Avid Identification Systems, Inc. is Customer Unfriendly

I run a little cat sanctuary and all my cats are microchipped through Avid. Unfortunately Avid has come up with a billing system that causes more problems, e.g. every pet owner that has more than 3 registered pets ends up with multiple membership numbers. I for example had to call in once and get all errors corrected that had been made by setting up my accounts, like misspelled name, address, email, etc. by going through all the different membership numbers and the customer service representative correcting every singles one of them. I was glad that this particular customer service representative knew how to copy and paste and was not computer illiterate.
This brings me to another issues which is all submitted information is handled via physical snail mail letters and are transcribed by a human into the system, hence the errors in the first place.
Furthermore, every time my pet loses a tag I have to physically send in a letter for getting one tag produced for me.

I thought about these issues and came up with suggestions and improvements for their system and sent my message to Avid asking if these features will be considered in the near future. Here is the email that I sent to Avid:

“Hello,

I have some questions regarding Avid accounts:

Will there be an online version in the near future where I can login and manage my pets, e.g. attach photos, change their weight, add a history of medical conditions, set their status to missed and order new tags online?

Since I do run a little animal sanctuary with more than three animals I find it very confusing to have multiple account numbers. Does Avid plan on setting up one account per owner where animals can be added for an additional fee?

Thank you,

Verena Fuchs

…”

To my surprise and frustration I got a standard reply back that made me think AVID has not even read my letter, which was:

“In order to best serve you we need the chip number of your pets. May I have the chip number for your pets so that I can look up the status of your pets? Thanks for your time.

Anita Blessard
Avid Identification Systems, Inc.
3185 Hamner Avenue
Norco, CA 92860
Phone:  1-800-336-2843 Ext. 1903
Fax:  (951) 737-8967
www.AvidID.com”

Having spent over $500.00 on service fees with this company I felt quite honestly insulted by this reply. Since I did not ask about the status of my pets and wondered why this customer service representative wanted to look up this information I felt that I needed to speak with someone else that was maybe more competent to answer my two general question about the improvement of their services, so I wrote back:

“Dear Ms. Blessard,

I obviously cannot thank you for your time because I do not think that you actually read my email and found the time to address me personally. As a customer paying over $500.00 in service fees already I am actually insulted by your standard short answer. I do not know why you want to look up the status of my pets because I did not ask you to do so. Please forward my email to your manager in order to get my two general questions answered.

Regards,

Verena Fuchs”

To my surprise the customer service representative refused to apologize for making me feel insulted and frustrated and still refused to address me personally:

“My manager will want to know your pets microchip#’s, or your membership#, or your customer# in order to assist you.  Thank you for your time.

Anita Blessard
Avid Identification Systems, Inc.
3185 Hamner Avenue
Norco, CA 92860
Phone:  1-800-336-2843 Ext. 1903
Fax:  (951) 737-8967
www.AvidID.com“

Since I again did not get the question answered why she wanted to look up my pets status and was ignoring my suggestions for improving their service I gave up communicating with this obviously stubborn and ill-trained customer service representative in order to avoid more frustration and headaches:

“Dear Ms. Blessard,

I again did not receive an answer to any of my questions and I also did not receive a message from your manager. I also take it that you did not forward my message.
Since I believe that this email conversation will lead to anything but an answer and just cause more disappointment and frustration please do not bother with a reply and consider it as closed.

Best Regards,
Verena Fuchs”

The most frustrating part is that my suggestions will never be passed on as valuable customer feedback and that it will always be stuck with this stubborn customer service representative who was unwilling to carefully read and appropriately reply in a personal manner. I for my part  Iconsider switching services to a Microchip service (1) where I feel I am being more appreciated as customer, (2) that makes me feel someone actually listens to what I am saying, (3) that is willing to improve their service and (4) that  I can get a better service from (for my pets well-being).

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