Beware: WWW.PETFOOD247.COM.AU

An update on my order of a Hound House I placed with petfood247.com on 15.4.10:
it arrived at 7.40am this morning (10.5.10) by Fastway Couriers.

I pinched myself several times but yep, it was really there!

I have set it up and it seems to be in good order. It doesn't appear to be a seconds product or anything else slightly dodgy. My dog is in it and seems very happy there. That's a good advert for Hound House because she has steadfastly refused anything else I've offered her.

So to all you people who are anxiously waiting on your orders, take heart from my receipt of my item, even if I did have to wait three and a half weeks instead of the promised 3 days.

I will NEVER deal with these rude ignorant dropkicks again. The few dollars I saved on the price of the Hound House were totally not worth the inconvenience, worry and stress about my money paid, forfeited appointments and other financial losses I sustained waiting day after day at home for their delivery and not hearing any communication from them. My health went way down during this debacle. What price do you put on that?

I had already begun the complaint process with the NSW Dept of Fair Trading last week and I will continue with it. This is no way to treat customers. And what, we're all supposed to be grateful that we do at least eventually get our items and not lose our money? Not good enough!

Thanks to everyone on this forum for sharing info and encouragement.

Good luck to those of you still waiting. Hopefully you'll all have a similar successful (??!!!) outcome.

Here is the latest update re my order of 21/4. Shipping advice email dated friday 7/5.

I gathered that Fastway Couriers seem to be doing the deliveries for Petfood247 so I rang them on morning of monday 10/5 and tuesday 11/5 to find out when the delivery will be made.
Since Petfood247 didn't bother to send me the label number for them to trace, (that would be tooo easy) Fastway had to contact the courier who looks after my area. He had no deliveries on his morning lists for both days but could not say if they would be on the afternoon lists and I was going to be out in the afternoons on both days. They did say that a card would be left in my post box if I was out when they called.

So, I was out this afternoon and when I returned home, guess what? there is a card from Fastway Couriers in my mailbox with the Label number and saying they had called it gave a mobile number to call to arrange a new delivery time and you have 5 days to respond before the goods may be returned to sender.

This makes it 3weeks between placing my order and delivery..

I will ring Fastway couriers tomorrow. Wonder if they have a phone number for Mr Mcduff I will check.

Hope this is of use to others to find out what day their delivery will be made once they have been advised that their order has been shipped. Fastway Sydney phone number is 02 9737 8288. Their website has all the contact no's for other states.

Petfood247 should be providing the freight Label number & courier details in their shipping advice email which would make it so much easier to find out the delivery time. I guess that is just too much to ask.
The impression I get is that they have a computer doing all the work receiving the orders and sending out the confirming emails and then the shipping advice emails. It is possible there is nobody that reads any emails at all.

I will advise any more information that I find out.

P.S. I still think that we should all ambush Mr McDuff when he collects his mail from Bangor Post Office. Does anyone live near there?

First the good news, after I sent my 4th email (plagiarising the entry by bierwurst - thank-you so much for your words) I received 2 emails: the 1st stating my order had been dispatched, 2nd order confirmation - Petfood247 cannot even get the sequence correct.

I, like everyone else, has not been provided with delivery date, courier name etc..... So I, like everyone else who has been thru this nightmare will now hold my breath & wait. I have a desperately ill 18 year old cat; she needs the products I ordered. I even explained this in my emails to Petfood247 - made not a scrap of difference to them.

Today, I'm going shopping to local provider to get the things she needs.
Can't for the life of me believe that these *&*&%^#@Petfood247*&*&%^#@ don't understand how much bad press they're getting & how many return customers they're not getting. Incomprehensible!!

I'm waiting for my products & then I'm on a mission. Not sure a stakeout of a PO Box is the answer, although the violent side of me rather likes the idea, I'll use more sedate but equally effective means.

Will update when / if order arrives.

Thank-you again, to all posters & to bierwurst.

an additional bit of info:

Recommend all who have paid & not received goods from WWW.PETFOOD247.COM.AU click on the link, read the information provided by ASIC:

http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-bin/g ... &srchsrc=1

And take action as soon as possible before this slippery character & his cohorts mutate into another version of PET something!

I'm writing to ASIC as soon as I've posted this!

There's a pattern to this guy's madness....

So I post a complaint with Fair Trading... they get back to me on May 10th saying they'd spoken to McDuff and "Your concerns were brought to the attention of Mr Gary McDuff, proprietor of http://www. petfood24/7. com.au, who advised that your goods are being sent today by registered mail. Your registered mail reference numbers are: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx & xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. If you do not receive your goods you may be able to apply to your credit card provider and request a chargeback to obtain your refund."

That same afternoon I get the (by now standard) "Your order has been dispatched" from "askus@". As with everyone else here, no details, no ETA, nothing.

I have twice written back looking for more detail but, strangely, no reply has come so far.

Of course, 2 days later and there's nothing about these two numbers on OzPost tracking page...

For those thinking of using Fair Trading, it doesn't hurt, and petfood seems to be making some sort of response to their calls (you reading this Mr McDuff?)... but I suggest the easiest and most useful route is to skip FTC and go straight to your credit card company and get a refund. Fair Trading (this is my second experience with them) are *less* than useful, and are, in fact, toothless. I quote from their mail to me "In cases such as this, NSW Fair Trading attempts to assist the parties to negotiate a satisfactory resolution, however, it is not empowered to direct a trader to a particular course of action. Should you wish to pursue the matter further, you may lodge a claim with the Consumer, Trader and Tenancy Tribunal.".

I *have* previously been through CTTT and let me tell you... what a waste of ^%$%%$# time that was.

So onto my credit card co... who will take money back of McDuff. If enough of us do this, it might either a) cause him to rethink his business model or b) shut the business down...

While I agree this guy seems to be simply incompetent... bear in mind that the posters here might only be the tip of the iceberg... perhaps his business plan calls for him to ignore all orders until such time as Fair Trading or Credit Card co are brought to bear... all the others who send 20 or 50 bux and can't be bothered chasing it are just money in the bank for the man.

Just a short update; the goods actually have arrived this morning. Everything appears to be in order. I guess I am one of the lucky ones. As for me I will not have any dealings with PetFood247 in the future.

My goods also arrived (finally!) on Monday morning (too little, too late ) - it sounds like this McDuff fellow has been spurred into action by the complaints made to Fair Trading.

The goods I purchased were 25% cheaper throught PetFood 24/7, but the complete lack of communication and delayed delivery time was unacceptable.

I know many sites offer an opportunity to post a ''review'' of this particular seller (just type PetFood24/7 into Google!) and I think we should all make the effort to warn others not to buy from him in the future!

I don't know whether or not this is significant

http://www.realcommercial.com.au/cgi-bi ... largePhoto

I don't know whether or not this is significant

http://www.realcommercial.com.au/cgi-bi ... largePhoto

Could be....That was his previous company name, it's possible he is operating in new premises in Bangor where he lives and where he collects his mail... hmmm
Perhaps he is operating now out of his garage, and is only ordering the goods as he receives an order. Means he does not need a showroom and would explain the long wait for delivery... Only guessing.

Finally received my delivery today by Fastway Couriers

I must admit I got a nice surprise. I had ordered a 20Kg pack of OzPet litter and 3.5 packet of Royal Canin Oral Sensitive dry cat food.
In the carton I found the OzPet and 2 x 1.5Kg packets of the RC dry food (total 3Kg)
and a post it sticker attached to a cheque dated 6/5/10 in the amount of $7.99 saying
"RC 3.5 bags currently out of stock Container due 7-10days"
No apology, signature or date but it was hand written.

The cheque amount is $2.50 more than the difference in cost so I was rather surprised especially after reading all the negative stories.
I paid $37.99 for the 3.5 Kg Oral pack so .5kg cost is only $5.43
(also 2 x 1.5 packs cost $20.99 each = $41.98 so he is out of pocket more)
The cheque was drawn on St George Bank Kogarah, which is 5mins away from me.
The account name is PETS FORCE WAREHOUSE PTY LTD A.C.N 065 288 548

So in summary, He is not scamming us, but has no interest in customer service communications or repeat business. Or correcting his website delivery times shown.
Though in saying that, if you are happy to wait 3 weeks for your delivery and don't expect any communication, you may be happy to continue dealing with him.

I rang Fastway Couriers to see if I could get contact details for Mr McDuff but they are not allowed to give out this information. Sorry, forgot to get the guy's name that I spoke to.
He said they had picked up my goods on Tuesday 11/5 at 1pm (though my Petfood email advised dispatched Friday 7/5)
I told him he may get more people ringing up for information about their deliveries as we are not given any label numbers to follow up, and cannot contact Mr McDuff by phone or email. and there are a lot of very unhappy people around. He said he will look into it, so the elusive Mr McDuff should get some feedback from Fastway (not that it will make any difference I guess)

In summary
My order placed 21/4. Shipping advice email received friday 7/5.
11/5 note from Fastway couriers left in mailbox with Label number- rang them on 12/5 to schedule re-delivery
13/5 Delivery received as scheduled

Yay!! Woo-hoo!!

My stuff arrived yesterday. Almost a month after being ordered.

Not registered mail (see above post of mine), but courier.

As ordered and in good condition and...

So here's a personal note to Mr McDuff:

Gary,

No-one posting here has ANY complaints about your prices or the goods that they receive from you. Every single one of these people would have been a repeat customer (and might be, maybe, if you can convince them to give it another shot) if you address the following two CRUCIAL points in your business:

1. Don't promise 3 days delivery when you haven't got a hope of meeting that target. Make it a realistic 7 days - or whatever - and then STICK TO IT. And if for whatever reason you can't, then...
2. COMMUNICATE. Reply to email, no matter how frivolous they are. Let people know WHEN the goods have left and HOW (for eg don't give registered post number when its a courier). Keep talking to people and then they won't think you've run off with the money...

For eg you can probably work out who is who on this page... how about a note of personal apology for the stuff-ups they're complaining about? Never know they might come back to you...



best luck all

Never know they might come back to you...

I am guessing most wouldn't but he may save himself having an even larger list of "admirers"

Thank you everybody for the updates

He now has a new contact number and email on his Contact page on his website. Here are his current details

Contact information
Merchant PetFood247
Address PO Box 3369, 2234 Bangor, Australia
Phone 0450 078 884
Contact person Customer Service
E-mail [email protected]

I sent an email to this address similar to ward's comments - am not holding my breath for a reply, but who knows, miracles do happen sometimes.

I have not bothered to try to ring him but would be interested if anyone does manage to contact him now.
Cheers,

Hi, I recently ordered an item from petfood247 and as soon as I had done it I had a bad feeling. The phone number was disconnected and the address was a po box.

Then I discovered this site and my bad feeling became much worse. I also emailed them with no result and then last week received an email saying my order had been shipped. Received nothing but on Friday I received a cheque from them stating that they were out of stock till the end of May.

I will let you know when I bank the cheque whether it goes through or not.
Maggie

The moral to this tale is that nothing will harm a business more than poor customer service.

They can provide customer's with the cheapest and best product in Australia, but if they don't treat their customers with respect they don't have any chance of surviving, let alone succeeding. I get the feeling that they aren't fundamentally a dishonest company, but that they are having problems and aren't facing up to them.

I used to work for a major international bank, and we made incredible screw ups which cannot be avoided in business, and even if I had nothing to do with them, I had to take it on the chin - apologise and put it right. It's hard to take a roasting but a customer will respect you more if you do, especially if you're honest. Sometimes being honest and owning up to a screw up gives you an edge over the competition that money can't buy.

There's more to running a business than just profit and turnover, because you can't achieve them without satisfied customers.

I have also had problems with petfoods247.com.au and after seeking legal advice, will be lodging a complaint with Office of Fair Trading and lodging with Small Claims Tribunal.

If anyone wants Gary McDuff's home address, let me know. I also have an alternate mobile number.