Luke Gilbertson’s dog, Stewie, falls ill after a Rover pet sitter allegedly leaves him unattended. Despite veterinary proof of a foreign object ingestion, Rover won't cover the veterinary bills. Is Gilbertson barking up the wrong tree?
Q: My dog, Stewie, was healthy before I booked a pet sitter through Rover, a pet care service. While he was under the sitter’s exclusive care, he ingested a foreign object and became critically ill.
I have Ring camera footage showing the sitter isolated herself in a bathroom or bedroom for 17 hours out of a 24-hour period. She left the dog completely unattended. During that time, Stewie began vomiting repeatedly. The sitter failed to supervise him, failed to respond to the medical emergency, and failed to seek veterinary care.
Veterinary diagnostics confirmed a gastrointestinal foreign body with a bacterial infection. The object eventually passed, and I have the photographs to prove it. My vet even provided a written statement confirming the condition was caused by foreign body ingestion.
Despite this, Rover denied my $5,272 reimbursement claim under the Rover Guarantee. It claims the injury wasn't directly caused by the sitter’s omissions and labeled it an "undetermined cause illness." These conclusions contradict the video evidence and medical findings. Can you help me get Rover to honor its guarantee or at least explain why it's ignoring the facts? — Luke Gilbertson, Santa Ana, Calif.
A: I'm sorry about Stewie and I hope he's feeling better.
The Rover Guarantee is not pet insurance. It's a reimbursement program to protect pets under its care. In certain circumstances, it can also cover vet care for a pet care provider’s pets or damage to a pet owner’s property.
You would think that when a sitter leaves a dog alone for 17 hours—more than two-thirds of the day—and something happens to the dog, the guarantee would apply. But there's an important exclusion in the Rover Guarantee for what it calls "undetermined cause illness." Basically, if a veterinarian can't verify that the ingestion occurred during the booking, the claim might be denied.
You did the right thing by gathering a mountain of evidence. Most people forget the paper trail, but you kept the videos, the vet notes, and the photos. Proving the cause of a dog's illness is notoriously difficult. It is a lot like a food poisoning case in restaurants or on cruises. Unless you have a lab report or a video of the dog swallowing the exact object, companies like Rover will try to classify it as an "undetermined" illness to avoid paying.
You could have started by sending a concise appeal to a Rover executive. I list the names and emails of the Rover leadership team on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. Sometimes the "final" decision from a front-line adjuster isn't actually the last word if you reach the right person.
I reached out to Rover on your behalf and asked about the discrepancy between your vet's findings and its denial.
A spokeswoman for Rover told me the company conducted a "thorough investigation" of your case. While it maintained that the situation did not meet the criteria for the Rover Guarantee, it decided to refund $276, the cost of your pet sitting as a "one-time customer service gesture."
Christopher Elliott is the founder of Elliott Advocacy (https://elliottadvocacy.org), a nonprofit organization that helps consumers solve their problems. Email him at chris@elliott.org or get help by contacting him at https://elliottadvocacy.org/help/