Meowtel: In-Home Cat Sitting — Attraction in Dover

From an Ex Meowtel Sitter: Please look elsewhere!

This company was built upon a wonderful concept, but unfortunately I will strongly urge you to avoid them. I was mistreated, misled, and extremely disrespected.

I was a 5-Star cat-sitter with Meowtel. Out of the blue, I received a very inaccurate, poorly written, but threatening email stating “[Notice of Legal Action]”. Meowtel announced that I had apparently cat-sat for a woman named “Ashley” who had contacted me two weeks beforehand, trying to get me to accept money outside of Meowtel (which I did not). I never met “Ashley”, and I never sat for “Ashley”. But, Meowtel claimed I had accepted money from “Ashley” and other parties outside of Meowtel (absolutely untrue). They informed me that I was not only fired, but being taken to court. I asked Meowtel and their lawyer to provide literally any documentation to me in support of these claims, and they responded with “we will retain the records” that show such violations.

WELL GUESS WHAT? It turns out that “Ashley” was just a false identity created by Sonya (the CEO of Meowtel) - trying to trick me into breaking my contract! Thankfully I did not fall for it, but I am saddened to think of other sitters who have. I had a perfect track record and lovely clients.

I was appalled. One, because they drafted up such a threatening letter to try to frighten me, and two, because of their exceptionally slimy and improper conduct.

To anyone, and everyone, but mostly JOURNALISTS: Feel free to reach out to me with any questions about my Meowtel experience - I am happy to share with you all documentation and feelings about my exploitation by this gig-work app. I will be sharing my story with some local newspapers this month. To any client of Meowtel: I highly urge you to seek a neighbor, friend, or someone you trust to care for your kitties. You can be paying far less money to FAR more compassionate people out there. Meowtel’s business is shady, to say the least. To any cat-sitter or to-be cat-sitter of Meowtel: IT’S NOT WORTH YOUR TIME. Meowtel takes a ‘variable‘ part of your commission (a huge percentage), has no respect for their independent contractors (you), and will dismiss you in the blink of an eye over fraudulent accusations.

I have never in my life dealt with such childish, mean-spirited people.

Edit to Meowtel Response: You say you’re there for the “community” and yet you provide no respect or honesty toward even your contract workers. “Ashley Civan” - is a made-up character Meowtel created. I NEVER made or accepted any contract with this character (OR ANY OTHER client/made-up character), which was the violation Meowtel accused me of. Creating false identities - a form of entrapment - is fraudulent, unprofessional, improper and does not create a nurturing environment to Meowtel’s contract workers or their clients. And then creating intimidating unofficial legal documents through email is even more inappropriate and extremely passive. Most companies respect their workers enough to communicate directly with them about suspicious activity or complaints. Speaking of complaints: this client you speak of, (which has nothing to do with the point of my review in the first place) neglected to EVER inform me of their unease with my sitting and in fact thanked me profusely upon my departure. After you rudely asked me to provide full documentation that I completed this sitting for said client (you did not trust that I had) I handed you email after email of literally all evidence I had providing the best care for her cat. What’s more, is you intended to sit on this decided opinion that I “violated Meowtel’s Terms” until AFTER I made you more money by completing this specific reservation you speak of. Your lack of communication and professionalism in all of this is ridiculous.

Lastly, I ask that you stop removing people’s reviews. I’ve had many sitter/client reach out to me about similar situations and they are appalled by how swiftly Meowtel...

I used Meowtel for the first time and I was incredibly disappointed with my Sitter. After our meet and greet and before my first home visit appointment, Fey canceled on me last minute after I was already out of town and home for the holidays. She said she was dealing with personal things and was unable to complete my reservation. I only had two visits scheduled (Tue and Thurs) and she let me know Sunday night. It was unprofessional to tell me when I was already out of town, in a different state, with no one to care for my two cats. I asked her to return the keys the following morning and she said she could not guarantee a time since she hadn’t slept in days. I do not believe Fey is responsible enough to be working for your company, especially after she tried pushing out my meet and greet and ended up being an hour late, who canceled on me last minute and then made it almost impossible to find a time to return my keys. I was very impressed with Ryan who works directly for Meowtel. After receiving this alarming message from her, I called the company directly last night. Ryan called me directly, listened to me, was very empathetic and helped to find a solution. Ryan was awesome and I’m glad he was so prompt with getting back to me last night. While she’s not someone I recommend, I was impressed with the urgency and communication that Meowtel provided during this situation. It can be nerve wracking to think that someone who you don’t know has your keys, access to your home and should be taking care of cats and I really appreciate how Ryan was able to help and calm my nerves when I found out she was...

I’ve been so impressed with Meowtel from the moment I started going to them for cat sitting. At face value, Meowtel provides a robust cat sitting service: offering multiple vetted sitters in any particular area with a transparent and easy-to-use system for booking.

To me, what’s even more impressive is how they operate behind the scenes. For example, when I canceled a reservation because my cat didn’t get along with a particular sitter (by no fault of her own), Meowtel reached out to me to follow up on the experience and to see if I had any lingering concerns that needed to be addressed. They take their commitment to providing quality cat sitting incredibly seriously, which I appreciate.

This spring, I had a cat sitter cancel about a month before our reservation because of a family emergency. I was at work (on night shift) when I got the notification and immediately dreaded needing to stay up the following day to find another sitter. Instead, Meowtel 1) proactively recognized the issue, 2) proactively reached out to me, 3) went above and beyond in finding other sitters who could accommodate the same reservation (and confirmed with them ahead of time), 4) gave me options, and 5) did all of this within a matter of hours after the issue arose (even though it was after hours!). Their timely and comprehensive response speaks volumes about the mission of Meowtel and the wonderful compassionate people...