the daily dog blog

Dog Crates and Dog Crate Covers Price Increases Forthcoming :(

lori — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:37:06 +0000

With the state of the economy, I suppose I should not be surprised that costs are rising. Midwest dog crates have seen three price increases since the first of the year. I cut my already low margins on some items with the April price increase in an attempt to keep my selling prices to customers from rising too much. Unfortunately, there is no room to slice my margins with this latest July increase and still be profitable, so I will need to increase my selling prices when the most recently announced pricing takes effect. Expect to see increased retail pricing on the website within 2-4 weeks. If you anticipate needing a crate (or any Midwest product) in the near future, purchase now and you’ll likely save yourself 10%-15%.

Pet Dreams, the manufacturer of the Cratewear Dog Crate Covers, also recently announced a significant price increase. Those prices are set to increase August 1st so I’ll be adjusting selling prices to customers on those as well.

Let’s hope that a “changing of the guard” with the November election will usher in an era of relief and stabilize our failing economy. We need a strong dollar to keep our import costs down (since it’s an unfortunate reality that our country would rather import products than manufacture them ourselves).

Lori

Customer Feedback Welcome

lori — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:16:37 +0000

If you’d like to share your purchase experience with Pet Crates Direct for other customers to view, we welcome your feedback. Please leave your feedback as a comment to this blog post.

2008 Price Increases Forthcoming

lori — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:34:47 +0000

The new year usually brings with it new vendor pricing and 2008 is no exception. The majority of our Midwest Homes for Pets product line will see price increases. I will adjust prices on Pet Crates Direct in the coming weeks to compensate for the higher product costs. I will continue to keep my margins low which should result in my prices remaining among the most reasonable on the web. If you are anticipating the need for a dog crate or chain link kennel in the near future, order now before the price increase has been implemented and save yourself $$.

Midwest Icrate and Select Series Dog Crates Now Available

lori — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:28:32 +0000

We have recently added several newer lines of dog crates offered by Midwest. The Icrate Series is an economical, medium duty dog crate series that is available in both single door and double door versions.

Customers will want to understand the differences between the ICrate Series and the hugely popular Life Stages Series. While both series are considered medium duty, the ICrate might be classified as “good” with the Life Stages being “better”. This would be attributed to the fact that the ICrate series will be slightly smaller in size and will have some differences in the wire mesh (size of space between wires - overall generally slightly tighter on the Life Stages versus the ICrates). If your pet is docile and tends towards the smaller size for his particular breed, then the ICrate would be suitable. If your pet is a taller breed or tends towards the larger size for the particular breed, then the Life Stages would be the better choice.

The second recent addition is the Select Triple Door Dog Crate Series. The Select Crates are heavy duty and comparable to the Life Stages Ultima Series. The Select Series features a fleck tone pewter finish and removable doors. Purchase a select triple door dog crate and receive a FREE Crate Training DVD ,too.

Dog Crate Covers on Backorder

lori — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 16:17:57 +0000

Pet Dreams, the supplier of the classic and plush dog cratewear cover sets, presently has many items on backorder. I suppose this is an indication of the popularity of these dog crate covers as there seems to be a continuing problem with item availability, often resulting in extended backorder situations. While selling them so quickly as to not be able to keep up with stock is good for the manufacturer, it tends to put a crimp in my efforts to provide customers with timely delivery of orders and communications in regards to backorders. I attempt to keep the dog crate cover pages up-to-date as to item availability but find it a frustrating process as I often do not know about another item being short until I have attempted to have customer orders delivered. I apologize to customers who have been affected by this and appreciate your understanding in regards to situations that might arise which are out of my control. In the meantime, if there is a particular size/color that you desire which is on backorder you might want to order and wait as orders in-house will be filled before new orders and at this rate new inventory arrivals might only go as far as filling all of the backorders.

Back to the Dog Crate Business

lori — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:58:52 +0000

I never imagined home renovations could be so distracting! My sister and I purchased an old farmhouse and have been renovating since March. This has somewhat distracted me from the website. With funds running low, our renovations have (at least for the present) nearly reached an end so I can get back on track with the business. In the coming weeks expect to see new product additions from Midwest (dog crates and pet beds) and Pet Dreams (dog crate covers and pet beds). I’m also considering aluminum dog crates from another supplier for those of you with pets that are difficult to contain.

Pet Crates Direct is celebrating three years online this week. We have had steady growth and appreciate each new customer who finds their way to us. Thanks for your patronage and the business many of you have sent our way by word-of-mouth. We pledge to continue our “mom and pop” level of customer service and keep our prices competitive with or less than the “big boys”.

As always, your feedback and input is appreciated. Email us anytime - lori@petcratesdirect.com

Lori

Dog Crate Replacement Pans are Non-Returnable

lori — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 16:03:39 +0000

I’d posted this on 3/13 and trying to moderate spam comments, inadvertently deleted it today

Customers I need your help…

Effective 3/13/07 dog crate replacement pans are non-returnable. Please be certain of the crate model and/or pan number that you need for your crate before ordering. The dog crate accessories page lists Midwest crates by model for ease of ordering replacement pans, divider panels and floor grids. Should you not find your crate model listed, you may contact Midwest directly at 1-800-428-8560. They will be happy to help you determine the correct pan number needed for your model. To order by pan number, enter the pan number (example: 10PAN) into the search field available from any page of the Pet Crates Direct website (located in the top blue header portion of page). Search, add to basket and continue to checkout.

Midwest dog crate replacement pans are intended for use with Midwest crates. If you do not have a Midwest crate, you should measure your crate (not the pan). Midwest does not make available a reference to pan size so having your pan measurements will not help. If you find a Midwest crate of the exact same dimensions as your crate, then feasibly ordering a pan for that particular Midwest crate should work. Please note, however, that I do not guarantee a fit to any crate other than those manufactured by Midwest.

The large number of customer pan returns as well as a higher than usual risk of damage in transit has prompted this policy change. I am hopeful this will encourage customers to do their due diligence before ordering pans. I have pan prices set low and would like to keep them low for your benefit. The costs associated with processing returns and dealing with damaged pans has prompted this return policy revision. I have opted to revise the pan policy rather than raise pan prices as I believe that it is possible to get the correct pan the first time with just a little more effort on your part before ordering.

Please note that I have also updated the returns policy to highlight other important information that was being overlooked by customers making returns.

I appreciate your understanding and cooperation in regards to this new policy.

Cat Playpen Model 130 - New Lower Price

lori — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 19:05:04 +0000

New Year - New Price for the model 130 Midwest cat playpen - now only $107.99. And until 1/31 this qualifies for the 5% off coupon (use code save5 during checkout)so buy today and enjoy the new price and extra savings!

Dog Crate Replacement Pans Price Decrease

lori — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 00:57:25 +0000

Usually the new year brings with it product price increases. This year I am happy to report that although some products will have small price increases, dog crate replacement pans have seen a significant price drop. So now you’ll pay more for shipping the pan than the pan itself in most cases. Unfortunately, cost of shipping them can be rather pricey due to box size and of course gound services are implementing their usual new year price increase.

Expect to see prices on chain link kennels increase in the coming weeks as well as the Better Buy Series Dog Crates. Get them now before I get around to changing the prices on the website.

Pet Crates Direct Holiday Sale Coupon

lori — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 17:13:42 +0000

Don’t miss taking advantage of our holiday sale coupon that will save you 5% on any product order. Prices on many items will see an increase with the coming of the new year so purchase now and use coupon code holidaysale06 through 12/31/06 to get your best price.

Happy Holidays!