Rover app user describes pet sitting nightmare

Jamielynn Storie was convinced her two beloved dogs – Josie,6, and Snoop, 7 months – were both kidnapped.

Her suspicions came after she returned from her vacation in Las Vegas and used the Rover app to have someone look out for the pups while she was out of town. 

She told FOX 11 she had to turn to police when Rover’s customer service couldn’t help her figure out what happened to her dogs. She claims she was left in the dark on the communication front for more than 24 hours on Sunday.

She was supposed to pick up the dogs Saturday but couldn’t get a hold of the Rover dog sitter.

"I reached out to her. She was completely non-responsive to any of the text messages that I left through the program, any phone calls that I made," Storie said. "It seemed at that point that her phone was going to voicemail… I started to reach out to ROVER directly and they said they weren't able to do anything until they were unable to reach her for 4 hours. After four hours, they finally escalated it to the next team. They basically told me to take a deep breath and relax."

She didn't like that. The situation was getting worse. 

"Nobody's responding and you're just spiraling and worrying. I've trusted this app and it made me feel like I had no idea what was going on. I had no idea who had my pet," Storie said.

Sunday evening, they were all reunited. Following the scare, Rover offered to pay for her dog care, a vet visit and supplies that were not returned to her by the sitter.

"I just think there's a lot of carelessness. And, you know, I own a business. It's just they didn't have any protocols in place whatsoever, nothing to protect us, no communication, nobody cared," Storie said. "It felt like nobody cared."

On Monday, FOX 11 obtained a following statement from Rover:

"We are overjoyed and relieved that Josie and Snoop have been reunited with their family. Our 24/7 Trust and Safety team is thoroughly investigating this unusual incident and will assist law enforcement to the full extent of our ability. In the meantime, we have fully refunded Ms. Storie and are working with her on other ways to support her and her pets through this challenging experience. We apologize for her challenges connecting with our support team, and we’re working on improvements.

As an early result of our investigation, we have removed the sitter from our community.

For some additional context, over 1.3 million stays have been booked by pet parents in the Los Angeles area, with 98% of reviewed stays receiving five stars."