Update on the EnviroKidz deal

By Mir
August 11, 2009
Category Quick Tips

For those of you who took part in this deal on EnviroKidz bars wherein buying them from Vitamin Shoppe via Amazon supposedly made them $5/case, I have good news and bad news.

The bad news, of course, is that Vitamin Shoppe intended that to be $5/box, not for a whole case. As we are all now discovering, those of us who ordered a case are receiving just a box.

The good news is that I’ve been pretty impressed with the customer service at Vitamin Shoppe; when I called (1-800-223-1216), I was transferred to Customer Care and they explained that my refund will have to come from directly Amazon, but that they would arrange for that. When I asked how I could return the bars, they told me to just keep them.

I’d rather have the two cases I ordered for $11ish shipped, sure; but in lieu of that, I’m sure not going to complain about two free boxes.

Dig our your order number and call. As always, be pleasant—it’s not the fault of the call center person that they screwed up the web site. They realize this is a problem, and they’re scrambling to fix it. In my mind, they’re handling it as well as they possibly can, and despite the error, I will likely shop them again.

17 Comments

  1. Thanks for the heads-up, Mir. I agree that Vitamin Shoppe’s customer service is very good. I called (my order was still on back-order, so no free boxes for me)… and they cancelled my order, and made notes on the reason so future cancellations by others should be handled quickly. They also contacted Amazon while I waited on the phone and said because my order had not shipped, the only charge on my credit card would be a pre-authorization and it will be removed within 24 to 72 hours. Glad it was a relatively hassle-free fix.

  2. Ok, I hate to be a dope, but what do I tell the person at customer service? That I bought them via Amazon and thought they were for a case but they were for a box? Is that likely to be sufficient? Thanks for following up with us, Mir. These things do happen.

  3. Cocosmom: Yes, your order confirmation should say “6-count box (case of 6)” and so you can tell them you assumed you were buying a case, and don’t want to pay that price for a single box.

    You could, like Traci, go ahead and cancel now if your order hasn’t shipped yet. Or if it’s already shipped, you’ll end up with a free box. 😉

  4. My bars arrived today – nice timing Mir! They had to transfer me, but then the lady knew exactly what the problem was, and said Amazon would be refunding me the money. No muss, no fuss. It took no more than 5 min. I agree excellent customer service.

  5. I did call customer service at Vitamin Shoppe, and they told me I would have to deal with Amazon, even after asking a supervisor. I was very pleasant and just let it go, but should I call back again? I have NO IDEA how to go about dealing with Amazon and at the end of the day, it’s not the end of the world! The kids like ’em at least! 😉

  6. I did the same as Miriam and they won’t help me out — I have to contact Amazon and they told me to send the cereal bars back to them. HUH? Actually, kind of annoying. They didn’t even provide me with a number to contact Amazon. Probably won’t be dealing with VitaminShoppe again.

  7. I’ll say the same thing I emailed to Miriam: Your confirmation from Amazon says to contact Vitamin Shoppe with any further issues. I would try calling again. This was their error, they need to fix it for you. (They may not have brought their entire staff up to speed on this issue yet. Try calling again, you may get someone different.)

  8. FYI: The person I just spoke with at Vitamin Shoppe said that there’s nothing I can do if it has been shipped (and we argued semantics for ten minutes). However, you can refuse delivery of the box and it will be returned to VS and then they will process a refund. I doubt I’ll take that chance, so we’ll just have gourmet snacks and I won’t buy them again! Good try, though!

  9. VS wouldn’t help me, told me to contact Amazon. I guess though, that’s the chance we took ordering them when we knew it was a mistake…

  10. I hate to harp on this…but I didn’t know it was a mistake. EVERYWHERE I looked on my emails, on my online receipt, it said I was getting a 6pack of 6 bars. They sent me the wrong thing. And I just was checking out Amazon’s return policy with VS and I still can’t figure out how I’m supposed to get my $$ back. Has anyone figured that part out?
    Thanks.

  11. Bummer…I called again today, was transferred to corporate, who told me they (the vitamin shoppe) were not responsible for the mistake, and basically too bad. Oh well! Hope the kids don’t get too hooked! At $1 a bar, we won’t be buying them again anytime soon! 😉 Thanks for all the great deals, though, Mir! I love this site!

  12. Oh, but they are so good, aren’t they?? LOL

  13. The first person I talked to said that I had to contact Amazon. I read to him Mir’s experience and he said that he could transfer me to corporate. The person at corporate told me right away that they would take care of refunding the charge and that I could keep the box of bars. I informed him what the first person I talked to told me and he said that they probably did need to let the call centers know what was going on.

  14. I called Vitamin Shoppe just now and she suggested I return it to my local store.

  15. Well, this is obv the story that never ends. My order was backordered to ship out around the 23rd. Just received an email from amazon that my order was cancelled. No explanation, just cancelled. I understood why b/c of your posts, but they should have included the fact that there was a mistake.

  16. Update: Just recd this email from the Vitamin Shoppe
    “Dear Valued Customer,
    We would like to apologize for a pricing error on the amazon.com website that has affected your order from The Vitamin Shoppe. Unfortunately we are not able to honor the $4.99 price on a package of 6 boxes of Envirokidz bars at this time and have canceled your pending order.

    Once again our sincere apologies for the trouble this has caused you.

    With warm regards,
    The Vitamin Shoppe”

    (Kinda funny considering I already cancelled my order three days ago. lol)

  17. Following up on my experience: my box arrived and because I’m not a phone person I used the Amazon “problem with this order?” button, which let me send a message to The Vitamin Shoppe via Amazon, so I got a receipt of the email from Amazon and so forth (which would also help if I needed to use the A-to-Z Guarantee). No reply at all from The Vitamin Shoppe. I used the form a second time on the 26th (nearly 2 weeks later), using firmer language (the first time I was all, “Hey dudes, what up, I’m one of the people affected by this thingie, help a girl out!” whereas the second time I was more “Do something about this. Please.”), and today (the 28th) I got an email from Amazon saying I had a refund for $4.99 plus $.99 shipping.

    No contact from The Vitamin Shoppe at all. I don’t blame them for the mistake, which seems innocent, but I’m displeased with their follow-up service.

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