Report Abuse

“Terrible Customer Service at Pets at Home Corstorphine”

written by doripanda on 18/07/2021

My partner and I had an awful experience at the Groom Room, Corstorphine. We left our Frenchbull dog of 7 months in their care for a bath, brush and blow dry and within 5 minutes of having left our pup one of the groomers approached us at the cash desk where we were buying pets at home products stating your dog has just bit me and that we will need to stop the session. This was quite shocking but almost embarassing for both of us as we were speaking at the checkout with the cashier and there was a line of people behind us. Could this not have waited until we had been given our products and we could have been taken aside. This felt insensitive given it is quite upsetting to hear your dog has bit someone. We then arrived at the groom room to see that our Frenchie had a neck towel on and the groomers exclaimed they could not remove it. My partner then had to intervene and encouraged our Frenchie to sit removing it within seconds. We were then asked as a first question is your dog a rescue? Before then being asked is she aggressive towards other people? This for both of us was very strange, as we would always be willing to address any behavioural concerns, however to date we have never had an incident of this nature. We both found it very rude however to be greeted with a first question is your dog a rescue? This is discriminative towards those that may have a rescue and a very strange place to start a conversation. We also find it odd that there was no talk of even continuing the session with a bath and taking small steps over a period of time to ensure our pup became more comfortable in their presence and could eventually commit to a full groom. For us it felt very quickly like the staff had cast a judgement on our pup for being aggressive and had not considered how they as a service could work with her moving forward or how even their own approach could have led her to be agitated. Both groomers were also very cold and almost annoyed after our pup had reacted the way she did. I can't imagine our pup is the only dog to have reacted in this manner at Corstorphine. I have read online of several pups reacting in this manner particularly when it is their first experience. I think for any pup being touched and groomed by strangers must be both intimidating and traumatic and different dogs will handle this differently. For me this encounter indicated a naivety and lack of understanding around dog temperaments and behaviours. I for one will not be using the Groom Room Corstorphine again but I do think for the benefits of others that use this service, the staff team should invest in further training around labelling, staff attitude and practicing with dogs that may present with challenging behaviours.