On 6/18/19, Tuesday, at 10 pm, our Rover sitter lost our 2 golden retrievers while letting them out for a late-night potty. Because my husband and I were on vacation, they were staying at her apartment complex and they reportedly ran towards the corner of Babcock and Camp Bullis Rd.
The sitters lived in a gated apartment complex with a gated dog park behind her building. Instead of using that lit green space, she brought our dogs outside the fence onto a pitch dark lawn near the road and woods, carrying both extend leashes in one hand after fireworks were set off by Six Flags just an hour earlier. She was informed Ripley was scared of the dark on paper and I believe verbally as well but we have no proof of the verbal. She said she looked until 3 am. Later in her rebuttal to our review on her Rover profile, she said she wasn’t informed and deflected her negligence onto our dogs/lac of info. We are not allowed to respond to it.
My husband and I caught the next plane home. We saw the sitter once but never seen her face again. Most of, if not all, the conversations were initiated by us. There was little communication from her and it seemed forced. We had a news interview and I (Tricha S) called her out on her lack of participation and she became abrasive, acted victimized, accusatory, and added to our stress rather than helping us. After that, she was almost impossible to talk to in a constructive manner because she was so uncooperative. Please note, we asked for a picture of the dogs the day before they were lost and she did not give us any.
Rover printed flyers for us, made a few robot phone calls, called nearby sitters to help look (not one shown up), offered a $100 reward and said they looked online. At week 3, they stopped what little help they offered per policy. We have requested additional search services but they refused. They told us they may reimburse us for some vet bills or will offer us the worth of the dogs if they are found dead. So since week 3, we have been on our own.
There was a sighting of 2 golden retrievers running around a baseball field alone very close to where she lives earlier the day she claims she lost them by a gentleman that confirmed his story twice with us and once with a supporter of ours. Our PI said he thinks we should take that particular tip seriously. If it is true, that means she lost them much earlier than she says she did and was attempting to cover it up.
Rover never shut down her profile (that we can tell) and just days later she was meeting new clients. We asked Rover if they would tell us about her background check or if she had prior incidences and they would not. I felt it was very relevant to know if she did.
This is my understanding, but I could be wrong, Rover is a bait and switch company. Basically, they make these commercials of assurance, trust, and responsibility and take credit for that. IMO, almost like an insurance or liable company but the moment anything goes wrong however, all legality is placed on the sitter even though they take 20%+ of their fees.
We have been told that we can't sue Rover but only the sitter for a maximum of $5k. With lawyer/legal costs and the long drawn-out process of suing someone that might not even have the money/you might not even win, it's better to take the "dead dog money". The thing is, again, as far as I know (could be wrong) they have you sign a non-disclosure agreement at that time so you are unable to tell anyone about it. To me, this is super shady stuff and it makes me wonder how many other people have gone through this with Rover?
We have a community behind us in which has got the attention of other rover clients that have called up sobbing because they did this to them too. Its absolutely horrific and something needs to be done.
Looking for other Rover clients to talk.
Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend