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When I had my senior cat, I used to order from Chewy all all the time, and never had any problems. But he passed away in December, and I didn't have another cat until I got my kitten in April.
I've been buying her quality food from Petsmart and Petco, and didn't know that Chewy was charging sales tax, since I haven't had enough money to order her food. So I did a price comparison for one of the brands of food that she eats (Merrick Purrfect Bistro) between Chewy and Petco. On the little cups, the Petco price is $2.18 less than Chewy, but the 3oz and 5oz cans are the same price.
So with Chewy now charging sales tax, it would be more beneficial to order everything from Petco, because after you spend a certain amount of money, they give you a credit that you can use on your next order.
While I am sorry to hear that Petsmart now owns Chewys, I am not sorry that Chewys is collecting state sales tax. A number of state governments have been making noise about online companies that do not collect state sales tax, and I assume compliance will get stricter. It could be considered unfair competition against local stores who do collect the tax. Also, I notice my tax return (must have been state) had a place to declare owed tax for things bought online with no tax paid.
I assume tax is not collected for those states that do not have a sales tax. Does anyone know?
Just like Amazon, the co cant collect sales tax if your state does not have a sales tax.
We moved here this past year on the PA border of NY state (Bing area). When we bought the house, we got a rescue guinea pig for my daughter from the local Petsmart. We were still learning area stores. We all went guinea pig crazy and have cavy cages all over the house for our guinea pigs and learned a lot from our vet and another online forum in the UK. NOT any of the petstores and they could really care less. I did get the majority of our guinea pigs from Petsmart bc we rarely get local rescues and the largest organization uses them. We did try our local pet store and I really wanted to support them but we got two guinea pigs from them and both died within a week. We had vet care for the URIs and syringe fed them but our vet said they had this from the time we got them. When we went back, they knew very little about their guinea pigs and had no accessories for cavy cages nor did they know of them. This scares me as the cages they sell are WAY too small for guinea pigs to live happily.
I literally can't stand Petco here. Not only were they the ones whom killed their animals during the flood in 2016 simply because they refused to take the animals out in the 24 hour plus notice they had for the area flooding but they simply don't care one wit about any animal but cats and dogs. I have chihuahuas that are beloved and a cat. I love that a petstore can really love them and rescue others as well but if I can't get anything for my guinea pigs and they simply don't care enough then there's nowhere to go. On top of that, I was asking the manager for critical care and why they didn't carry a basic thing for any guinea pig, she threw some garbage at me that was completely untrue about guinea pigs and illnesses. Her answer was we should always take them to a vet before giving them anything. Yep, for dogs and cats but you can't do that with guinea pigs. They can die within hours without being fed critical care from a syringe until they can get to an open vet. I told her to just admit she doesn't know the answer instead of killing pets.
Petsmart is not my favorite but they have always had a manager or two whom really know what they are talking about with guinea pigs and my guinea pigs have always been happy and healthy. One manager has called me in her own time to take in a couple guinea pigs that she was concerned over and offered their own vet if it should be needed. I have my own vet I trust but I didn't need any more then the first visit. We did have a problem with two of them being mis-sexed but we caught it fast enough. I have a HUGE problem with the ignorance in pet supplies for any of the pet stores. The size cages they sell are unsuitable for guinea pigs and they should always be sold in pairs. Something we had to learn and were not told. The manager I've befriended has voiced frustrations over having to sell their cages and aren't allowed to give out proper references for cavy cages and supplies-cages which are the recommended size and structure by the Humane Society as well as other rescues.
Other then that, though, with these choices, I still love Petsmart best. At least they try to care and I've always loved their staff. They love the pics I share of our guinea pigs and different cage creations and play fleece completely and I can always find another pet lover whom at least knows about small pets and loves them. Add the chis and we have a good visit every time.
can't stand walmart for small pets-they are a bit cheaper but sell crap with a very limited selection. all of them are costly; chewy.com included. Used them once but not again because the shipping is just too slow and when we need hay with all our babies, we need hay very soon.
Quick update from my last post: Chewy is increasing their prices on some items. I added Eco Earth bricks in my shopping cart but I was not ready to check out at the time. A few days later, when I was ready to check out, the price went up about $1.50. It was still cheaper overall than my local pet store but that increase should not affect the items already saved in your cart before the price increase. That did not seem fair. Other prices that I noticed went up are Reptisun 10.0 t8 tubes, Carefresh bunny paper bedding and hay. Dog and cat items remain mostly unchanged.
The shipping quality has been about the same. I recently ordered a bag of cat paper litter and fish pellets. I came home to a box covered in ants. It turns out that they box them together so the fish pellets can was crushed under the weight of the cat litter, spilling at least half of the pellets everywhere, hence the ants. I was furious and contacted Chewy immediately about this. I had complained numerous times about the way they ship fragile items with no cushion (ie basking bulbs) and heavy items in the same box as other smaller items. They did not issue a refund and re-send the pellets.
I also found out recently Petsupermarket and Pet Supplies Plus are willing to price match with any other stores besides Wal-Mart. This includes Amazon and Chewy. They also carry some items for exotic pets that Chewy is still behind on. I am not a big fan of either stores but if they carry the same thing and I can buy it for the same price as Chewy, I can skip the inconvenience of waiting for my shipment (It is still taking almost a week to ship) and I don't have to worry about missing or crushed items. Both stores are less than 10 min from my home so it works out. I don't remember if Petsmart will price match. However, Petco does not at all and recently adopted a strict no return or limited number of returns per year policy. The only reason nowadays I will use Chewy is mostly for the bulk sale of hay and bedding. Such a shame because I used to love this company so much and use them for anything and everything.
Last edited by cheesenugget; 06-27-2018 at 09:05 AM..
What is your opinion about Amazon when acquiring pet supplies?
Sometimes you will find good deals like add-ons that would normally cost $15 being sold as $5. Other times they cost more than the other competitors. Signing up for Prime will save on shipping and more discounts. Prime is not free though, so if you shop online a lot on Amazon, the membership is worth it. If you only need 1 or 2 small items, Prime may end up costing you more money.
I like their fast shipping and they do package everything really well. They have more selections for things that you might not find in any petstores, like Orijen pet food or iron tonic supplements (Great for kitties with CRF). I have returned a few things as well and it was easy to do. I even had a problem with a 3rd party seller who refused to ship my Xmas gift after 2 months of waiting. I received my refund after I threatened to contact Amazon directly about this issue. Amazon keeps a copy of all correspondence sent and received between customer and seller so they would be in the loop of what is going on.
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