Rover – Pet Sitters

You designers gotta chill on the trendy flat design it’s way to hard to tell if you are partially scrolled down one of the menus. Please add some contrast.

I’m a dog walker and pet sitter. Rover is obviously great for many reasons. But it also is incredibly frustrating. Let’s say for example I have a doctors appointment on Wednesday morning. I can’t block off just Wednesday morning. I have to either block off the entire day, say I’m never available in the morning, or reduce the number of walks/drop ins I can do that day. If a request comes in for Wednesday morning and I deny it, I get penalized for not having my schedule “up to date”. But there’s no real way for me to do that without affecting other opportunities for business on that day. I know people have been complaining about this for years, but rover hasn’t fixed it yet.

If I could give this app a -5 star I woulddd

This platform's support system is a total joke. They blocked my account and told me I had to follow up via my registered email to resolve the issue. Here is the catch: they blocked my registered email too! When I try to reply, they don't receive it because they've blocked the address, yet their support team keeps mindlessly repeating that sending from the original registered email is the "only way" to solve the case. It is an impossible, frustrating loop. How ridiculous!! Zero common sense or actual human help. Avoid this app if you value actual customer service.

I’d like my original locked or even unlocked pricing visible on every client I’ve booked. Don’t change my pricing for me, that’s my job. I’ve had to search out payments and do the math to figure this out, listing it per every previous stay under each client would be beneficial. Also the app works in 24 hour increments then half or full days there after for charges to my clients, the hours of pickup vary - anything 2-6 hours over is 50 percent and then 6-8 is a full days wages. Say my client arrives 5 minutes after the 6 hours so it should count as a full day. The client prepaid (of course) so I’m out the money of a full day. I’d like to be able to set the cost of the stay when I’m negotiating with my client for more accurate pick up and drop off as we are getting closer to the stay taking place. Some clients know how to work the time frame in their favor and they do it well. Modification should be simpler without me having to select an inaccurate purpose from the list of modification reasons. Let me type in my own. Perhaps note that arriving 5 minutes over the 6 hours will occur charges so we are not getting taken advantage of. As well as note that any modifications on time frames can and will simply be added to the stay although it was prepaid and may show as a separate charge. This also alleviates the sitter from having to wait for the original total of the all ready paid for stay. The app allocates the original start time of stays, however this is often changed due to delays or unexpected events, same as the pick up. This affects when I receive my wages per closing of stay. I should be able to edit drop off and pick up times as this is my business and I’d like my payment ASAP. Client arrives 2 hours early, I want to close the stay at that time. I’m not rich hence I want payment that much earlier. Let’s fix this???? Over Memorial this was the exact issue with both of my clients and my receiving payment in due time. Not only did the app continue to run the stay after it was closed (visibly at original set time) it closed the other stay ahead of (visibly set and agreed upon time) I’d think as “wonderful” as Rover proclaims to be, that the total of nearly 31-33% $$$ taken from each booking of my client’s and myself combined could go towards payment to an IT Technician that actually knows what they’re doing and listens to the so called “self employed” that make Rover the highly financially successful business that it is. Let’s give credit where credit is due and allow the self employed to be “self employed.”

Just don’t trust it.

The app claims to screen their Pet Sitter’s - this seems unlikely. I had a woman come over to my house who clearly could not speak or understand English, she did not state this in her her profile. I don’t speak whatever language she did! besides this is dishonest she was very manipulative and convinced me she could do the job using Google translate as I was running late, I tried to had no choice but to give her a chance, which was a mistake. The App over charged me, after an hour on Support chat they told me I had to put it all into writing by email and then another email came and said I have to contact the Pet Sitter cause she’s an independent contractor Rover’s got nothing to do with it. I would stay away from this app it’s also in general difficult to use. It’s not intuitive in the least it overcharged me. I’m trying to get the money back is next to impossible.

Wouldn’t let me verify my email or change the one I tried verifying. So I couldn’t use the app after spending much time setting up my profile.

Do not trust Rover with your business. I followed their protocols to a T, proactively reported a minor incident with a dog, and their immediate response was to deactivate my account with zero notice. By doing this, Rover canceled my upcoming bookings and completely stranded a regular client just ONE DAY before Memorial Day weekend. It is incredibly difficult to find last-minute care for large breeds (like German Shepherds), and Rover didn’t care at all about leaving a loyal owner completely stuck before a major holiday. If you are a sitter, take this as a warning: do NOT reach out to Rover Support for help or try to do the right thing. They will use your honesty against you and destroy your business overnight. Always get your clients' direct phone numbers off the app so you have a way to contact them when Rover inevitably locks you out. They have zero loyalty to the sitters who build their platform.

Customer support is so bad. While waiting for Rover to reply in the in-app customer service chat you keep getting disconnected. A simple request takes 5 new customer service requests to resolve. So painful. Also, when you use the app (logged in), you still need to provide your email/contact details. Why? I’m logged in. You know who I am. Very frustrating.