Pet Food Direct ... Or Directionless?

Saturday, April 19, 2014

OMG. My saga with the eejits at Pet Food Direct started on April 5 when I originally placed an internet order for about a hundred dollars in pet food and supplies. I had ordered from them before so I believed this would be a no brainer. Order and in about 5 days your order is at your door. Not to happen.

When I received my e-mailed invoice, I noted I was charged sales tax, although this is a Pennsylvania company and I had not been charged tax before. So I sent them an e-mail on April 10 asking why they charged tax in my state, if they had a physical presence here, and since I had not received a shipping notice, when was my order being shipped? Also who no free shipping even though they offer it and I had attempted to enter the code.

On April 11, I received this e-mail:

 We just recently moved our warehouse operations from Sparks, NV to Chino, CA so now the residents of CA will need to pay sales tax. Because of unanticipated issues with moving our product and receiving new orders from vendors in our new location some customers orders needed to be sent from PA so you still would get your items. Once we have our operations settled in we hope that these issues will be resolved. Please keep in mind that we offer the FreeShipping promotion (code: springfree) on all orders over $49.00. (the first 60lbs will ship free) just enter the code in the promotion box prior to checkout.

I responded the same day, April 11:

When I placed an order it refused free shipping so I attempted to cancel the order when it had not been shipped many days after ordering. I was told it may not be able to be stopped even though it had not been shipped. That's not good customer service! I can't wait for pet food when needed nor for slow high priced shipping. I am used to free, fast shipping and tried your company last time and had good service, this time not so much, eh?

Pet Food Direct Responded on April 13:

Our website will only allow the use of one promotion per order. (Nothing states this on their site that I could find...they bait you with a discount code to reorder and state Free Shipping at the top of the page) Your free shipping promo was rejected because the promo code Reorder17 was used. For this order the promotions were very close but in the future you may want to compare which promo code will give you the better savings. I am refunding the shipping cost on this order as well as issuing a $25.00 gift card due to the delays in shipping this order. I have sent an email to our warehouse requesting that they ship this order as soon as possible. Please bear with us as we hope to have our operations in the new facility running in our normal fashion soon.

My response on April 13:

The problem I have is that you charged my credit card immediately on April 5 for the full amount, yet you still have not shipped and here it is April 13.at 9PM PDST, almost April 14? And just when do you expect that shipment will actually be here? Your issues with shipping, moving and all the other problems are yours and not to be foisted upon me. I had to go out and purchase $100 in pet food and litter because you didn't act professionally and even notify me of a delay in shipping. I had to ask where my order was and why you were charging tax when you weren't even here or you would have just let the delay go on without a word. How damned unprofessional.

Just refund the order and we'll call it quits. I can also refute the charges with XXXX tomorrow (Monday) if needed. I have animals to feed and they can't wait on your companys non-performance. Your "one hour" cancellation time is useless when you don't ship for 9 days.

Unless you have shipped overnight, I'll be contacting XXXX tomorrow and you can argue with them. I believe they will agree your cancellation time is idiotic when you fail to ship.

 

Thanks for your "grand" gesture but hungry animals don't eat promises

 

From Pet Food Direct on April 15:

 

I really am sorry that our company did not provide the service you deserve. I understand your frustration as I am dealing with many angry customers on the West Coast. Please understand that I had sent the email to our warehouse, as I have done with many, to make sure this order gets shipped. If I do not get a response from them I assume that the order went out and there were no issues. They did not inform me that it would be delayed in shipping or with any reason why it wasn't shipped, so I do not find out these problems until you contact the Customer Service Center. Our company is aware of the problems and they are working on resolving them. I have noticed that this order has been canceled and refunded per your request but I would prefer to try to resolve this and keep you as a customer.

Now that I know you still have not received your order I will be reshipping out the order from the PA warehouse with NDA delivery at no charge. I really am sorry and I am hopeful that our warehouse issues on the west coast get resolved soon.

From Pet Food Direct on April 15:

 

I kept my eye on this order to ensure that it would get to you and I have provided the UPS tracking number. Your order should be there tomorrow. WTF??

Tracking# 1ZW764360310876375 (Not shipped that day per his e-mail as UPS had no info)

I received an e-mail shipping notice on April 16 that the order was shipped by UPS Ground and would be here on April 21. I called their main office and for the third time cancelled the order. They finally recalled the order and it appears it is now on the way back to them, Thank God and UPS that this saga is now done. Their “Gift Card” via e-mail went in the shredder. I would never do business with these people again.

 

Two phone calls to this company met with rather miserable customer service agents who seemed irritated that I was calling in and questioning where my order was and when it would be shipped. The e-mail CS agent was nice and did his best against the odds of not being able to get anything done in a warehouse he doesn’t control. Strangely enough, they finally shipped it on 4/16 and didn’t even have the courtesy to send it express or overnight so it would get here quickly, using UPS ground. They don’t give a damn about their customers it appears.

 

My animals deserve to eat, and using a company that foists their problems on their customers and never even notifies them of shipping delays and problems really sucks in my opinion. What do you think?

I’d suggest you try WAG.com for your pet foods. They always ship free and have 2 day delivery. Mea culpa, why did I stray from my regular supplier!