Rover.com Reviews

While Rover provides good services such as connecting owners with sitters, an insurance plan, and a solid payment system, there are two very important facts that users must know up front.

1) Rover takes a big chunk (15-20%) before paying the sitter. So if the sitter needs to make $100, and Rover is taking 20% of the gross, the customer must pay $125. That's a 25% markup, passed to the owner. On top of that, Rover charges the owner an additional, ambigious, 5-7% fee. So, if the sitter needs $100, the owner can pay upwards of $132 - a 32% mark-up!!

2) Once an owner meets a sitter in Rover, the owner is expected per Rover's interpretation of their terms of service to always go through Rover to use that sitter. FOREVER. This means that anybody you meet there is off the market for any future arrangements unless you intend to pay through Rover.

My recommendation is that you look at other options first (PSI, Facebook, vet suggestions, etc.). Know what you are committing to before enrolling in Rover.

Rover prides itself on the premise that it is "Connecting pet parents with the nation’s largest network of loving & trustworthy dog walkers & sitters". If the Rover team ever left their Seattle office to truly vet the thousands of people who have registered on their site as a pet sitter, they'd probably be out of business. Anyone can sign up to be a pet sitter...Rover prides itself in doing background checks, but without truly vetting a person, the background check means nothing. I hired a sitter through Rover to watch my precious pets only to discover (through my security system) that my dogs were being severely neglected. Rover didn't care. They have a lame customer support team who simply e-mali you an apology, but make no effort to right the wrong. Absolutely no repercussions to the sitter who neglected my dogs - in fact, she was paid her cancellation fee, which was my hard earned money, even though I fired her. Instead of all the PR they're getting for being such a cool place to work, they need to be exposed for the company and services they are NOT.

I can't believe this company does not check their dog sitters! My dogs were unattended for serveral of the days I paid for them to be let out and walked. I'll never use this company again! Their customer service does not care about your complaint and they still take a cancelation fee. So the neglectful sitters get their money anyway. Don't use this company!!! Find and interview a reliable person on your own, the effort is worth it to have your animals cared for in the way you prefer.

I recently used Rover.com to hire a person to come to my house to feed my 2 cats while I was away. When I came home my bed, couch, chairs and carpets were soiled in urine and stool. I had a completely soiled white comforter so I thought how did the sitter not see or especially smell this as she passed my bedroom to get to the kitchen to feed my animals? I looked in the cat box but it was completely clean, as if it was not used. She must have come by the day I had returned and only cleaned the box. She came other days to take a pic of my cats assuring me she had been coming by. I called Rover and spoke to Josh who never followed up with me so I called back, he stating he forgot to forward my info to his superiors and had actually forgotten about call altogether, he apologized several times, and assured me would now escalate my case. The next day I received an email stating the issue had been resolved, describing incidences we didn't even talk about. I wrote back stating he must have sent me someone else's email. I received no reply and my case was dropped. After a week I went to use my toaster and it had urine in it, also, all my laundry detergent was gone along with some other household supplies. I learned from my caretaker, the rover employee, was going thru a divorce, literally that week had signed papers to relinquish her house and was now homeless. I then realized she might also be mentally ill, after the toaster incident, I wondered if she staged the stool all over my house in spite of loosing her home. In 12 years my animals had never behaved that way. Rover doesn't take responsibility for people that they hire and they vehemently doesn't care. I suggest with my misfortune you not use this co. and know going in they don't bond these people (I asked) and its the luck of the draw if you come out unscathed or stolen from. Just beware these people are not regulated by anyone so once they have the keys to your home they can do whatever they wish and you will not know until you come home.

Writing this review for a 2 days stay that we booked through Rover. On paper, Julie, our Rover sitter, is the perfect sitter. Unfortunately, in reality, our dog is injured with a 2 week recovery and drain tube. Coco was taken to the park where she played with a German shepherd. Coco is well socialized and even though it is a dog park, she should not have been allowed to play with a large dog specially with no supervision. The situation ended in the German Shepherd biting Coco. The wound was covered by her fur and unfortunately, we didn't get home till the next day. At the vet, the doctor cleaned the wound and removed the fur to surface a deep subcutaneous wound with a second wound that had a deep pocket. How could a a few seconds of a fight result in such a bad wound? Coco is one year old and is still a puppy. My notes clearly stated that. How can a sitter let a puppy play with a ferocious and aggressive German shepherd? The result is that we're in trauma over the injury and our dog is in pain since 3 days now and will be suffering for another 2 weeks. We're busy, working professionals and have taken the best care of our dog for this entire year with no incidents. This situation has not only caused us trauma mentally and emotionally as pet parents but, it's unbearable to see a little innocent dog in so much pain and suffering with a drain tube at such an early age. I would highly recommend not using strangers to watch your dogs. Rover and other instant services have made us blind. People who are not trained professionals and claim to be "sitters" can never take care appropriate care of your dog. You're better off looking for alternate options. As for Julie, she was apologetic and offered to pay for the vet charges. I have only one question to ask her - 'What if your own child was bitten mercilessly in your absence and ended up in the hospital? How much money could one pay to give you relief and peace from that kind of pain and suffering?' There really is no turning back from this incident but, I write this review to warn other pet owners from using sitters who may seem to be 'perfect' and are very warm and probably great human beings but, are NOT equipped to take care of your dog. They have probably no training, no concern and definitely no commitment to your dog. Please consider working with Julie at your own risk and likewise with other sitters on Rover. Rover hasn't even considered refunding us for our stay and sent us boilerplate email with text around deductibles.

I had originally had a decent experience, so I thought. Until I got home! My 3 puppies, who were housebroken started pooping uncontrollably. The ended up with round worms from the sitters dogs. I reported it immediately and they wouldn't cover costs or refund. They told me it was preventable care. When I provided proof that my dogs had been on preventative care and asked for proof that they ensured their sitters pets had care, theyou then said they might consider insuring after a $500 deductible!

I decided to look up the sitters full name, since they don't disclose it, boy was that a can of worms! I clarified with Rover.com that they did do criminal checks. They said yes, then I hit them with the sitters local rap sheet... drugs, prostitution, murder (yes, murder charges in drug bust), theft, etc... that was just one County! She had lived in 3 in this state, in 3 other states and abroad. I looked up all this on public records and discovered 4 aliases!

I reported all the info to them a few days ago as I noticed she had supposedly just dog sat for another client, somehow from the jail cell she's been sitting in since her arrest 5 days after I picked up my pups... and yes she's still in jail and if you go on their site now, even with all that info, you can still hire "her"... from jail apparently... smh

I became a sitter on Rover.com a few months ago and found out rather quickly that they do not protect their sitters at all. If an owner lies about whether a dog is house-trained, quiet, or good with other dogs, and you need that dog to be picked up as it is a danger to your pets, other dogs, or to your lease (i.e. barking constantly so your neighbors complain and pooping everywhere) they tell you there is nothing they can do.

Even if the owner does not respond to your request for them to pick up their dog, Rover will not do anything for you. At all. So you are stuck with a dog who is dangerous or a threat to your home.

Also, they take 20% of booking fees which is an extreme amount for any cost sharing service (AirBNB takes about 2%), so basically they cycle through sitters and make a fifth of the money while you suffer with dogs who are held to zero accountability.

It is a complete scam.

DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS FIRM. THEY ARE UTTERLY INCOMPETENT. THEY FIRED MY BOSS - WHO HAS 41 YEARS EXPERIENCE FOSTERING DOGS - FOR INCOMPETENCE. THEY REFUSE TO SAY WHY. AARON EASTERLY THE CEO REFUSES TO RESPOND TO CUSTOMER INQUIRIES. BUT WOW DO THEY WANT MONEY. AN UTTERLY DESPICABLE FIRM WITH ZERO, REPEAT ZERO, CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Think twice before using this service. You don't leave your children with the strangers. Why would you do that with your dog? The company does take any responsibility of what can happen to your dog. Moreover, they don't even try to prevent bad things from happening.

I lost my precious Pomeranian boy to them. When I was returning from vacations, I had been contacted by sitter's mother. She told me that my boy is dead - it has been bitten to death by other dog sitter took from Rover. Yes, they allow sitter's to take as many dogs at once as they wish! Of any sizes and breeds!

All I had from Rover is a refund and they offered a courtesy of paying aftercare bills. And that's all.

Think twice!

I would like to give Rover.com a big ZERO but I cant't. Specifically one of their pet sitters, "PEG IN MESA ARIZONA."

This Rover.com petsitter--"PEG in MESA AZ" was negilgent and irresponsible with our dog. While our dog was in the care of Peg, he got loose and was wandering around her neighborhood when she was not home. She claims that he opened her sliding glass door and let himself outside while she was not home. I don't know how a 22 lb dog that is 12 inches tall can reach the door handle and slide the door open to let himself out. I find her explanation to be unacceptable.

I can only assume that she was keeping him outside the whole time he was there. She did not even know he was missing until I told her after I received a call from the person that found him.

She texted me on the LAST day of his say to tell me that he had been vomiting every day he was there. Why did she not tell me the first time he vomited?

Instead she waited three days!! If it had been serious he could have been dead or extremely sick.

When I picked him up from Peg he was FILTHY--again, adding to the likelihood that she kept him outside all of the time-- and she didn't even have the common courtesy to apologize. PEG IN MESA ARIZONA put our dog in danger by being irresponsible and putting him in an unsafe situation while she was away. If we did not have ID on him we may never have found him.

I cannot leave my dog in the care of a person or company that is so irresponsible and negligent that they threaten the life of the dog I trusted them to look after.

Rover.com has been acting very shady with me. I have been a sitter for almost two years plus and recently was removed from the site because I believe they started a new program where they are poaching from sitters their sitting jobs then reselling them to other sitters for 50% of their take instead of their usual 15% take. Rover cancelled our sitting jobs we had in our reservation section and has refused to pay us for these stays. Our cancellation policy cleary states we will receive the funds if the stays are cancelled because we have a strict cancellaton policy on their website. Regardless if Rover.com cancells our stays we are still entitled to the money. Rover.com owes us almost 1800 dollars and has not paid us to date. If you are thinking about being a sitter stay away from this website, I feel like they are crooked and need to be reported o as many authorities in the states they do business, If you too are having a problem report them so we can all have companies in the United States that are reputable and not scamming people like Rover.com does!