Linda H.

I have been a member of Thrive for several years and at first I liked them. When I PAID my annual membership fee, I TRUSTED that their promise of discounted prices was genuine. But not so.

Since I believe in giving credit where credit is due, I am going to start with what is GOOD about Thrive Market.

1. On the good side, the products that they ship to you are always neatly and securely packed and there is seldom any damage. If anything is damaged, they ask you to send a photo of the damaged item and then they give you a full refund. I don't like them in general, but this particular aspect of their business is actually excellent.

2. They also offer FREE MEMBERSHIPS to people who qualify, so if you still want to buy from them after reading what I am about to tell you, then see if you qualify for a free membership. Since the membership issue is mainly what I do not like about Thrive, having a FREE MEMBERSHIP would go a long way toward resolving my issues with them.

I have cancelled my current membership, but since my husband is a veteran, I hear he meets one of their criteria for a free membership so I might have him join and keep shopping here - but with careful price checking because their prices are not usually truly discounted as they claim.

Now. Here is what I DO NOT LIKE ABOUT THRIVE MARKET: Their prices are not discounted and you can often find the same items for less on other non-paid sites. My advice is to save the membership fee and just shop elsewhere.

I started to smell a rat when I ran across one of the products I had purchased on Thrive while browsing Amazon. This product was not just less expensive on Amazon, but it was LESS THAN HALF THE PRICE OF OF WHAT I HAD PAID ON THRIVE MARKETPLACE!

Thrive does have a price-match policy, but why should I have to take the time to price-check all my purchases? That is a seriously time consuming and deeply involved process. Why couldn't I just TRUST THESE SCOUNDRELS WHO PROMISED DISCOUNTED PRICES IN EXCHANGE FOR A PAID MEMBERSHIP instead of having to watch them like a hawk every time I buy something from them?

For awhile I put up with it, thinking it was probably a one-off situation. But recently, I printed out my latest order and actually compared what I was paying on THRIVE to the same products on NON PAID SITES like VitaCost, iHerb, Amazon, and others. After comparing the prices I was paying to other sites, I was shocked to find that a full 70% of the items I had purchased on THRIVE were less expensive elsewhere. The other 30% were less expensive on Thrive, but that savings was not enough to offset the subscription fee.

Thrive Market's prices are absolutely NOT DISCOUNTED. They are a little higher if not significantly more expensive than their MEMBERSHIP-FREE competitors. Occasionally, they are slightly lower, but not significantly lower. The truth is that Thrive is a high-end vendor with a reputation for low prices but the prices tell another story.

Lately, Thrive Market introduced their own house brands that SOMETIMES (but not always) have a lower price, but the quality is not the same. If you buy their house brand products, be sure to read the ingredients and compare them to mainstream brands. An example of their canned Coconut Milk - the ingredients don't "actually" include real coconut milk. Here is their ingredient list: Water, Organic Coconut Extract. Will somebody please tell me WHAT IS COCONUT EXTRACT? I don't see anything in the ingredient list that says COCONUT MILK! Other Thrive house brand products might have similar strange ingredient lists. Sometimes, the ingredient list checks out, but not always. Again, you have to be careful.

When I pay a membership fee, I expect to get what is promised and with THRIVE this simply does not usually end up costing what they promised. The thing that irks me the most is that this: in my membership page, they have a running total of what they have "saved" me over the years. The problem is that this savings tab is based on dishonest pricing - they claim that the products they carry are more expensive on the open market than they really are. Then they make it LOOK like you are saving money when you are really paying the same or more. They must think their customers are stupid!

AND GOOD LUCK GETTING THEIR CLAWS OUT OF YOUR POCKET, BECAUSE THE DO NOT MAKE IT EASY TO END YOUR MEMBERSHIP. Instead of simply allowing you to go into your account, delete your membership AND remove your payment information, they REQUIRE members to take precious time to call them ON THE PHONE, sit on hold, and have THEM end your membership for you. That is AFTER YOU SUBMIT TO AN INQUISITION ABOUT WHY YOU ARE LEAVING, AND "ENCOURAGING" YOU TO STAY.

This type of shady dealing makes me angry. My advice is RUN AWAY. Do not waste your hard-earned money buying from people with this kind of dishonest and greedy business model.

My Heritage is the most cost effective and the most broad spectrum family research I have tried.

Ive learned a lot about my family tree from this site and have always been able to get first rate customer support when needed. Today, I spoke with Breck in sales and he took a lot of time to patiently listen to all my questions and help me make important decisions about purchasing DNA tests for my entire family.

I highly recommend this site to anyone who wants to find our more about who you are and what you are made of.

This website must have been designed by the animals in the zoo. It is almost impossible to complete an order from this company.

First, the LOGIN nightmare. They want you to CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD ON A REGULAR BASIS, so to simply log in you have to go through the process of changing your password. And I am RUNNING OUT OF PASSWORD IDEAS, because they have SO MANY RULES ABOUT WHAT THE PASSWORD CAN BE! I can spend 15 minutes of my precious day simply figuring out a new password, that I cam remember and that complies with their ego-inflated requirements! This company is NOT A TOP SECRET FEDERAL SPY RING for goodness sakes! ALL I WANTED WAS SHAMPOO! What are they afraid of - that some desperado will break into my account and buy me a bottle of shampoo?

NEXT IS THE SHIPPING. Believe me, they are not in a hurry to send my orders after I have paid. It could be anywhere from one week to one month before my orders arrive.

And it is difficult to navigate the website. It is a very fashionable site that simply REEKS of snobbiness, but it really isnt all that functional, popping up error messages at every turn. This is an absolute mess.

There is only ONE REASON THAT I KEEP GOING BACK, and that is because they have exclusive rights to sell my favorite shampoo. So, they have me over a barrel. I dread order day and so wish I could get this product somewhere - ANYWHERE other than this crazy, screwed up place.

Snobby, overpriced, and dysfunctional. If you have any other choice for the product you want, then RUN AWAY!