Dog Bar — Local services in Miami Beach

Beware! SLIMY business practices. We have been going to Dog Bar for about a year now since we moved to the area from NY. It is conveniently located, and we prefer to work with local businesses whenever possible. We have even chosen to have them order the dog food for our dog at a premium, which they don’t carry in 22lb bags, to give them the business instead of ordering from Amazon. Every now and then, we have had issues with random price changes on grooming services ($10-30) that are communicated at pickup, even after confirming the price before booking the appointment and at the time of drop off. We attributed this behavior to bad management and typically referencing our purchase history would solve the problem. However, today, the owner and staff lost their marbles. Historically we have paid $120 for a full grooming, and today, upon pickup, we were told with no explanation whatsoever that the new price was $200 for the same exact service we have been purchasing ~monthly for over 12 months. The employee response after trying to make up reasons for the cost increase was “that's what the groomer said so, so that’s it”. In the middle of the ‘argument’ he picks up the phone and proceeds to have a 15-minute discussion with a customer on all the available sizes and colors of a leather leash – completely disrespectful of the situation and of my time as a visibly unhappy customer. I eventually got tired of waiting for him to list all the available leash colors and signaled to him to charge me for the $200 (no tip this time, we usually tip 20%+) and screamed on my way out that he should let the owner know that they lost a customer! A few minutes later we get a call from the owner, who starts the conversation with a lengthy monologue which ends with him accusing us of not paying for the service and storming out of his store (he was not there obviously). After me losing my $hit and making it clear that we did pay for the service, he apologized and told us that his groomers are contractors, that our dog took 2+hrs of grooming by the groomer, and that for him to make a living he takes the grooming price and doubles it and that our dog is the largest dog in the world … blah blah blah – mind you in NY we pay $160 for a boutique grooming place in the heart of Chelsea. Unbeknownst to him, his groomer was 2 hours late to work and was not there when we dropped off our dog, naturally the groomer called us when he placed our dog on the table for grooming to request clarifications and then proceeded to call us 37 minutes later for pick up – as a result, my dog has patches of fur all over his paws and belly. To boot, the owner (Steve/Stephen) decides that a $25 credit towards future purchases was the appropriate remediation after the bad customer service, slimy business practices and false accusations. What a joke! TAKE YOUR...

Returning to South Beach after almost 10 years, I couldn't wait for the opportunity to find some fun toys and high end leashes for my 4 dogs in my favorite Dog Bar Store. I walked in with my friends, and although we were casually dressed, for some odd reason, we were pegged as leash or chew bone snatchers. The scruffy looking clerk Steve followed us around the store in a creepy and stalking way, while remaining on his cell phone. While still talking on his cell, he inquired what we were looking for. I myself was looking for new fun stuff unavailable in other stores. I picked up a few items for about 60 plus dollars, but before I concluded my transaction clerk Steve awkwardly inquired about the contents of my purse including if I had a tazer gun and a pair of hand cuffs with me!!! His misplaced comments will remain etched in my memory , and, to avoid further insults, I will not return to the Dog Bar store after the way clerk Steven made us all feel like we were committing an infraction by just being there. My friends, including a pd official, were quite appalled at clerk Steven's insulting comments. You may have lost the luster of 10 years ago, but you could still make customers feel welcome, and make them want to return to buy more, unless your business is thriving so magically that you can dispense with the customer service. Bonne...

Unfortunately I wish this was a positive review. My experience was not the best first time I bought one of the leashes from the dog bar a month later the clip became fairly loose and would actively come off on its own from my dogs collar. Decided to go back to the dog bar thinking since it’s a pet store they might have better return policy and customer service. I ended up speaking to the owner and his response to the leash coming off the collar was a car analogy “ if you cannot show me that it comes off on its own how can I replace it and said to me it’s just like the car dealership you go to the car dealership they tell you we don’t see anything wrong with the car but you tell them there’s something wrong they won’t fix it“ at least from my general experience when you’re dealing with items like this dealing with pets the average expectation would be that they may have a decent return policy or we can replace The clip on the leash. as well from other friends in the area have also had similar experiences with the owner and it’s a bummer reminds me of a dog shop on Newbury Street in Boston however this kind of customer service/return policy would never go down like this welcome to Miami?! :/ the dog bar has such great potential cool items etc. but terribly poor customer service. You guys can do better!!!!!!! You are...