On 11/26/14, I ordered 8 different vitamins from Swanson Health Products, a total of $63.21, then discovered I was allergic to some of the ingredients, so contacted Swanson by fax on 11/30/14 to cancel the order, except for 2 vitamins. I wrote them a check for the $63.21. On 12/1/14, Swanson then wrote a check to my bank for $19.82, for the 2 vitamins, with the exact same check number, saying a signature was not required, plus cashed my check for $63.21, rather than send me a refund. A few days later I received the 2 vitamins, and several days after that received the cancelled order, which was left by my front door. I tried calling Swanson, but was put on hold indefinitely, so went to the Post Office to return the package, unopened and marked refused, but had to pay an additional $14.25 to do so, as it was shipped through their carrier named Lasership. There was no phone number listed for Lasership on the package, and I did not want to open it. This is basically fraud, so I will be contacting the BBB and other Government Agencies as well to investigate further. .
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Please keep in mind as you read these letters to Swanson Health Products and the North Dakota Attorney General that a simple mistake gets corrected in a few minutes. We all make mistakes, however, making a customer wheel spin and waste an afternoon trying to fix a problem elevates this to an intentional fraudulent action. =================== 01 May 2014 Ms. Rhonda Barreth, Executive Assistant Swanson Health Products/SwansonVitamins.com 4075 40th Ave, SW Fargo, North Dakota 58104 VIA FAX TRANSMISSION TO ( ) – NUMBER OF PAGES IN THIS TRANSMISSION – 4 Ref: Customer Number ; Order Number Dear Ms. Barreth: Swanson Health Products/SwansonVitamins.com has an illegal practice of double billing customers for their orders. When this happened to me on my recent order it resulted in fees from my [financial institution] being assessed against me because of this second fraudulent charge. At first I considered this to be a mistake. However, the stonewalling I received from your staff when trying to resolve this matter indicates to me that this reprehensible practice is fully endorsed by the corporate staff. When, not if, I contact the North Dakota State Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem I will directly ask him to shut your business down as I doubt you isolated me for such abuse and it is more likely, based on the run around and stonewalling I got, that you engage in the practice of double billing as a matter of course. Now for the details. On Sunday, 27 April 2014 I placed an order via your internet website swansonvitamins.com totalling $281.43. A hold for this amount was placed on my account, dated Monday 28 April 2014 (a week date is used as financial institutions only use calendar dates from a business day and not from a weekend or holiday). This was appropriate as I am responsible for paying for something once, but only once. On Tuesday, 29 April 2014 another hold got put on my account of $281.52 which resulted in three consecutive bank fees being assessed against me as I exceeded my limit for the number of overdraft transfers for the month of April. This would not have happened were it not for the fraudulent second charge by your company as these transfers would not have been necessary as a result. For all practical purposes the hold behaves the same as final clearance as the [financial institution] sets aside funds for final clearance and is inaccessible by me. At the time of the setting aside of funds the fees get assessed – this is financial institution common practice, regardless of the institution. I made allowances for a single hold or charge but not two!! I did not learn of this problem until today, 01 May 2014. I was impressed with the quickness in the fulfillment of my order which arrived on Tuesday, 29 April 2014, since it was sent from your warehouse in Nevada. However, the quickness of merchandise receipt and accuracy of merchandise fulfillment was severely overshadowed by being double billed resulting in [financial institution] fees being assessed against me. Again, it is readily apparent by the behavior of your customer service staff that this double billing is standard operating procedure and not some kind of innocent mistake. Fortunately, the [financial institution] took pity on me and refunded my fees. But it does not negate the fact that I have three negative marks against me in my relationship with my [financial institution] which are initiated by your fraudulent action of double billing. In addition, the fact that I received pity this time does not mean they will do so again. As I indicated before, I doubt you isolated me for this kind of reprehensible business practice and it is more reasonable to conclude that you regularly engage in such financial misbehavior. Shame on you! On Thursday, 01 May 2014, today, I discovered what had happened when I looked into my account. After speaking with Patti XXXXXX at my [financial institution] I called your customer service department. (Note: At this time of year North Dakota is two hours ahead of [my city’s] time; so please add two hours to the times I give if you want to research your records.) At 13:20 MST I spoke with Tyler and told him what had happened. He seemed genuinely concerned and told me that he was composing an eMail to another department. I informed him that this concern had to be resolved today and I needed to speak with someone in that department. It is my experience the use of eMails is to give the impression that something effective is being done when it is not. eMails can be ignored, a human presence not so much. He complied and transferred me to Wendy. At 13:32 MST I started speaking with Wendy. Initially, I considered that this problem was going to be resolved and that this was just a mistake and would be resolved by the helpful, pleasant and competent staff of Swanson. As time went on I realized that my initial impression was a little too naive. She agreed to call my representative at the [financial institution], Patti XXXXXX. I later received confirmation that she did. When she came back to the phone she told me that she could do nothing more. I told her that she could; she could call Swanson’s financial institution and get a cancellation code to have the hold and the effective seizure of my funds released. She refused. So it no longer became a matter of “can” not but rather one of “will” not. Gee, I wonder why? It couldn’t be that Swanson regularly engages in this fraudulent practice of double billing, is it? At this point I recognized what was happening and told her point blank that this fraudulent second billing needs to be reversed otherwise I need to have the name of Swanson’s legal counsel and I would contact the North Dakota State Attorney General first and later the attorneys general of the remaining 50 states and of the U.S. Federal Government. With a sheet of paper an attorney general has the capacity to walk into a fraudulently run business and shut it down. She put me on hold and when she came back at 13:50 MST claimed she did not have the information. She indicated that I would need to send fax proof from my [financial institution] of this double billing. Really? You double bill me and then tell me that I have to come up with the evidence – information you have and have already acknowledged by your verbal responses and your actions? Frankly, if I had any doubts as to Swanson’s culpability in engaging in fraudulent double billing this idiotic statement removed these doubts. When I asked to be transferred to the person who could tell me the name of Swanson’s legal counsel she put me on old again. All she had to do was to tell me to call the corporate number. She did not. Gee, I wonder why? When she came back at 13:59 MST she started to answer all kinds of questions I did not ask. When I told her that I did not ask about the things she was “answering” I told her again the information I was demanding – the name of the Swanson legal counsel or to be connected with the executive offices so I could get the information so I could communicate with this person. This information was not forthcoming – this is information that should be readily available to a customer. Stonewalling in this manner only annoys a customer worse, results in a more firm handling of a customer service matter and leads one to reasonably to believe that some fraudulent activity is afoot. She wanted me to wait until Monday, 05 May 2014 for this to be resolved. Yes, someone hijacks money from you and he wants you to wait longer to see if the hijacking will be undone. Last time I looked in the mirror the letters S-T-U-P-I-D were not written on my forehead. Then she claimed that she was going to transfer me to her supervisor. I just got transferred to a ringing telephone. Nothing like an incident like that to reinforce the idea that one is being stonewalled and given the runaround. Gee, I wonder why? It couldn’t be that Swanson regularly engages in this fraudulent practice of double billing, is it? At 14:00 MST I called back and spoke to a supervisor Eric. He claimed that he had a “release code” that he regularly uses to fix these kinds of double billing matters. Really? Why did Wendy not have this code? Or if she did, why was she unwilling to use it? Eric was unwilling to find the information I requested of the name of Swanson’s legal counsel and to be connected to the executive offices but he agreed to call my [financial institution] and fix the matter. I got disconnected. I called my [financial institution] and Patti XXXXXX confirmed that Eric did just call her but she herself was a little uncertain. So she called the [financial institution] card department and they were finally able to release the hold and hence the effective seizure of my funds that were fraudulently initiated by your company. Ms. XXXXXX agreed that double billing was not a good thing and is interested in knowing the results of this incident. After speaking with Ms. XXXXXX I had to go on the internet to find out the names of the corporate officers of Swanson. After all, this information which should have been readily available from your customer service people was not available. Finally, I was able to get some headway by using an alternative source to find this information. This is information that should be readily available when an unhappy customer demands it from your customer service people. You may hire these people to resolve customer service problems yet when it is clear that they are unable or unwilling to do so then this information should be readily available. And if your corporate officers don’t want to be bothered with this kind of concern then don’t double bill! I am forced to wonder why your legal counsel advised you that double billing customers was an acceptable business practice. It is difficult to imagine that a reputable attorney would permit such behavior to be linked with his name. Again, I doubt that my circumstances are unique. This concern could have been prevented if you did not engage in the practice of double billing. Did you really consider that no one would complain? It is a real shame Swanson engages in fraudulent business practices. You ship the products correctly and in a timely fashion. It is a shame that a true mistake that could have been fixed within three minutes ended up taking my entire afternoon. An intentional “mistake,” would generate an afternoon’s wheel spinning on the part of the customer and then some. I do not knowingly do business with entities that engage in your type of business practices. As I told Tyler, I only pay for merchandise once or I sever my business relationship. You put on a good show. You have nice catalogs. You have seemingly friendly customer service people; they stonewall you with a smile and soft voice. You seem to send the products ordered and accurately. You seem to stock some quality products. I wanted to believe that Swanson was a place I would be doing business with for many years to come. But cold hard facts have interfered and demonstrated to me that it seems to be quite common that you double bill. Again, I only pay for merchandise once and I will not afford the fallout generated by double billing. Nor should anyone else! Respectfully, [My Name] cc: Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota Attorney General, ( ) – Patti XXXXXX, [My Financial Institution], ( ) – = = = = = = = 01 May 2014 Mr. Wayne Stenehjem, Attorney General State of North Dakota Consumer Protection Division 1050 E Interstate Ave., Suite 200 Bismark, North Dakota 58503-5574 Ref: Swanson Health Products/SwansonVitamins.com, 4075 40th Ave, SW, Fargo, North Dakota 58104, (800) 437-4148, (701) 356-2700 VIA FAX TRANSMISSION TO (701) 328-5568 NUMBER OF PAGES IN THIS TRANSMISSION: 5 Dear Mr. Stenehjem: Swanson Health Products /aka/ SwansonVitamins.com has an apparent regular practice of double billing customers which can result in customer financial institution assesses fees that would otherwise be unnecessary had the second fraudulent transaction not taken place. When a customer attempts to resolve the problem the customer service people are virtually no help. Because of my tenacity and determination both I and my credit union were able to resolve the problem. But other unsuspecting customers may not have the help I did with their financial institution and may not have the tenacity to fix the problem of the double billing. Enclosed in this fax transmission is my letter to Rhonda Barreth, Executive Assistant at Swanson Health Products which delineates in great detail my experience. I trust that after you quickly look into this matter you will suspend Swanson Health Products/SwansonVitamins.com from doing business for two major reasons. First, they are involved in fraudulent practices. Second, it gives a tarnished mark to the reputation of the State of North Dakota to have such a business active engaged in financial bankcard fraudulent activities. Thank you for your assistance. Respectfully, [My Name]
Swanson Health Products / Swanson Vitamins Reviews & Complaints
Dear Sir/Madam, I have ordered products form Swanson Health for many years. It was always a joy to have my call answered quickly from the mid-western ladies with kind and patience voices. I was saddened today when I placed my order and a man from India answered after I had waited a long time for a representative to take my order. Is Swanson Health now having other countries handle their calls? If so it is extremely disappointing. My understanding was the Swanson Health was keeping the jobs in the US. I look forward to your response. Thanks you.
Swanson Health Products / Swanson Vitamins Reviews & Complaints
I am not complaining about this company. I am responding to the complaints made about Swanson Vitamins. I have been buying supplements from this site for many years and I find this company to provide the purest ingredients at very reasonable prices. Swanson’s list of products includes virtually every vitamin known to man plus pretty much all herbal supplements that have ever been claimed to provide health benefits. Yes, many of these products do not do what they claim to do, so buyer beware. In terms of herbal remedies, you must do your research and look for real clinical trials to find out which supplements work and can be effective for your needs. Once you determine which supplements are good for you, then I recommend ordering them through Swanson, as you will get the purest product at the best price.
Swanson Health Products / Swanson Vitamins Reviews & Complaints
I have been ordering from Swanson”s for years and years and this is the first time I”ve had a complaint. I ordered the Triple Iodine Complex for my under active thyroid. It has 12, 500 mg. Since the instructions on the bottle said not to take if you were taking prescription drugs which I am, I was afraid to take them. Found out on Google that 1, 100 mg. is all that an adult should take in a day. My question is: why are you selling something that is much too strong and might do damage to the person who is taking it? I”ve wasted my money on this and now am afraid to take it. Thank you. Spencer Stokes 793 Wilmoth Road Dobson, NC 27017
Swanson Health Products / Swanson Vitamins Reviews & Complaints
I notified Swanson several timers.. and they confirmed each.. that a refill order would be cancelled.. as yet the ### keep filling the refill even though I am on record to stop. This company is one ### den as they will do anything to get revenue… even losing a customer. I am in process of reporting them to US Govt complaint center in FBI. (IC3.gov)This company needs to be put on “scam company” list.
Swanson Health Products / Swanson Vitamins Reviews & Complaints
I recently ordered 12 bottles of Swanson’s Probiotics-4. When they arrived, all 12 bottles were going to expire in 4 months. I called to ask if I can find out the expiration date prior to ordering but they said that information is not available. I ended up buying a similar product from eVitamins.com and they gave me the information in less than one minute. Even though we have been customers for over ten years, I decided that we must not be valuable enough.