Like others who have had incredibly bad experiences with this business (make sure to check out the ""filtered"" reviews on Yelp as well), I also have a Goolia horror story to share.
We have a 14 lb. dog who we adopted from a rescue shelter. He frightens easily and does not do well around big dogs. The environment at Furtastik is chaotic with constant barking by the other dogs there. We always make appointments for grooming first thing in the morning so our dog does not have to spend any extra time there.
The other day, we dropped him off at 10 AM. Every time we go in there, they try to push us to purchase additional services we don't want even though we had them write down previously exactly which ones we do. We were not told the groomer was behind schedule, expecting to pick him up by 11:30 AM. By 12:15 PM, we had heard nothing and decided to call. The person who answered the phone told us the dog would be ready shortly but could not give us a specific time. It didn't seem to matter to them that we had other things to accomplish today and having to wait around wasn't on the agenda. Given how they were handling the situation, we asked to speak with Goolia, the owner and was told we'd have to call another location since she did not work on the premises.
After we got her on the phone, it wasn't long before she became very combative. She said she has no control over her employees and that's what she expects since she only pays them minimum wage. She refused to apologize or make any allowances because of what happened. She stated quite clearly that it was no big deal that our dog had to spend 1 1/2 hours in a cage surrounded by larger dogs barking continuously, despite our wishes to the contrary. She made a disparaging remark about my ethnicity and threatened to sue me if I posted a negative review online (guess they don't teach the ""protected free speech"" concept in Russia).
Where you take your dog to be groomed is your business. Given the number of other bad reviews (i.e. bacterial infections, dogs getting loose in traffic, dogs getting smacked, confrontations with Goolia) and my own bad experience, you can't write this off as another isolated incident. We'll be taking our dog to Kriser's on Clybourn from now on. I recommend you do the same.
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After I posted my review, I got a nasty response from Goolia. She claims it takes 2 1/2 hours to groom a 14 lb. dog?!? It never did before and given the job they did, it's perfectly clear it didn't this time either. Actually, it took over 3 hours to get the dog back. As I stated previously, we did not receive a phone call that they were running behind schedule. Guess that was another thing beyond her control.
Seems to me, Goolia wants to convince everyone that if you have a gripe about how your pet was treated, you're lying about it. Let's recap all the negative reviews posted online for those of you scoring at home:
-The guy who's dog got a bacterial infection: lying.
-The people who's dog got run over in traffic: lying.
-The guy who's dog got smacked: lying.
-The woman who was called a bitch by Goolia: lying.
-The lady who's dog got a really bad grooming: lying.
Guess I must have been lying, too. If you believe that, let me tell you about some wonderful waterfront property in North Dakota I'm looking to sell.
All I know is if Goolia spent as much time training her employees and learning customer service skills as she did writing her impassioned missives on Yelp, many of the ""lies"" documented here would have been avoided. Given her lack of interest in handling complaints in a more ""customer friendly"" way, I suggest she hire a Minister of Propaganda so the business can continue responding in a timely manner to all the negative reviews piling up on Yelp and other review websites.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you care about your dog don't go to Furtastik
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