Thanks for posting this and doing all of that research! When one of my favorite (non H&E) scents turned out to not be what I expected someone recommended H&E to me. But I really couldn't in good faith order from a company who seemed to be engaging in rather shady practices. Just from reading the thread they are apparent. But I don't always believe what I read on a forum so I waited, and things just got worse.
Instead of posting my questions here I figured I would go to the new H&E forum, for a while I was able to read it but then you had to apply to the forum by submitting your email addy "for approval". The reason given was to avoid spam-bots (I think) but that makes no sense. And I refuse to apply to a forum that will "let me know if I've been approved". Not good for business.
And the fact that the mods got the blame for "clustering/swarming" around the thread to cause drama? I view it as the mods being aware of the problems F_S points out long before the posters did.
And add me to the paranoid but for a few weeks it seems as if the H&E thread was *constantly* bumped up. That irritated me to no end, it seemed as if it was planned, to make sure it was always on the top of the page. And now I read about alternate accounts and using other members accounts...
*gah* I know I'm rambling, but one of the things I like about the retail therapy forum is not just that it gets me addicted to so many products but it's a good way to get feedback about e-tailers. And I think I have gotten all of the feedback I need about H&E.