Scenthound

Makes me sad to write this, because I loved the Westlake group. Our dog was always done on time, and text notifications about his progress were great so that we were able to pick him up quickly. Here's my big but....

Went to pick him up and paid using MY debit card, instead of my partner's. I opted for a tip percentage that would be for about $10, so I was surprised when the total on the receipt showed a $20 tip. I asked about it, and was told that the percentage is based on the cost of what I *would have paid* if I didn't have a membership monthly fee. Ouch. I asked to suspend future visits, since I figured $80 was a bit much for a bath, nail trim, and ear cleaning.

The other day (September 1), I noticed on my bank statement a charge for $37+ pending on my charges... it was for Scenthound, where I hadn't been since January '24. Hmm. I did a search on my statement and found that my charges had started in May, so that 5 months of payments without the benefits of the bath, nail trim, etc. had accrued to about $190.

I called the next morning and spoke to Morgan. He remembered me (he's a really nice guy) and said he'd see what might be done. He mentioned that notes indicated I would reinstate the service in May. That conversation was September 3rd, about 2 weeks ago. I've not heard a peep. When it was all active, I would get a text message asking me to schedule for the next month's visit, but I looked and didn't see any return to messages from them.

If they're going to charge a monthly fee, they might be up front and call or text, saying "hey, we're going to charge you anyway, so you might as well bring in your dog so we don't piss you off."

Speaking of pissing me off, they actually put these new charges onto *my* debit card, instead of my partner's which is the one on file. That seems a bit sketchy, too.

What's Judge Judy say? If something seems as if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't true.

___________________________
So! As you can read, the team asked me to call them to see what could be done "to make things right." Welp, nada. They're not willing to refund any of the money that they deducted from my account (even though my debit card is not the one associated with the account, and was just used the last visit). They wouldn't even offer a "well, we took $190 from your account without permission, so if you'd like us to wash your mutt a few times, we can do that."

I *did* speak with Abby who apologized up and down about the procedure, and she told me a full week ago that she would speak to the manager about the experience and see if there was anything that could be done. (crickets) She must've thought I'd be pissed enough to call every day, because she didn't make any effort to contact me (there's a pattern, here). I took the initiative to call her today to remind her that she was going to ask "the owner" if anything could be done. Sounds like the owner is laughing all the way to the bank, because I was told "nope," nothing was going to be refunded or offered to make this arrangement whole.

SO BEWARE OF THESE FOLKS! Don't give them a different credit or debit card than what was used originally if you don't want that new card to be used, and don't expect them to call you to set up the next appointment if they can just continue to charge you without providing a service.