Customer Reviews

Home Again Pet-Tracking Microchip Implant Kit for Administration by Veterinarian

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I have both of my dogs microchipped with HomeAgain chips. Home Again charges a yearly fee instead of a 1 time database registration fee. The reason for this yearly fee is the "Help" they supposedly give you to locate your pet when it goes missing. In theory that sounds great but in reality not so. One of my dogs went missing while traveling in Arkansas. I immediately reported the dog missing to Home Again and gave them specific information on where the dog went missing. They generated the lost dog poster/flyer and it correctly stated where the dog went missing. After looking up their lost pet app for apple my dog was not listed as missing. Consequently, I started asking questions and wanted a list of the vets they contacted on my behalf. They apparently do not have access to this information in the call center. Several days later I received a list and they contacted 30+ vets etc in Georgia(home). Basically, none of the additional services did me any good in my search for my lost pet. You can have you pet microchipped with a HomeAgain chip but I would not pay the yearly subscription fees for the service. Instead register the chip with one of the other databases (they are all linked now). I like the AKC CAR database. $15 one time fee as long as you own the dog.

BTW - our pet returned home on her own approx 24 hours after she disappeared. :)

As a breeder of AKC Registered Labrador Retrievers I always recommend a microchip for puppies as wells as adult dogs. Home Again offers a great product but it is not mandatory to register the microchip with them. I register my Labrador Retrievers microchips with AKC CAR (American Kennel Club Companion Animal Recovery). AKC CAR offers registration of ANY brand microchip for a lifetime fee of $17.50 online - there is no recurring annual fee. Any any breed dog or cross bred dog can is eligible - the dog/puppy does not have to be AKC Registered. Their purpose is to help return a lost pet home. My Labrador Retrievers are all microchipped with Home Again brand microchips but are registered through AKC CAR.

A microchip for a dog/puppy is very much like a social security number for humans - it is unique and not numerically duplicated. Almost every Animal Control/Dog Pound has scanners to check a microchip in a national registry. Once reported, the owner is immediately notified of the recovery. A microchip is not for GPS tracking. A scanner is necessary to read the chip. In the event of the sale or transfer of ownership of the dog/puppy - the microchip registration is transferable.

There is a specific manner and location for microchip implanting. Veterinarian's are trained professionals and implant the microchip without any damage to the dog/puppy. The implantation is below the skin and care must be executed not to implant the microchip in a vein or blood vessel.

I recommend the Home Again Microchip with the AKC CAR Registration. You can find more information on AKC CAR at [...]

I agree, very deceptive sales tactics. It just didn't seem correct when I read that I had to pay for an annual membership to a service that really does nothing but record your pet. After asking a number of friends they all were surprised by the recurring fee requirement as they did not have such a fee. I finally found this post warning that it is not required to continue the membership. It does appear that one must take an extra step to cancel the subscription, otherwise, HomeAgain will automatically charge your credit card next year.

Go to the ACKCar.org website to register. Give them the extra 1.50 ($17.50 registration fee). I just don't trust a business that has to trick you into buying their services.

The chip is fine, but as others have mentioned, Home Alone's business practices to pet owners is extremely deceptive, right down to the registration form that comes with the chip. They make it seem you have to subscribe to a yearly membership for your chip to be registered, but that is not the case at all.

After your vet or shelter inserts the chip they will give you the registration form so that you can contact HomeAlone to register that chip to you. On the form there is one check box next to the credit card information you would enter. The box says "yes, $16.99 yearly home alone membership", and with no other checkbox it is not intuitive to know that there is an option not to check it in order for them to process the credit card for the 1 time fee. And same goes for the website, good luck finding the one sentence they've hidden in the site that states you do not need to sign up for the "membership". It's not in the FAQ section, that's for sure. In the FAQ section they make it seem like the yearly fee is the only option. I had to actually CALL to find out if the yearly fee was necessary. And it's not like pet owners actively seek out the HA chip and registration card, it is given to them by the vet or shelter. I was on their facebook page and i mentioned it, so many of their FB members could not believe they did not have to pay the yearly fee, they were very upset. Imo, Home Alone owes a lot of people a whole lot of money.

If you look carefully at the HomeAgain form, you don't HAVE to check that you want to enroll in their "Network membership". Which is where they will notify shelters and vets in your area if you call and say your pet is lost. You don't HAVE to fill in the grey payment areas at the bottom of the form. The form is deceptive in that it doesn't separate the two things you can do with it.

Just fill in your name, address and phone number and mail it in with a check for $16.99.

From a FAQ on homeagain's web site (google some of the text to find it):
"Once entered in the HomeAgain database, microchips are registered for life, whether or not pet owners renew their annual memberships, and contact information may be updated online anytime free of charge by logging into HomeAgain."

We microchipped our dog through our vet about 4 years ago. Some of the reviews on here are inaccurate. You pay a one-time fee to Home Again to activate your membership. You are not required to pay every year to keep your pet in their system. As long as you keep your contact information up-to-date, they will contact you if your pet is located. They have a separate option that you can subscribe to annually that provides additional measures for you to locate your pet if they are lost or stolen, such as printing lost fliers with your pet's photo. I've always been very pleased with their customer service as well. They are very professional and knowledgeable.

The chip is fine. Veterinarian inserted it with no issues. You will have to pay another $16.99 to Home Again to register the chip and enroll in their "premium service" for one year. After registering you can immediately unsubscribe from auto renewal for the premium service, but there appears to be no way around paying for a year of premium to get the chip registered with Home Again. I would say Home Again is deceptive as they really push the yearly enrollment w/o listing the basic option, and would have registered with the AKC service (also about $17, but for life) if I hadn't already had pets enrolled with Home Again and if my pets weren't cats (AKC will register any pet but it just seemed odd).

We just bought a dog that had been chipped. All I can tell you is that I registered the chip with HomeAgain. Then I got an email telling me that I need to register my dog. It had the right email (came to me), had the right name for the dog but a completely different chip number. I contacted HomeAgain and the customer service person didn't seem surprised or overly concerned. I called the pet store where I bought the dog. The owner talked to the owner of HomeAgain and was assured that it was just a 'glitch' and it had been corrected.

Folks, tying your pets microchip number to you is the only reason for their existence. If they can't do that, they are useless.

The chips are probably fine but their software is apparently buggy and can't be trusted. When our puppy is neutered, we will have this chip removed and an AVID chip implanted.

If I could give this product a 0 star rating, I would.

We have two different pet rescue companies with microchips in our pets, one of which is Home Again. I won't mention the other company's name, but SPCA put their microchip in our dogs and cats when we either adopted them from SPCA or had them neutered there. I can't believe the SPCA used a company that is so bad. I don't want to put two chips in my cats and dogs, so Home AGain let us register the pets with the other company's chips and numbers on Home Agains's service.

The "other company" doesn't consistently answer their phone. Once our dog was lost, and was only found because the vet had his phone number on the rabies tag. The man who found our dog couldn't get an answer when he called the "other company," so he called our vet instead.

We called the "other company" to RENEW our membership, since our dog is an escape artist and we need a retrieval services. They NEVER answered the phone.

Another time, we called the "other company" and were put on hold for a very long time. When we finally got an operator, the guy had no idea what to do and told us to call the vet and the other company (Home Again)!!!

We now only use Home Again on all of our new pets. They may occasionally take a minute to answer, but they have called us several times when our pet got out, twice before we knew he was missing.

You do not have to pay yearly renewal fees. One year we didn't renew and they called us anyway.

This company is the best we have found.

The main thing is we want our dogs back, and HOME AGAIN has always done a great job to this end. They have good customer service; sometimes fantastic, sometimes just good.

BOTTOM LINE: HOME AGAIN has successfully accomplished the job--bringing our lost pets home-- many times.

We are very pleased with their service and highly recommend them.

I like "Home Again" chip makers and their services. I have 2 other pets that were chipped with "Home Again" micro-chip, so it was no brainier to get our new 4-legged family member get the same chip. Buying it from Amazon is about 1/2 the price than getting the same chip anywhere else. My vet injected the micro-chip for free during regular visit. You can also do the "chipping" procedure yourself if you have experience with sub-cutaneous injections.