Today I attempted to place an order with Pets At Home. I have an account with them, I’ve had it for ages. I’ve got one of those loyalty\/points cards too, I’ve had that for ages. So this afternoon I fired up Chrome and tried to place an order. I didn’t get very far; I got stuck in a loop that the Pets At Home website wouldn’t let me get out of. So I had a cunning idea. I fired up Edge (which I have used a total of three times so far this year and yes I am aware it’s 8th December, but that’s the way it is). For the second time today I navigated to the Pets At Home website and this is how it went:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
12.50 I try to login to pets at home. Can’t. password doesn’t work ps. In unrelated news, according to the Internet, the CEO of Pets At Home received a package worth \u00a31.27 million last year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today I attempted to place an order with Pets At Home. I have an account with them, I’ve had it for ages. I’ve got one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
12.51 I request a password reset
12.54 The verification code arrives at the email address associated with the account
12.54 I login using the verification code
12.54 I create a new password
12.55 I login (again)
12.55 Although I’m logged in, I’m invited to create an account. Der
12.56 I ignore the invitation to create an account because I’m already logged in<\/em>
12.56 I search for the dogfood
12.57 I select Butchers Simply Gentle Adult dog food, 18x390g cans at \u00a315.76 (for the 18) on easy repeat!
13.00 I enter the order details once again (5x boxes of 18x390g cans on easy repeat)
13.01 I select the store for click and collect. Again
13.01 I enter the order details again because the order got wiped when I entered the postcode for the nearest store. Der
13.03 I go to the shopping basket to check out, but the shopping basked asks me to select the delivery option, but I’ve already selected click and collect
13.04 Losing the will to live, I click on select my delivery option (again) and I’m invited to create an account (again)
13.05 I click on the shopping basket because the 5x items are still showing there. Once again I’m invited to create an account
13.08 Foolishly, I scroll to the bottom of the page and click on ‘sign in’ and once again I’m taken to a page that invites me to create an account, but the 5x items are still in the shopping basket and my email address is in the account field because of course it is
13.08 I get an email confirmation at that email address that my password has been changed
13.12 I click on login and see the 5x easy repeat items are still in my basket.
13.14 I try to pay but I’m moved to another page that invites me to create an account. Once more
13.16 I’m actually on the verge of giving up. As a final throw of the dice I try to contact the company
13.16 There isn’t a phone number listed. But there is a chatbot. I give that a try. I give the chatbot a brief description of the issue and it says it can’t help so is going to transfer me to a human. I’m number 4 in the queue
13.20 I’m number 3 in the queue
13.21 I’m connected to Abdul. I tell him what the problem is, I hope he can sense how close to the edge I am
13.22 Abdul isn’t getting it. He asks for my email address. I point out that’s not going to sort out the dysfunctional website, but I pass the email address that I have received the verification code at (the email address that is associated with my account)
13.26 Nothing heard from Abdul yet. Maybe he’s looking something up? Maybe he’s gone for a cup of tea? Who knows?
13.26 Abdul says he can’t find an account related to my email address (the one that Pets At Home emailed at 13.08 to confirm my password has been changed)
13.28 Abdul asks me to close all tabs, delete cache and history, and my browser (sic). After I’ve done that please retry
13.29 I say I’ve done all that (I have) and I say I’m using a brand new browser that I’ve never used for Pets At Home before (this is true, you’ll remember I’m using Edge for the first time)
13.30 Abdul asks if I’ve got an alternative email address. I ask him for what purpose because yes, I have an alternative email address but it’s not associated with this account
13.30 Abdul doesn’t immediately respond
13.35 Abdul replies: You can create an account with the alternative email address for the easy repeat order. I can’t seem to find the email address your provided, it’s not on our system. I suggest It would be easier to create a new account with a different email
13.35 I’m trying to keep things polite but pithy: Really? If my email address isn’t on the system, why can’t I use that one, instead of using an alternative?
13.42 Abdul replies and frankly I’m beginning to warm to the guy: I really don’t know the technicalities behind it but there seems to be a glitch on the system, and I apologise about this. Since it’s not on our system and you’re it’s challenging to create an order and you’re going through this difficulty. The best option would be to create a new account. Is this your first time creating a repeat order with that account?
13.42 I answer that yes it is
13.44 Abdul says You can go ahead and create a new account for the time being. I will forward this to the Ecom team to investigate why this is happening, and I do apologise if this has caused any convenience.
13.48 I say FYI, Abdul, while we’ve bee chatting I’ve tried to create a new account with the alternative email address. Then I received the verification code at the new email address. Then I logged in\u2026 And then the website is asking me to create an account!
13.49 Abdul asks for the alternative email address so he can go and look it up
13.49 I pass over the information and I confirm this is the email address I received the verification code at
13.53 Abdul returns: I will have to forward this to this to the Ecom team they will look into this for you. They will get back in touch with you via email within 24 hours
13.53 I reply Thank you. I appreciate it’s a technical issue with the website and therefore you’re not able to assist. But I do appreciate you passing this problem on to the appropriate people.
13.54 Abdul apologises for the inconvenience. And says hopefully this gets sorted
13.54 I say thanks and have a good day<\/p>\n\n\n\n