When a grieving owner tried to return unused dog food, the company’s response completely shocked her.
Anna Brose recently lost Gus, her five-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer and Chocolate Labrador Retriever mix from stomach bloat.
Anna Brose recently lost her dog Gus to stomach bloat. Credit: Anna Brose via Twitter (@alcesanna)
As she no longer required dog food, she decided to return the unused dog food back to Chewy, an online company specialising in pet food and pet products. She was completely shocked by Chewy’s response.
Jordan, a customer service representative for Chewy, soon got back to Brose. He offered his condolences while also giving Brose a full refund. He advised Brose to donate the unused pet food to a local animal shelter. And Brose thought that was the end of that.
What appeared on her doorstep a few days later completely surprised her.
On her front porch in Madison, Wisconsin was a box of flowers. Initially, she thought the box might’ve come from a friend or relative. However, the touching bouquet of flowers was sent by Jordan, Chewy’s customer agent.
Brose called the gesture as ‘touching’ and completely ‘unexpected’. Even though she’s always received excellent customer service from Chewy, this touching gesture has taken the meaning of excellent customer service to another level.
“It absolutely blew me away,” she said. “It meant a lot that they knew and cared that Gus was gone.”
Anna Brose remembers Gus as a sweet and loving dog. Although he was nervous and was scared of a lot of things when they first adopted him, he worked on his fears in order to become close with Brose and the rest of the family.
“A Class Act”
Brose even took to Twitter to post about the touching gesture.
I contacted @Chewy last week to see if I could return an unopened bag of my dog’s food after he died. They 1) gave me a full refund, 2) told me to donate the food to the shelter, and 3) had flowers delivered today with the gift note signed by the person I talked to?? 😭🥹
— Anna Brose, MSc (@alcesanna) June 15, 2022
People also shared their own personal stories about Chewy’s excellent customer support in the comments. Some commenters also received a bouquet of flowers when their dogs passed away, while others received hand painted portraits of their dogs or personalised birthday cards for their dogs.
Chewy is a phenomenal company, when my dog passed away this last February they sent us a hand painted portrait of her that has sat on her ashes ever since. Much love! pic.twitter.com/4w1jef2M3U
— Shawn (@beepbeeplettuk) June 16, 2022
My Sweet girl died July 3, 2021. She was 16. Her name was Delilah Rose and her nickname was Baby Yellow. Jonathon from Chewy was very kind…and then, these showed up. There were yellow roses. They didn't even know her nickname. ❤🐾💛💔💛🐾❤️ pic.twitter.com/59u3OK0Vv7
— Tricia181920 Ⓥ (@Tricia181920) June 20, 2022
Andrew Stein, the senior director of Chewy’s customer services said that every customer interaction is a chance to delight the customer in times of joy or empathy in times of grief. Stein said acts of compassion are embedded in Chewy’s culture and allow the company to create deep and meaningful connections. Chewy also sends out hand-written holiday cards and hand-painted pet portraits as well.
Brose never expected her tweet to gain as much attention as it did. But it did provide an unique way of remembering Gus.
“He was such a special dog,” Brose said. “It means a lot that so many people will remember him”.
Brose hopes that people find hope in times of sadness from her story.
“Hopefully, they’ll feel inspired to support animal shelters by adopting or donating to their local humane society”.
