eTailPet

Great System, Great Customer Service

Pros

I find myself using eTail almost every day, generating reports upon reports. The data I can access has been very valuable for making strategic finance decisions. It provides detailed information and offers various options for grouping and analyzing transaction-level data. eTail's functionality is impressive and continuously improving, providing incremental benefits to RPC.

Cons

At times, the system experiences uneven load times, often resulting in timeouts (the report limits are tight for me). From an accounting perspective, the inability to integrate with QuickBooks poses a challenge. Furthermore, certain aspects, such as the inability to handle negative inventory, lead to discrepancies in inventory tracking. It's a bit nuanced, but some reports don't provide the same data output. For example, you have to run each store separately since there's no column indicating that detail. If there is a date output, it includes time, which requires an additional step of formatting the data into a date format suitable for daily/monthly/yearly pivoting. It would be beneficial to have other modifiers in the output that automatically populate the date information. There are numerous reports that lack any details related to the date.

Great POS

Pros

They have truly considered everything for the pet industry. Their product universe is absolutely fantastic.

Cons

Sometimes, I encounter issues due to the time zone difference.

On its way...

Pros

Onboarding was a simple task and I had no trouble converting my existing data. It's easy to use and get started.

Cons

The knowledge base needs improvement and finding information should not be a complex process. Also I would prefer a better scheduling system for our groomers. The lack of transparency in billing plans is concerning. If we're not using certain services like scheduling, it would be fair to expect a lower cost. I've learned that other vendors are paying 20% less than us.

My ETailPet tale

Pros

The system is quite user-friendly which makes it easy to teach someone how to use it.

Cons

I am aware that I am paying 20% more than other businesses using eTail's services, but they have the option of a one-time annual fee. I believe there should be more transparency in billing plans or the choice to pay a one time fee for the entire year. Considering the price I am paying, it's disappointing that there is a lack of SEO tools or services. Additionally, we should have reporting tools readily available on our dashboard. The scheduling features for grooming are terrible difficult to navigate, time consuming to set up and they function poorly.

Easy to Use

Pros

It's easy to update and manage customers, set up auto orders and handle online management.

Cons

Currently, I have no complaints or issues to report.

Bought out by an investment firm

Pros

While they do offer a decent Astro Integration and a wide range of product catalog, the issues we've faced made these benefits worthless.

Cons

They don't have integrated printing, so you have to use a print dialog within your browser, which is slow and prone to errors. They claim this is "integrated," but it falls short. They utilize PAX payment devices that are designed to be placed behind a counter, violating the EMV requirements of not handling customers' cards directly. The system cannot handle vendor price files, necessitating the reformatting and restructuring of data for their importer, which still fails to handle case quantities, multiple vendors, or other essential requirements for managing a pet store inventory.

A Company that Promises a lot, but fails horribly.

Pros

I am so done with this product we have reached out for help through numerous tickets and emails since day two, but they haven't provided any assistance.

Cons

The entire program only functions well if your store aligns with the products they have access to. They build their database based on the items you enter in the "universe" world. We explicitly asked if our commonly stocked items and products from local suppliers would be included on our website. They assured us it would, but in reality it only appears on the website if you pay for certain features and even then, there's no guarantee. Additionally, they retained our bank information without our consent. We had no intention of renewing with them after the first year. However, they took the $4k and left a voicemail stating that since we didn't inform them (even though they didn't contact us and we weren't using their system), they were keeping our money without offering a refund. It's disappointing that they don't have a return policy like Amazon. If you don't believe me, I suggest reading employee reviews.