THIS is Customer Service

SmartPak is an online merchant for animal supplies. I had used them to buy some bandaging material earlier in the year to outfit a horse first-aid kit for our trailer. Their prices are good and the service was quick.

For Christmas I went to their site on the 3rd of December and ordered a set of five brushes and a grooming bag for my wife. They looked nice on the site. I researched the manufacturer, and found they made a high quality product.

There was an option to have them engraved and I thought this would be a nice touch. The web screen for the engraving process was a little awkward and I plodded through it trying to decide whether to put her name on the brushes or her horse's name. There was a choice of fonts, too. I clicked the "buy" button knowing I should get them in plenty of time for Christmas.

The bag came first, probably around the 10th. I knew the engraving would add a couple of days and sure enough on the 14th there was a small package with one lone, small, face brush in it. What? It didn't have the engraving on it. Hmm. I went to the website and saw I had another tracking number that would be delivered on the 15th and thought, before I called the company, I would wait and see what came. The other four brushes arrived and were engraved very nicely. The brushes just what I had in mind - high quality and the engraving is definitely a very nice touch. I wasn't sure if the face brush hadn't been engraved because of its small size or if I had made a mistake on the engraving order screen.

Not knowing if there was anything that could be done I called customer service. Casey, my representative, listened to my situation, looked up the order, and said, "Let me investigate on our end and talk to our different departments and I'll call you back. We'll make sure you are satisfied."

Sure enough in less than an hour Casey called me back. She wasn't sure what went wrong, but said they would have another brush engraved and sent 2nd day air to insure it got here by Christmas. That's impressive.

It's a crazy time for retailers and this kind of customer service sets a standard. While I've used a variety of online retailers for my horse/dog/cat supplies in the past, this type of service and professionalism requires my customer loyalty. That's a great job SmartPak. Thanks Casey.