I have been a regular customer for 16 years and in that time my dog and cat tally has veered between 1 and 5 pets. I currently have 1 dog and 3 cats.
Up until Brexit fully kicked in, Zooplus was a decent company about which I had zero complaints. No so any more. Firstly, the food choice plummeted and lately it has been their random application of hefty extra postage charges past the "free postage" amount.
I recently contacted Zooplus with a complaint because of a £5.98 "Service charge for additional parcels" appearing at check-out when they clearly say "Free delivery over £39" (it is only the 'small print' where you have to click to a different page to see further information that warns about this).
The thing is, with exactly the same restrictions, sometimes I can buy a super-heavy order and there is zero extra charge, and other times - such as the case recently - a hefty additional charge randomly appears. I suspect this is to do with their constantly-changing courier choice - hugely unhelpful when customers expect consistency.
For example, yesterday they missed out on the order I was about to make totalling £94.91 (i.e. what it would have cost without the £5.98 'service charge') involving 3 x 2 saver pack bags of cat litter (= 72kg), a saver pack of 2 x maxi thrive treats tubes (= 360g) and a saver pack of 4 x dog treats (=280g) totalling 72.64kg because they tacked on the 'service charge' .
Less than a year ago one of my orders involved 3 x 2 saver pack bags of cat litter (= 72kg), 3 x saver packs of 2 x maxi thrive treats tubes (= 1.08kg), 3 x 6 x 400g cans of cat food (= 7.2kg) and a saver pack 12 x 800g cans cat food (= 9.6kg) ... plus a handful of smaller items, so the whole order was likely over the 90kg mark ... all of which DID NOT incur any extra charge!
They have a habit of reeling you in with emails containing money off vouchers - i.e. the current "15% off" my brand of cat litter, only to recoup much of this 'saving' in the service charge for additional parcels.
Why do they do this and put people off? When will they learn that the Brits don't take kindly to be shafted while being given 'discounts'?? We DO notice!
As I wrote in my contact form complaint, it makes no commercial sense to punish customers for buying in bulk from them. It specifically affects people purchasing clay cat litter and wet food (i.e. the heavier items). They tempt you with "saver packs" and/or discount vouchers but then hit you with the extra postage! No so "saver" or "discount" any more! Also, I pointed out that no other pet items supplier that I've come across EVER adds postage when an order comes in over the 'free postage' threshold.
I do not like untrustworthy companies who use sharp practice and waste my time like this.
The response also did not address the fact Zooplus seems to RANDOMLY apply the "Service charge for additional parcels" as if it is some kind of glitch intended to frustrate customers, nor my point that no other pet items supplier (AFAIK) gives free postage over a certain amount but THEN charges over a random amount of weight.
This company and its attitude has grown worse and worse and it is getting a bad name on both pet forums and review sites. I used to be a huge fan of Zooplus and would happily recommend it to friends and family with pets, but now I wonder why I still bother using it.
I have chosen several times to make large orders with alternative suppliers in recent times, PRECISELY due to the postage issues which Zooplus sometimes will and sometimes won't apply, and also my increasing frustration over the way it operates in general.
Another bugbear I have with Zooplus, and about which they have nothing logical to say after I’ve pointed it out, is that they sell “trial packs” of different flavours varieties of cat food, but then will not allow customers to purchase packs of individual varieties! Where is the ‘trial’ in that??! So either your cat or cats love every single one of the 6 varieties in the trial pack (anyone who has cats knows how rare this is!), or you find yourself in a situation where you’d love to purchase more of the ones they DO love, but no dice.
From what I can see from European Zooplus stores, this is NOT the case – it’s only us Brits that get the limited single variety choice and the “computer says no” treatment!
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