Am I reading into this lower review too much?
This is going to be quite long for background info. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was a super bad experience because the dog was very lovely, just nervous. However I’m confused on the client switching up on me after the stay, resulting in a lower review than what I expected.
I just finished a long stay for over a week with a new client. The dog is very sweet but takes a little bit of warming up to as she is a rescue and very anxious. I appreciated how the owner was very detailed with her routine, instructions, details, etc. We had the meet and greet a while back in which she told me her dog was only okay being left alone for 10 minutes, but that they were working their way up.
The day she left we spoke and she gave me some updated instructions. She told me that now her dog was able to stay alone for up to 40 minutes. She did tell me that she pretty much takes her dog everywhere and has a carrier for her.
Rover isn’t my full time job as I also work from home. I gave her all this information and she was totally fine with it. I did tell her in the evenings my dogs would be alone so I would need to check in on them, while I waited for my roommates to get back home. She said she trusted me to take her dog with me to my house.
We had no issues, I felt I was updating her the right amount especially when taking her dog out with me. I checked back on our text messages and due to trying to get her morning routine done, while also rushing to get set up for work, I sometimes did not send her detailed updates during mornings, middays, and evenings. However, I know for a fact she did get at least one daily update and picture a day, sometimes even more than one picture. Checking back at our messages there was only one day we did not text at all.
Towards the end of the stay she texted me that she would like a morning and night time photo every day until her trip ends. Which is totally fine and understandable, plus I was already giving her updates. She was very sad to leave her pup away for that long for the first time so I completely understand and even told her we could FaceTime if she wanted to see her. She never once told me to do so and based off our messages all seemed well.
In her printed out instructions for housekeeping she listed to wash her sheets. We spoke before she left and she told me not to worry about it since she had left me extra sheets. However, it was just an extra set of pillow cases and a duvet cover. Since I stayed for a while I felt it was right to clean up after myself and still wash her sheets.
At my home I was allowing her dog on my bed, but at her home she slept in her crate. I told her that I apologized if I created a bad habit because when we got back to her home her dog would start jumping to get on her bed. After I sent her a picture and told her she said she does the same to her, however she never once said to not let her on the bed. It was miscommunication on both ends but I also should have clarified with her before letting her on her bed. I did tell her it was only a few moments and she still slept overnight in her crate only. Again, this was my bad and I shouldn’t have let her on.
The last day I had let her dog on the bed for a little bit because she kept insisting. She is a small dog and the bed is quite tall. She tried to jump off and got nervous and she tinkled a bit. So of course I cleaned up immediately and washed her sheets, as I was already going to do so anyway. Since she is a nervous dog she is prone to having some nervous accidents.
The owner gets back and I explained everything to her plus talked about how our week went. Everything seemed fine and she didn’t seem too upset about the accident.
Well the day after I get a long text from her that she would like to clear some things up before leaving me a review. First she was asking why her dog was on her bed if she didn’t sleep there, and that I had ruined her comforter. She said it was dry clean only however when I mentioned to her in person I had washed it, and it was in the dryer she didn’t once tell me that. In her instructions to clean her bed sheets she also didn’t explain about the comforter being dry clean only. She said she had to get a new one and would like for me to pay the cost of dry cleaning for her other comforter. I ended up sending her the money and apologized profusely, because I genuinely did not mean to ruin her comforter.
She finally left my review and while it wasn’t bad, I don’t appreciate that she is painting me out to have had stopped communication with her. She is making it seem like she had to beg me for updates, when the door was always open for more questions or being specific about how she would like her updates. I usually go based off what the client wants because some are more laid back and don’t expect constant updates, whereas others do prefer more details about how their pet is doing. I do own up to not having contact with her for one day, but other than that I feel like she was in the loop for most of the time.
My question is, could it be she got upset about the comforter and it resulted in her nitpicking every little thing about how I cared for her dog? I was caught off guard by how she was texting me, especially after our face to face conversation the day she arrived. Nothing seemed wrong and she did not seem to have any questions then.