A dog sitter is accused of ruining a quilt and failing to walk the dog, while demanding that she be given all the money she was promised.
The dog’s owner, u/housesitterdrama, shared her story on the popular Reddit forum r/AmITheA**hole, earning 6,200 upvotes and 800 comments for her post,[Would I Be the A**hole] What if I deducted the cost of an expensive item my friend ruined from her salary? »
The original poster (OP) says she’s known “Bex” for three years and asked him to babysit her dog while she was away for a week, offering to pay $50 a day. She was supposed to take care of her “low maintenance” dog “Dana” and stay in the guest room.
But when the OP returned, Bex ‘hurried’ and told her to send her the money online once she was settled. But when OP entered the master bedroom to unpack, she discovered that Bex had chosen this room to sleep instead. When she started to remove the sheets from the bed, she noticed a red stain on the comforter which turned out to be nail polish.
When she asked, Bex said she had fallen asleep on the quilt but didn’t realize her fingernails weren’t dry and left a stain – but that was okay, because the duvet cover was double sided and could be knocked over.
“It’s true that the comforter has two ‘good’ sides, but now my comforter has a bunch of red nail polish on one side. My comforter was about $250 and I have a receipt for it,” u/ housesitterdrama, adding that his plan was to take the cost of the duvet out of Bex’s salary and send a copy of the receipt.
But when she told Bex she was going to deduct the cost of the duvet from the $350 payment, especially since not only had she ruined the duvet cover, but it was in a room where she wasn’t not meant to be. Bex, however, said it was a “risk” the OP took by having someone in her home, and that “she really can’t afford me to underpay her.” Not only that, but she would tell their mutual friends that the OP had “bolstered” her unless she paid the full $350.
After calling three places to have the comforter cleaned, the PO was told that none of them would take care of the red nail polish stains.
“I told her I felt like I only had to pay her $100 ($350 minus the $250 comforter), and she told me to fuck right away and think carefully about my choices and hung up on me,” u/housesitterdrama wrote, adding that if it had been the duvet in the guest room – which was only $75 – she would have borne the cost well as that was where Bex was. supposed to be.
However, the PO also discovered that Bex was smoking marijuana indoors, although there was a covered patio with a sofa and the weather was nice that week, and his doorbell camera showed that Bex had never taken Dana for a walk. OP commented that Dana is “very lazy” and was probably fine with not going for walks, even though Dana needed to exercise.
The OP says it’s unlikely she’ll want to be Bex’s friend after this, and fears the move will skew her decision to cut Bex’s salary to cover the damage caused by the quilt.
Buket Topal/Getty Images
When a dog or a house occupies a house, it can happen that property is damaged. A house sitter asked EffectiveCoverage.com if the tenants’ insurance would cover damage they accidentally caused to the porcelain of a toilet tank, which ended up flooding the apartment they were monitoring. Because it was an accident and the apartment tenant was acting responsibly by having someone watch the house, tenants’ insurance would likely cover the damage, EffectiveCoverage said.
Newsweek published other stories about nightmarish dog-sitters and house-sitters, including a woman who tried to poison a neighbor’s dog to stop it from barking while he watched the house. Another dog sitter was caught on camera punching a puppy, and two dog sitters let their proteges get loose and killed.
Reddit sided with u/housesitterdrama.
“[Not the A**hole]u/ceziate wrote in the top rated comment with 10,000 upvotes. “You hired her to look after your house and your dog and she did neither , damaging one and neglecting the other. Why would you pay for a service she didn’t provide?”
However, u/housesitterdrama provided their own story update on the post. Turns out Bex had already gone to their friends’ group chat while the OP was sleeping. She asked on the chat if OP was going to ‘screw’ her over the house sitting money, and told their friends in the band that she ‘accidentally’ spilled ‘a little ‘nail polish’ on her face. duvet cover – and when their friends assumed it was the guest bedroom blanket, Bex didn’t correct them.
“Bex then explained that I have more money than her, this is a clear case of me using my power and privilege to discriminate against someone who has less than me,” u/housesitterdrama wrote. “At this point, Bex hasn’t described what happened at all, but she talks about how much that missing money is going to ‘fuck her up’.”
When the OP woke up, however, she shared photos and clarified that the duvet was in the master bedroom where Bex wasn’t supposed to go – and detailed her other transgressions. With the story complete, the rest of the friend group sides with the OP, with one friend saying she should only pay $100, while the others say she shouldn’t pay anything.
“At this point, Bex goes nuclear and says ‘F**K YOU, YOU F**KING F—–S’ (unacceptable gay insult) and leaves the group chat and blocks EVERYONE,” a- she writes.
The group of friends remained confused and spent the rest of the day telling the story to the rest of their mutual friends, in case Bex tried to share his version of events. OP added that at this point Bex doesn’t even get the $100.
Newsweek contacted u/housesitterdrama for comment.