Beware Petopia.com/eyewitness I-victim testimony
M. Bronstein
Just wanted to give you all the details of my
bad ongoing experience with Petopia.com.
In case you are looking for a good web company
to get supplies from-you may want to keep looking.
Caveat emptor and all that. Here's the skinny.
I used a new customer coupon to get some ceramic
pet bowls from them. The bowls arrived in approximately
50 pieces each. This shrapnel effect was clearly due to
a complete lack of any packing materials.
No kidding--no packing material whatsoever.
The two ceramic bowls were tossed in a brown
paper bag that wasn't even folded over.
The bag was tossed in a much larger box where
it bounced around en route. When I opened it
I saw the empty paper bag beside many tiny
pieces of ceramic scattered all over the box.
I was really stunned because whoever packed it
pretty well had to know it would break.
Very bizarre. And very annoying.
Very annoyed I called their customer service number
and waited the 30 minutes or so on queue to talk to a
rep (Mike) who told me that I needed to return the
package but first must have a Return Authorization number.
But he couldn't issue one. Oh Nooooooo. He didn't have
"access to that system" so I'd have to wait to get the number via
email.
I'm starting to smell a run-around but I obligingly
wait for the promised return number…days go by.
No number is emailed to me. I try to call the customer
service number again and again and keep getting put on a
queue that consistently disconnects me after 20 minutes.
Can't get through. It's now been eight
days since I asked for the return number and I finally
wrote a letter as my last ditch effort to resolve it.
I'll see if I hear back from them. (Yeah, right.) Keep you posted.
We're not talking about much money here, and what
little we're talking about I can dispute with my
credit card company, so that's not the issue.
The issue is that I don't like feeling ripped off.
And when I do feel ripped off I certainly want to
warn others in my pet-owning demographic.
I've tried ordering stuff from other pet supply
companies on the web and had much better luck.
Both pets.com and petsmart.com were excellent.
Obviously I'll use them from now on.
Has anyone else had experience with Petopia.com?
I'm wondering if mine was typical.
Thanks.
And be careful out there.
Myra
my...@home.com
Rusty Popovich
from petopia (they even sent me a thank you free gift last week)
I will agree that customer service is very bad with them - try their fax
- the number is on the ordering part of the web site - and try them
early in the am or afternoon. sometime sI get through in 5 minutes or
less. I recieved an order that i had cancelled with them and it took a
while but the break in prices more than makes up fro my hassle.
I also am mindful that they are doing reportedly 5-10 thousand
individual customer sales a day so for a company that diddn't expect to
be so big so soon that can be a problem.
Be patient is my best advice.
M. Bronstein
Rusty Popovich wrote:
>
> I have bought and continue to buy hundreds of dollars worth of stuff
> from petopia (they even sent me a thank you free gift last week)
> I will agree that customer service is very bad with them - try their fax
> - the number is on the ordering part of the web site - and try them
> early in the am or afternoon. sometime sI get through in 5 minutes or
> less. I recieved an order that i had cancelled with them and it took a
> while but the break in prices more than makes up fro my hassle.
>
> I also am mindful that they are doing reportedly 5-10 thousand
> individual customer sales a day so for a company that diddn't expect to
> be so big so soon that can be a problem.
Hm, victims of their own success eh?
Well I think I'll help ease the burden of their customer load.
I just don't understand why people would put up with such bad
customer service when there are good and comparably prices
competators out there. Like pets.com and petsmart.com.
I don't mean to flog them (and I'm not associated--honest).
It's just that they're professional and reliable and don't
cause all the angst that petopia causes.
Anyway, I'm glad you have been somewhat satisfied with petopia.
And thanks for the tips about getting thru to their customer service.
Myra