I used Naomi and James' service for over a year for my 2 cats, with frequent visits, multiple times…read moreper month, as I often spend weekends upstate.
I was new to the area and sold by the good reviews, as well as a close family member who had used their service for *decades*.
My experiences started out great--they have several people who do the visits and I only met one of them, but he did great with my cats and was clearly an experienced pet person. This was never an issue. There were a few bumps, like when I asked for my plants to be watered, and they said that it "wasn't necessary" since I would only be gone for 2 days, but I know my plants, and of course I come back to them wilted. But the cats were fine and they even used the hand-vac to clean up extra litter around the box, so I was fine letting small things like that slide for the sake of a consistent relationship with a small business who did a perfectly fine job for the premium ($43 per "30 minute" visit) which they charge. I was just glad to have consistent and readily available cat care to trust when I went away.
I like to think I've always been an easy to deal with client, having super friendly and low-maintenance cats, a clean apartment (leaving the A/C on for days when I'm away in the summer), giving plenty of notice when booking visits, paying well in advance, and leaving all supplies neatly on counter.
Over the last several months I'd noticed several inconsistencies with what I'd come home to find after being away--the most disturbing being both the cat's water fountains completely dry after 4 visits in January. This could've been a life or death situation if I didn't come back when I did, but nothing like this had ever happened before with them, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt if this being a one-off and didn't mention it.
I always fill water fountains before I leave, and water they take several days to run completely dry--the steam gets lower for a day, and then goes out. This means to be left DRY, the only explanation is that the water fountains were not checked or refilled for several days in a row.
After coming back from a weekend trip 2 weeks ago, I noticed several more inconsistencies, things which I've addressed with them before, and decided to send an email mentioning these, and finally deciding to mention the water fountain incident.
My intention if this email was a tone of appropriate concern over these building inconsistencies, and really just needing and expecting to receive a reply like "so sorry this happened, we will be sure to be mindful with future visits when addressing the issues you've mentioned for future visits".
Instead, they clearly took my comments very personally and replied very quickly saying that I clearly didn't trust them and they were going to mail me my keys and not come back.
I was pretty shocked at the lack of professionalism and impulsive reactivity of this response, so I replied with another long email apologizing if I offended them, explaining that the reason I'm mentioning these things was because I DO (did) trust them and just wanted to ensure the same quality of care I've been paying for since the he beginning. With the water issue, the brushed it off saying that it was over a month ago so how were they supposed to remember what happened (this lack of response only validated my concerns). The screwed up thing is that after these defensive and unprofessional responses, I basically ended up begging them to stay, if for no other reason than I had booked them for this coming weekend, paid in advance, and would now have to scramble for last minute coverage or cancel my plans entirely. Additionally, my cats, like most pets take time to get used to new people, and hiring someone new causes them (and me) unnecessary stress.
I don't like leaving anything less than a 5 star review for deserving small businesses, and unlike Naomi from Pet Sitter's Club, chose to wait and make sure I was level-headed and not emotionally reacting before posting my experience.
All in all, Pet Sitter's Club provides adequate care for a premium fee as long as you don't provide any feedback that can potentially be perceived as criticism, don't expect consistent service, and don't want to feel valued as a customer. Now that they've showed their true colors, it's clear I should not have given Naomi and James my trust for as long as I did.