The Pawfessionals Dog Walkers & Pet Sitters

Worse dog walking experience I’ve ever had and I’ve been employing dog walkers for 7 years. I’m writing this as a warning to any pet owners who love their pets — do NOT USE THIS COMPANY! To start you should know that while they operate a Houston business the owner is actually based in Dallas and has next to nothing to do with the business. He is unreliable, impossible to reach and has an unpublished address (I should know because my lawyer had to go through the Texas secretary of state to find it and then discovered that the company is no longer in good standing with the state! They do not have the legal right to operate under «The Pawfessionals» but continue to do so anyway). Darren Burleson, the owner, never let on that he was not in Houston. I have many complaints against this company but I’ll leave only the worst.
My dog walker, Russell, didn’t show up to walk my dogs for the last 3 months and I was charged anyway. I started to become suspicious because the dogs were having accidents in the house, but I work long long days and thought maybe they needed to be walked twice. When more frequent walks did not resolve the problem I began leaving things in a certain way and taking pictures to see whether anything (leashes, collars, etc.) had been moved during the day. Much to my surprise for 2 weeks the dogs’ belongings went completely undisturbed. I then went to my building to find out how often the walker’s fob had been used… only to discover it had not been in 3 months!!! I tried to get my key back from the walker before telling the owner what I had discovered. After all, he had a key to my house and had proven himself unreliable and untrustworthy. If he found out I knew then he would worry his job was on the line and he might steal from me or worse, do something to my dogs. I wrote numerous e-​mails to Darren, the owner, telling him to have Russell leave the keys for me and I left a note, taped over the lock on the door so that Russell would have to read it IF he came. Only to come home to the note still taped over the door. Russell hadn’t even come to drop the keys. At this point I was irate. I tried to contact Darren who told me he would get to the bottom of it and get back to me. But he never called me back!!! Instead he E-​MAILED me that Russell would be by in 20 – 30 minutes to drop my keys. At this point it was the evening. I’m a single female living alone and the last person in the world I want to have to confront is this man, Russell. Besides I was headed out of the house for the evening and wouldn’t even be home. He sent a man who had violated my trust and stolen from me to my house at night when I wouldn’t even be there!!! Darren was unavailable for my phone calls but thank God my amazing building has such a wonderful front desk. I told them the situation and they immediately deactivated Russell’s fob and assured me he would not be allowed in the building. They met him at the door and took my keys. I then received a text message from Russell, who was presumably worried he would be fired, admitting that he had not been walking the dogs and trying to make up some medical excuse for it. I then wrote to Darren and even took a screen shot of the admission text and sent it to him. He NEVER EVEN REPLIED. HE NEVER REFUNDED MY MONEY. HE AND HIS COMPANY STOLE FROM ME. Do NOT use this service if you care at all about your dogs, your belongings, your home or yourself.