Keith C.

I live in New Zealand and took at face value the iherb website's claims to provide fast and reliable service. I used their recommended shipping method, DHL Global Priority Mail. My first order, in July, arrived promptly and safely. I repeated the order at the end of August and that second order has not arrived. I had to send four emails to iherb before they replied to me. They suggested the delay was due to "International Shipping; Local Customs Regulations or your Local Delivery Provider."

As a retired journalist I have the time and some idea how to research this. The NZ Customs hold comprehensive records of packages sent to New Zealand residents which are currently being held for inspection or have been returned to sender or destroyed. My contact there told me that under my name and address, there is no record of a package from iherb.com falling into this category. The local delivery provider (New Zealand Post/DHL Courier Post) also have no record of receiving the package and referred me to DHL Global Mail headquarters in Frankfurt.

DHL Global reported: "We find only the DHL World track system following package status and can tell you that the packet was not sent from the USA since 30.08.2013."

I passed on this info to Customer Service at iherb and they have repeated their previous response, adding: "We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you and we appreciate your patience."

Well, frankly I need the product and my patience has run out. I'd advise international consumers to be very wary of this company. They appear to have little idea about how to conduct an online or mail order business. They say there is no way to trace a package once it has left the US, but in this day and age that is not true. My first package arrived with no less than four bar codes attached at various stages of its journey. All these will have left a footprint, even if it is not readily accessible to the general consumer. In this case, I have DHL's report that the package never left the US.