Vitacost

I placed my order on Monday, November 19th at 4:00 pm, and by 10:30 am Tuesday, November 20th my order was at my front door. It traveled from Lexington, N.C. to Richmond, Va. -- a distance of 245 miles in 18.5 hours. The packaging was perfect; everything was carefully arranged in little bags, and/or within sanctioned cardboard protectors. As an environmentalist, I actually think the Vitacost may be too careful (but, I do save and reuse all of their packaging). I give them an A+ for excellent service. I am writing because I do not understand any negative ratings others may have given. I know from working in a service industry myself, that some people can never be pleased. They were born to complain, and they will expire that way.

This is a trustworthy company. They do not resell brands that are not authentic. You can count on getting the product you ordered and the companies providing them to this company are confident. They are represented accurately. This is unlike some other online offerings. I have only had one situation where an item had a problem that stemmed from the manufacturer. They were considerate, caring and immediately sent out a replacement. I mean immediately, I could not believe it.

I have been buying from Vitacost many years and have always been happy with the products and service. There are good promotions and coupons available. I live in CA so my orders typically arrive in 1 day. The orders come with the courier OnTrac and they deliver the boxes up a steep driveway to my door, very nice! Occasionally an item arrives damaged and Vitacost replaces or refunds it as soon as I inform them. I am surprised to see the negative reviews, but no company is perfect. I noticed one complaint was regarding the CA Prop 65 warning that appeared "only" on Vitacost products. I wanted to point out this warning shows up on many name brand products I buy, such as NOW Foods and others.

First, the good: Competitive pricing. 2-day shipping from order to door. Spectacular deals if you sign up for their weekly newsletters. Some deals as much as $10 off any order or 30% off. Second, the bad: all the Vitacost products (at least for me) didn't work. I tried other brands and most had worked. Last, the ugly: Several Vitacost brand products were prompted the Proposition 65 warning during checkout, but other brands didn't. Again... avoid the Vitacost brand products. Other than that, as long as you're not buying Vitacost brand products, VitaCost is a great site for your supplements needs. Takeaway #1: Avoid Vitacost brand products. Takeaway #2: Sign up for their newsletter, and you will receive weekly offers.

I recently made my first purchase on Vitacost.com, and it was truly the best decision I made. Healthy foods can be SO expensive, especially at the health food stores in my area. Therefore, the wide variety of products, the prices, and the coupons available on Vitacost really drew me in. I am shocked by all of the negative reviews because my experience was the complete opposite. I ordered quite a few items late on Tuesday night, and my box arrived on Thursday!!! I was in awe!!! I was also very impressed with how my items were packaged. Sturdy box, taped up well, no spills, and fantastic organization inside the box. I could not be happier. I am hopeful I will continue to have great experiences with Vitacost, and will order from them again, without a doubt!!!

We have repeatedly received boxes from Vitacost that have product randomly and carelessly thrown into the box. Their customer service specializes in giving a hassle rather than correcting mistakes. I am sure they are aware of how terrible their warehouse packers are~~their way to deal with it is to deny refunds even when pictures are sent. They've had 3 strikes from us--they are out!

I have ordered from Vitacost several times, but this is the first time I have had a problem. Many of the capsules are less than half full! I submitted a review on the Vitacost website, complete with pictures, and received an email that it was sent for moderation. That was a month ago, and the review was never posted, nor was I ever contacted by the company about this obvious lack of quality control. A reputable company would not want to lose a customer and would value feedback that highlights an issue, but I now realize that Vitacost simply doesn't care, and will not publish an excessive number of bad reviews of their products. These are NOT CHEAP! A bottle costs $24.86, so over 10 cents per capsule. When one takes into account that as many as half of the capsules are half full or less, the price becomes exceedingly high! Not to mention that you cannot get a standardized dose of the product when the quality is so poor.

I recently placed an order with Swanson Vitamins and I just got curious to find out if Vitacost had cleaned up their act, so I checked out the reviews and it is clear that they haven't. A few years ago I got sucked in by their lower prices, so I placed a large order with them, over $600 worth. Although my credit card was billed for the total amount, I received only part of my order. I kept emailing customer service but they didn't reply to the majority of my emails, at some point they sent me another incomplete portion of my order, and then they never replied to my emails again. In the end I lost about $120, which was about 20% of the total amount. Pretty lucrative business. They are an extremely dishonest business, anyone will be better off staying away from them!

Every time I order from Vitacost, the next day they send me an email offering 20% off if I place an order within a 3 day window. At first I was always thinking that if I had just waited one more day I would have gotten those emails and the discount. Now I realize that it is predictable and deliberate, and only designed to get a big spender to order even more. After yesterday's order and today's email discount, I contacted them but was not able to get a price adjustment on yesterday's order even though it hasn't even been processed or shipped. The customer assistance associate said he "understood my complaint and was there anything else he could help me with"? Except he hadn't helped with anything at all. My advice is only order from this company if you want to feel like you missed out on something every time you order.

I found Vitacost approximately 25 years ago. They had the very best (lowest) prices across the board. I recommended them to all of my friends. I did my research to find out how they had a good rating from ConsumerLab.com. They are in the top ten of "top-rated supplement merchants" per "overall consumer satisfaction". BUT...as the years passed by their prices no longer were the best. Their customer service was never good with accurate information that was offered was never consistent.