Introduction
The Farmer’s Dog is a pet food delivery service that provides customized, pre-portioned meals tailored to your dog’s unique dietary needs. Founded in 2014, The Farmer’s Dog requires customers to subscribe in order to receive its fresh, vet-designed meals.
The Farmer’s Dog aims to provide high-quality, human-grade ingredients that are flash-frozen and shipped directly to customers. Their meals are formulated by board-certified veterinary nutritionists and made without any artificial preservatives or fillers. By requiring a subscription, The Farmer’s Dog can ship meals tailored to each dog’s nutrition profile on a regular basis.
Background on The Farmer’s Dog
The Farmer’s Dog was founded in 2014 by Jonathan Regev and Brett Podolsky with the goal of providing fresh, personalized dog food for pet owners by shipping it directly to their door.
According to Crunchbase, The Farmer’s Dog products are human-grade dog food customized to each dog’s unique nutritional needs. The company claims its food is nutritionally balanced and formulated by veterinary nutritionists. It aims to improve dog health and wellness through its fresh food subscription.
The Farmer’s Dog model requires customers to subscribe in order to receive regular shipments of pre-portioned, freshly made dog food. Customers take a quiz to determine their dog’s ideal nutrition profile, then The Farmer’s Dog creates and ships customized meals according to each dog’s needs, ingredients, calorie requirements, and more. This regular shipment of fresh dog food is the core of The Farmer’s Dog’s business.
How The Subscription Works
The Farmer’s Dog requires customers to take an initial consultation quiz about their dog before signing up. This quiz asks for information like the dog’s name, breed, age, gender, activity level, ideal weight, and any allergies or sensitivities. The Farmer’s Dog uses this information to create a customized nutrition plan and tailored pre-portioned meals for each dog.
Once signed up, The Farmer’s Dog ships fresh, ready-to-serve dog food every 1-2 weeks. Customers can choose between 2, 4, or 8 week auto-shipment frequencies. Each shipment contains the pre-portioned daily meals vacuum sealed and tailored for your dog based on their initial quiz responses. The food comes refrigerated with detailed instructions for safe handling and storage. The company states that the food can be kept fresh for 4 weeks in the refrigerator.
The Cancellation Policy
The Farmer’s Dog has a cancellation policy in place for customers who want to end their subscription. According to their Terms of Service, The Farmer’s Dog requires notification before the next scheduled shipment in order to cancel an account. This allows them time to process the cancellation request and avoid sending out an unwanted shipment. There is no fee to simply pause or cancel the subscription as long as it is done prior to the next billing date.
However, The Farmer’s Dog does charge a $19 restocking fee if a customer cancels after the order has already shipped out. This is because the food has been specially prepared and packaged for that customer and cannot be resold once returned. The restocking fee covers the costs of restocking and redistributing that food. Customers need to notify The Farmer’s Dog at least 2 weeks before their next billing date if they want to avoid the restocking fee when cancelling.
Cancelling Via Website
To cancel your The Farmer’s Dog subscription online, follow these steps:
- Log into your account on The Farmer’s Dog website.
- Click on “Account Settings” in the top right corner.
- Under “Subscription Management”, click on “Cancel Subscription”.
- On the next page, select a reason for cancelling from the dropdown menu.
- Click “Continue to Cancel”.
- Confirm your cancellation by clicking “Yes, Cancel My Subscription”.
Once you cancel, you’ll receive a confirmation email to the address associated with your account. This will confirm that your subscription has been cancelled and when you can expect your last delivery.
According to The Farmer’s Dog’s FAQ page, “You can easily pause, cancel or reactivate your subscription anytime. Click here to visit your Customer Account to do so.” (https://www.thefarmersdog.com/faq)
Cancelling Via Email/Phone
To cancel your subscription via email or phone, you can contact The Farmer’s Dog customer service at [email protected] or (646) 780-7957. Be sure to include your name, email address, and account information in the email to expedite processing.
The customer service team aims to respond within 1 business day, but you may need to follow up if you don’t receive a timely response confirming your cancellation request was received and processed. Calling the customer service line during normal business hours (9am – 7pm EST on weekdays) can help get a quicker response.
Stopping Autoshipments
The Farmer’s Dog makes it easy to stop your autoshipments if you decide you no longer want to receive regular deliveries. According to The Farmer’s Dog’s FAQ page, you can pause, cancel, or reactivate your subscription anytime through your online customer account.
To stop autoshipments and cancel your subscription:
- Log into your account on The Farmer’s Dog website
- Under “Autoship Status”, click “Turn Off Autoship”
- Select a reason for cancelling from the dropdown menu
- Confirm that you want to turn off autoship
Once you’ve turned off autoship, you’ll have the option to schedule your final shipment so you can receive one last delivery before the subscription ends. You can choose from the available dates shown.
After turning off autoship and receiving your final delivery, your subscription will be cancelled and you’ll stop receiving regular shipments from The Farmer’s Dog.
Customer Experiences
Customer experiences cancelling The Farmer’s Dog subscription are mixed. Some customers report an easy cancellation process, while others faced challenges and delays.
On the positive side, some reviewers on Trustpilot said cancellation was easy and their last box arrived as expected after cancelling. One said, “Cancelling the subscription was easy…I received an email confirmation right away.”
However, other customers reported difficulty contacting The Farmer’s Dog to cancel. As one complainant shared on BBB.org, “I have tried numerous times to cancel my subscription that I haven’t used in almost a year. Every time I try to cancel on the website, it says to call or email. When I call no one ever answers and emails go unreturned.”
Delayed cancellations appear to be a common issue. Multiple BBB complaints involve the subscription restarting unexpectedly after customers believed they had cancelled. One said, “This subscription was cancelled many months ago and then out of nowhere they reactivated it and charged my card.”
Based on these reviews, contacting The Farmer’s Dog by phone may be challenging. While some have an easy experience cancelling online, others report their cancellation requests went ignored until charges resumed. Persistence seems necessary when cancelling.
Tips for Cancelling
If you decide to cancel your Farmer’s Dog subscription, here are some tips to ensure the process goes smoothly:
Notify Early – Give yourself and Farmer’s Dog ample time to process the cancellation request. Contact them at least 5-7 days before your next delivery/billing date. This prevents any hassle of getting charged for or receiving an unwanted shipment.
Follow Up – After submitting a cancellation request, follow up via email or phone in a few days to confirm it was received and processed. Politely ask for a confirmation or status update.
Turn Off Autoshipments – If cancelling through your online account, be sure to toggle off any auto-renewal or auto-shipment settings. This will immediately halt any future deliveries and billing.
Conclusion
While getting subscriptions for your pet’s food can be convenient, canceling a subscription may sometimes cause frustration. The process of canceling The Farmer’s Dog can be rather smooth if you follow the proper steps to stop autoshipments and deactivate your account.
To quickly recap, you can cancel The Farmer’s Dog via their website, email, or phone. Be sure to cancel any upcoming autoshipments first, before deactivating your account completely. Many customers have had positive experiences canceling their subscriptions without hassle. However, it’s always wise to follow up and ensure the cancellation went through properly.
In closing, we hope this overview gave you a better understanding of how The Farmer’s Dog cancellation works. Don’t hesitate to reach out to their customer service for assistance if you encounter any difficulties canceling your subscription. With the right approach, you can easily end your subscription while continuing to feed your pet fresh food.
