Yeah, as others have said, store and customer experience here is spotty, and YMMV as they commonly say.
That said, I purchased the Choco PB flavor of Whey Protein powder (5lb, the large one) online at GNC, and did store pick-up here as I saved about 20%.
In that regards, my store pick-up was an overall positive experience, HOWEVER... at the time I came, around 1pm, they were closed and the sign on the storefront said "back in 15 mins".
I walked further in to the food court and wasted about half hour there, and when I came back, store was open so was no great loss. Still, I do wish they were actually open during their store open hours, as this is on weekday and I can see how others might lose their patience if they had important calls or mtgs scheduled during that time.
All good, made pick up, then realized the chocolate PB one had artificial sweeteners such as Sucralose -- which everyone says must be avoided at all costs! I don't get why they don't use natural sweetener like Stevia Extract. Either way, I had slight stomach upset and felt ill, and realized I was dissatisfied with purchase.
I tried to call this store at Dulles Mall three times, but no one picked up the phone.
Finally I drove there, requested refund and exchange for the double chocolate flavor, which was the only one WITHOUT Sucralose, which is what I should have bought! As I said, I should have read the labels better.
Even in exchange process, I wasted a good half hour easily by waiting for things to go through. The guy at front desk was borderline incompetent and had to call in manager. At this time, the manager started scolding the other guy for not being able to handle a simple exchange, and made me uncomfortable to watch that.
All in all, exchange did go through, but because I had opened the lid already and had a single scoop of it, the product was not resellable. Which I felt bad about, but to be fair I did not see that the product had Sucralose as an ingredient, and I am not sure why GNC continues to use Sucralose as sweetener which FDC has already warned against.
The exchange costed me 5$ for fair return of unsellable goods, which would either have to be trashed or given to one of employees; I felt that reasoning was fair, but the extra cost still goes against what GNC have promised on their site -- 30-day money back guarantee of goods in any condition, opened or otherwise.
All said, spotty service here, no one was there the first time I went and wasted 15 minutes easily, and afterwards no one picked up the phone ever, and the second time I was made uncomfortable by the awkward events and convo between manager and an employee. Also, it took over half hour to get my exchange - what gives?
Anyway, I'm being gracious by rating a little higher than I normally would. GNC might suck in their choice of ingredients they use, but they do have a decent enough store here at the Dulles Mall location, and employees here that are courteous enough and know how to assist someone in pick-up or return/exchange.
We'll see how the Double Chocolate flavor of Gold Standard Whey holds up, but overall I am hopeful. read more
