter who lives in the area to go to my house and check to see if Bill had been there. When she arrived, it was obvious that Bill had not showed up. My dogs had been left alone at this time for 38 hours. My daughter took the dogs to her house, Bill never did show up, he never called, he never did anything. Rover tried to handle this, but to no avail. Rover has no emergency plans in place for Rover employees. They didn't have anyone else to help us out. I was lucky that I had family to help with my Cavachon Zoey (1 yr old) and my Pomeranian Gus (11 years old), They could have died. I would never trust or recommend Rover to anyone it is too risky!

I have asked 16 times for my miles for using American Airlines miles (2000)plus 5 miles for every dollar spent. 13 to front end clerks three to elevated clerks, promised three times for a promiosed resolution, that was 2 weeks ago.
DO NOT USE THIS TRASH COMPANY.
I will be contacting the BBB. Attorney General.
Liars and horriblle customer service. Probably people who cant get a job a walmart or the bad lot of ex-cons. DISGUSTING. No phone call back, nor, email, text nothing but lies.
The sitter was awesome, however a week later my baby died.
This company is deceitful, diashonest and liars. STAY AWAY. It will be disputed with my Credit card, the lies are so uneal, you would not believe them. STy away STAY AWAY.

PSA for friends and family on using Rover for pets-

I just got notification that my fact only based review of the experience I had with one of the boarders for Rover is being deleted due to us not actually leaving our dog at the residence. The reason I felt the need to write the review (I promise I have better things to do) was to make sure people were aware of the conditions they might encounter and did praise when praise was due on the prompt communication. The other 60 reviews I read before choosing them (they have 5 stars... shocker) to watch our pup did not mention that they might have up to 8 dogs in addition to their 3 cuties in a 1000sq ft house (in our case my dog would have been the 9th dog there). I think it's rather telling that we chose to not leave our dog at their house after already paying for the stay in full and would have taken all of those factors into consideration before booking. Instead, Rover has decided to delete this information for future customers. It makes me sad I can no longer trust their company since they will just do away with a one star, but honest, and objective review. I know there are plenty of great people who provide a service on there that will be negatively impacted on this companies decision to censor.