ECS Dogs

PLEASE SEE THE UPDATE FROM 05/27/2016 AT THE END OF THIS REVIEW.

Horrible service, unreliable and dishonest. They owe a $975 refund for 3 months now to a client who hired me to assist him in getting his refund. He wasn't happy with the first trainer and then they scheduled him with Tim. Tim never showed up. So my client requested a refund and has numerous messages from ECS Dogs stating that they are going to refund the money. After 2 months of not receiving the refund, and Dawn and Tim avoiding his phone calls, he asked for my assistance.

When I initially called in early May I spoke to Dawn. I asked her about the refund and why it had not been taken care of 2 months later. Dawn told me she was aware of the situation, but she had to talk to the "owner" who was conveniently out of town. As it turns up, Dawn was in fact an owner. She gave me the run around, saying she hadn't been able to contact the owner because he was out of town and she couldn't do anything about the refund without his okay. After listening to all the excuses, I finally asked for the owners name and number. She gave me Tim's number. It turns out that Tim is her husband. The company is owned by both of them. However, I did not know that until today.

When I first called Tim on May 10, he seemed so concerned at the beginning and practically threw Dawn under the bus, saying how horrible her actions were, and was so sorry that this happened. He promised to refund the money ASAP and he agreed to refund the money via paypal and promised that he would take care of it that evening. Since my client didn't have a paypal, we arranged for ECS Dogs to paypal me and I would refund the client. Tim never did. I called the next morning and left a message. He called me back by accident (my guess is that he didn't recognize the number and didn't listen to his messages). He sounded like he had no idea who he was calling. I knew it was him and I asked him exactly "what happened last night, I did not receive the refund as you promised". When he realized who he called he told me I was rude, yelled at me and then hung up the phone. 30 minutes later I received a text message from him stating:

"I told you that I would send the money to MY CLIENTS PAY PAL ACCOUNT. You sent me a link to something very different that's why it was not sent last night because you did not do what you said and what I had agreed to. I have no idea of who you are so to send money to some rouge pay pal account makes no sense. I have no problem doing what I agreed to or if there is a way to verify who you are then I will agree to that. The other option is I will forward this matter to my attorney Dan O'Malley. I can promise you that I am a very fair person but if you text or speak to me in the manner in which you did your client will never get paid and he will have you to blame. Let me know how I should proceed.".

Seriously, this guy is going to threaten me when all he has done is lied to me from the start. Had his concern over the paypal transaction been true we could have easily resolved it. All he had to do was call the client and confirm. I responded to him and told him to call the client and he would confirm the paypal transaction to my account. For someone who was so worried, he never called the client, because he never intended to refund the money in the first place.

Then, later on that day, on May 11, Dawn calls me and says she is sending a check out. She sends me a picture of the check with a letter and envelope. She claims she mailed out on the same day. It was being mailed to Sacramento and it still hasn't shown up 15 days later. So I am certain she never mailed it.

These people are so dishonest and apparently have no issue stealing money from their clients. But my client is not going to let this rest. A lawsuit is being filed next week against ECS Dogs, as well as Tim and Dawn personally. There is no doubt my client will prevail as the client has written evidence of their promise to refund him. We will take whatever aggressive action is needed to see that this client gets a refund. I wish them the best of luck.

UPDATE 05/27/2016: Today, I called Dawn from another number that I knew she would not recognize. She didn't answer, but she actually called me back. When I told her who I was, she hung up on me. I sent her a copy of this review, and I immediately received a text message saying the refund was being sent through paypal. And sure enough I received the refund. I did ask her what happened and why all the dishonesty and runaround. She said she got really busy with kids, work, school, etc. She admitted there was no excuse and she was sorry. I am not sure that I believe that, because this has been going on for three months, but I told her if I could give her a bit of advice, if she wanted her business to be successful, to make sure to keep her commitments, and be completely honest with her clients. A week ago if she had told me she forgot to mail the check instead of swearing the check was mailed, I would have worked with her and this review would never have been posted. I really hope there was a lesson learned by this incident for them. Honesty and reliability are two very important traits of a successful company.

Even though we finally received the refund, I wanted to post this review because I think it is important for consumers to be aware of what this client had to do just to get his refund and what kind of service was provided. I am not saying don't use them, However, if you do choose to use their services, be careful and document everything, and don't pay with cash or check as this client did. Pay with a credit card if you can, so you have the back-up protection of disputing the charge if things go wrong. Just Sayin'