Remember last week’s maple syrup fun?! I called and had a nice, long chat with a Vitacost manager earlier this week to try and clear up all the confusion. He listened to everything I had to say, and answered all of my many questions. Yes, it was a long conversation. I appreciated that he didn’t get off the phone with me until all of my questions were answered. He explained to me what happened, which is exactly what I had imagined had happened – with so many of us clicking over and purchasing an item that was priced incorrectly, a system error occurred, causing a big mess of a mess. That’s not exactly how he said it because he was more professional about it, but you get the picture.
He then explained our situation to Customer Service, who then sent us the following apology. Not that she was trying to be clever with her wording, but I kind of thought it was fun that Catherine called this a “sticky situation” since we are talking about maple syrup. Yep, that would describe it all right! :)
Hi there everyone! My name is Catherine and I am the Social Media Customer Service Rep with Vitacost.com. We wanted to take a second to again sincerely apologize for this sticky situation. The item was priced incorrectly and as a result, the system canceled it with an incorrect reason of “discontinued.” We’re working on an email now to let everyone who ordered know what’s going on and why this happened. I hope that you can forgive us for this honest mistake and continue allow us to take the cost out of healthy living for you! If you need specific customer service assistance about this situation or about anything in the future, please email me directly at [email protected] as I would be glad to help.
Thanks for choosing Vitacost.com,
Catherine C
Social Media CSR
Vitacost.com
1-800-793-2601
I appreciate that Vitacost did what I was hoping they would do, which is to own up to the mistake and to apologize. And yes, after visiting with them, I do strongly feel that the mistake was an honest one. In all my dealings with VitaCost, I have found them to always be willing to work with me as a customer to make sure I am satisfied with my order. I will continue to be a VitaCost customer.
If you are still having any issues with your order, please don’t hesitate to give them a call or shoot them an email.
Thank you all for your patience. I appreciate you!
Brooke says
Thank you Laura, for taking the time to talk with the manager and clear things up. :)
Becky says
I agree that all my dealings with Vitacost have been excellent up until now. I received the rest of my order (minus the syrup) yesterday. I opened a large box to find my brown rice flour punctured and spilled all over my bags of pasta. It was a mess! It definitely taught me not to open food packages on m living room carpet!
They had put only one small air-filled bag in the whole big box. I’m planning to call them on Monday and see what they say. I was so disappointed in them!
amy@twobgardening says
This is great customer service. I love it when “big” companies realize their customers are human and apologize for their mistakes. I’ve ordered once from Vita-cost and this only reassures me to do business with them again. Thanks Laura for the info.
Joy says
Yes, Vitacost has been a great source of healthy food and toiletry items for our family with great prices! They have had excellent customer service every time I have had a problem (and there have been several!) I have had containers of liquids open up in the box and spread all over everything – even a bag of chili powder opened during shipment! Everytime I reported the problem, there has been a full refund. I think they do need some work in the shipping/packaging department. All that being said, the fact still remains that the syrup is now $24.30 on Vitacost, and only $23.53 at Amazon ($22.35 with subscribe and save!) So, I will continue purchasing it from Amazon. I have seen it as low as $18 on Amazon in the past, so I watch it from time to time and order when I see the price drop! (-:
Celene says
I went to the website and, of course, was unable to buy the maple syrup. However, while I was there, I checked out the rest of their site and I was impressed with their prices. I did end up ordering other things from them.
Linda says
Thanks Laura. Since this was my first dealings with Vitacost, it was a bad first impression. Thank you for clearing it all up. I will try them again the next time they have a great deal. We all need second chances!
Leona says
I went to the website. Great prices and a wide range of products. I especially like that you can search for products that do not include specific ingredients.
Christi says
I did not order syrup, but honestly, I was not surprised when I saw your post about them letting you down. I have only ordered twice and had problems both times. Once my food arrived smashed (poorly packaged) and the other time, they did not e-mail me when they shipped like they said they would (I had ordered baby products for a shower, and they really made me sweat it out). This leads me to believe that they are terribly understaffed, which I’m sure keeps their costs down, but at what price? They have always made it right after I have contacted them, but I think I would be willing to pay a little more to have things right the first time. Many of us have too many kids and too few hours in the day to spend chasing our tails!!
Christi says
I hope that doesn’t seem uncharitable. Customer service is big with me.:)
Sheila says
I have used Vitacost for about a year and have been very happy with products, prices, and service (including shipments and packaging). Your website alone has probably increased its traffic by 100’s and that will take adjustments.
Since you share so many deals with us, I wanted to share a book sale at scholastic with you and your readers. Many of these books are already gone but for $1, I stocked my shelves with 20 of them.
http://shop.scholastic.com/
Ashley says
Hi how much is the shipping there?
Thanks a bunch!
Jill Roper says
Laura, to say I have been frustrated is an understatement. I called on Thursday fully 5 days after the “sticky situation”. Customer service told me that there is a disclaimer somewhere on their site that says they are not responsible for pricing errors. She told me there was nothing she could do. She also told me that they didn’t get the memo of the pricing error until Wednesday fully 4 days after the incident. I asked to speak to her supervisor and got the same thing, we are not responsible for pricing errors. I mentioned your site and that alot of people were affected. She said she was sorry but there was nothing she could do. I then asked to speak to her supervisor and I was told she was in a meeting and would promptly call me back. That was 3 days ago.
The point, mistakes happen. No one is perfect. When a company makes a mistake they correct it and make it right. Filling every ones order as it was stated at the beginning would have been the right thing to do. I know of other companies that will give you the price that came up when it is wrong for the item. That is a company that works to keep their customers by treating them well.
Not once in any conversations with them did they mention it was the overwhelming response to the error that caused the system to hiccup. For me this is an integrity issue.
In the end though relationships are more important than “stuff”. We can still love each other and disagree with how they handled this. For me it has been a valuable experience. You are a wonderful fount of information for all of your readers and I so appreciate you keeping us informed.
Love Jill
Noelle says
I totally agree. I will never use them and no longer recommend them to my family and friends.
Liz says
I received an apology email Friday from Vitacost and a new referral coupon code since I’d used mine on the first order that was cancelled. I really appreciate everything you did, Laura. I’m betting all the attention your blog brought to the issue prompted such a nice response.