When I started there was a scam going around where scammers would sign-up as customers and get your information, call as if they were wag support staff, and act like they were helping getting payments processed because Wag! was routinely fucking up getting people paid.
So basically, security flaws in their system led many of their walkers to getting scammed. If you did end up getting scammed then you were SOL and Wag would do nothing for you.
Apps like Wag or Rover may be cheap, but it comes with a price. That price being that they’re a soulless silicon valley company that doesn’t give a shit about their walkers or customers.
I can understand the allure of a deeply discounted rate that leads us to Silicon Valley ideas like wag rover Uber and others. We should always remember that investors that fuel Silicon Valley love these ideas because they generate tons of profits by skirting around liability, which traditionally is the massive downside and expense to these types of businesses. Like Uber, in the end they will always claim not to be a company clearly doing whatever it is they are doing but merely “a tool that connects people”. It deflects the blame away all while you find out that insurance their marketing was screeching about endlessly is really a boilerplate Trojan horse; often offering you next to nothing to fix the issues they allowed to happen. Got a problem with any of that? Well too bad because their ULA somewhere binds you to mandatory arbitration… which they pay for and which naturally means judgments are almost always in their favor.
They don’t necessarily need to make a profit. It’s like why you’ll hear what movies make in the box office but overall they’re at a net loss. How can I keep making movies if they all are short millions of dollars after production. It’s because the way they write things off in taxes in an over-inflate certain prices and use assets to take out loans that they live off of cuz you don’t have to pay taxes on loans but assets can be used in investments to make more money. When you want to talk simplicity on just profits sure just like bezos isn’t making more than $60,000 a year if you’re talking about his personal income I believe. It may not be bazos it may have been one of the other centennial billionaires. But the point is you’re not looking at the big picture.
Edit the reason movies do this that way they can say they’re at a net loss is so that way they don’t have to pay out percentages to the actors or royalties that way the actors get the better deal by signing for a set dollar amount rather than a certain set amount plus a certain percentage if it makes over this much that’s also included in a lot of movie contracts but they’re never allowed to benefit off of them
If you can, I would use an in-home sitter. I know it can be weird and awkward to have a stranger in your home, but it’s easier for pets than being brought somewhere new with a new person. They’re more likely to try to escape and if they do, they won’t know where to go like in their own neighborhood. So sorry for your loss, OP. I hope that you’re able to lay Bailey to rest soon.
I’m doing dogwalks for people on a tiny one-person company level and have always feared such situations. After a while people start getting comfortable with me entering their he’s with a key, once you are open and honest about everything and have good chemistry with their dogs it’s not awkward anymore. You gotta look out for the right people, whatever you do, don’t trust people blindly, see if your dog changes behavior after a new dogsitter walks a few times. Also good to use GPS on your dog collar with Realtime app control to check on your pet anytime (expensive but works). What I do is harness them on my waist with metal locks on very sturdy leashes, I can go hands free with max 2 dogs, no chance for them to slip away but I’m still fearful sometimes. Things can happen but I’d be devastated to tell an owner “I killed your dog”, horrific thought and the reason I’m extremely cautious, never ever letting a dog off leash besides my own.
