Sunday, October 5th, my cat, Sheldon, died of a urinary infection because I did not have the money to take him to a vet.

On Monday, I called a pet crematory service here in Charlotte, Faithful Companion. The receptionist told me the basic service, a cremation and a complimentary urn, would be $200. The service also included delivery generally within 24 hours, although they use language to cover their asses so it’s not guaranteed (I don’t fault them for this). I told her that we could not pay immediately, could we set up a payment plan, and she told me that we could work something out. At approximately 1:30 we brought him in, spoke with a man (who was very soft-spoken and kind, although he used the word ‘cremains’ once which gives me the willies generally and is probably going to the be subject of another post). He also reassured us that our inability to pay would not be an issue, and we left grieving but relieved that we could pay when we were able. At NO point in this was I or my girlfriend told “we will need payment before delivery”, and while we did sign a consent to cremation, it did not mention any kind of obligation to pay before delivery.

Today, Tuesday, October 6th, at about 1:30, I called the office to ask when Sheldon would be delivered to us as we had not received a call with a time window. The receptionist said that they had Sheldon (it occurs to me that they didn’t assure me he’d been cremated, but I have to assume he was) but told me that it was their policy they would not deliver until payment was arranged. She argued with me when I told her I had not been informed that this was the policy, and although she attempted to contact the owner (allegedly, she put me on hold for a few minutes) she said he was not available and there was nothing she could do. Even when I said I could arrange for a payment plan or give her a credit card number.

We are having to borrow money from my girlfriend’s employer to get him back, which was NOT AT ALL what was told to us. If that had been our understanding we probably would have gone through with it, but for fuck’s sake! At the very basic level - ignoring the ethics of what happened here, if there wasn’t a dead pet and grief involved - this is awful customer service. We TOLD them we could not pay immediately, and they smiled and said “that’s okay” and it WASN’T. They tried to keep my pet’s remains! If this had happened to a human we would be talking about lawsuits. Our mistake, I think, was not getting this in writing; then I would have them over a barrel.

I’m so angry. If anything else happens my head is going to explode. My girlfriend is going down to pick up the money and throw it in that bitch’s face. I never want these awful fucking people to touch another person’s pet again.