Melissa F.
Bad communication and unclear policies made for a frustrating experience.
Our puppy is everything we were looking for. The low stars is due to the buying experience. We think the current customer service system is set up to protect the breeder and give them priority in communications over the buyer. We understand this is to protect the animals and breeders from nervous new parents but the communications process was bumpy to say the least. This could all be avoided with a better onboarding process and follow up materials upon purchase. Once we put our money down we felt like we had to chase our people for answers. They claimed to be forthcoming about terms and process but we didn't have that experience. If we were given a clear check list of items we are responsible for after purchase and a more realistic timeline of when we could receive photo updates, pick up instructions, our responsibilities and clearer communication between our breeder, us and pawrade - lots of upset could be avoided. We worked hard to get our puppy and information. Our puppy had a cough and bad diarrhea the night that we got her. Because our preferred vet was not available to see her right away and we didn't want to wait for things to get worse, we took her to an emergency vet where she was treated for Kennel Cough and worms. The vet visit was supposed to be covered by the agreement - we submitted all our paperwork and we just found out that they wanted us to work directly with the breeder for the vet coverage. What is the point of having this service if they have ignored us at every turn and won't handle the terms of the health agreements after. If you go with them, be ready to fight for communication and for anything you need. They are designed to protect seller interests not buyers. Things we encountered: - After purchase, we didn't hear anything for 72 hours. Which made us nervous that we might have been scammed. After pressing, we finally got some photos and an update on pick up coordination. - Breeder moved our pick up date the morning of the pick up for "vacation." It takes us 9 hours to drive to the pick up location and we had to move our plans at cost to us. - They did not send us the healthcare policies, even though they claimed they did. They came from Next day pets, not Pawrade when they did. Confusing. - They did not explain that our pet needed to be seen within 72 hours of coming home. Our city has a 14 day quarantine for travel. We were advised to take her to the emergency vet. No explanation given around the costs here. - The night we got our pet, she had a cough and diarrhea that was worse than just nerves. It got worse. So we ended up having to do extra tests at Med Vet to make sure it wasn't Parvo or pneumonia. - We submitted our claim for the bill, that is supposed to be covered under the health agreement. She was seen within 72 hours. - I was told by our rep to submit a claim to support at petpay.com. We did. - 10 days went by without a peep. - When I checked in to see what was happening. I was bounced around to an email. Was told that to make a claim directly with the breeder. Which made no sense as we were told to only contact pawrade. - I guarantee the breeder will ignore us for another week and then deny a claim. We would have been better off working directly with a breeder and don't think that pawrade added to our experience at all.