Seth F.

My partner has been watching pets on Rover for a couple of years now. Just recently, he watched someone's cat while the owners went on vacation - he even tried to save them some money by allowing them to book him as an "overnight stay" rather than the rate for drop ins because he's passionate about helping people save money and find good help. My partner is incredibly responsible, over-communicative and has always gone above and beyond (including climbing underneath beds, couches, chairs, etc. to take pictures and ensure someone's pet is safe even if they are shy or don't want to be bothered.

With this last booking, my partner watched this person's cat for a couple of days. Their cat was very shy and rarely came out - but he still tried to get photos of her to send to the owners so they knew she was safe. I went with my partner several times during his stay, and the owners were aware of this and agreed it was fine for me to come along. So I saw him physically taking care of her by cleaning her litter box, feeding her and trying to give her space so she would come out.

After the booking ended, this owner began harassing my partner saying that he didn't feed her or clean her litter box. On the day my partner was supposed to end the booking, he was booked to leave at noon - and the owner did not get home until midnight. The owner blackmailed my partner telling him that if they don't get refunded for their booking (despite their cat having eaten their food and used the bathroom since leaving at 12), that she would leave bad reviews about him online.

My partner called Rover and explained the situation, and was told by 3 different people that he'd be protected, that clearly this hasn't happened to him before and that if she tries to leave a negative review, that it would be deleted because it's based on the premise of blackmailing. They even blocked this woman from messaging my partner through the app because she was being very aggressive. My partner felt so upset by this situation that he even refunded the woman half of the booking money in an attempt to get her to stop harassing him and leave him alone. The next day, sure enough, she left a negative review with false claims. My partner immediately called Rover asking them to take the review down as he'd been promised, and was rudely told by an employee that there was "misinformation" and that the review may not be taken down. Suddenly, everything we'd been told regarding his protection with this company was "misinformation" and didn't hold anymore.

Considering the fact that I was physically with my partner at this person's home, watching him take care of her (as she agreed was fine for us to do), I am absolutely baffled at how quickly Rover turned against one of their most loyal pet sitters because the review "may not violate our review policies". My partner was in an absolute panic attack over this situation because he cares so deeply for the pets he watches and couldn't understand why somebody would say these things about him when there was a 12 hour difference from the time their cat was fed and litter box cleaned to the time the owner got home.

Needless to say, we will NEVER be using Rover again as this company clearly cares more about retaining one unethical owner than keeping a pet sitter, who has over 75 five-star reviews, for life.