Marias Pet Sitter

Review: [redacted] initially came across as professional & reliable. We felt confident in her ability to care for our two dogs, and remained so during our week-long vacation. But when we returned home the dogs did not greet us at the door and seemed traumatized. The house was excessively hot, air conditioning was not on, even though Ms. [redacted] had assured us she would use it as necessary. One dog has a heart condition, is on a twice-daily diuretic tablet, so he drinks extra water & urinates more frequently. I had left pee pads in several locations, mostly for the overnight hours. But the pads seemed to have too much urine on them for the amount of time since her last scheduled visit. The pads in the garbage also seemed to have way too much urine on them, and many feces too, which I didn't expect because the dogs rarely do that in the house. Replacement pads had not been put back in the same spots. No attempt was made to clean accidents on the carpet, but Ms. [redacted] had told us she would. We have a fenced-in backyard, the dogs were supposed to be let out every time Ms. [redacted] visited. She apparently did take them for walks on the street, so I didn't understand why there were so many soiled pads. Additionally, I found things moved around on my desk, (home-based business). I called Ms. [redacted] and asked her to meet with me in person. She refused, so I shared my concerns over the phone. She was evasive with her answers, denied doing anything wrong, and failed to offer a refund or apology. She admitted to moving my equipment so she could get at the Internet router in order to use her computer. She told me she came to the house only 3 times a day instead of the 4 times we had paid her to come. She also said she did not check the pads first thing in the morning, because she didn't have time. It felt like she didn't listen to what we told her about our dogs, neglected simple tasks, was careless, and rushed with the jobs she did do. We regret having left our dogs in her care.Desired Settlement: Because Ms. [redacted] only gave our dogs minimal care, we would like at least half the money back we paid her - $620 in advance, by check, which was cashed while we were gone. She insisted that she took very good care of our dogs, but the evidence suggests otherwise. We now feel she misrepresented her skill & abilities, that she promised to do things for us and our dogs, then she failed miserably to meet our expectations, even though she had assured us she would do everything we needed!