Vitacost.com
reviews and complaints

I have been a customer of Vitacost since the late 90's and until Kroger
bought them out have been very pleased. However, since the purchase the packing department has done an incredibly poor job packing the shipping boxes. You are no longer using the heavy brown packing tape on top and bottom. As a result, one order arrived completely opened. The top had one layer of cheap plastic tape. The second order arrived with cracked juice bottles that damaged all the items in the box and damaged the grout in our hallway. It also had no proper shipping packaging on the out side and the juice bottles were poorly packed on the inside.

I have been using Vitacost for seven or more years and been very happy. But the past two years have been a nightmare. Their 'discounts' have so many restrictions there is almost no way to make an order that you actually need that qualifies for any discount.
Last month i placed an order because there was a $30 coupon for future purchase. The order had to be over $100 to qualify, which mine was. They said they notified me on July 29 and in there it said i could buy something with the coupon from August 4 to 6th i believe it was. I have searched all over for that email. I get nearly three emails from vitacost every day. So this tiny window of time to purchase something that i have no record of the notifying me is a real gripe. I can get many of the things i had on that order at Amazon or vitaminshoppe, but i decided to give vitacost one more chance.
THERE IS NO WAY I WILL EVER PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM VITACOST AGAIN.

Hi- just received the order above. The cranberry juice concentrate leaked onto the packaging, making me very leery to use the product. I appreciate Vitacost and do a lot of my online supplement business with you guys. I need this product, and if possible I'd like to get a replacement instead of a refund. See attached photos. Thank you. May 17, 2019

This is not a complaint. Today I received the rao's sauce I ordered. Because of poor packing 2 (two) of the jars were absolutely smashed. T was obviously a poor job by choy n. And not the fault of the carrier. The box was about twice the size needed. Although all were wrapped before placing in a plastic bag, they were placed directly in the bottom of the box without any cushion underneath. On top massive cushion of heavy brown paper that protected from shock, nothing on the bottom! For many, many year I managed a group of stores in palm beach and bal harbour. Virtually everything was shipped: I even helped ups get government approval for interstate delivery service. I would like a replacement of the two destroyed jars of sauce, (still think the world of vitacost and the incident will not change that, real quality) thank you! Jim rodgers

They charged me 18 times for an order instead of one. They tried to blame PayPal and said they didn't have my money. I've spent over 6 hours now dealing with various customer service reps and still do not have my money back! I'm filing with the BBB next but will never purchase from them again! They continued to tell me they will get me my money returned and are blaming PayPal.

I was double charged for a purchase I made. What's extra weird about this is that the second charge showed up a day after the first charge did. When I called Vitacost, they couldn't even give me a time frame on when I could get my refund because many people were double charged. Because of being charged twice, it made my bank account balance go negative. I used to be a loyal customer, but I will never shop there again.

Shipment arrived today. Glass bottle pills were in was shattered. $36.00 dollar bottle of pills unusable because of the broken glass. I would really like you to send a replacement. Order number [protected]. Order date 1/31/2019 pick ticket #[protected]. Container is [protected] shipping from Nevada. [protected]@hotmail.com shipped to Elissa Rush. 6311 Comstock ave apt b Whittier can 90601

I purchased 5 bags of cereal from www.vitacost.com and paid for all 5.
One week passed and I received a notification from them saying that they had only 4 bags left in stock and asked me to contact them as soon as possible. I sent them a message but they did not reply. Then I went to their website, found their phone number and called. Their rep said that they will ship me 4 bags and give me a refund for the fifth bag. Seemed like a great deal and I agreed. I received 4 bags of cereal but they did not keep their promise about my refund. I'm very disappointed with Vitacost.

I tried to change the arrival date of my package. I spent an hour trying to get through to the Shipper who could not help me. I spent over an hour between two different Vitacost chat representatives who both assured me the package would be rerouted back to them and my money refunded.

This never happened and the shipper left the package in the parking lot of a different building. Vitacost customer service never got back to me even after leaving multiple emails and speaking with multiple customer service representatives. What a waste of hours of my time.

Order #: [protected]
Order Date: April 20, 2016

I made the mistake of ordering from you, resulting in you spamming me incessantly, relentlessly, despite unsubscribing over and over and even getting a response from a customer service rep promising he removed my address from your records. I'm still being spammed daily, so he's either completely inept or a downright liar. I'm reporting your spam practices on every consumer affairs site I can find, and -- big surprise -- every site I find, you guys are already listed as one of the most obnoxious online sellers that exist. You seriously think force-feeding emails will get people to buy from you? Don't email me anything ever again.

Vitacost allows you to charge under one billing name and send it to another online. There are ridiculous amount of complaints online in regard to them. I had multiple fraudulent transactions in a week from them. It took 8 hours on the phone over the course of 3 days, just to confirm my name/credit card was charged. They were only able to tell me that the account is set up in a completely name with a different address, than my personal information. Their customer service was awful, I cannot believe they are still in business.

I requested to talk to a manager and the representative on the phone resisted multiple times. Finally after being on the phone for over an hour, I just repeated I would only talk to a manager now. I was finally able to speak to one. The manager could at least properly articulate full sentence, but was resistant to confirm any information. I had a fraud case eventually set up, but they were not able to give me a case number. They said one would be assigned within 24 hours, which sounds reasonable. I called back multiple times over the next 2-3 days and no one could help me or give me a number.

I informed my credit card company of the fraudulent activity. They tried to contact Vitacost who refuses to respond. Vitacost is trying to avoid the responsibility of paying back the money they owe.
They refuse to answer my credit card company's fraud report.

I am consumer of Brazil. Realized Vitacost purchase on site and have not had the product received after 60 days of waiting.
I've sent millions of e-mails and so far nothing.
I demand the product in my house as soon as possible.
my other email: [censored]nercg.cardoso @ hotmail.com.

Thanks.

they may have low prices but i get a slew of deceptive and outright lying 'coupons' and 'codes' in my email and on their website. they refer to discount that are legalistically worded to suggest savings and discounts, and then when you are done with your purchase, you realize most of what you were lead to believe is EXCLUDED!

my latest experience was on the webiste it said $10 off on orders of $50 or more of vitacost products...most people would assume that items bought on the website would qualify as this is vitacost...but no.

you needed to purchase actual vitacost 'BRANDED' products...of course their offer didn't state the word brand or branded...so after adding things to my order to hit over $50, it wouldn't take. assuming their customer service would apply the discount after the purchase, that it was a failure of the website, i made the purchase anyway.

of course their customer service said they meant vitacost BRAND products even though their ad didn't say that...so for $10 they had about 4 agents message me that they wouldn't give me a discount.

i don't care what the prices are, when a website uses deceptive or borderline deceptive advertising practices to bump an order, and then spend voluminous amount of customer rep time to back up the deception, they have not only lost a customer, but gained someone who will spread the word about their deception and anti-customer practices.

I have ordered from Vitacost for quite some time and of lately they are changing in not a good way. When I ordered in April 2013 with my debit card I came to the rude awakening that they now have a practice of putting a hold on the amount of money needed to pay for the order. This would be fine if the hold is JUST for the amount they need. NOT! They then take the money out of the account and don't let go of the held amount for up to 5 days! IN other words they tie up twice the amount of money than they need. This horrible practice bumped off the payment of my auto insurance which I tried to pay the same day after placing my order but I did not know until my auto insurance company notified me of insufficient funds. Consequently, I got stuck having to travel the next day 325 miles with no auto insurance because of this. They do not put a warning at the check-out on line that they do this...it is only in their help questions that no one would know about until you call and Vitacost informs you where they hide this information. I warn anyone to not use a debit card if they have limited funds and only use a credit card. Also, they now have a new practice of having to buy two or more of products that used to be that you could buy one only. This does not work for single persons or people who just do not use so much of some items. It seems to be aimed at big families that have an abundance of money. More and more things are you HAVE to buy 2 or more. I am looking at sending my business elsewhere whenever possible. Unfortunately, I still have to get some items from them due to the isolated area in which I live.

On the website shipping information provided that the DHL Global

Estimated delivery in 8-20 business days
No tracking

DHL Priority

Estimated delivery in 5-10 business days
No tracking

But when I select DHL Priority and pay extra, it turn out that the shipping was even slower then DHL global, talk to the customer service and they denied all responsibilities and saying they have no control once the item left the facility.

Buyer beware
I've been a long time customer, and been happy until today.

They sent an email soliciting a "be well box", sort of a grab bag, for $13.99 that was worth up to $70.

Based on their own website, the value of the products was worth $7.75. And they refuse to give a refund.

They say it is "worth up to $70" not "worth $70". And even at worth about half of what they charge, they stand behind their grand lie.

Liar liar pants on fire.

It took 1 month and half already and shipment still has not arrived yet.
when i ordered from iherb.com, it took only 4 days to arrive with fee shipping. Vitacost charged me more than 60USD. Vitacost's prices are little less than iherb.com but it ends up with much more expensive.
Some of products had been confiscated at custom and they refused to refund money even only for this product. they did not even want to pay shipping cost both way. Customer need to take all risks. Customer service are the worst as well. He pretended that he could not understand what i wrote and kept ignoring my question. i had same situation with iherb.com but they refund it right way. iherb.com is best. it's better not to buy from vitacost.com worst company ever!

iherb.comとvitacostの比較ですが、Vitacostは送料がものすごく高く、結局、かなり割高になる。発送日時はiherb.comが４日にたいして、vitacostは１ヶ月半かかってもまだ到着しない。ありえない。ワシントン条約規制のモノも入っているため、税関で没収になるものも結構ある。没収になっても返金してくれないし、送り返す発送料金もこちらに押し付けてくる。全部リスクは顧客持ちになる。カスタマーサービスも言っているのを理解していないふりで質問に答えてくれない。vitacostからの購入はおすすめ出来ないです。

I wouldn't recommend anyone to shop in this website. Order was cancelled on 10/31/2012. Sent me a letter saying that my credit would not be charged, but still charged my card on 11/5/2012. Transaction went through. Called them a thousand time and they said that it was an authorization hold and they never charged me. Said that they were willing to call the bank with me but then I had to provide them with a direct line to the bank. Where on earth do I find a direct bank phone line! I called the bank and the bank verified that the transaction went though and I filed a claimed with b of a. I contacted vitacost to tell them that my card was being charged that it WASN'T an authorization. They replied me that they are sorry that the bank gave me the wrong information (they said it twice, still didn't admit that it was their fault) and said that they do not hold any responsibility on that. Can you believe that? This company never admits its fault and doesn't have any responsibility. I will never shop here again...and good luck to you guys! Less

"ABSOLUTE CRAP! Do not use this company! Got a $10 discount coupon, so ordered items totalling to $19 without discount. So with discount a total of $9. Butt evidently the company decided not to honour and circumvent the discount because they probably thought I was too far away and not worth the shipping cost (in astralia). Here are the order of events which happened:

1. Placed order total $9 for 2 items.
2. Got a cancellation email even though they charged me $6.98
3. After I lodged a paypal dispute, they sent me a shipping notice email but on there stated only one item shipped (the two items were dependent on each other so they shipped me the refill item and not the item which is reqiured to be refilled - essentially useless to me!)
4. THEN was charged another $11 on top of the $6.98!
5. I lodged a charge non-authorisation through Paypal
6. They reversed the $11 charge but the $6.98 charge still remained
7. STILL awaiting product they charged for and APPARENTLY shipped (no tracking) to arrive after 22 days.

Moral of the story, I will continue to pursue Paypal dispute for the $6.98 if I dont received the product. If I do receive the half of the order, it is useless to me without the other half which they knew because its a refill, and I will still be unsatisfied!

NEVER again with this company! They suck! I would rate them ZERO stars if I could!"

Hello, I have two opens orders with Vitacost

At the site Vitacost in this http://www.vitacost.com/International-Shipping # FAQIntl4 written the following: "*Due to Brazilian customs delays affecting e-commerce companies worldwide, Vitacost will be temporarily discontinuing delivery to Brazil. We will resume service once we are confident that our packages will reach our Brazilian customers in a reasonable time frame.
If you have already placed an order with us for shipment to Brazil, your package is currently in transit. Please allow 90 days for your package to arrive to you."

After waiting 90 days I contacted Vitacost, I received the following answer: "Thank you for contacting Vitacost.com. I want to apologize for any and all inconvenience. Unfortunately your orders has exceeded our 60 day limit for a replacement or refund. For Future orders, please contact us within 60 days of ordering if you are needing to inquire about an order. Thank you for contacting Vitacost.com."

I await a solution!