PetSmart

Today, I took my 2 dogs (16 and 8) to Petsmart in NorthBrunswick, NJ for grooming. Initially, they had a 3pm appointment with 2 different groomers. On Friday night, they called and asked that I bring them in 30min early, no explanation. I arrived on time, I was greeted by the Salon Manager, Linda, who informed me that since my Schnauzer was 16, she was going to do an Express Appointment on her and I could wait in my car and my 8yr Maltese, I could return in 3hours. When I questioned why. She told me this was HER policy and she was uncomfortable because my dog was a senior. She told me that the express policy was mandatory as she saw fit. When I explained to her that my dog was healthy and fine and that I had been going there for 10years and that my other dog who had just passed had been visiting since he was 17yo and never had an issue nor had I heard of this policy, she became defensive and told me that this was HER policy and that SHE was not going to do anything else with my dog but the express service. I said then express the other dog because I don't live across the street. At this time, my husband asked to see the policy in writing and she couldn't produce it. She walked out and in came the Store Manager, Michael. He tried to defuse the situation as good as he could. My issue was if they knew enough to call me to have me come in 30min early why didn't they state this policy Friday night. Secondly, the express service is an additional $15 charge. Why would I pay $15 for something that I didn't agree too nor know about. SO this person was going to charge me an additional fee just because SHE felt like it. When I asked why couldn't the other dog be expressed, no one seemed to have an answer except that would be unfair to the groomer. Oh, so never mind the customer being inconvenienced for their time or money but we must see to it that the groomer is correct. I told them that their policy that they still could not produce after 30min was BS and Linda never came back. We were left to deal with Michael who tried his best to resolve the issue. I will never be taking my dogs back to this salon, they just lost my business. FUNNY how I called another Petsmart and asked about this supposed senior express policy and the person told me that as long as the dog is healthy and not on medication, the dog would be fine. Linda never asked about my dog's health or asked me if the dog was on medication. Frankly, this was my very first interaction with Linda, my dogs have been going to this Petsmart Grooming for 10+years. When I told them, I don't live next door to drop one dog and come back for another, they wanted to know where I lived, to which I refused to answer. If appointments are made based on this, policies need to be posted and shared with the consumer. Linda, needs to be retrained in policies and customer service. She should not be able to pull policies out of the sky to which they seem fit for her. She didn't ask any questions and just wanted to use BS as a means to try to get her way. I am totally disgusted by the way that I was treated. I am sure that WE will be treated much better by a new groomer. I am highly upset and I'm really debating on continuing to use petsmart grooming for my future needs going forward.