Tuesday, December 16, 2008

PetSmart Toys: A Cautionary Tale

I ordered this toy off the PetSmart website as one of the kitties' Christmas presents. It arrived yesterday. It was an instant hit, with Sebastian playing for at least a half hour and keeping the other kitties away from it and Moggie finally being able to steal it and go nuts herself. I immediately wrote a review raving about the toy and ordered two more because it's popular enough that I knew it would eventually get torn up.

The order confirmation arrived in my Inbox at 5:08 pm yesterday.

Later that night I saw Sebastian come out of their room with the toy only, no tail. Kyle and I tore the place apart and couldn't find the huge tail anywhere. I assume he ate it because that's what he does. (So far, he is still acting normal.) But this could be a serious problem and we're going to have to keep an eye on him. I emailed PetSmart at 8:58 pm asking them to cancel my order because this is a dangerous toy with the right cat.

PetSmart managed to send a SHIPMENT confirmation at 1:04 AM, but no Customer Service Rep managed to respond until 6:41 am to tell me sorry, but it already shipped (no shit).

Now I'm stuck with keeping a toy I won't use, shipping it back to PetSmart for half the price of the toys, or driving to Des Moines to return it.

Be careful what toys you get from PetSmart, and don't expect Customer Service to help you.

And now I have to go take a final.