"I was a little leery of ordering from iherb.com, because of the scattered bad reviews I've seen on this site and others. However, given the significant price advantage they had versus other sites for what I was ordering (cereal), I decided to take a gamble.
I placed my order on Tuesday night, they emailed me to let me know my package had shipped Wednesday morning, and I received it Friday (UPS Ground). Flawless. They even threw in a sample size jar of jam and a sample of cocoa."
"It's now been 4 weeks and my order hasn't arrived. Their customer service is useless, I get the same form email as a reply every time I write to them. I would not recommend this company to anyone."
"15 April 2011
My 'lost' order from 28th Feb has finally arrived. My apologies to iHerb for the previous comment. Nonetheless, their customer service could have been more customer-focused... Otherwise, excellent product range and quality, shipping packaging and feedback system. Will keep ordering from them until their competitors have offered competitive shipping rates.
OLDER POST
I have been waiting for one of my orders worth $54 for 6 weeks (!) now. Even for delivery to Australia it's way too long. I sent them an email asking about the order but they didn't respond.
I have made 13 orders from iHerb in the last 4 months, and totally loved their products and shipping rates. However, I won't recommend iHerb to anyone anymore. Too unreliable.
The person who said that negative comments were made by iHerb's competitors was talking [nonsense]. They praise iHerb just to make you use their discount coupon. You can use mine instead (YUC109) if you are not afraid to buy from them... :-/"
"I just order with iherb and got a funny email together with my order confirmation. iherb is asking me to send a copy (back and front) of my bank card together with an electricty/water bill to be sure that international customers, who are using iherb the first time, are the 'genuine' owner of the credit card. This is against all security measure. Sounds more like a scam!! And after reading all the negative reviews and getting worried to have order with iherb. I am considering to cancel my order/bank card."
"It has been 6 weeks since I placed an order with them...and never again. Below is the email they sent me as an explanation.
Dear Customer,
International mail postal service tracking numbers are not trackable – they are only a reference number.
(This service is also sometimes known as DHL Global.)
We apologize for the unusual delay in receiving your order. Unfortunately since International Airmail packages are not trackable we are unable to see the current status of your package. It is very possible that your package has been delayed by customs, had unforeseen issues with your postal service, or has even been returned to us due to a problem with delivery. It is not unheard of for a package to take as much as 6 weeks to be delivered. We thank you for your patience.
Please understand that this package is NOT insured.
Thank you for your patience and understanding and for shopping with us!"
"This is my first time ordering from Iherb.com and this will be my last. I placed an order last Sunday and just checked my order tracking and it is not to arrive until the following Monday (A total of 8 days!). If you don't mind waiting for a LONG time for your items, I urge you not to buy from this merchant!"
"THIS IS A SCAM WEBSITE...I SPENT ALOT OF MONEY AND NEVER RECEIVED ITEMS FROM THEM AND I LIVE IN LONDON NOTHING WRONG WITH POSTAL SERVICES. THEY JUST IGNORED MY EMAILS BUT ENJOYED RIPPING ME OFF...NEVER AGAIN USE OTHER VITAMIN ONLINE STORES... I BET THE GOOD REVIEWS ARE WRITTEN BY THEM SELVES"
"Do not get fooled by the positive feedbacks as i did. I got fooled by the positive feedbacks and ignored the negative. just bought a bottle of Galantamind and Choline both fake, they do absoloutly nothing, seller does not respond. Im pretty sure the positive feedbacks are dodgey as the seller seems very dodgey if you read the negatives. Absoloutly disgusted after spending $80 for fake pills"
"This is a really excellent site, and a good company. They have consistently low prices, usually the best or close to the best. They offer an additional discount for frequent buyers, which, while not as generous as in previous years, is still a good deal. Shipping for orders about $40 is free, and you can upgrade to faster shipping at very reasonable cost.
I have had problems with them shipping canned goods, where the cans arrived dented, or a case of bottles, where a few were broken. They are just not set up to ship food properly. But the deals where so good that I ordered anyway. In each case, wherever there was damage, they immediately reshipped the unacceptable items and did not make me send them back.
They are my second favorite supplier, after Amazon.com. I have probably placed 25 or so orders with them in the last two years, usually about 2 orders a month.
"
"They are rewarding MLM much more and less for direct customers. They take away quantity discount, no price match and much less direct benefits to customers but give more to MLM award. Friends or relatives of the high rank/managment of Iherb must benefit from this multi level marketing.
The only good deal is their special, otherwise most of them are expensive and you can find other online suppliers cheaper even have to pay shipping for usually $4.99.
My friends and I have been happy with Iherb until now because they are trying to cut cost to be more profitable so they reduce incentive from ultimate buyers who want to buy more and save more. They are really in-efficient. I think their shipping and handling cost is high because they wrap the bottles layer by layer with tape. It takes so much effort to unwrap them and often times, damage the boxes because they use so much tape.
"
"iHerb customer service is appalling. They couldn't care less when my order never arrived, in fact they were rather rude in their response to my enquiry. Now I've read other reviews from people who had similar experience, I am beginning to wonder if they did 'lose' the parcel on occasions when customers chose the non-trackable delivery method. "
"I ordered a facial product that suppose to help certain skin condition. The product burned my face and made the condition worse instead of helping. I contacted iHerb to see if I can return the item for refund, but was told that they do not accept opened item for return. Buyers should be aware of this policy before ordering.
I had to contact them three times before I got answer to a simple question of "can I return the item" too!"
"Sadly, my opinion of iherb dropped after they lost my first (international) order.
Even after the six weeks passed that they told me to wait, they will not take any action apart from blaming me for choosing the wrong delivery method.
iHerb says that they are not taking any responsibility for lost orders, using the 'i-told-you-so'-way of blaming customers: according to the iHerb customer service I should have not chosen the _free of charge_ flatrate shipping deal they offered to me, but instead used a much more expensive carrier.
So now, after my third email inquiry about the lost parcel, they still blame me and will not resend or refund anything.
I have already found more cases like mine on the internet. IHerb apparently has a reputation for conveniently 'losing' untrackable parcels.
DO NOT ORDER FROM IHERB IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO LOOSE MONEY!
"
"Folks, iHerb.com has apparently started a rewards program where people can shill for the company and get rewards.
That's why you are seeing these posts with the rave reviews and "special" discount codes. And the posters post only one review and only about iHerb.com.
My honest review, I have been a customer of iHerb for several years. They sell good products and their prices can be really good, so-so, or, at times, a bit high. Like most other retailers.
My real plus for them has always been their "atomic quick" shipping -- and they tout that they ship 99 percent of their orders the same day. That WAS true for me up until the past year or so.
Maybe I'm unlucky, but it seems that each time in the past several months, my shipping is delayed a day (no big deal), a couple of days (O.K., I'm getting grumpy), or a few days (I'm not happy).
So, do I get my order -- eventually. Are the prices O.K. -- if I comparison shop, yes they are.
Shipping -- well.
Finally, the whole "paid shill" program just leaves me with a bad feeling. For now, I'm sticking with them, but I think I'm going to start checking other options. "
"I ordered a cold and cough supplement for my son as he is VERY sick and doesn't do well with nebulizer treatments. My chiropractor recommended Umcka. So I ordered it on 10/4/10 and paid for 2day UPS shipping to get it here faster. I just talked to them after reading some of the previos reviews and "We are in the process of moving our warehouse and there have been some unforseen delays". Well guess what fella! I just read that from somebody that bought several weeks ago!!!! CANCEL MY ORDER! He says he did. I just received the e-mail that they cancelled my order. I will order my product elsewhere. Or drive the long drive to pick it up at a natural healthfoods store, which I don't have time for, the reason I ordered it online expedited in the 1st place!
I had to wait almost 20 minutes with their online Live Chat to get somebody, and they are very unapologetic, but at least he cancelled my order.
I've worked Customer Service before and I feel SO bad for these agents that have to lie and deal with this from the company they work for. It's garbage!"