Vitamin Shoppe

Full review
False advertising!

Vitamin Shoppe promises free shipping on orders over $99 dollars. This advertisement appears on both their Amazon storefront and their regular website. It is even explained in detail from clicking the ad on Amazon that this is an offer directly from the merchant.

I have previously received free shipping, both from the $99 deal and from special coupons. I have always followed the instruction exactly, selecting regular ground shipping. This time I was charged, so I called the Company.

I emailed customer support thinking it was a simple error. They emailed me back these exact words:

"Thank you for contacting The Vitamin Shoppe. Please be advised that our promotional free shipping is only valid on orders placed through the Vitamin Shoppe."

Nothing more, just those two sentences. I though "surely there must be a miscommunication", so I contacted customer support by phone.

At the 1-800 number, they immediately said the same thing as soon as I mentioned Amazon. I tried to explain that Amazon.com is only a middle-man and that I DID in fact order from Vitamin Shoppe... through Amazon. She repeated herself like she still didn't understand. I asked if the policy had recently changed and told her about my 4 previous successful orders with free shipping. At this point she began to sound frustrated, but faithfully repeated the line about "...offer only valid from Vitamin Shoppe." (At this point I began to think that this was some sort of catch-all phrase that they memorize and are trained to tell Amazon customers.)

I decided to try explaining one more time, still convinced that there was a reasoning mind behind the facade of immovable "customer care" efficiency. I said, "perhaps there was a mistake on the Amazon website and they forgot to take the ad down. However, I can take screen-shots and email them to you along with copies of my previous receipts showing the shipping cost as $0." At this point, she was mad:"I TOLD YOU, THERE'S NO FREE SHIPPING EXCEPT FROM VITAMIN SHOPPE!!...er, um... Thank you for shopping with Vitamin Shoppe. Have a nice day." *click*

As promised, I emailed screen shots of the ad on the Amazon store front and of the instructions shown when you click on the ad. They haven't responded. They haven't taken the ad down either.

Isn't there a law that says you can't advertise what you don't offer?