Benson's Pet Center — Local services in Town of Clifton Park

For the most part, I have had GREAT experiences with Benson's. I usually find the staff to be very friendly and helpful. However, my experience on Saturday, 1/13/24 was not great.

I have been ordering online from Benson's for a little over a month now (very convenient) - my issue started with putting an delivery order in on Saturday morning. There's a red banner that runs across the top of the website "Order by 2pm........" I completed my order before 9am and expected it to be delivered, at some point on Saturday. By 5pm, I started getting concerned - I have 2 kittens that were out of food and depending on this delivery. By 6pm, I decided to call the store to see if there was a delay with the deliveries. The person I spoke to was very cordial and advised they would ask a coworker if they knew what was going on. I was then advised that Benson's does NOT deliver on the weekend, "you can just come to the store to pick up your order." Knowing that they close at 7pm, my husband and I got in the car and made the drive to the store to pick up.

I go to the register and let the employee know we are here to pick up our order, she goes to the back of the store and returns a couple minutes later stating "your order isn't ready, you can just go pick it up off the shelf yourself." My husband and I are both puzzled but go and do as we were advised. We come back to the register and are now at the register of a different employee. We go through the whole spiel and put the 18 cans of kitten food on the counter, I show her my receipt for the purchase we already made. She is told by the woman at the other register (whom we originally spoke with), we will need to pay for the 18 cans AGAIN and they will put a request in to "Shopify" for our refund. Again, my husband and I are puzzled - we ALREADY paid for the 18 cans of food, we got them off the shelves ourselves and should have just been able to go. This made NO sense to either of us. So they call over the manager. This guy was nothing short of a jerk, I'm sorry but he was. First, he never introduced himself, secondly - he came over to us, to tell us what to do rather than explain things. He was very matter of fact, his attitude exuded "if you don't like it, leave." It was only when I looked down at his name tag that he suddenly acted like he cared about our experience - could only see the first 2 letters of his name, I assume his name is Ty-ler. Tyler needs management training and to learn people skills.

The girl who checked us out tried to smooth things over because she could tell we were not happy campers. I have to say, she tried her best and she deserves acknowledgment for her kindness in an uncomfortable situation.

Overall, Benson's is NOT losing us as customers - I just suggest having the red banner on the website include there are NO deliveries on the weekend. The other suggestion is Tyler get some additional training on how to handle difficult situations...

Benson's pet store not only had seven different types of nail clippers, but I brought all of them to the counter and ask one of the specialist to pick the best one for my dog. He was able to tell me which one was the best for my breed and didn't mind I brought all seven up to the counter. Also, what stopped me in the first place were the tons of tents and 🐕 🐕 walking around. Benson's had an exhibition of water dog jumping and retrieving. Some novice dogs jumped only a few feet but I think getting wet was their priority given the heatwave. Other dogs were experienced jumpers some of whom went as far as 16 feet to retrieve their toy. Plus they invited vendors to give product and discuss why their ingredients served my pooch Ginger the best. It was a great day for all, even though it was over 95 degrees Benson's handed out free water to everyone to make sure no one was dehydrated. Additionally they had water pools for the dogs and kids and sprinklers too! Benson's is not only a great family pet store but it has competitive prices and a vast selection of animal products. If you want a family environment with staff who truly care stop here before one of the corporate stores. Support local businesses, for many reasons but remember .63 cents of the door stay in our...

My partner and I were preparing to bring our rescue dog home -- our first dog together and our first time being primary owners of a dog -- when we wandered into Benson's. We couldn't be more glad we chose this place over a larger chain! They had nearly everything we needed (we adopted a BIG dog, so some things couldn't be found in a store) and were very friendly and helpful. The customer service was outstanding! They answered the countless questions I had with a smile on their faces. Harris (an employee) single-handedly made me a loyal customer. He was so patient and kind and knowledgeable. He even jumped our car when it died on the first visit!! When I came back to buy more things for the pup and thank him again, he made my second shopping experience even better, walking me through everything and making me feel so prepared to be a pet parent! It was actually one of the best customer service experiences I've ever had. His manager Lauren was amazing as well! Those two answered a lot of questions for me and were so incredibly nice. This experience really added to the excitement of adopting our baby, so I'm very appreciative. Give Harris and...