# Dates with Darcy, Hagley, West Midlands



## Rob/Rubery (Jul 10, 2019)

*Dates with Darcy Review*

*This is a totally truthful review of my one only contact with Maxine Rushton of Dates with Darcy. I will try to put all emotions aside and deal with facts.*

Thursday 4th July my daughter and her new husband flew to Mexico for their honeymoon, the plan was my wife and I would look after their two dogs in the evenings and overnight and Dates with Darcy, "Professional Dog Walkers", would collect the dogs from our home in the morning and return them in the afternoon.

On the first day at 17.00pm I received a telephone call from Maxine to say she had lost one of the dogs, I left work immediately and drove over to meet with her at The Doggy Day Care Centre, basically a field in the middle of acres and acres of fields and woods. I asked what time was the last time she had seen Millie, the smallest of the two dogs, and Maxine replied 01.50pm!

*Maxine had made no attempt to make contact with any of the family for over three hours.*

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I then asked why the dogs were not on leads as they always are when I take them out, they were in a field of long grass at least twice the size of the dogs - may I add,* a field which was totally insecure.* The reply was that she must have chased a rabbit. I ask would a wild rabbit get that close to at least two dogs and a dog walker? Bearing in mind the length of the grass and the size of Millie the rabbit would have to have been very close for any of the dogs to have seen it.

For the next three hours the family members and myself ran from field to field looking for Millie while Maxine stood next to her van holding her mobile, maybe she was hoping for a call from Millie. Our pattern over the next four days was that as many as possible family members would cover as much ground as possible in the search. Late on the afternoon of Monday 8th July two of the family members managed to find Millie and she was taken for a check-up at the local vet. I found Dates with Darcy totally unprofessional and uncaring.

Thankfully it ended with all being well, but with *very little help from Maxine and not even a grain of an apology.* I hope this honest review can stop at least one family from going through the stress and heartache this put our family through. One of the happiest times of our family's lives turned into a nightmare in a matter of days and it was entirely due to Dates with Darcy.

*Would I recommend Dates with Darcy, what do you think?*

*Rob Harris*


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## tabelmabel (Oct 18, 2013)

Goodness me - thank goodness you got Millie back. There has recently been a thread on these forums about a pup that was let off lead by a dog walker near a road, got hit by a car, luckily patched up at the vet but is having to chase the walker for vet bills through the legal system.

Good walkers use proper contracts which make clear how the dog will be walked, payment arrangements etc.
There will also be a clear procedure outlined in your paperwork for emergency situations. 
It is awful that anyone can call themselves a dog walker, charge fees that undercut professionals that do things by the book, and get away with it until something goes wrong like this - leaving the client with no recourse other than social media to vent a grievance.

This will become a regulated industry in the future, i am sure. Until then, eyes wide open


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## Doctor Doolittle (Feb 6, 2020)

I have joined this forum today because I have had a horrible experience with the business “dates with darcy
I wanted to setup some occasional daycare for my dog so that he is safe and happy when I have engagements. I decided to use the website Tailster who find dog walkers, carers, kennels in your area. Dates with Darcy contacted me and sounded ideal. I asked if I could visit and the owner Maxine said she would visit us. Which she did, we arranged a trial day which was yesterday. She collected my dog at 8.30am , she had several dogs in her van. I asked if there was any paperwork to fill in , she said don’t bother with the agency just pay into her bank account no paperwork. In hind sight I should have insisted on inspecting her premises as I had no address. She did text me about 10am to say he was running around happily. At about 1pm I had a call from a man saying he had found my dog , confused and anxious under an underpass. I spent 10 -15 minutes trying to get in touch with the Woman Maxine. She eventually phoned me and I told her a man had got my dog in dog kennel lane so she said she would collect him. I am so grateful to that man he probably saved my dogs life. The woman returned my dog at 4.30pm . She said her place was secure, it had got an electric fence around it and she didn’t know how he had got out. She said he was fine he had just gone off on a wonderful adventure. I asked her if this had happened before and she said no never. After searching this site I can confirm she has lied and her site is not secure. Fortunately my dog although tired and very dirty seems unharmed but I will not be using that dog daycare. Later on in the evening she sent me her bank payment details, I have not paid her yet. Should I ?


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