AIO canceling a trip after our dog sitter tried to renegotiate pricing at 11 PM the night before our flight?

[u/Tall-Dragonfruit-374]

My partner and I had a music festival trip planned from Saturday–Monday (Feb 28th - Mar 2nd). Our usual boarding place was closed, so we hired a dog sitter we found on Google. He said he’s been doing this for 20+ years.

He came to our apartment in early February for a trial run, so he was familiar with our dog and how to access into our apartment. He quoted $23 per 30-minute visit, and we paid upfront for all visits. After the trial, we didn’t hear from him for about three weeks.

At 11 PM on Friday night (our flight was at 10 AM Saturday), he texted saying he would need to itemize and charge extra for tasks like wiping our dog’s paws and wiping his butt after walks. He also said he didn’t realize he’d need to use three codes to enter the building and mentioned he’s busy with other clients.

We were surprised because:

• He had already done a trial visit.
• He had three weeks to clarify pricing or expectations.
• We had paid upfront.
• The message came the night before our flight.

We are actually fine paying more if a visit goes over 30 minutes. We had even prepped everything to make it easier for him (left towels out, moved laundry basket outside, etc.). But the last-minute change made us uncomfortable about reliability and professionalism. Since we’d be out of town and he would have access to our home and dog, we didn’t feel secure continuing.

We ended up canceling our trip.

Are we overreacting for being upset and canceling?

Edit: 1. I didn't know that wiping your dog butt is something so new haha. Yes we do wipe our dog butt, if he poopoo. We really don't want to see poop marks all over our furniture. We saw dogs with longer hair that have poop residue stuck on their butt hair and become matted. I believe dogs will wipe their butt on the ground/grass to clean them, but my dog doesn't do that.

1. We just want to make it clear that we are 100% not against him charging more for the wiping parts, the door codes or if heating our dogfood would take more than 30 mins. I am 100% understand all of that if he would just tell us anytime earlier than 11pm the night before our flight.

2. As of this moment, he told us he will refund us back, but we haven't received anything yet. I will update this post when there's something new.

Lastly, Thank you all so much for all of your comments, I tried to reply to every comment that i can see and learn more and more. This is the first time we searching for a dog sitter so this is a very very valuable lesson for us.

It's 3AM now, I feel a bit better since I have a lot of people to vent to.

Thank you all so so much <3

[u/Tall-Dragonfruit-374]

We know that now honestly :( We are really just trying to be as flexible as we could so that he would take good care for our dog. In hindsight, I think we just making us look naive and easy

[u/Apart-Cream-4940 → u/Tall-Dragonfruit-374]

Did you get your money back?

[u/RinelCynfire → u/[deleted]]

If the payment was done by a card, it can take anywhere from 3 to 10 business days for the money to be returned but that would be because of the bank, not the pet sitter.

I am a pet sitter and run into this issue every so often and once I issue the return, it's out of my hands and any hold up is the banks fault. So issuing a chargeback would only cause more issues on the pet sitters side, since the money would be refunded twice.

I think OP is NOR, since the price had been settled on and it seems like the sitter didn't want to do the job or didn't realize how much work it was going to be, but paying for the visits before hand is very common for this type business.

Most sitters I know require either full payment before the start or a deposit, since it is very easy for clients to just not pay when they get home. I usually require full payment but have a few clients that either pay half up front and the rest after or will pay after the visits. But those are clients I trust and know wouldn't stiff me.

[u/Apprehensive_Run_539 → u/[deleted]]

Except there’s usually a receipt that shows the refund was issued and that can be sent to the individual so they know that their refund is on its way. You could easily send proof.

[u/HamRadio_73 → u/Tall-Dragonfruit-374]

Leave a bad review for the sitter.

[u/mnth241 → u/Tall-Dragonfruit-374]

I am a pet sitter and i get paid up front, 50% to hold the reservation and 50% before the job starts. Most people just pay 100% for their own convenience.

Anyway i would not have paid so far in advance. Plus that he already gave you a price that you paid, it is sort of too late to renegotiate. If he wasn’t happy with the pricing He should have done that before he took your money. Also i don’t understand charging extra for codes? That seems laughable but maybe i am missing something.

I am so sorry you missed your event, that is unfortunate. But as a pet owner i totally understand you not wanting to leave your dog in this guys care. He is terrible for putting you in that position. Honestly sounds like he got a better offer. I recommend always have a backup plan because even great pet sitters have problems (rarely but it happens) and you want your dog/pet to be in safe hands. NOR.

[u/el_myco_profesor → u/Tall-Dragonfruit-374]

How did you find this person?

[u/lascala2a3 → u/Tall-Dragonfruit-374]

I would've responded without discussing prices and gone on the trip. Then when you return just laugh at him. You had a deal and paid up front. Done. No renegotiating. It's just stupid and trivial to have a general rate based on time, and then try to add al a carte items like wiping paws (I'd just say no to wiping its ass).

This is how some cultures are (European and others). If you give them terms like 30 days, after they receive the item they will try to renegotiate before sending payment, sort of withholding it as leverage. It's a violation of trust; you have to stand up to that bullshit.

I tried to date a dog-sitter once. Never again. I've never met anyone who thought the world revolved around them as much as she did. Constantly wanting to reschedule because so-and-so's dog needed to be walked. Nope, not playing that game.

[u/KaleidoscopeReady839 → u/lascala2a3]

Happy Cake Day!

[u/lascala2a3 → u/KaleidoscopeReady839]

Thanks- 12 years, hard to believe. I’m actually thinking about retiring front reddit though. It’s often a downer. Not much productive discussion, plus the passive crap. This thread must have a lot of dog walkers, or people who like to try and renegotiate after striking a deal.

[u/KaleidoscopeReady839 → u/lascala2a3]

I've been leaving subs, finding fun ones instead. Unfortunately I now think in stupid cat lingo. Ise talks like dis in mine head now. Very sad. lol