Bulk Apothecary reviews

As much as I've enjoyed the products I've gotten from them, customer service is everything! A person can go anywhere and find the same products so if you'd like to keep your customers for yourselves your customer service should be good.
I am a business owner myself and I started purchasing a few of their ingredients for my products. The first time I ordered I paid for one day shipping. Not only was my items a week late but I also had to go and pick it up. My items were spiked and had spilled within the packaging. Now I realize that a lot of it has to do with Fed ex but when a customer calls to complain you should be willing to get to the bottom line and help. They didn't care. I just tried them a second time and paid for two day shipping. They actually themselves sent the items out later than they were suppose to and I still haven't received my items four days later. I looked at the tracking and it says My items are ready for pick up. I paid for shipping to deliver to me! Someone is always home. I emailed them and again they don't care. It's always unfortunately you'll have to just take it up with Fed ex and we won't refund you the shipping you paid.
They don't care at all and they don't compensate. I will be taking my money elsewhere.

Terrible customer service! Ordered a product and when I received it, it was rancid. The smell was extremely strong. I called to request a refund and was emailed a return shipping label. I returned the item unused. The foil top was partially pulled back, which is when I discovered the butter was rancid, however the butter inside was untouched because of the disgusting smell.

My refund was short $3, I assumed they were being shady trying to charge me for return shipping, which was unacceptable because they sent me a RANCID product. When I called customer service, I was told that my account was notated with the blatant lie that I'd "used 3 ounces" of the product and that's why my refund was short. Utter bull$#*!!! As bad as that butter smelled, I didn't even want to touch it let alone drill out 3 ounces.

The rep claimed she couldn't override my shorted refund because of what the "notes" said but she offered me a coupon code for a future purchase. F@ck that, why would I ever shop again at a company that falsely accused me of being a thief. Tuh!! Never again.

Buy your products on Amazon or Vitacost where shipping is free or free with a $49 purchase.

I'm disgusted with this company on principle alone and there's a reason for their low ratings.

I had to purchase some herbs for an infection and am very ill. I paid for overnight and was told because of timing policy it would be another day (which was fine.)

When I encouraged them to review this policy because Amazon and other companies are very competitive in this space, the rep responded with we have an Amazon account, maybe you should buy there next time.(sic)

I did not need to be met with snark from someone who can't spell unfortunately, while fighting #cancer and disappointment.

You can get herbs from #Frontier Co-op (American Made) at a better price and certified organic without the attitude. Good luck!

To browse all of my posts (about 10) click on my profile picture. (Examples: Fender Mender auto theft ring, Wyndham Hotel Group, debacle etc.,Beth Revis' minimum $2.5 million plagarism)

(Disclaimer:The above statement is true to the best of my knowledge and recollection).

Be wary of ordering essential oils from Bulk Apothecary. The oils have unlisted expiration dates which you must specifically request from their documents department. Even then, when the oils go rancid before the date provided by the company, their customer service agents will give you a run around and you will end up losing whatever money you spent as they will not issue you any form of credit towards replacing items. Bulk Apothecary has no concern for customer satisfaction and does not stand by their own documentation or the quality of products they sell. It took me over a dozen emails to two departments over the course of two weeks to finally get the response that they were not going to do anything to resolve a complaint for a loyal customer (which I am no longer).

First off, I never write reviews, however, I've decided to make an exception for this particular company. Their customer service is rude, unprofessional and they only care about Bulk Apothecary. I've called before and they answer the phone taking deep breaths. There is no personality or character.

I've ordered from them several times in the past and there is always something wrong with the order and they don't take responsibility. If they make a mistake, they want you to send back the product and the shipping won't be refunded.

They always say there is nothing that they can do, but honestly they don't choose not to do. To expedite a package is 128.00, yet their policy is 24-72 hours after an order has been placed. Oh and their order cutoff time is 2:00PM EST! That's insane! So if you pay the 128.00 fee, and it's after 2:00 PM EST, you literally just paid to ship next day, which defeats the purpose of expediting.

Their favorite phrase is "we can't guarantee", but they will take your money immediately.

They will let you order and not tell you that a product is out of stock. You can literally wait 2-3 weeks for an order and you won't know what's going on until you call and ask. You're going to get an attitude though, be mindful of that.

The "supervisors" are glorified babysitters with bad attitudes. They offer no solutions for any problems and they absolutely don't care. As a small business owner, I purchase from them because they have the least expensive prices around, but if I can find another vendor that's willing to price match I will never order from them again.

I've ordered from this company twice and never had a problem. The packaging products and closures are always clean and quality products. I haven't had any issues with the stock, but just recently started using this company. I wonder if their online stock now matches their current stock. I found the prices to be good, the quality great, and the shipping fast!

Dont order from these people. Their idea of customer service: Explain why they let me order something they didnt have (lousy inventory system, as if that was my fault), then they charged me essentially the same shipping charges for the remaining two much smaller items on the order (without giving me the option of cancelling the order). They, including the CEO and Operations manager/owners who got my letter of complaint, apologized nicely but then refused to do anything about it. They had my money, thats all they cared about. There are lots of other places that will care about your business and do more than give lip service to customer service.

Ordered over a month ago. No communication so we called 3 weeks in. Told it would ship May 10. Nothing. Emailed Sunday and CS said they would email us back, never did. Called 3 weeks in and they said waiting on one inreditent menthol crystals, funny becuase we have 150lbs on our warehouse shelves and we called two of our vendors and they had plenty, so lie or incompetent ordering system? Called today and horrible customer service and supervisors. I also wonder if owners even know whats going on. Have they seen the review lately? Needless to say no help and said they would just refund order becuase we were unhappy. Beware of any purchase from this company

HORRIBLE- ordered April 6th no response- no ETA- got the run around-No one has any idea what they are doing there. HORRIBLE customer service and company- Ruined a good contract we had because of their incompetence. Every excuse in the book and then all they said is well you can wait or refund your order. After waiting over a month for a shipment which was told it would be by today May 10th....

Bulk Apothecary could be a tremendous company, but their owners seem to not care at all. I truly feel bad for their customer service reps the most. They have to take the brunt of customers who are furious over the constant issues with their items not being in stock. Worse yet is when they it is in stock and you order it and guess what happens. They refund the money and give no explanation.

I have been running businesses for over 20 years. I completely understand that running out of things can happen. However, I am really wondering how items on their site can be out of stock for small amounts when they still offer case quantity items.

For the past 6 to 8 months we were told that they were going to sync their online inventory with their actual physical inventory. Because of numerous out of stock issues as a company we had quit ordering from them and decided to go with their competitors who have never been out of stock on any item.

This past month we decided to give them a shot at gaining our business again. For those that do not know...They do have on average the best pricing on their products (when they are in stock for real).

We placed an order a couple weeks ago with no issues. They are always prompt on their shipping and the items have never been an issue for us. Today we decided to give them another try. We ordered bottles, caps, potassium hydroxide and orange essential oil (16oz) so that we could fulfill some orders that were coming up.

After placing the order and paying we received an email a couple hours later stating that they had shipped our order. As always we check all emails from our suppliers to make sure that the correct items appear in the details of the shipment.

The first thing we notice is that only 3 of the 4 items we ordered had been shipped. No note was on our email stating that they were out of our Essential Oil. In fact it was not until I called that their customer rep told me that they were out of the orange essential oil I had ordered and were simply refunding our money. No notice, no asking if we wanted to wait for it to come in (btw they normally take months to get items in...in fact one item we have monitored has been out of stock for almost a year now).

While speaking with the rep I asked him if the owners even really understood how negatively this impacts their business to always have these issues. He said that they have had a company meeting and were going to fix the problem really soon. ( 6 months ago they said the same thing)

Here is what I find most interesting. Last year we had multiple order issues with them. When we attempted to give a product rating on an item we had an issue with regarding quality they never allowed the negative review. It is impossible for any company to have a 5 star review on pretty much all of their products or service especially with the number of issues they have with regards to items being out of stock so much not to mention there are some quality issues.

I can only say that they have lost our companies business as they have cost us money once again as we are forced to purchase an item elsewhere and incur additional shipping charges all because they simply could not get their online ordering synced with their physical inventory.

One other thing that prompted us to stop working with them last year was what we were told by a rep when a similar issue came up. We asked the rep how long it was going to be before the item we needed was going to be in stock again. She told us that it most likely would be months at best because the item was not a high priority item. This sounds like a company that is struggling to figure out what doing business really means. All this does is simply upset their customer base and slowly erodes confidence in them, driving customers to their competitors.

This is my second review of Bulk Apothecary. I used to buy a lot of essential oils and lotion, cream, and butter bases from them. They have a great inventory, and I have no complaints about their products (although I believe my favorite source of essential oils, EDENS Garden, has more superior oils). But I stopped ordering from BA because their S&H costs were way too expensive!! I just order products for my own use. If you are a person who orders large amounts of product because you are making candles, soaps, lotions to sell, then you probably qualify for free shipping. Then you are no doubt happy with BA. But for people like me, who order small amounts, the S&H is too much to handle. Thank you for reading my review.

If you don't complain, they take your money and never send you order. Risky way to do business, surprised it's not illegal

Critical product and I told them needed it fast. Paid for expedited shipping. The day it was supposed to get here, got an email it was on back order. The sales guy, Tony, was rude and arrogant. All they offered to do was refund (wow, what a favor). I had to find another supplier to overnight it to me for 4 times the cost of the product. They didn't even offer me a discount on another purchase.

I have bought from them many times. they offer quality products at affordable prices. I do think their shipping is pretty high and I have had orders that were not right but they fixed them as soon as possible. If you have the idea of you want a fair deal , then this is a good company for you.

Bulk is local to me (so grateful for that! save on shipping charges) and I've never had a problem with items out of stock etc. However, I always keep my supply stash going so that I never run out. Rule of thumb for this hobby is don't order right before a show or a deadline! Everyone I've encountered in person has been very friendly, from the front desk to the pickup ladies in the back. I wish everyone else had smooth experiences like I have. Order ahead.

Well if first impressions count, these guys are in. Provided info before I bought, shipped super quick and I a delighted with their products. I see the reviews, both + and -. Apparently, some of these people are big users $1000+ dollars, I am under $100. So maybe that is the difference. Maybe BA just can't handle big orders. Me, I am well satisfied.

Every order I've placed has been backordered, missing products, gone bad, you name it! When I email them regarding the issues I never receive a response which prompts me to call. Might as well cook a 4 course dinner while you're waiting because it's always at least 30 minutes to get ahold of someone and once you do they don't know what is going on or when you can expect your order.

This is why I am not a customer any longer:

Order placed on 3/1/18
Contacted on 3/5/18 inquiring why the order has not shipped yet. Was told that it would ship that day or the next.
Contacted on 3/7/18 and was told that the suite number was not on the invoice and that is why it hadn't shipped yet. Was told that it would ship that day or the next.
Contacted on 3/9/18 and was told that the product was on back order and it would be a week before it shipped.

This is terrible customer service. Had I been told four days ago that our product was on back order I could have gotten it from a different source. Now I have to wait 3-5 business days for a refund of a thousand dollars and have to find another supplier and pay them. Find a different source for your products, Bulk Apothecary will give you the run around in order to keep you from ordering from a competitor.

I used to spend obscene amounts of money on one of the well-known MLM brands (Rhymes with Loung Yiving) Like, I was faithful to that brand, and that brand only. In a pinch, when my go-to brand was out of a very popular blend (Rhymes with Crease & Yawning) I found this site and ordered a giant bottle of their version for about the price I typically pay for 5mL. I wasn't expecting much but when it arrived I was shocked at how close it was to the real thing. So, I slowly started replacing my expensive stash with oils from Bulk Apothecary and I couldn't be happier.

I ordered 7 bottles of essential oils and only got 6 on 11/14/17. Emailed complaint 11/15/17 and the next day I received an email back informing me that the remaining order was back-ordered. 01/12/18 I still haven't heard anything so I again contacted customer service and was told there was no back-ordered item in my name - so I referred Malia to the previous response I got from Jayme stating it was a back-order. To date 01/23/18 I've heard nothing else from them and filed a complaint with the local BBB. As far as customer service for this company one hand doesn't know what the other is doing and I would beware of ordering from them unless you've money to burn.

hey review all reviews posted on their site and wont post the negative ones.

For all natural product makers out there.

Be aware the citric acid is made with glucose derived from corn. Then feeding that to mold aspergillus niger.

They also are not familiar with the products they carry. Not good for a company that boosts about natural quality products.

I also wanted to leave a review but you dont have the option. I'm extremely upset. I ordered the same foaming base I did last month for my scrubs and received a Stephenson melt and pour base. I contacted customer service for them to keep trying to assure me that the packaging was changed and it's the same product but I have to whip it on my own now and when I tried it it's COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CONSISTENCY then the last kind I received! I said I was so unhappy with it and it's not what I ordered. Your costumer service is awful. I order from you all the time and the one time my order is wrong all I get is "sorry you're unhappy with your order, I assure you that it's the same product, the photos on the site are misleading!" I'm sorry but if the photos are misleading that's false advertising. Im about to write BBB and report it because I should of been offered a complete refund for the product being different and being told the photos on your website are misleading. I have it all in my emails. I'm a very easy going person, but when someone tells me all that and then doesn't even offer a way to keep me happy other then arguing with me or offer me a refund without me asking for one, that's a horrible way to do buisness! Now I have to send back the products that were wrong in order to get my refund and take more time out of my work day for y'alls mess up and telling me you have a misleading website? I should get the refund regardless. I would never even normally ask for one without returning the product but the way I was argued with and not offered a way to make me happy w/o me asking first, it should be automatic refund!

This site is better for raw ingredients (fragrances, flavors, essential oils, butters, roots/ flowers, etc) than for chemicals (emulsifiers, extracts, etc). They have a wide selection and good prices for the sizes. They also ship relatively quick.

Just note, a lot of their items are from other suppliers (i.e their soap molds are by a company called Milky Way). Make sure you're getting it cheaper or the same price on BA. Like for the molds, BA lists the price as $6.93 but previously $8.25, but on the Milky Way site, all the molds are just $6.93.