Rough Road To A Happy Ending

Good customer service is one of life's little joys. Bad customer service can truly ruin a day or week or longer. This is a tale of the difference customer service can make.

Several weeks ago I was watching a hockey game on TV and Sebastian was lying next to me on the sofa. I was rubbing his ears and I noticed that his collar looked worn. He likes to roll in the dirt and his collar showed it.

I had my Kindle handy and pulled up my favorite store for everything, Amazon. When I looked at dog collars, one of the first to pop up was a Boston Bruins collar. It seemed appropriate at the time and I scrolled thru the various selections. One of the offerings was a collar, leash and ID tag set. The price was right and so I ordered it. The seller was not Amazon but one of their third party sellers, Yogis Pet Store.

My first clue that something was wrong was when the email from the seller said I could expect the set in a month. I should have cancelled the purchase then and there, but my team had won the hockey game and I was in a good mood.

It didn't take a month to get worse. About ten days after I placed the order, an envelope arrived in the mail. When I opened it I found the Bruins collar, no leash, no tag, no explanation. I immediately emailed the seller and was told they would check into it. Three days later I emailed them again was told they were checking with the warehouse. They stalled me this way for another week.

I finally asked for the  customer service person and asked when I would be getting the leash and tag. She told me that they didn't have the leash and tag. She said they copied the description on Amazon from another source and they couldn't get the leash or tag. I responded that I had ordered the set and if I couldn't get it, I wanted a refund. That's when the customer service person told me that I was aggravating her. That's when I lost it and told her what I thought of her company.

Fortunately Amazon was keeping copies of all these emails back and forth and helped me get my refund. No Bruins collar for Sebastian.

After a while I cooled down but Sebastian still needed a collar. Syd and Mac both needed new collars, too, so I started looking again.

Today our three new collars arrived. I ordered them last Saturday and have received two very nice emails from the seller. The collars are lovely.  Sebastian found us on the Fourth of July, so I chose a patriotic one for him.

I couldn't believe how happy he was when I showed it to him. He sniffed and licked it and when we put it on him, he bounced around the room.

Mac is very hard on her collars. She's on her third and you can see the stitching is torn and the thing is coming apart.

Mac loves treats and steals them whenever possible, so I bought her one with lots of bones on it.

She wasn't too sure about it at first but I'm sure she'll soon adjust to it. It's wider then her puppy collars.

I considered one with crabs on it for Sydney because she's often crabby, but instead I went with pretty stars. Maybe she'll become less crabby. She's out playing today so she'll get hers this evening when she comes inside.

The three collars came from an Etsy shop called DogCollarsEtc and they were wrapped in tissue and tied with a satin ribbon.

The service has been wonderful and I am pleased with my purchase. It's exactly what I ordered.