Pawshake

The company forced me to meet clients before bookings, ignoring the COVID restrictions

When I complained and said that it was nowhere in T&C, they've stated the following:

Hi Teresa,

Further to our recent communications, our Trust and Safety Team has reviewed your case and we regret to let you know that your Pawshake account has been cancelled.

Given the feelings you have expressed, we do not feel that Pawshake is the right fit for you.

Please note our decision in final and we will not respond to this matter any further.

We wish you all the best in the future.

Kind regards,
Michael
Pawshake Trust & Safety

Website had indicated that customer service could amend a booking but, when we asked, that turned out to be untrue. Such a basic and necessary feature - would give zero stars if I could.

Our pet sitter, Natalie from Sunderland, fed our elderly sick cat the wrong food, causing him to lose significant weight over a fortnight. She didn't notice that our dog had vomited and peed in her crate, meaning our dog had to sleep in her own vomit and wee for many days on end. She brought flour mites into the house, causing over £100 of damage to our food and meant we had to spend 3 hours cleaning the kitchen when we got home. She got blood on the sheets and didn't even bother to clean it up. She broke both hot taps in the bathroom. She failed to carry out the most basic instructions and lied to us to say she had done something when she hadn't. It was only because we used a petcam that we could check up on her and know for sure she hadn't done what she said she had. She left dirty knickers at the house after she left. She left the bin overflowing in the garden. She left food wrappers under the bed and kebab skewers in the kitchen. All in all, the absolute worst service I have ever experienced in all my life.

Pawshake inactivated my profile without any justification whatsoever and they took 3 weeks to get back to me. It is challenging to trust the platform and I find other pet sitting apps way more organized.

I completed 2 months of home/pet sitting in Berlin in January however Pawshake still didn't pay my fee which was paid by the pet owners months ago. The website endlessly asks me to upload an official document to confirm my address and didn't accept any form of a file that is valid in Germany. I also can't find anyone to help me with this problem. I receive automatic emails which are nothing but repeating the same things. I am preparing to open a case with my pet owner who is very pleased with my service. The company got their money in October 2022 and try doing everything not to pay the sitter.

We were very happy with the service and our pet sitter. It makes life easier when you want to go away spontaneously and need a reliable pet sitter

I just joined pawshake and within 20 mins had a response to look after my two dogs, the app showed it was £184.00 a week then Yanlin the pet sitter said no no it's £35.00 a day for each dog, I wouldn't mind paying the £35.00 for each dog but to purposely try to misguide me shows me she isn't the person to be looking after my dogs.

The App is super buggy and there is no help service that works in real-time to accommodate the issues with the app rendering the app completely useless.

I myself am currently, or at least until they delete me a registered and approved vetted Petsitter for Pawshake. In fact, I was so impressed when signing up that somebody actually checked my profile and requested further information that I recommended it to several of my clients.

They have a great profile, and let us not forget that bold claims of what they do and their happiness in Pawshake guarantee. Let us however look a little bit deeper into that guarantee, where you'll find it specifies and guarantees nothing.

Allow me to give you a recent example of the experience of this company. I wasn't able to look after dogs that I regularly have, and the Owners use Pawshake To find somebody suitable. They previously used Pawshake and had a great sitter who sadly wasn't available, however their expectations were the standards would be comparable.It was myself that dropped the dogs off at the owner's house with the chosen Sitter. I myself advised if there were any problems or he needed any help to give me a call, One of these dogs is 15 with failing eyesight and health problems, The other is a bouncy saluki.

I was alerted to concerns as the Sitter was leaving the property every few hours, all times of the day and night, and was not responding to text messages from the owners. As the day went on neighbors had contacted them to complain about the volume of barking coming from the house, and after waiting for three hours whilst he's been absent and not responded I was asked to go around and check on the dogs.

What I found was the housing pitch darkness as it was now 9:30 PM, The door from the lounge to the hallway left open despite it being clearly told not to, The baby gate preventing the dogs going up the stairs wasn't just open but totally removed. Multiple pee pads on the floor by the back door, food bowls overflowing and yet the tiniest bowl of water for them.

As an experienced dog owner and dog sitter and spotter of BS, it was very clear this person despite responding to the owners saying they would be back at 10:20 PM was not coming back. In fact, at 10:40 PM they messaged me asking if I could have the dogs. If that had been a possibility, there would be no use for him or Pawshake. I replied and the dates I've never heard from them again.

Pawshake have ignored my concerns despite me being a sitter and despite me having pre-existing bookings that were canceled by existing clients as I am unwilling to set anyone's dog in unsafe circumstances and leave them at risk due to a companies negligence and dishonesty.

As for the owners who were in a foreign country, they were told whilst being in a foreign country and it being 11 o'clock at night that effectively it was for them to sort out. No regard or consideration was taken for either of the dogs, no real concern was taken for the fact that the owner and Sitter had a band in the booking without notice and intentionally as is clear by his actions of over feeding and putting pee pads down when these dogs never urinate or defecate on the floor, this person's actions were premeditated and planned.

We were initially told that it was a medication issue for him, that medication issue then turned into a medication issue for his mother. We were then told by Pawshake he was having some type of mental episode, and then told it was very sensitive as this person who is booked in to set these dogs is also booked in somewhere sitting other dogs. So as a company their system intentionally allow somebody to double book for housesitting. I find it inconceivable to believe that you can be housesitting two homes at the same time?

To date Pawshake have so far provided no service, left the dogs without showing any consideration to where they are now located or their safety or welfare. Confirmed that this person who they now claim has mental health issues is actively setting other homes whose owners they have not informed and because they have reoccurring clients don't feel it would be fair to remove him from their List of vetted and approved sitters.

No you would think that is bad enough in itself, but to add to the situation the sitter was expressly told that he was now not to return to the house as the owners have no trust or faith in him based on his lies and behaviour, Pawshake were also made aware of this and it was confirmed by the Sitter that he would not.

Yet the Sitter being the dishonest lowlife parasite that he is, although still suitable for Pawshake's stringent vetting criteria, then let himself back into the property to collect the rest of his belongings. Leaving the owners of the property full of worry of what else he's taking or what else he may have done. Pawshake feel that the owners really have nothing to be alarmed about, in fact they don't believe the actions of this person to even be criminal. I'm quite sure trespassing against the wishes of the owners in the home is an offense.

After days of ignoring my requests for clarification as a sitter I advised him that I was cancelling bookings with my pre-existing clients who I brought with me to their platform. My client contacted them and received a response falsely claiming that they were working with me addressing these questions. A blatant lie. I search all emails I've sent have now gone unanswered, which really does highlight the low levels of professionalism, The lack of integrity, but most importantly the complete disregard for every animal that they accept a booking for. What this company cares about are money plain and simple.

When you employ people, you have to accept sometimes, they don't always work out, it doesn't always mean they're bad people. However, you set a standard for your business in your company, And what is Clear at Pawshake their standards are well and truly something that you could pick up in a bag and then like dog mess. In fact, they should consider re-branding as Poorshake, as it really does reflect more accurately the service you receive.

All of these facts are verified by CCTV footage, Responses directly from Pawshake to the owners surrounding double bookings mental health etc. if you in fact read that sanctions for sitters who let down an owner, you'll be horrifying to know as I was that the punishment the Sitter will receive is to not be allowed on the platform for one month.

Please tell me as an owner how that helps you in the slightest when you are in a foreign country and your dogs are abandoned in your home by a sitter that couldn't care less and a company that equally fails, they have no responsibility or any accountability.

We all know that like with most of the services it becomes a case of you have to make choices based on either referral and recommendation and of course after a meeting greet your gut feeling. However, when you use a professional service you have an expectation that they will provide a professional standard. Pawshake do not do this and have no intention or desire to do this. And most insulting is the fact that they believe it is acceptable to then ignore the problem leaving the owners in a foreign country and the dogs that they are happy to leave to die.

I don't believe it to be an exaggeration that abandoning the booking where the owners are going to be away for another week, leaving them in a pitch black house with insufficient water access to go to the toilet and a failure to implement the requests for safety such as keeping the baby gate closed unreasonable, Yeah let us be clear at Pawshake as it stands that arrogance and failure to address any of these issues has been nothing less than an absolute disgrace and it won't be long and in fact I'm sure it's probably already happened the dogs die or I seriously injured.

Additionally, the reason you will not find negative reviews is because when they cancel a booking it removes in the entirety the ability for an owner to leave any feedback. Therefore, the shockingly horrendous bookings such as in this instance you will never know about because they intentionally manipulate the ability for an owner to provide that feedback to others.

That ladies and gentleman is what this company is about. Please do feel free to use their services after reading this please do take the responsibility directly yourselves for anything that occurs. I professionally done this job for years, and I'm proud to say I've built a good reputation. In its current state I believe this company is unfit to operate.

I BOOKED A SITTER WITH A PROFILE SAYING SHE WOULD GIVE MEDICINES TO MY CAT. SHE WASN'T ABLE TO DO IT SO I CANCELLED MY BOOKING AND ONLY 50% OF MY BOOKING WAS RETURNED. CONTACTED PAWSHAKE AND NO ONE HAS BEEN ABLE TO HELP ME. PAWSHAKE IS HELPING PET SITTERS TO STEAL MONE FROM PETS OWNERS.

The pet sitter can cancel in the middle of your reservation based on the story she/he made up and leave you and your pet vulnerable. Pawshake will not verify/ask for the evidence from the sitter but approve the sitter's request for cancellation. If you are on holiday or busy with something, congrats - you have to spare your valuable time for this crap. Pawshake will only return partial refund for the days unused (if you have not personally met the sitter before the reservation, or Pawshake will find every possible way to take the money you have paid for) - no compensation or anything to your stress and time for handling the cancellation by the sitter.

This is our story. Our pet and us were treated terribly by both the sitter we engaged and Pawshake during our holiday - due to the emotional and rude messages, and "cold attitude" (the sitter claimed our pet was "very sick" but does not respond to our request for a call and a photo/video of our pet) of that sitter, we were really worried that our pet would be kicked out to the street. Pawshake was our last option due to the high season for travelling. As an emergency option, our friends had to evacuate our pet from that sitter (at very high cost). According to the photos and videos shared by our friends, our pet was perfectly fine without any issues after the evacuation! The sitter is a liar and Pawshake chose to believe in the sitter without verification.

After this event, we reviewed that sitter on Pawshake website. Fun fact: Pawshake only presented the highest rating that we gave to the sitter on the sitter's profile (there are about 5 parameters for rating the sitter - communication, conscientiousness, accuracy of the profile, treatment of animals, value). Further, it appears to us that the five parameters for a sitter, Pawshake does not present the average rating of the users but the MAX rating.

I know that this kind of experience repends on the sitter you find. But Pawshake's rating system is dishonest and misleading to the pet owners. Our pet and us unfortunately had experienced a toxic sitter, but Pawshake did not investigate the story by the sitter but let her cancel during our reservation. Further, after our report to Pawshake, Pawshake only commented that it was a misunderstanding and did not take any measures regarding that sitter - she still is on Pawshake with perfect ratings, ready to serve more users. So, beware of "Pawfake"!