Chewy’s customer service sends grieving dog mom a sweet surprise

Dog mom tries to return her order after her dog passed, but Chewy had a different idea

(This is not the actual bone. -- Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Chewy is stealing pet-lovers’ hearts all over the world, and this time, the web too.

Artist Anna Brose experienced this first-hand after she tried to return an unopened dog food bag after her beloved Gus crossed the rainbow bridge.

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Brose was touched and shared a tweet about what happened: “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??”

Since sharing her story online, Brose’s tweet has gone viral and has received a ton of kind, loving messages from people around the world, including a reply from Chewy.

Chewy replied, saying, “It’s the least we could do, Anna. We hope these flowers will help to keep your spirits up.”

In an interview with TODAY, the senior director for customer service at Chewy, said “Showing up for our customers during important milestones in their pet parenting journey is core to our DNA,” and mentioned that doing unique acts of kindness for their customers is something they’ve done since the very beginning.

“For many customers, their pet is a primary companion in life, and when they lose their fur baby, they may feel alone and in need of someone to lean on. In those moments, they understand that Chewy is also part of their family, and they are so grateful,” Stein said.

And, Chewy’s intentions aren’t just to make grieving pet parents feel better, either – in many situations like Brose’s, Chewy recommends that acceptable items be donated to animal shelters.

Pet care necessities are sometimes hard to come by, so this act of service means the world to animal shelter employees, like Twitter user @Stpolishook.

“I bought 4 sling carriers from Chewy to try for my new rescue dog. Only used one. Was shocked when @Chewy told me to just donate the rest after my refund. Brought them to a local rescue dog group who were happy to take them,” @Stpolishook tweeted on the thread.

Chewy looks forward to seeing such heartwarming responses from customers they’ve helped in the past.

“What you have seen ... is representative of the responses we consistently receive,” said Stein. “Each and every time we see a customer post, we all get excited and start forwarding it around Chewy; it never gets old.”


About the Author:

Alli Graham came aboard the digital team as an evening digital content producer in June 2022.