Rover.com Reviews

Rover.com Customer Reviews
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Use as a last resort.
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.
Don't Trust this company with your pet's well being
I read your complaint and love my pets. But I am curious. If your pets were "severely neglected" through your own security system, why didn't you call the police or Seattle Animal shelter, or press charges? Animal neglect situations are those in which the animal's caretaker or owner fails to provide food, water, shelter, or veterinary care sufficient for survival. In Seattle once a complaint has been logged, an officer will investigate.
Did they say they did not file any report?
Don't use Rover
Same thing happened to me but my sitter drugged my dogs so she could stay gone for longer periods!! I reported her and they basically laughed at me
Don't use Rover.com if you value your pet and your home.
Horrible service, our 1 year old dog is injured and in 2 months of recovery after a 2 days stay!!!
They allow known criminals to dog sit!
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
No Protection of Sitters Whatsoever
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.
don't
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.
They killed my dog
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!
Irresponsible and neglectful pet sitter Peg in Mesa AZ
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.
i totally agree. I paid them 1,000s and they put me at the end of the list of hosts. Kept my spots open for 72 hours and then it may not be accepted so you lost out on getting anyone.
The 20% take away doesn’t effect how much the client pays. It just effects how much the sitter is given.
The 20% take away does not effect how much the client pays at all. If a service costs $100, the owner pays $100 (it is automatically transferred when they book the stay), then after the service is complete the sitter receives that payment (automatic) in their account. However, the sitter is given $80 instead of $100 because of the 20% that Rover takes
Also, you can totally use a sitter outside of Rover, if the sitter wants to do that. I have done that several times with owners so that I can make the full profit instead of losing 20%
I have never seen any random charge of 5-7% on any people I have dog sat for on Rover.
Please read the starting sentence: "So if the sitter needs to make $100,.." If that's what the sitter needs, the cost to the customer goes way up for the other charges. And "ambiguous" is not the same as "random". There is an additional fee. It was in the documentation and confirmed with Rover at the time I posted this. It was their discretion as to the actual percentage in the 5-7% range.
Also you need to know, if you met that client in Rover then sat for them outside of Rover, you have violated your agreement and they will terminate you. My potential sitter and I both got booted off Rover for DISCUSSING possible outside arrangements.