61 replies to this topic

[cougar]

If you are thinking about buying from iherb.com, be careful and check out their RECENT review. This is something I didn't do and am now regretting. Here is my first experience with iherb.com.
My order was placed on Sep.28,2009 (almost $300). At the time I was placing my order, I was informed that due to their renovating of warehouse, the order would be shipped in 1-3 days. I thought 3 days was OK, I accepted and placed my order. 3 days after I sent an email asked them about my order, I got their reply told my that my order would be shipped out in 1-2 days. I waited for another 5 days and sent them email asking about my order. They replied told my that my order would be shipped "in next a few days". They didn't even say a single "sorry" in their reply. After another 2 days which was 10 days after my placing the order I told them that if they couldn't ship my order within that day I would like to cancel my order. They replied saying that my order would be shipped in one week. Another one week again? I was extremely pissed off. I sent them an email asking them to simply cancel my order, since then I've sent another 3 email asking for the cancellation of the order but I NEVER GOT ANY RESPONSE. In the last email I told them that I was still holding my negative review and hope them not to force me giving out my negative review. No reply, that being said they don't care of negative reviews at all now.
I just checked out their recent reviews, there are tons of extremely negative reviews. I regret that I should have checked these RECENT reviews before I placed my order. I have to say that iherb is not a responsible company and these people are basically the group that are lack of moral. My order has been there for 2 weeks now and I just checked the status, still the desperately "Ready to Ship". Now I just want to cancel my order and buy it from somewhere else but they simply don't respond my email. Can anybody give me any advice on what I can do? Can I call my credit card company for help?

[Blue]

I have never had a problem before with iHerb. But an order I placed on october 5 did not ship until today. That they do not respond to you is really strange. Maybe customer services is simply overwhelmed by complaints for some reason so they cannot answer. It may be that there is something more serious than a " warehouse improvement project" behind this. Like a warehouse fire or something else.

[drmz]

No problems at all for the last 3 years. About 15 orders

[nameless]

I placed a recent order too, and it instead of going out that same day (which is usually how fast they are), it took six days before it was sent out. I chatted with their live support people, who stated it was because they were updating their warehouse/supply software -- I guess the update had some problems.

I suggest you use their live support chatline to go over the problem with them, or call them up. The person I chatted with was really friendly and expedited things for me, so it shipped out the next day. If you decide to keep the order, ask if they'll bump you up to next day shipping or something similar for free, since the order has taken so long.

Edited by nameless, 12 October 2009 - 09:27 PM.

[Blue]

Looking around I see that iHerb is actually quite expensive compared to other resellers for exactly the same product. Sometimes they charge around double the price for Now Foods products which is my usual brand.

[Declmem]

Looking around I see that iHerb is actually quite expensive compared to other resellers for exactly the same product. Sometimes they charge around double the price for Now Foods products which is my usual brand.

Really? I thought they were the cheapest, or near it. I have a few I order from NOW. Where do you shop that its cheaper?

[Blue]

Looking around I see that iHerb is actually quite expensive compared to other resellers for exactly the same product. Sometimes they charge around double the price for Now Foods products which is my usual brand.

Really? I thought they were the cheapest, or near it. I have a few I order from NOW. Where do you shop that its cheaper?

Swanson is one reseller which has many Now products cheaper and should be reliable since some here have used it without complaints. There are many others but I do not know much about them.

[immortali457]

Looking around I see that iHerb is actually quite expensive compared to other resellers for exactly the same product. Sometimes they charge around double the price for Now Foods products which is my usual brand.

Your in the minority fore sure. Most think their prices are better than average and their shipping rates are much better than average.

[nameless]

iHerb isn't always the cheapest. Sometimes Swanson's has cheaper products, sometimes AllStarHealth does... sometimes VitaCost does. But they will pricematch on orders over $60.

Only better deal than iHerb I have found is sometimes VitaminShoppe, when they have their 20% off coupon and then order through FatWallet, and get 8% back on top of that. But that only works if VS has what you actually want, and doesn't charge too much to begin with... which is sometimes rare.

[immortali457]

No need to be careful about iherb.com...great company with great products and great service.

[Blue]

iHerb isn't always the cheapest. Sometimes Swanson's has cheaper products, sometimes AllStarHealth does... sometimes VitaCost does. But they will pricematch on orders over $60.

Only better deal than iHerb I have found is sometimes VitaminShoppe, when they have their 20% off coupon and then order through FatWallet, and get 8% back on top of that. But that only works if VS has what you actually want, and doesn't charge too much to begin with... which is sometimes rare.

Well, they do not pricematch for international customers. They have inexpensive international shipping but so do others like Swanson. If you are domestic customer you must find the better competing price (Only one competitor's website per order) and go through the hassle of contacting them regarding this lower price and get a credit card refund.

Edited by Blue, 12 October 2009 - 09:53 PM.

[nameless]

Well, they do not pricematch for international customers. They have inexpensive international shipping but so do others like Swanson. If you are domestic customer you must find the better competing price (Only one competitor's website per order) and go through the hassle of contacting them regarding this lower price and get a credit card refund.

I don't know about their international policy, so it may be cheaper for you from other places. For Now products, I have found AllStarHealth the cheapest usually, or Swanson's, like you mentioned.

It's a slight hassle of getting a refund, but it's not really a big deal. Just send an email in with website links to other products, and calculate the difference in prices (including discounts iHerb already provides). And they do take more than one competitor website per order, as I've done that before. I've sent in multiple website price matches on a single order -- no problems.

Edited by nameless, 12 October 2009 - 09:59 PM.

[Blue]

Looking around I see that iHerb is actually quite expensive compared to other resellers for exactly the same product. Sometimes they charge around double the price for Now Foods products which is my usual brand.

Your in the minority fore sure. Most think their prices are better than average and their shipping rates are much better than average.

Really? How do you know "most"? Shipping price is good. Generally they seem to be near to the most expensive price of the resellers for those Now Foods products I checked.

[immortali457]

Looking around I see that iHerb is actually quite expensive compared to other resellers for exactly the same product. Sometimes they charge around double the price for Now Foods products which is my usual brand.

Your in the minority fore sure. Most think their prices are better than average and their shipping rates are much better than average.

Really? How do you know "most"? Shipping price is good. Generally they seem to be near to the most expensive price of the resellers for those Now Foods products I checked.

NOW is one brand out of the zillions they sell. Just don't buy from them already.

[Johann]

If you are able to cancel the order somehow maybe through your credit card company, go with Vitacost. I've used them for years and for the most part have been very satisfied. Prices cannot be beat.

For instance, Jarrow CDP Choline at VitaminShoppe.com is $26
Same exact brand and quantity at Vitacost: $16

The only thing I don't like about Vitacost is that they carry a brand (NSI) that labels their products
in a less-than-straightforward way. For example, they would say 500 MG ... 60 capsules on the front of the bottle. Then on the back, it is indicated that one serving is two capsules.

[Lufega]

luckyvitamin.com has better prices than Iherb all around but their customer service is awful. Plus, I like the way I can search for Items and the general layout of the site. I always buy from Iherb. Also, I just placed an order with their warehouse problems and it was shipped within a couple of days. This onetime, an entire order was lost. Seems like UPS delivered to the wrong address. They asked no questions and resent the whole thing. Then again, I've spent thousands of dollars buying from them so I would have been surprised if they gave me hassle.

[cougar]

I always buy from Iherb. Also, I just placed an order with their warehouse problems and it was shipped within a couple of days

You are not the first one who claims no problem with them in recent two weeks. I'm guessing that the iherb.com is utilizing this strategy: Because of their renovating of warehouse and updating of their system, they have very limited resources, however, there are so many orders in their hands, so they give the newest order the highest priority to avoid making new customers unhappy. For customers like myself who have been extremely frustrated, the chance is that they would never order from iherb.com in the future thus they no longer care about these angry customers and put their orders to lowest priority. This is unfair to the customers who have been waiting for the shipment of their orders for two weeks.

No need to be careful about iherb.com...great company with great products and great service.

I remember reading from somewhere saying that when iherb is working, everything is fine, but when something went wrong, you are done. I'm just telling everybody my terrible experience with iherb.com, if you don't believe, fine, go ahead buying from them.

[cougar]

Guys, thank you for your advices. Here is the update regarding my order:

About an hour after I posted my complaint here. I got an email from iherb saying that my order has been shipped out today. Actually, I felt so surprised because I didn't expect that my order could be shipped so "FAST", I told myself 100 times that the best thing I could do was to forget about this order completely. However, I'm still not happy because I paid for the fastest shipping for which I was supposed to get my stuff the second day not the 16th day.
Even more interesting thing is, since I got their Notice of Shipment email as the response of my cancellation request of my order, I got their email about every 30 minutes, now I've got a total of 12 emails from them in a few hours, all these emails are EXACTLY the same, telling me my order has been shipped out and giving me the tracking number. no more and no less. This is really funny isn't it?

Edited by cougar, 13 October 2009 - 01:13 AM.

[rwac]

Maybe it's just coincidence, but I imagine they keep track of references to iherb.com on the web.

Perhaps with google alert or something similar. Or maybe they read ImmInst...

[hamishm00]

Iherb are brilliant.

They have had glitches in the last year or so, but they are the best at what they do, in my opinion.

[drmz]

Iherb are brilliant.

They have had glitches in the last year or so, but they are the best at what they do, in my opinion.

I agree. Shipping prices to EU are also awsome. Almost for nothing. Too bad they don't sell AOR though, i refuse to buy this at relentlessimprovement or uniquenutrition. (other cheap sources maybe??)

[Saber]

I had some problems with them delaying the refund for a bottle of Omega 3 fish oil that melted during transit. They kept promising the refund for 2 weeks but it never did went through.
The problem was finally resolved after I sent them a serious email.
Not enough for me to shy completely away but I'll start looking around at other websites from now on.
Let's see if they can get their act together. I do enjoy shopping at their site so far.

[cougar]

OK, here is the final update:

Last night after my last post on this forum, I was still receiving duplicated Notice of Shipment email from iherb until around 10:19PM, I received a total of 16 duplicated email from them. Crazy isn't it?
From this morning I was checking my packet on UPS site every hour and always got the message ">>> UPS could not locate the shipment details for your request. Please verify your information and try again later". This afternoon which was 24 hours after they shipped my order, I checked again and still got the same message. I sent an email to iherb asking about it. This time they replied pretty fast, they told me it could be that the UPS didn't scan the packet properly. 30 minutes later, UPS delivered the packet to my door. Crazy!
I checked the packet, nothing missed out. OK, done!
Again, guys, thanks a lot for your advices and hope you won't have this kind of difficult time shopping online.

[Chaos Theory]

Since becoming more interested in general health than bodybuilding iherb has turned into my regular supplement source. Their prices and selection are good and I have no complaints about the free shipping either. Their speed is lacking though. It usually takes at least a week from the time I order something until it arrives at my door. The bodybuilding oriented websites used to have the packages at my door within three business days.

With regards to the recent Iherb delays, to be fair they did say when I placed my recent order on Oct. 4th that due to the warehouse upgrades the package may be delayed 6 days. It left their warehouse on Oct. 11th and there was a holiday.

[Declmem]

Since becoming more interested in general health than bodybuilding iherb has turned into my regular supplement source. Their prices and selection are good and I have no complaints about the free shipping either. Their speed is lacking though. It usually takes at least a week from the time I order something until it arrives at my door. The bodybuilding oriented websites used to have the packages at my door within three business days.

With regards to the recent Iherb delays, to be fair they did say when I placed my recent order on Oct. 4th that due to the warehouse upgrades the package may be delayed 6 days. It left their warehouse on Oct. 11th and there was a holiday.

Oddly, their UPS (free) shipping seems to take a LOT longer than the postal service for iHerb. Sometimes if I want my package sooner I'll pass on the free shipping option and just pay for USPS service.

Using their free shipping it takes 1-2 weeks to get to me. Only takes 3-4 days when using USPS.

[smithx]

iHerb also gives quite a big discount if you become a regular customer and order a lot at one time.

For instance, I get 10% off everything, 12% off orders over $120, 14% off orders over $240, and 16% off orders over $480.

Then again, I order probably at least $200/mo from them.

By the way, someone posted that their prices weren't the best, but after the discounts they usually are.

Jarrow Formulas, Citicoline, Cognizin CDP Choline is $17.97 at iHerb
http://www.iherb.com...psules/112?at=0
and $16.22 at Vitacost
http://www.vitacost......20CDP Choline

But after the 10% minimum discount I get at iHerb, it's $16.17, and if it's part of a larger order it's even cheaper.

Edited by smithx, 14 October 2009 - 10:24 PM.

[lbarber4]

I have never had a problem before with iHerb. But an order I placed on october 5 did not ship until today. That they do not respond to you is really strange. Maybe customer services is simply overwhelmed by complaints for some reason so they cannot answer. It may be that there is something more serious than a " warehouse improvement project" behind this. Like a warehouse fire or something else.

Iherb sent out an Email and has it posted on the website stating their may be a delay in shipping right now because they've been installing a few major upgrades in their warehouse operations over the past couple of weeks.

I've ordered from their tons of times and have never had experienced any problems in regards to shipping or customer service. Living in Alaska, it comes out cheaper to order most of my products from their due to the added discounts and cheap shipping.

Edited by lbarber4, 14 October 2009 - 10:50 PM.

[pycnogenol]

Their speed is lacking though.
It usually takes at least a week from the time I order something until it arrives at my door.

For speed, consider selecting the Next Day shipping option. Yes, more $$$ but well worth it to me. All my iHerb packages now arrive before 10:30 AM.

[mitkat]

Reasonably quick and reliable shipping to Canada, my most recent order got sent out in a few days just as usual...I've used them about 8 or 9 times

[ajnast4r]

fluke.

i've been using iherb almost exclusively for 5 or so years... there prices are great and almost always the cheapest + they price match + they give discounts to regular customers. i believe i get 10% off every order and most every order is shipped free. i've NEVER had an order take more than 2-3 days to arrive with their standard shipping, nor have i ever had a single flaw with an order.

iherb is the best