A few weeks ago, I took my baby boy Angelo, a 14-week old Welsh Corgi, to the groomers at PetSmart.
I give him regular baths at home and I follow professional grooming manuals to the letter. However, I wanted him to get his nails done and his ears cleaned. We made an appointment and got the Puppy Package for him.
I dropped him off and the girl there was rude and cold to me and to an elderly couple who was picking up there Chihuahua. We handed Angelo over and went out to finish our shopping. Mind you, this was a Sunday and they weren't that busy.
We got a call at 1:30 saying he'd be ready for pickup in about 20 minutes. When I got there, she still had an attitude as she brought him back to me. I had to ask for the bandana they were supposed to give me for free, but that wasn't the issue. After sending my boyfriend out to pay, they finally handed me my dog.
Problem one: as he scurried to get away from her and to me, he clawed my arm. As I was carrying him out, I checked his paws and saw his nails were UNTOUCHED. They hadn't even TRIED to file them.
Problem Two: He hadn't been washed, at most he had some water dumped on him because his undercoat was coarse and dirty feeling. I've owned enough dogs to know when they've been washed well and he had not.
Problem Three: His ears were still filthy. They hadn't done anything except leave a redness in his right ear which I wrote off as a poor cleaning job that had maybe irritated him a little. We tried to dismiss it, but we were livid.
On 4/1/09, we had to take my baby to the 24 hour hospital because the redness was worse. Not only that, he began mauling his ear, shaking his head and crying loudly. The vet swabbed him and he has a yeast infection that we'll be treating for 7-10 days and hope it doesn't become recurring.
My point: not only did the woman NOT do her job, she hurt my puppy. The vet says we can't prove she did anything since infections are so easy to catch, but he's never had one before. She says what may have happened is they may have poured or gotten water in his ear which, as any REAL groomer will tell you, is a HUGE no-no for Corgis. The poor little guy is still suffering, but hopefully he will improve.
I want back the amount of the grooming, the amount of the vet bill for the tests and the medicine and I want that woman fired. The third thing is the most important because nobody should hand over their baby to an inept teenager with an attitude problem who doesn't do her job and manages to harm an otherwise healthy dog. We will never enter PetSmart again.
Jessa
Topeka, Kansas
U.S.A.
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