This isn’t the post I originally had scheduled for this week but, that’s one of the great things about blogging (and retirement!) – I get to make my own schedule!😊 We are a multi-cat household and we’ve been purchasing all of our pet supplies online from Chewy.com for several years now. (We made the change shortly after moving into The Cabin four years ago.) I was tired of schlepping forty-pound boxes of cat litter around. Now, instead of a trip to PetSmart every two weeks, I place an online order with Chewy at the beginning of the month and a couple of days later our amazing FedEx delivery people arrive with a stack of boxes. I’d like to pause here and give a shout out to delivery drivers everywhere. Our Chewy order is easily 200 pounds each month. Even though it comes in multiple boxes, handling it can’t be fun. So, dear delivery drivers, I appreciate you!😘

What makes Chewy.com a business with heart? In short, their customer support. It’s easy to find examples of poor customer support on social media so I think when someone does an exceptional job, we should be willing to post that as well. (Side note: if you’ve never done customer support, it can be hard y’all. I spent most of my adult life in IT customer support. As much as I enjoyed what I did, there were also days where just tossing it all and moving to a shack in the mountains and living off the grid sounded like a wonderful idea.) Chewy’s prices are easily in line with any other places from which I have purchased pet supplies – and shipping is free with orders over $49. But, if there is a problem with your order, say you receive the wrong item or no longer need an item you purchased, Chewy will not only refund your money but they ask you to donate the item to a local animal shelter rather than return it.👍

I have a couple of examples of Chewy going over and above on their customer support. We have used Sentry brand calming collars for Delilah, our fourteen year old deaf cat, for many years. Delilah was, understandably, easily startled by pretty much everything. The calming collars release a pheromone that helps the cat relax and worked wonders for Delilah; she was always more relaxed (and stylish) when sporting her purple calming collar. However, Sentry has recently re-designed the clasp on their collars rendering them somewhat useless. (A calming collar that won’t stay on doesn’t work well.) I went on Chewy.com and wrote a review. In my review I stated that, up until the past few months, I would have given the collar five stars but that, due to the change in the clasp, I could only give it three. I wrote the review just to let others considering purchase know that yes, the product works, but that getting it to stay on is now problematic. I was greatly surprised to get an email from Chewy a couple of days later apologizing for my experience and refunding the cost of the collar. I was gobsmacked. Chewy is in no way responsible for the change to the Sentry collar, customer satisfaction is just that important to them.

Delilah had pancreatitis in January of this year, spent four days in the hospital, and came home on special food. I created a profile for her on Chewy so I could order more of the prescription food for her. Sadly, Delilah’s health took another turn for the worse a couple of weeks ago and we made the difficult decision to have her euthanized. I contacted Chewy and let them know so they could remove any information regarding her from their system. (They’re good about sending out birthday cards, etc. to your pets.) I’ve seen various posts on social media about people receiving flowers from Chewy upon the death of their pets and…

The beautiful roses and vase pictured above arrived yesterday afternoon along with a sweet card from Lauren, the Chewy representative who responded to my email about Delilah. (Chewy sent a friend paintings of her pets based on the pictures she had used for them in their profiles.) Chewy is an amazing example of how to run a business. If you need pet supplies, in my opinion, there’s no better place to purchase them.