LA Woman Says Transporter's Mishandling of Dog Resulted in Sores and Weightloss

Photos: Laura Vickers took photos of the sores on her dog after she had been delivered and one prior to the trip.

When Los Angeles resident Laura Vickers was looking for someone to transport her dog, she thought she found the perfect shipper in Tina Elkins. Her rating on uShip was perfect and she specialized in shipping just dogs.

“She had more than 100 5-star reviews,” Vickers said. “I thought there’s no way I could go wrong with this person.”

Vickers paid Elkins $550 to pick up her dog and transport her to California, where Vickers was moving, from North Carolina.

“I was super excited that I found a good solution to this problem and I was super happy with the price,” Vickers said.

Vickers’ dog is a greyhound named Lucy. She adopted her four years ago from a racing track. Vickers knows that her dog was a little underweight and was actively working on it with her vet.

“She was eating, though. She was still at an OK weight, even if it was a little bit low,” Vickers said.

Lucy also had a few bald spots on her, which Vickers said was from her racing days and being in a crate.

While on the trip, Elkins allegedly told Vickers that Lucy wasn’t eating her food so Vickers told Elkins to give her other food. Elkins started giving Lucy chicken and she began to eat that, according to Vickers.

Elkins dropped the dog off in California two days earlier than expected, which Vickers was excited about, until she looked at the dog.

According to Vickers, Lucy was much skinnier than she was before and had a large sore on her back and one on her right buttocks.

Vickers didn’t confront Elkins about the situation then, but about 48 hours later when she took her to the vet she saw that she had lost about five pounds and had pressure ulcers from the crate.

“I was really upset and so I contacted her and sent her a long email saying ‘What I want from you is an apology and an acknowledgement of the situation and a refund of what I paid you,’” Vickers said.

Elkins declined to comment for this story on the advice of legal counsel, but emails between her, Vickers and uShip show that Elkins felt she was not responsible for what happened to Lucy.

“I will not be giving a refund,” Elkins said in the email. “Lucy was, in my opinion, severely underweight and developing a sore on her back, when I picked her up. I reported this to the (customer’s) mother who was there at pickup. The customer can pursue any action she deems necessary as I am prepared to defend myself.”

Vickers claims that the sores were not there when Elkins picked Lucy up and developed during the trip.

When Vickers posted a negative review, Elkins responded via text message that communication between the two has ended.

“Do the responsible thing and give Lucy to someone who can take care of her because you obviously cannot,” Elkins said in a text message.

While uShip doesn’t comment on ongoing matters between customers, emails show the business helped facilitate an agreement between Vickers and Elkins. Despite this, uShip acts as a neutral online marketplace and holds no responsibility for the relationship between customers.

According to its bylaws, “uShip is not a Transportation Service Provider, freight forwarder or broker. uShip is a site where shippers and TSPs can meet and enter into agreements. uShip is not involved in the actual transaction between shippers and Service Providers. As such, uShip does not prequalify or validate the claims of TSPs including with respect to their licensure, insurance and registration. The uShip website functions solely as a neutral venue for the connection between members. Because uShip is not involved in the actual transaction between shippers and Service Providers, we have no control over the accuracy of listings, the ability of service providers to transport items, or the ability of shippers to send items. uShip cannot ensure that a shipper or service provider will actually complete a shipment.”

Ultimately, uShip offered Vickers a refund of $550, which is how much Vickers paid Elkins for the transport.

But it’s not the money that matters to Vickers. Her main concern right now is to let people know to be careful about who they’re dealing with online, even if that person has glowing reviews.

What Vickers would have really liked is to have just been kept informed of the situation.

“I would have asked her to just drop her off at a vet and I would have come to pick her up,” Vickers said.