Planet Pet

Never got the refund they promised, and now closed. They said it would be refunded when they moved, and never followed up despite stopping by or having called. See this happened to others as well.

Update 3÷15÷16. They stole my money. What a disgrace. No one from this closed business has responded to my review, voicemail, or email. They never refunded my prepaid dog boarding, as the front desk had promised to refund. If the manager or owner were involved in another business, I would run as far away as possible. So disappointing that people like this operate in our neighborhood and steal their customer’s money.

I had decent experience with Planet Pet when my dog went to daycare there. When they were unexpectedly closing with little notice but «assured me» I would get my $ 300 balance refunded, I had my doubts. They closed the location for «renovations and a change in ownership» on ¹¹⁄₁₅. After several voicemails and emails, I have yet to receive my refund check. If anyone else has had this experience, we should come together and take whatever action is necessary.

We loved using Planet Pet for years. Until they closed down shortly before thanksgiving and apparently made no attempt to contact anyone with a boarding reservation over the thanksgiving holiday. By which point it was too late to find open space anywhere within 50 miles of the DC area. Huge let down. If/​when they re-​open, they won’t find us among their customers.

We moved from the west coast inFeb and knew we’d need pet sitting for some XC trips. We’d had great experiences w our inner-​city kennel in Oakland (Happy Hound) and we’re looking for something comparable. Gus always LOVED going to happy Hound when we headed away for 10 days of vacation.
The other in-​town operation was maxed out in part because these guys had just left the FL Ave. Location. I heard about the «we are renovating so will bring your dog to our VA location» thing.
I wanted to check out the space our dog would be in, so went down to a small house w a big basement in a main drag in No Va. Not excited. I had to stand down for a bit because K9 dogs were rolling in to their crates. A bit unnerving for this owner of a beta dog.
Gus stayed there for a week in March or so, but not again. Just a bit too dodgy. The renovation job was supposed to be done in 4 – 5 weeks, but when I checked in over the summer, it still wasn’t done and the front desk folks said they were running into permit issues.
So overall, not comforting for our great dog.

I had a great experience here. The owner is very passionate about his store and he was very friendly with me giving me recommendations on some things for my fur baby — Loxli. The other customer service associates were very kind as well. I had no complaints about this store. They offer extensive items for both cats and dogs plus for exotic animals.
Ask for free samples! I made out like a bandit with cat food samples and treats. Lox was really happy with her new toys and food.

Six or so months into going here, we still love it! They’re really patient with my admittedly kind of crazy dog. The front of house staff is really sweet and kind with her, and for a dog that is pretty afraid of everyone, it’s been a godsend. They’re really understanding of her eccentricities. We have never had a negative experience there. She always comes back happy and not stressed (and really tired!!). She goes there 3 – 5 days a week usually for the better part of 8 hours and we could not be more pleased with our experiences. The owner has been really kind to us and has let us trial new treats, which Lucille has been quite happy about.
All in all, this place is great. I never worry that she’s going to be hurt or upset, and as far as I’m concerned that’s the most important thing you could ask for in doggy daycare. We’re hoping they bring back the later pickup times soon so mom and dad can have a date! Thanks Planet Pet!

I know their location is convenient, but it doesn’t make up for all the negatives. I implore you to find an alternative rather than giving them your money.
First they changed from daily to hourly rates, making it impossible for daily day care. Pure money grab. Then our dog smells of urine every time, they always forget to give us our food dish, always, and finally the attitude of the new front desk people shows they don’t care enough for their customers to hire a polite person as the face of their company.
Top it off with the fact there’s no loading zone for legally dropping off by car, and that cops regularly patrol and ticket this location, and there’s no reason to come here.
They’ve gotten cocky and forgotten that we the pet owners made them, so it’s time we rise up and show them that they’re nothing without our business. Doozy Dogs will be here soon, and these guys will be out of business. They did it to themselves, and they deserve it.

I took a chance and brought my Shih Tzu puppy to their groomers when they had first moved to their new location. My first clue that they were less than professional should have been when they didn’t ask for vaccination records… meaning that unvaccinated dogs could have been in the same quarters. BUT ANYHOW, when I got there I was told that because it was a sudden move they didn’t have a license to groom the dogs there and that they would be transported and groomed at their sister location in VA. Hesitantly, I agreed. After about 5 hours of waiting, they returned. My dog was given back to me damp and with a subpar hair cut (petco does a way better job). She was also squinting, but I originally put it off to some hair dropping into her eyes. The next morning, she could not open her left eye at all! And upon closer inspection, I noticed that her eyelashes were cut to STUBS and her facial hair was lopsided. In any case, I rushed her to the vet and they diagnosed her with corneal ulcers. She was on pain meds and antibiotics for two weeks. One of the ulcers was soo deep, that the vet said that there was a chance that that portion of her eye would heal into a scar!
The next day, after my vet visit, I called Planet Pet to voice my complaints AND sent an email. The receptionist on the phone rudely told me that their groomers could NOT be held responsible because anything could have happened when she was in my care. I retorted that the same was possible when I dropped her off into their hands! My dog has never had any trauma in MY care. AND when I spoke to the vet, he had said that the ulcer was soo deep that it had to be a tool that punctured her eye. Even when I used Petco she was returned to me as healthy as when I dropped her off. That being said, this was not her first grooming experience. Anyhow, after a few minutes of going back and forth, she told me that she would inform a manager and find a copy of my email. Needless to say, I never got a call or email back. It was probably one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve had in my life.
Thankfully, after about a month and a half, my baby’s eye ended up healing normally, and I didn’t pursue the matter further. BUT this company needs to learn how to take responsibility or atleast attempt to investigate matters instead of completely dismissing them. They could have blinded my dog yet, they showed no ounce of remorse or compassion. Long story short, I spent three times more in vet fees than the original grooming ($ 75), and my dog was noticeably in pain for weeks!
Ironically, I now live in walking distance from the store, and needless to say, I will be taking my dog elsewhere for her grooming and daycare needs. So I suggest anyone reading this review thinks twice before entrusting their pets into their care.

Just like Caroline below me, I really wanted to like Planet Pet — I live a few blocks away and their little store is inviting enough. Unfortunately, those are the only two positive things I have to say about the place after boarding my dog with them two times. To start, they REFUSE to show you where your pet is staying. I understand that they have a makeshift facility in Alexandria at the moment, but at least have photos to show customers! Also, show me the facilities where you keep the pets during daycare! Steadfast refusal by employees with absolutely no photos just makes it seem like there’s something PP is trying to hide.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, I trusted Planet Pet despite the refusal to show the facilities. I was let down. After my dog’s first boarding stay, he came back with a big scab on his head. Understandable, given the dogs play with each other. However, the second time my dog came back with a bad case of KENNEL COUGH. Could be understandable, but coupled with the previous refusal to show their facilities just makes it seem unbelievably sketchy.
Lastly, both times I picked up my dog up after boarding and asked employees how he did, they simply shrugged and said «good.» So no photos of the facilities (or cameras to watch the dogs play), a scab on the head and then a case of kennel cough (hello, 10 days of antibiotics), and absolutely ZERO feedback from employees regarding how the dog did. Unfortunately, time to find a new boarding facility that will probably be further away.

If they treat new customers like this on the phone I cannot imagine how they must be treating the dogs. Just no, do not send your pet here!
I didn’t even get to experience this place and I can tell you it’s awful. I just called, in desperate need of getting my dog into a daycare tomorrow. When the woman answered I said I was a new customer and had a question about daycare and told to hold. Another woman named Ashley answers. I tell her again I have a question about daycare as a new customer — tell her my need to get in my dog tomorrow and if there was any way to. I hear a click that sounds like I was hung up on — and and then a «umm yeah hello? So what was your question?» when I expressed my frustration and asked for the manager, she said she is the manager and basically yelled at me that she was having phone trouble.
Simply amazing. If you cannot bring yourself to be nice to the person paying you, I don’t even want to think of how mean you must be to the dogs!
I hung up and called City Dogs — where I received fantastic customer service and was squeezed in for a session tomorrow.

DO NOT TAKE YOUR DOG HERE. Two dogs have been KILLED there recently. I used to take my dog to planet pet all the time when they were over on Florida. I tried for one week when they moved to 14^th and knew something was very very wrong by the way my dog acted when I picked him up. He went to the bathroom like he had been holding it all day. He drank water like he was a diabetic. My dog wreaked so badly of urine, like he had been laying in it all day. I ran into a former employee who warned me and basically went on and on about how he left because the conditions were so bad. They apparently stuff dogs in bathrooms because there is not enough space. They do not have adequate water for them. They refuse to let you see where your dog is kept, because they do not want you to see it. The place is filthy. They were doing construction and apparently dogs were getting liquid nails in their paws. I have given them so much of my business over the last two years that I promise you I will make it my mission to put these people out of business. To the owners. you disgust me.

This place is a circus of unprofessionalism.
Beginning at 4pm on a Saturday we began to wonder why we hadn’t heard back from Planet Pet about the status of our dog. We called and they explained the dogs were running «a little late» but they should be ready before 6pm.
6pm came and went. So we called again. «45 minutes».
7pm came and went. Call again. «As soon as possible.»
8pm came and went. We’ve given up on our evening plans. Night in while we wait for our dog.
While I was on the phone trying to straighten this out the manger blamed a subordinate and yelled at her while I was still on the phone. Pass the buck, I guess.
In a review below the groomer offers an «apology» to my fiancé before turning the opportunity to respond into a character attack. The response reiterated everything that’s wrong with this operation: excuse making, refusal to take responsibility, deceit and poor character.
Planet Pet’s *apology* in quotations.
«We had planned on giving you a discount on your service. But, when you called cursing out the owner and employees refusing to pay for a service well done and demanding a FREE drop off we were a little disheartened.»
Oh, non-​sense. You offered to drop our dog off for free. We planned the day around being able to pick the dogs up prior to our evening engagements. We could’ve picked them up at 5, but not at 8:30. You’re disheartened? You’re the victim? Get over yourselves. If you’re offended by my salty language then I suggest you avoid lying to your clients about their pets.
«Our Groomer worked very hard that day and now she will not receive her commission.»
Shameful. That commission should come out of your bottom line. You shouldn’t withhold the groomer a commission for your failure. That action alone says more about the character of this business than any words ever could.
«At least you got a FREE service worth about $ 115»
Free?! Your miscommunications kept two people in a holding pattern for 3.5 hours. You cost us 7 hours. Time is money. At our billable hours rate you got a bargain for 7 hours of our time.
We sent the dog to a groomer b/​c we didn’t have a free hour that day to do it ourselves, but it cost us 3.5 hours each.
Free? LOL.
As it is not an apology, we cannot accept it. Respond if you must, but know that we and most Unilocalers will recognize any response of the previous form for what it is: an attempt to villainize negative reviewers.
Seriously people, washing an 80 pound Berner in a sink would be less problematic that doing business with Planet Pets. Trust me, I’ve tried both.

This a review about their grooming. We have taken our pup, a 10lb. Bichon Frise-​Shih tzu mix, to groomers for a few years and most hair cuts she gets make her look ugly. We like her to still look like a little puppy when she comes out but often she looks more like a little white rat. So I thought I’d try Planet Pet because I had nothing to lose. If I didn’t like it then it wouldn’t be any different then most of her previous hair cuts. I described to them what I wanted and why I wanted that type of hair cut and the groomer told me what was realistically possible. So came to a decision together and off she went. When we went to pick her up our jaws dropped. She was the most beautiful and cutest version of herself we have ever seen. She is 4 years old but she looked like a puppy again. We couldn’t stop saying thank you. The groomer has been doing this for 12 years. I will definitely go back. The key might be to communicate! I didn’t just describe the hair cut I wanted but I explained why I wanted the a certain type of hair cut. Don’t know if that helped but maybe it helped her understand what we wanted better.

I really want to like Planet Pet. Their storefront is cute, their location is super convenient, and I love that they host WARL adoption fairs (it’s where I found my spirit animal, Rocco). I’ve been taking Rocco there for doggy day care for a week now. I love that I can drop him off whenever and without a reservation. I love that they are open until 11 and don’t charge a «late stay» fee. He seems happy enough going in, and he seems happy coming out.
What creeps me out, and forces me to give them three stars, is that they won’t let me see the puppy play room. Maybe this makes me a bad puppy mom that I would leave him somewhere that I can’t see, but it’s very convenient to me. I want to hope that there is a 5 star puppy play room in the basement, but how can I know!!! They keep telling me they will be installing a camera, but it hasn’t happened yet. And quite frankly, I don’t want a camera. I WANT TO SEE WHERE MY DOG IS!!!
Also, their front desk staff seem a little spacey. Sometimes really nice and helpful people (woman with long blond hair), other times, not so helpful (man with long brown hair). The man couldn’t tell me how much it would cost to board my dog for a full weekend… seems he couldn’t figure out the math… It would also be really nice if they had some kind of online system to see how many hours I had left in my package, or if I could re-​up automatically. Transparency is a good thing, and they have none of it.
Planet Pet, I want to like you. I want to give you 5 stars, I really do. But it won’t happen until I see where my dog is hanging out. Who do I have to talk to, to make this happen?

I will never bring my dog back to Planet Pet after our experience there this Saturday. There are serious operational issues and they demonstrated they do not value communicating with their clients, as they missed several opportunities to make things right. I will be taking my business to the other well-​run grooming shops in the city.
Another commenter detailed her ordeal and we experienced the same issues. I dropped my dog off at 10am, when I learned he would be shuttled to their Alexandria location. Communication Issue #1. The front desk person said whomever I made the appointment with was supposed to tell us that, and they were trying to decipher based on the handwriting (?) who that was since he/​she didn’t inform us. I was uneasy about him being transported to another location, but he needed a grooming and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get him in anywhere else on short notice. My guess is now that they learned if they tell a client on the phone their dog will be shuttled outside the district, they will not make the appointment. That’s what I would have done because I would have had time to call other groomers. We were already there and hoped for the best, and the groomer assured us she would call us when they were 15 minutes away to pick up my dog around 5pm.
Ongoing Communication Issues: My boyfriend and I had to call repeatedly beginning at 5:45pm when we hadn’t received any communication about whether my dog was ready to be picked up. They kept saying traffic was bad, I understand that given the cherry blossom festival, but this would not have sat with us so badly if they had been proactive about communicating what was going on. I was told each time I spoke with someone that they would call me before the dogs arrived so I could be there to pick mine up. The most disturbing call was when my boyfriend called and we were told that someone was «at the hospital» and they would call us tomorrow to explain. (That follow-​up call never happened, and we don’t know if they mean an animal hospital, that something happened to a dog, or if there was an issue with a staff member?). When I called for the 5^th time around 9pm, the person who answered said the dogs were just dropped off… so they didn’t call beforehand as they promised they would.
When we got there, the manager (I assume) and two other employees kept saying «you wouldn’t believe the day we had» and wanted us to be sympathetic, however given the only information we received was around «bad traffic» I can’t really understand how horrible the day was. The hospital issue is still very unsettling and it was never mentioned again. We were starting to get concerned about the safety of our dog and the others in the van, given that the vagueness of «traffic and other issues» made us start to wonder what else could have caused the four hour delay. The woman behind the counter seemed upset, and one of the men wanted to continue to tell us how horrible the day was, but she asked him to stop. It was very uncomfortable and unprofessional.
I insisted on not paying full price and was given a $ 30 discount. But when we got home and after my dog scarfed down his entire bowl of food (I was told they fed him, but he hate his entire day’s worth of food the second he walked in, so I’m skeptical about whether or not he was fed), we started to examine him and after everything, the only haircut he got was around his face and tail! He received a bath and his nails were clipped. But the rest of his body was untouched — he was just as shaggy as when we dropped him off. Ultimately we paid $ 45 for our dog to be gone for 11 hours to have a bath and his face trimmed, and we had a stressful evening where we had to cancel our plans and repeatedly call to find out when our dog would be home.
Additional Operational Issues: We had been in the retail shop twice before — once the man behind the counter had to give me change from his wallet because there wasn’t any in the register. He said that they were still working things out there so I asked if they just opened – he said they’d been there for 3 months. Odd. A second time my boyfriend bought treats but after paying in cash wanted to confirm the prices. We asked for the receipt but the man said he had closed the register and couldn’t give it to us.
This grooming appointment was our third and last time being a customer of theirs.
My dog is 10 years old and we have been to other groomers in the city — but we wanted to try Planet Pet because it is so close to our house. I will gladly take my dog a few blocks further where I know he will not be shuttled outside of the district and he will be ready when they say he will. My recommendation is to go over to 18^th St. and try one of the friendly Dupont pet shops instead.

Let me tell you a little story about Planet Pet.
They asked for me to drop my dog off for grooming between the hours of 8−10am, and said the dog would be done around 5. That’s a long time for just a bath, but whatever, I was willing to roll with it.
However, they failed to mention that they send their dogs OUT OF THE DISTRICT for grooming. Which means…5 pm comes around, no phone call or sign of my dog. I called at 6 to follow up, and was promised the dog within the hour.
I guess they got confused reading watches, because at 8:15pm on a Saturday night there was still no sign of my dog. Needless to say, I had to cancel my evening plans – which would have been fine, had the store communicated they were running late. But not only did they fail on service, they failed to give any indication of what was going on with my dog. Or mention that they send the dogs out of the district to be groomed, and that they were stuck in traffic.
If you want a reliable groomer, do yourself a favor and Unilocal on.

Very unprofessional and no follow up. I called Tuesday to schedule a grooming appointment for my dog. They said they will call me back to confirm a time for Friday as soon as the groomer came in later that morning. I don’t get a call at all. I call back Thursday to ask when I should bring my dog in the following day. The groomer replies without any apology saying the following day, Friday, at 10 AM will be fine. I asked when I can pick him back up. He says they’ll have to call me Friday afternoon to let me know since my dog will be transferred to Woodlawn facility in VA to be groomed instead of the 14^th street sign as listed. They never told me this upfront. Very very irresponsible and shady.

These folks saved me on a weekend trip to DC. I was able to leave him for grooming and sitting while seeing the sights and attending a conference. I got a Unilocal deal for $ 25 discount. They did an amazing job grooming him. Late hours, friendly staff. Would definitely bring my boo back.

Took in my dog for a shower, and the lady was so sweet! The gentleman at the cashier seemed a little lost, but loved the lady who washed my dog. Would go back.