Petco — Local services in Saratoga Springs

Do NOT get your dog groomed here. We had an appointment booked over a month in advance for our two dogs for 9:15 A.M for the first appointment of the day. When we arrived to drop off our dogs we were met by a visibly flustered woman and we had a suspicion that they were intoxicated to some level, but couldn’t tell for sure. We gave her the details for how we wanted our dogs cut, and when we were getting ready to leave she informed us that she was the only groomer working today so it may take a little longer than normal and could be like 4 or 5 hours. No biggie.

Well, we dropped off our dogs at 9:15 and around 1:00 P.M. after having our dogs gone for 4 hours, we get a phone call from the groomer (who can barely string together a sentence) letting us know that due to the number of walk-in appointments, that it would now take twice as long from what we were quoted and that it would take another 4 or so hours to get the dogs done and that if we couldn’t wait the extra time, that our dogs couldn’t be groomed today. We asked “So our dogs have been there for 4 hours and you haven’t even started grooming them?” To which they told us that they had been bathed and nothing else. Then they had the audacity to offer to rush the grooming for an extra charge of $15. We expressed our frustration that they were actively taking on more walk-in appointments and that our appointment which had been reserved for over a month wasn’t being prioritized or respected. We told them that we would certainly not be paying them any extra money just so that they would do their job that we were already paying for. She then said something along the lines of “Oh! I think I called the wrong number. I meant to call someone else about their dog.”

10 minutes later we receive the following text from the groomer:

“ hi i was wrong i was suppossed to call but just to tell you theyh are bathed and dryed i take 40 min to do final touch ups so im so sorry but i can NOT finish them by 2 i am the only person here and i do 4 peoples jobs im terribly sorrybut if uy needvthem by two there will be no charges because i will not be completeing them at all id simply ask you tp please come pick them up and i can offer you 20% off ur next visit or this one..... if u choose to stay i love the animals and dont like their experience to be rushed or scary since your dogs are little its really like 30 min on the finish work most of it is ahaving themplease feel free to text this line back asap so i know how u would like me to proceed

i cant answer the phone right now so please klet me know what to do soon“

At this point I had my suspicion was more or less confirmed that the groomer was under the influence of some substance. We opted to not let this lady touch our dogs any longer and went to pick up our dogs. We got to the grooming section of the store and she was completely oblivious to the fact that we were there to pick up our dogs due to the fact that she was grooming A DIFFERENT DOG.

We went and got some help from one of the managers who went back to get our dogs who were still wet because they hadn’t been fully dried after the bath that apparently took this lady 4 hours to do.

Pro Tip: Maybe don’t take on extra walk-in appointments if you can’t handle the reserved appointments that you already have. Petco has turned us away before for not having any openings for grooming, so I don’t know why that isn’t standard practice for this location.

This was a huge waste of our time as grooming appointments at any petcos in a 50 mile radius are booked months out. After 4 hours, all we got was a subpar bath and 2 wet dogs.

Needless to say we’re never getting our dogs groomed here again. I was shocked to see that our experience was not unique at all and that multiple others have gone throughout exactly the same thing. Seems like Petco doesn’t care at all though.

Petco. Fire this...

Update 04/2025: I tried booking another appointment through the app. A pop-up appeared saying BOTH my dogs were “too sensitive” at their last appointment and I couldn’t take them back. First of all.. they NEVER mentioned anything to me. They just slapped it on my account and called it good. That’s seriously unprofessional and cowardly, to be honest.

Secondly, one of them has had 16 appointments at various Petco locations over the years, and the other has had 7 (yes, I counted). The ONLY issue that’s ever been mentioned is “sensitivity” to nail trims for only one of my dogs. I put on her account long ago to not do a nail trims if she’s not having it, so it’s not like they weren’t aware. And I KNOW my other dog isn’t bad with grooms, and not a single groomer ever mentioned that about her either. Because this is the first time they’ve ever been “banned”, I can only assume the groomers were not gentle enough, or patient enough, or anything.

And not to mention, like I said in my original review, they owed me a free groom but refused to validate it. So now they’re trying to screw me out of the free groom that I earned, by not letting me go back?? I don’t think I’m allowed to use the words here that I’d like to to explain how mad this makes me and how gross those groomers are for doing that…

As if this sort of environment isn’t scary enough for them, add the wrong type of groomer to the mix and of course they’ll become scared and anxious. Do NOT trust anyone at this location. They will treat your dogs badly and then say it was the dog’s fault, and steal your money.

01/2025 Don’t go to the groomers. They either don’t listen or don’t have the experience to do what they’re asked. For example, I asked for short ears. They left her ears extremely long to the point where I’m not sure they even trimmed them. I asked for a 1” tail. They left 4 inches’ worth. I asked for no beards. They left beards. Their paws are choppy. There’s still hair in front of their eyes. And, they made me pay for a groom that was supposed to be free. Even though I paid in full, I still had to spend an hour fixing their haircuts so they actually look cute. If you’re looking for a professional-level haircut, go somewhere else.

Take a look at the pictures.. can you guess how the groomers left them vs. how I fixed it with kitchen...

Don’t bother booking a grooming visit. I used to love having my dogs groomed here, but they do not keep appointments anymore. My dog was scheduled for Monday the 29th. I waited 2 months for this appointment. Two days before the appointment I received a call saying I needed to reschedule for the following Monday (the 5th), which was fine. I get sometimes schedules have to change. The night before my appointment (Sunday the 4th), I get a text that we need to reschedule for the next Monday (the 12th), which doesn’t work for me. I ask if I can be scheduled with a different groomer or on Tuesday or Wednesday. I was told to come to my normal appointment and they would work something out. I drop off my dog on Monday as planned and get a call less than an hour later that I need to pick him up because he’s too stressed to be groomed (my dog has been groomed here and several other places with no issues). I go to pick him up and the groomer is gone and he’s still wet. Apparently they didn’t even try to groom him, the stylist had another appointment to get to and just left him there. So the other stylist sets us up for a make-up appointment on Tuesday (today) at the same time. I show up for this appointment and nobody is there. It’s literally not open today. The store employee says it’s never open Tuesday and he has no idea why I have a text confirmation of this appointment. I don’t know what is going on at the grooming department here, but I have lost all...