Published by: Ingrid King. Last Updated on: June 29, 2023 by Crystal Uys
I’ve been ordering cat litter and other supplies from Chewy.com for years. I don’t particularly like shopping and running errands, and I love having things delivered. In fact, between Chewy.com, Amazon, and Prime Now (for groceries,) I save a lot of time that I would otherwise spend going to multiple stores, not to mention sitting in traffic.
In addition to the sheer convenience, there are many other reasons why I love Chewy.com
Fast (and free) shipping
Depending on where you live, your order will arrive in 1 to 2 days. They only ship within the contiguous US, and as long as you order by 4 pm, your order will usually ship the same day. My orders all arrive with Fed Ex on the day after I order. Shipping is free for orders over $49, but even if you order less than that, their shipping fee is only $4.95.
Great prices
For most items, I’ve found that Chewy.com offers the lowest prices around.
Exceptional customer service
I don’t know how Chewy.com does it, but their customer service is absolutely amazing. Their 100% unconditional satisfaction guarantee is just that – 100%. Did you order a case of food only to find that your cat doesn’t like the flavor? No problem, Chewy will issue a complete refund.
The other day, I placed an order for cat litter, only to remember a few hours later that I forgot to add two items. I placed a second order and added enough litter to get to the $49 threshold so I’d get free shipping. Shortly afterward, I received a call from a friendly Chewy.com customer service rep, asking whether I intended to duplicate items from my previous order. When I explained that I only added the items to get the free shipping, they waived the shipping fee on my second order even though it was only $12 worth of items.
Autoship option
I’m not a fan of autoship, but it will save you money (up to 30%,) and it can make your life easier. Tell Chewy how often you want a product shipped, and they make sure it arrives at your home on a regular basis. Autoship is easy to set up and you can pause, change or cancel shipments at any time.
Huge selection of products
The selection of brands and products is mind-boggling, and they are adding new products all the time. And their website is easy to navigate – a win-win.
I was a little nervous when Chewy.com was bought by PetSmart in April 2017. When small stores or chains are bought by larger ones, the focus often shifts from service to volume. So far, I haven’t seen a decline in Chewy.com’s service or quality, which makes me very happy.
Chewy.com definitely makes my life easier. I still shop at my local independent pet store for some of our frozen raw food and the occasional canned food for the girls (they eat primarily raw, so ordering a whole case of cans doesn’t make sense for us,) but for litter, treats and other supplies, Chewy.com is my go-to source for cat supplies.
Featured Image Credit: Fusso_pics, Shutterstock
About the author
Ingrid King is an award-winning author, former veterinary hospital manager, and veterinary journalist who is passionate about cats.
I love Chewy! When our elderly cat crossed the rainbow bridge, I called to cancel his meds, and they sent a bouquet and condolence card! They’ve taken great care of our pets. I still shop at local places occasionally to support them, but Chewy is my major provider for meds and feed and treats.
Yup! I love Chewy.com as well. I used to be able to get Primal Pork for my gang there, but lately it not formulated correctly or something happens during the shipping and when I open the bag it smells like yeast. But that is probably Primals problem, not Chewy’s. And I agree that Chewy has excellent customer service. Just say you are not satisfied and they are on it.
The unfortunate thing about Chewy is that they partnered with FedEx. These folks are the worst delivery company I’ve ever encountered. They deliver busted up cartons, my litter bags used to always be broken open, and the dehydrated foods I orders are mostly crumbs by the time I receive them. They deliver when they haven’t and they say they attempted to deliver when they didn’t. I’ve had to have Chewy customer support intercept my one package of raw dehydrated food that sat on the drivers truck for over 3 hot days because I didn’t know how that heat would effect the quality of the raw food. Thankfully Chewy was able to do that and the delivery was refused. I have pleaded with Chewy to provide delivery options and allow the customer to decide which delivery company they want. This is one of the ramifications of getting free shipping – the job goes to the lowest bidder who then delivers exactly that – nothing.
I wish more customers of Chewy would complain to Chewy about the poor delivery. But many people just accept it as is. And it can be much better if we all just request it.
Thank you for this post about Chewy. They are a good company and I tell them so. I’m always good about separating my negative comments about the delivery from my positive comments about the distributor. 😉
My family also loves Chewy.com and am so very grateful for their customer service because the delivery service they use for me (FedEx) STINKS as we often have to have orders shipped to us a second time due to lost orders and items arriving damaged. I also remember K9Cuisine as being another good company to order pet food from but have not used them in years since they seemed to cater more to dogs than cats.
Interesting responses, I’m not a Chewy basher folks, I too loved the service until I starting getting damaged and rotten food, both wet and dry. I’m sharing this so owners know to check their food, that is all and I’m not the only one to have had this issue, go and look for yourselves. I didn’t mention that some of their dry cat food put one of my cats in the ER for 4 days and made my others sick as well. Now PetSmart has bought out Chewy so we’ll see what changes are to come aside from major pet food makers pulling their food from Chewy because of this buyout. Read up on their reasons, may interest you. Doesn’t matter where you buy from folks, just check your food always. Never had a problem with Chewy? Fantastic! I’m glad! Just sharing my experience so every pet owner stays alert.
Thank you for sharing. Food should always be checked no matter where it is bought. Did not know Petsmart bought out Chewy!
I hope this gets posted as I believe this information is helpful. Customer service at Chewy can’t be beat and as long as they used FedEx for monthly autoship orders, I ordered from them. Then they switched my locale to Lasership and those guys leave packages in our unattended lobby plus they don’t arrive at my building until 8:30 p.m. or later. There are two larger buildings down the street who are having the same problems with Lasership! Anyway, I stopped ordering from Chewy because imagine having to take a grocery cart to the lobby to haul heavy (over $100.00 worth) of pet food cans back to my apartment. Chewy was upset about such a delivery strategy by Lasership when I complained and readily compensated me but maintain they can’t give me any other shipper at this time. I order now from Only Natural Pet and haven’t had one dented can plus they will sell individual cans so that the customer doesn’t have to take a chance by ordering a full case to try a new food. I do agree however that Chewy is great and I sure was sorry to drop them but Lasership is the absolute worst. Why Chewy can’t give a choice when other shippers will isn’t clear. Anyway, I’m happy now with the new company and hope Chewy works out the kinks with Lasership as no one in this building including our management company has had any luck doing so! If anyone else is having this problem, please complain as the purpose of home delivery is to have the deliveries dropped off at our door, not in an unattended lobby!
Chewy is a godsend for me..I have 10 beautiful cats and 2 wonderful dogs, so I order at least every 2 weeks from Chewy..They are on the ball, and they have integrity, good prices, and great customer service..
I like to shop locally as much as I can. I like to see my choices for most things. But I don’t drive, don’t have a car, so when I need heavy things I need the help of delivery. I’ve been shopping with chewy.com for years. Canned cat food is a heavy item if I buy more than a few cans. Now I have arthritis and am even more in need of delivery. I buy some of the cats’ supplies from a local store (treats aren’t heavy) and order the weighty items from chewy.com.
Rotten? spoiled? damaged? must refer to dry food? I have never had any problem with the few bags of dry food I order from chewy.com.
They also have a better selection of toys than any brick&mortar shop in the city where I live. I would never ever shop at Walmart. My moral compass cringes at the mere thought of them.
I agree! I’ve been with Chewy before there was online anything. I previously had five cats ( all rescues) and a rescued sheltie and I worked full time! I’m retired now, but I have 4 cats and one outside feral and a very mixed 11 year old dog. Chewy to the rescue! If i call customer service its a pleasure. These guys love animals like we do! Even then and now I ordered my cat litter instead of lugging it from the store. I get food, beds, toys, even a cat door just came today! I love that they give back to support rescues. Bravo for bringing Chewy to everyone’s attention!
I also love Chewy!!! Customer service is beyond amazing and they are absolutely the nicest people. Of course with 5 cats, I love the prices on everything and not having to lug cases of food and cat litter is great too! I work for a cat only shelter and we do put cats up for adoption in PetSmart so I get to really see the prices. They have gone up so much that it is just too crazy NOT to shop at Chewy. Plus my shelter has benefitted from the food my cats didn’t like because Chewy would tell me to donate it!
To Ingrid and All: I volunteer with a local cat rescue group. I do TNR, foster, etc. We hold adoption fairs at Petco and Pet Supplies Plus and without the brick and mortar stores adoption outlets for rescue groups would be severely limited so I am against all the online shopping that’s being done these days. In addition with pet stores closing we lose those jobs and the ones that remain are these horrible warehouse type jobs where people work on a line packing boxes for 11 hours a day. And everything they do is tracked. This is not a society I want to live in. Please reconsider shopping at pet stores please. I don’t want Amazon and Chewy to be the future.
I love Chewy too. Mojo, my cat, gets excited when I tell him “Today is Chewy day!” And he loves watching me put the food away, while sitting in the box. I’ve had some issues with dented cans, though. On one order I had between 6-8 of them! I can understand 1-2, but 6! So I called and got a refund. Hasn’t happened since…at least not more than 2 dented cans. I also have a hard time with litter. The box of litter must leak, because I would get sand on the bottom of the Chewy box…thus I would get it on my carpet! I just pick up litter at the store now. But Chewy was very understanding after I ordered 2 bags of the dry food Mojo adores…but then he got urine crystals and the vet suggested a wet food only diet. I didn’t know what to do! I had opened one of the bags already. Chewy gave me a refund & told me to donate the bags to either a friend, or local shelter. They are wonderful, making the toughest situations easier. Plus, i can’t drive, so the deliveries are much appreciated…especially in the brutal winter months!
I’m with Will Hodges on this. I feel sorry for the FedEx guys having to lug the cat litter each month. I always try to intercept them and have them drop in the driveway instead of lugging to the front door.
As for Chewy, I also tell ALL my animal friends ( so they can tell their humans ) about them. Great company, great customer service!
I recently had to resort to Petco to order new cat food. I’m hoping Chewy starts carrying it, as it took nearly two weeks to deliver. I know, we’re spoiled with Chewy and Amazon Prime.
I see that I’m not the only shopper out there who gravitates to Chewy. Chewy is the best and I frequent the site for my feathered friend and my furry one. Any site that Allegra and Ruby buy from is enough of a good reference for me; their mom, Ingrid, only buys from the best distributors.
I’ve used Chewy for years and have never seen anything like Melody describes. My products have always been first rate and, like you said, their customer service is exceptional so I wouldn’t worry about any potential issues. The key to Chewy is to order the $49 minimum to get free shipping. With 2 cats and a dog, that’s not hard to do. I still don’t understand how I can order 80lbs of cat litter and have it arrive in 2 days with free shipping but it sure beats lugging it from the store.
I used Chewy for a while and I really liked the variety and convenience but I started getting food that was rotten, spoiled, damaged with dead bugs in it and I just felt like I couldn’t trust the food anymore. I thought maybe I had ordered stuff that didn’t move from the warehouse often so I was getting old spoiled food but I’m in quality so I know you should always rotate your inventory and for that reason and the safety of my pets, I stopped using them. They refunded me for the cost so their response was quick and proper and customer service was great but I just lost the trust in the food from wherever they were getting it. I should have asked what action plan they would put in place to correct this issue but I left it up to them so I don’t know if anything was done from that side. Hopefully they corrected the problem, dug in to find out why this happened and I hope they did but trust is a hard thing to come by and earn back nowadays so I just don’t know. I did read others had the same problem from them, hopefully they addressed the issue, they have a good business going and I did like them. It’s unfortunate.
We like Chewy too. They always deliver right on time and we have had one or two issues that have been resolved with one call to our complete satisfaction. Yay Chewy
I also agree! If anything goes wrong with the delivery (such as a leaking bag of litter), they will immediately send a replacement. I have finicky cats who have rejected a new food, Chewy refunds me asap. And deliveries are fast. Thanks, Chewy!
I agree with you 100%. Good prices and selection. A+ service Flexible autoship option. Easy to use site
I have ordered things from Chewy in the past and I kept saying I would continue shopping there, but then I always forget. Then, I think about my Walmart experiences and things being out of stock or one food I buy is never stocked right and I have to hunt down someone to get it off the shelf for me because it’s on the top shelf way in the back. I think ordering online might help get rid of some of the frustration of grocery shopping. Plus hauling the heavy cat litter bag is never fun.
I love Chewy.com. I’ve been ordering from them for quite awhile now and am super impressed with how well things are packed and sealed. I use Autoship now because I am ordering the same things for our three kitties each month. Three cheers for a terrific company. I cannot rate them high enough.
I have been ordering from Chewy.com for a billion years and have ALL of my animal lovers ordering from them, as well. And I even tell strangers I encounter in the grocery store when they are buying ridiculously priced pet food. I love Chewy.com and their customer service is like customer service used to be in the old days.
Chewy is fantastic. Great prices, great delivery options, and they carry just about everything I need. On top of that, they also have the best customer service of any company I’ve dealt with hands down. If you have a complaint, they make it right one way or another. If they find out a beloved pet has passed (needing to make a return for instance due to not needing a special food item), they will even send a condolence card, hand written to you. I mean, come on, what other company cares that much? Fantastic company.
I love ordering from Chewy’s for they always have stuff that my cats eat I don’t have too worry they are out of stock. When I go to the grocery store or Walmart sometimes they are out in what my cats eat so I don’t take a chance I make sure their food is always here. They are no pricier that the store you shop in person.
You and I are on the same page with Chewy and their free delivery. The only thing I feel bad about is the poor FedEx or UPS delivery guys who have to carry those two huge boxes of Dr. Elsey’s litter that I order every month! But it’s better than me having to lug them out of a local store, right!