A veterinary technician is explaining why customers who purchase their pet’s medication through Chewy may be experiencing delays in getting the prescription approved and calling out the company in the process.
Although vets will generally sell customers the medication they prescribe, sometimes people ask for those prescriptions to be sent to a third-party pharmacy if there’s a lower price. Kelly (@kellythevettech) told viewers that hasn’t historically been a problem where she works—they could approve prescriptions customers wanted to buy from Chewy in particular via fax or through an online portal.
However, more recently, she says the company has implemented a system requiring vets to provide access to their customer databases. On the surface, this would make the prescription approval process move more quickly.
How Chewy’s new prescription-approval process makes your information vulnerable
“But what they’re not telling us is that that would also give them access to all of our clients’ information,” she said. “They would be able to look onto our management system and see that Fluffy was prescribed Dasuquin, let’s just say, which is a joint supplement. And he got it from our facility, or…he’s getting it somewhere else. They could go in there and they would be able to access Fluffy’s information, send Fluffy’s owners mail and give them [a] coupon…to get the Dasuquin from Chewy.com instead.”
The issue, Kelly stressed, isn’t customers buying their pet meds elsewhere—that’s always been an option, and she acknowledged it’s sometimes the best option for pet owners who need to shave off a few bucks where they can. Rather, the issue is that Chewy wants access to all this personal information to allegedly use for marketing without the customer even opting in.
And the second issue is that she says ever since this new process was implemented, and her vet declined to utilize it, approving prescriptions for customers wanting to purchase through Chewy has been a constant headache.
She describes repeated delays and runarounds in communication with the company, adding, “They have literally lied to our customers and said that we have not gotten back to them when we have documented that we called Chewy or we sent a fax or we sent an email.”
Fellow vet clinic workers weigh in
Kelly is far from alone in this experience. Other people who work at vet clinics expressed having similar frustrations with Chewy.
“The calls about missing faxes and approvals have been insane lately. glad it’s not just us,” one commenter wrote.
“We’ve stopped third party prescriptions entirely,” said another. “Chewy caused too many miscommunications and missed scripts.”
“I used to work for a vet that made it a rule we wouldn’t fax chewy scripts. She would rather write a script and make the owner send it in. It worked 8/10 times,” a third added.
Some commenters admitted they didn’t see the issue with Chewy utilizing vet databases to market products to customers, as they would love to get coupons for medication that can be pretty pricey. In a follow-up video, Kelly again stressed that they have no issues with customers taking their prescriptions elsewhere to purchase meds, and said her vet will sometimes even encourage people to look for cheaper options elsewhere.
@kellythevettech Who else has been having an issue with Chewy? Is everyone just using their new portal?? Help!! #vettechlife #vetmed #vettech #chewy #prescriptions #petmeds #petsoftiktok #petowners ♬ original sound – Kelly | Vet Med & Mom Life
“Chewy can give you those discounts because they buy a lot more medication than your local vet does,” she explains. “All I was saying is that it just doesn’t sit right with me to give them access to our clients’ information without their permission.”
And as tempting—and sometimes legitimately necessary—as cheaper prices are, the long-term ramifications might only make things harder for people.
“You think prices will ‘just stay low?’” one viewer asked a commenter who didn’t see the big deal. “They are trying to outcompete, but as with everything else they will jack up prices [once] competition is gone!”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Kelly via TikTok comment and Chewy via email.
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