Jon wants the readers of Consumerist to know about the excellent experience he has had with Automated Pet Care Products, makers of the super-cool Litter Robot, which looks like a space station but actually eliminates the need for cat owners to scoop litter.

My girlfriend and I bought a litter robot from Automated Pet Care Products in June of this year and it is an amazing product (no more scooping!) Unfortunately, last week our litter robot stopped turning on and was dead. We emailed Automated Pet Care Products explaining our situation and a very nice rep named Mickey gave us some ideas to diagnose what was wrong, eventually we discovered our circuit board was the most likely culprit and she UPS’ed us a replacement. This in itself seemed generous because a new board is $50, and the reason it would be fried is because our cat sometimes missed and pee’d on the base (fixed by installing a guard made by the Litter Robot people).

We received the replacement board in the mail a few days later, but even with the new board the Litter Robot refused to turn on. Another email to Mickey and she is sending us a complete replacement base (which houses the motor and internals) free of charge! Here is the email from Mickey:

I have a new base on the way along with a power supply. I have both being sent to cover the basis : )

You will see us in a few days. We would like to pickup up the original base for evaluation, please follow the instructions below for the return of that.

Have a great weekend
We have ordered a new replacement XXXX to be sent you due to the issue you are experiencing.

In this case we would like to get the old XXXX back for evaluation. When you receive the replacement unit please use the same packaging for boxing up the old unit. Please write the following on the box:

Automated Pet Care Products, Inc.
561 S. Fairfield Ave
Juneau, WI 53039

Attn: Exchanges Dept.

When the box is ready to ship please contact us so that we may issue a call tag for UPS to pick up. Please give us one day’s notice as to when the box will be left out or available for pick up. Ups will have all the necessary labels and addresses with them when they arrive. Thank you.

Litter Robot Customer Service Team

Sincerely,

Mickey

Needless to say, we are extremely pleased with the way they have handled the entire warranty process. Unlike most companies which expect the consumer to pay for shipping and wait for them to repair it, they are sending us a new base before we have to send our old one back. I thought the readers of the consumerist should know, plus all their products are made in the U.S. They have a new customer for life.

Well, how long would you want to be without your litterbox? Not very.

(Photo: peyri)

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