We had this review posted in January 2014, somehow it was taken off of Good Doggy's review list, but it certainly is something that every pet owner should be aware of....
We signed up for 6 hours of pet sitting care....but received 2 hours and 16 minutes of care (in total) for our pet over the course of 6 days.
We agreed on a total of 12 @ 30 minute visits (all in accordance to Josh's verbal confirmation and his website). Good Doggy also offers 15 minute visits and longer visits.
Each week we get a report of who has accessed our home and for how long. Much to our surprise, our security log shows an average visit time of 12 minutes. The longest visit was 23 minutes. With only a handful of the visits even close to our pets feeding time schedule.
Two times are even as short as 5 minutes (one is 7 minutes).... Pretty fast for someone who does not live at the house to get in, measure out the food, take away the old dishes and put out new ones, refill the water, open the front blinds, re-secure the pet gate, re-set the alarm and get out.
We contacted Josh to see what happened and how we can remedy this for next time....
First he denied the times were correct....
Next he said that because our pet was taken care of and that he showed up and she is fine, that he thinks they deserve the 2nd half of their bill....We asked if it is fair to be charged for 6 hours of service but receive 2 hours and 16 minutes total over 6 days? He never answered that question.
Finally he said that it "clearly states on his website that all visit times are approximate".... (which as of the time of this review we still can't find even the word 'approximate' anywhere on his website).
He said that we need to remember that he has a lot of cost and travel time...well, in our interview he told us how close they live to our house and how easy it was to get here. Never once was travel time and his cost mentioned as being taken off of our 30 minute schedule. We explained that we received 1/3 of the time we agreed to both verbally and contractually and per his website.
Never before from any of our sitters or caretakers have we ever had to put 1/2 down. So it was odd to us that he asked us to leave a check for him at the house. But we did. We paid 50% of our bill. We paid for 1/2 of the bill (not 1/3, which is what we received) it doesn't seem fair to have to pay for the other 1/2.
Moral of the story.....if you choose to hire Josh and/or Kim of Good Doggy, monitor your security for time. We also wouldn't recommend giving half down unless it doesn't bother you that your pets only visitor thinks that 2 hours (and 16 minutes) over the course of 6 days is sufficient attention. After all, they can't talk to let you know just how lonely they were while you were away.