ComplaintsforFur Babies

• Initial Complaint

  07/05/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We boarded 3 dogs for 3 days with this establishment on July 1,2022. We arrived back from out trip on July 3,2022 and stopped by to pick up our dogs at 5:10pm. We knew there would be someone there at this time. When we went inside to pick up our dogs we were told that we couldn’t pick them up until July 5,2022. They have always given us our pets back when we get there as long as we are there when someone is there. They are charging for an extra 2 days of boarding which is wrong because we were there to pick up our animals. They have our information and refused to let us have our pets back.

  Business response

  08/01/2022

  Furbabies LLC

  **********

  *********

  To Whom it may concern,

            Thank you for bringing my attention to your previous communication with your letter dated July 19, 2022 concerning the complaint by Mr. *******.

  First allow me to present some background information about our business.  We are a full service all breed pet grooming, boarding and daycare facility. As of January 1 2022, we as a small business unfortunately had to make the decision to be closed to the public on Sundays and have been since such time. For the Past 8 years we have been open 7 days a week but due to staffing and other logistical issues made that difficult decision, it was not made lightly as Sunday pickup for our customers has been an important part of our business since we opened, there are signs on our door in our lobby, on social media google and many other places as to the times we are open to the public. We have staff on our grounds beginning at 7am up until 8:30pm 7 days a week 365 days a year to care for the animals in our facility.

  During major holidays such as Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, and The 4^th of July, just to name a few our office is also closed to the public, as you can imagine these times, we have an obligation to our staff and our customers to keep the animals within our facility properly cared for as well as keep our employees satisfied concerning spending time with their family during these important holidays.   

  I remember this incident well, Mr. and Mrs. ******* dropped their pets off at our facility the morning of Friday July 1 2022, at that time they indicated that they would return on Tuesday July 5 2022. Sunday July 3^rd 2022 Mrs. ******* came to our facility and came inside as one of the staff members accidently left the door unlocked as she entered the building for her shift. The staff heard the doorbell and greeted Mrs. ******* and informed her that unfortunately the office was closed and that she didn’t have access to process a checkout for her pets as she was not trained to do so, her primary responsibility is to care for the animals within our facility as is a number of staff members. Mrs. ******* then went back outside without incident. After Mrs. ******* exited the staff locked the door behind her so she could tend to the animals. Several minutes passed, I (the owner) was notified by my staff that a customer was accidently let into the facility because they failed to lock the front door and that the employee let the customer know that we were unfortunately closed Sunday July 3^rd as we are every Sunday and Monday July 4^th as is our policy for holidays and that they would have to return on Tuesday July 5^th 2022 to retrieve their pets when we were open to the public. After the staff notified me, I accessed the cameras at our facility so I could see what was happening in real time as I have a duty to keep everyone safe. Upon looking at the cameras I watched as Mrs. ******* stood in the parking lot of our facility talking to her husband that was driving their vehicle, after some discussion Mrs. ******* got back into the family SUV and Mr. ******* exited the vehicle and came to the front door, I immediately got into my car and headed for the facility, during the next several minutes while driving to the facility I watched as Mr. ******* banged on the locked door and peered through windows of our shop. By the time I arrived they had departed.

  The following day Monday July 4^th 2022 Mr. ******* came back to our facility just before shift change at 2pm and banged on the door once more, the staff that was changing shifts waited several minutes as to not be engaged in a confrontation with Mr. ******* but instead he parked behind one of the staff members cars (a teenage female) and waited for someone to exit the building. The staff member exited the building with me watching the camera for safety reasons and went to her car, during the time that she walked way from the building until she got into her car Mr. ******* berated her for the office being closed, she calmly requested he leave and she got into her vehicle, Mr. ******* did move his vehicle for her to leave.

  After this incident I called the phone number in our system for Mrs. ******* and she answered the telephone, I identified myself to her and asked if there was a problem that I could help with, she immediately handed the phone off to Mr. ******* and he continued to berate me for several minutes about the fact that we were closed. I informed him that we would reopen on Tuesday July 5^th 2022 at 7:30 am and that he was welcome to pick up his pets at that time and that he was not welcome at our establishment moving forward, we obviously were not a good fit for him as a business and that he could take his business elsewhere.

  As I am sure you are aware post covid some members of the public seem to have become increasingly more aggressive and more difficult, that said we have thousands of very happy customers most of which understand our policies on open hours and do not take issue with them. For the first 7 years of our business, we were the only facility of our kind in our county open on Sunday to my knowledge, as of today we are the only facility of our kind in our county that remains open to the public on Saturdays.  At FurBabies as the largest and busiest pet grooming, boarding, and daycare facility in our area we strive to do the best to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers every day while providing the best possible care for their pets they and we consider family members.

  We hope that Mr. and Mrs. ******* find a facility that fits their needs. At this time we are not prepared to offer any compensation to Mr. or Mrs. ******* for adhering to our policies, and furthermore would discourage Mr. ******* behavior with the staff of any facility, as there are many other ways that an incident like this could have played out that could have been less than desirable for both him and us.

              I hope this letter finds you well and it adequately answers any questions you have about this case. Should you need anything now or in the future feel free to reach out to me personally Thank you for the important work you do both locally and internationally for the small businesses in our communities.

  Sincerely,

  *********** ******

  
  
  

  Customer response

  08/01/2022

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  The owner of this “establishment” has had several other negative reviews and was not as “kind” to me as he appears to be. There was a member of the staff taking 2 dogs, that obviouslywasn’t hers due to the handling of them to her car at the time of the incident. If it is good enough for some of the favored customers then it should be for all. We will not be going back to this place. Our dogs came back with fleas and 2 of them developed kennel cough after we picked them up. And YES. They’re vaccinated. Paperwork was provided. 
  Sincerely,
  
  *** *******

  Business response

  08/17/2022

  Furbabies LLC

  **********

   

  Mr ********,                                                                                              August 16, 2022

              I have received your letter dated August 2, 2022.

  While Mr. ******* is welcome to reject the answer I have previously submitted to you concerning complaint ******** our establishment was closed to the public. It does not get much easier than that.

  Owning a business in the current climate is a difficult venture, as some people occasionally will not love your service, while we try our best to provide a high-quality service at a reasonable price sometimes you will have unreasonable customers like Mr. ******* that believe the rules do not apply to them. We do maintain a 4.8 rating with google reviews currently, and for Mr. ******* to cite that for the reasoning for questioning my answer is absurd.

              As a benefit to our staff, we do allow them to bring personal animals to the facility to participate in daycare. I am unsure how Mr. ******* could tell a difference between customers pets or employee’s pets “due to the handling of them to her car” it was in fact her car and her pets, we would not allow an employee to use their personal car to transport customers animals full stop, that would be a liability nightmare.

  I personally transport customers animals in my business owned pet taxi that even bears the tag “pet taxi”, our employees love dogs and therefore every staff member in our facility bring their pets to work every day that is to include myself.

  It is strange to me that Mr. ******* is just now mentioning his pets being sick and having fleas, given the importance of that I would have expected he would have at least mentioned that in his prior complaint. If you have experience with pets yourself you may know that prescription flea medication does not make a bubble around your pet so no fleas or ticks are present ever, that I am afraid would be impossible but instead kills fleas and ticks that attempt to use the animal as a host. It is a requirement in our facility that all pets are up to date with current flea prevention and vaccinations, including ********** (commonly known as kennel cough). ********** is much like the flu for you and I, just because you receive a flu shot there are multiple strains of the virus, it is not deadly, a normal pet’s immune system will rid its self of ********** in 10-14 days untreated and about 7 days when treated. Unfortunately, much like you and I going to Walmart or any other public place you can get the flu, and your pet can contract ********** much the same way, it is a risk we all have to deal with daily, and is a risk in EVERY BOARDING FACILITY, EVERY DOG PARK, EVERY VETS OFFICE, AND ANYWHERE OUTSIDE OF HOME. 

  If in fact Mr. ******* pets did indeed have **********, I would request a copy of vet records indicating that as the diagnosis. I am still not prepared to offer Mr. ******* any compensation at this time. I will not be bullied by Mr. *******, or any other customer for that matter. Unfortunately, Mr. ******* has not provided a shred of evidence that we did ANYTHING that was inappropriate, has not provided a copy of a vet bill for services that he sought for his pets, or given any true valid reason for this complaint.

  We have not thrived in business for as long as we have by being unkind to our patrons. We are in a business with the public by choice, while most of our customers are wonderful every once and a while you will encounter a “Mr. *******” and we understand that is just part of the job.

  Should you need anything else feel free to reach out to me.

   

  Sincerely,

              *********** ******

   

  Customer response

  08/23/2022

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  there was no sense in bringing the cough and fleas up to the owner because they have continuously skated around the truth and have been very unprofessional with the “smart” answers, thinking somehow that they are being cute and attempting to insult my intelligence.
  there is no reason for them to reply to this message because I will no longer need to read or respond to them. It’s basically one persons word over another’s and I am just curious about customer service and when that was thrown away in the world we live in today. 
  we will continue to share our experience with potential customers of this establishment, as this is our right. I know what happened in the past and what happened on the weekend this pertains to. 
  Good luck to fur babies in their future. And try to treat ALL customers the same each and every time because when you don’t, things like this happen. And try to not insult your customers and smart off to them or LIE to them as you have done throughout this process. 
  Sincerely,
  

   

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩