Dishonest and shady
I ordered some so-called St. Vincent arrowroot from Foothills Naturals. Before then, I used to buy St. Vincent arrowroot from Frontier Co-op, but they've been out of stock for a very long time, and I was looking for another source. According to Frontier, true arrowroot is grown only on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean—all other arrowroot on the market is either completely fake or adulterated with some other starch like tapioca.
Anyway, when I saw the product "St. Vincent Arrowroot" on Foothills Naturals' Website, I was thrilled. And their product description made it really sound like true arrowroot. I was a little suspicious, though, when I saw the rather low price, because true arrowroot is very expensive. It all seemed a bit too good to be true. Nonetheless, I decided to place an order. Well, when my order arrived, I got a huge shock. On the back of the package, it says: "Product of India"! I'm sorry, but THAT is not St. Vincent arrowroot! 😾 And nowhere in the product description on their Website does it state "product of India." Can you say "false advertising"?
I immediately contacted Foothills Naturals and demanded a refund, saying that they deceptively advertised their arrowroot as coming from St. Vincent. Unfortunately, they don't advertise a phone number, so I had to carry on the whole conversation through e-mail. And Sally, their customer-service agent, became very defensive and nasty and started playing the victim, telling me not to accuse them of being crooks until I "knew all the facts." She also said that they have the product analyzed to ensure that it's genuine arrowroot.
I then asked Sally for a copy of their certificate of analysis. She refused, saying that they don't provide that to "retail customers," because it's proprietary information that could be used for dishonest purposes. Huh? What is that supposed to mean? 🙄 I responded that if they refused provide me with proof that their arrowroot is real, then I would dispute the charge with my credit card company. I guess that scared them, so Sally provided me with just one page of their certificate of analysis. Unfortunately, they had edited out various details, so it was almost useless. 🤡 Sally ended her e-mail with: "If you need anything else, please reach out to us." In my response, I asked her for the name of the lab that had performed the testing. Crickets. 🦗 In fact, I never heard from her again! So much for "reaching out" to them.
And it's highly ironic that they told me not to "accuse" them of being crooks before knowing all the facts, but then refused to provide them! 🤪 It's obvious that they don't WANT you to know all the facts, especially since they don't indicate on their Website that their product comes from India. In a nutshell, it's pretty obvious that their so-called St. Vincent arrowroot is not true arrowroot, but they try to keep that a secret. They must know that if they truthfully called their product Indian Arrowroot, it wouldn't sell very well. In addition, an honest company wouldn't hesitate to provide a legitimate certificate of analysis for any of its products.
So, Foothills Naturals is extremely dishonest. I ended up disputing the charge for the arrowrrot with my credit card company. And guess what? I won the dispute! 🥳 Obviously my credit card company saw through their deception too. Please do yourself a favor and stay far away from this shady company. 🤥