Terry w.

I have used drugstore.com almost religiously since they opened. They had great prices, lots of products to choose from and fast delivery. As someone with chronic pain, online shopping is a must - and here was a great one-stop shopping for all those drugstore needs.

They also had their drugstore dollars program which reduced the prices further. So when their prices started to go up, I didn't worry so much.

And then I found I could get cash rebates thru ebates.com. So I just kept on shopping.

But over the last few orders there have been items missed. They were always quick to replace them. But this month not only have items been missed, but they packed a box of health bars with two bottles of liquid (shampoo & body cleanser) in a small box with the bubble spacers. It was way too much stuff before the bubble spacers were added. The box of health bars was crush to less than half its original height. Luckily they had wrapped the bottles of liquid separately and no leakage occurred. But when I complained, they were quick to blame the post office for the problem! I really don't like it when someone passes the blame and they are clearly in error - the outer box wasn't crushed in anyway. In fact it still bulged at the top! They kindly replaced the health bars without charge.

I order four bottles of an item, they send the insert saying that there are four bottles, but there are only three. I feel really stupid complaining about this. How do you prove they didn't include what they said they included? Luckily, they fixed this problem as well. This is the sort of problem I hate. I know I'm right, but how will they react. As always, they responded positively and sent the missing bottle.

So all of this cost them extra labor, extra boxes & extra postage. And the consumer, in the end, pays for this in the pricing of the items.

Their customer service has always been responsive, but I really don't want to have to use it this often! I'd rather they didn't make these mistakes.

So now they have stopped the drugstore dollars program, their prices are frequently not competitive with Amazon.com, they require the use of their customer service to get all you ordered way too often.

And today they announced a "no return policy". That all items were now sold as is. What kind of a deal is that? You buy something sight unseen. I can understand them not wanting to accept returns when people buy something they've never tried and decide they don't like it. But if it is damaged or other legitimate reasons for complaint, it sounds like it's just too bad for the consumer who trusted them to deliver on their end of the bargin. I see rough waters ahead.

It very much seems these folks want to go out of business. As if they've decided there isn't enough profit, so they will make it profitable even if it drives their customers away.

So I guess I will be using Amazon.com & see if I can get that to work for me now. I am deeply saddened as these folks served me well for many years. I am thankful for their many good years.