Well being a demic this is just up my street (wellbeing.com)

Member Name: criple

Product:	wellbeing.com
Date:	30/01/03 (578 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wide Range Of Products, Special Offers, Excellent Customer Service

Disadvantages: Some Pages Can Be Slow To Load, Popular Items May Be Out Of Stock

After purchasing from wellbeing.com many times I've finally got around to telling you about it. It took a recent purchase to spur me on and persuade me to share my experiences with you.

For those of you that don't know wellbeing.com is the Internet site for Boots. Of course these days Boots is much more than the mere chemist it started out as. You can now purchase food; toys and electrical equipment to name just a few in addition to the medicines you would expect to be available.

~~~~ THE HOMEPAGE ~~~~

The page always loads very quickly and I have only ever had problems with access once, this was due to a promotion that had an unprecedented demand and the website crashed. At the top of the page you will notice the familiar Boots logo, you can instantly recognise the link as the wellbeing.com name is right along side it. The top section has two bands, one dark green and the other pale green, the rest is in simple white as there are many product images to be displayed.

Along the top of the page in the pale green band are 6 departments to choose from:

Gift- from here you can access many gifts that are split into different categories, i.e. kids, her, him etc. If you click on gifts for her for example it will then take you to another subsection offer choices such as, bath and body, home therapies and gifts for the home. There are 8 categories to choose from and each page loads quickly however you will then be presented with more options. Bath and body brings up another 9 choices so it could take you a whole to browse through. It does mean that you don't have to wade through hundreds of products but you do have to be patient. If you know what you are looking for you can always use the search facility, which seems to be available on all pages.

Beauty- there are 12 categories here including hair care, skincare and dental care. If you click on hair care you are presented with 10 options, one of which is el
ectrical. In the electrical department you can find everything from hot brushes to hair dryers and brands such as Babyliss and Braun. If you click on Babyliss instead of going to a specific product it will bring you all Babyliss products regardless of category. This is handy if you wish to check out a specific brand as opposed to searching through all the hairdryers.

Baby- there are too many individual categories to mention in the baby department. Again you need to choose an area and then depending upon which you choose you could be presented with more options. You will find things like teethers, milk, nappies, high chairs and home safety & health. Home safety & health provides you with an abundance of useful items such as monitors, thermometers and night-lights. Everything you could need for yourself and your baby can be found on wellbeing.com.

Healthcare- Another massive list pops up when you click on this, no less than 14 options are available including, eye care, foot care, fertility & contraception, complementary medicine and holiday and travel. The complementary medicine section offers homeopathy, herbal and aromatherapy treatments to name a few. You may find further sub sections within these to enable you to narrow your search down.

Men's- this section is for, you guessed it, men's products!

You can buy things for hair, face and body along with electrical items such as shavers. The men's department actually includes condoms; looks like Boots still think it's up top the guys to buy these. There is also a top 10 skin care products and top 10 hair styling products list, perhaps they also think that men need a little help in this department! The shave department will bring up 9 sub sections which includes things like shaving foams, if you click on this 15 products are displayed so there is a good selection to choose from.

Offers- this is one department I always check out! This will bring up a small
selection with graphics that highlights their best offers. There will also be a list on the left hand side offering promotions such as buy one get one free, 3 for 2, extra points and sale items. You can go in to any one for further details but you may be presented with more choices as with other departments.

~~~~ MORE HOMEPAGE INFO! ~~~~

There is so much you can check out on this site it would take more than one review to tell you everything. An abundance of info can be obtained from the left hand side of the homepage. You can access 8 different topics from this directory. These are:

Popular links, Healthy new you, In beauty today, In baby today, In health today, Other departments, Boots services and site information. Each of these topics is broken down depending on what you want to know. For example, healthy new you has, get fit, loose weight, detox and stop smoking. If you enter the 'stop smoking' section you are faced with a couple of drop down boxes asking you how many and how often you smoke, this is to narrow the information required down. It then brings up a total of 22 products including various patches and gums. It will tell you if any of the items are on special offer or you get extra points and you can click for more details for any item in any department.

You can access your shopping basket at any time from the home page and any other page you are viewing. Another handy feature is that you can see the total of your order constantly on the right hand side of the page. This is very easy to see as the information is contained in a box and it clearly states, basket summary along with how many items and the amount spent. This won't include delivery charges though.

~~~~ ORDERING & DELIVERY ~~~~

Once you have found a product you wish to buy you can either add the required quantity immediately or click on more info and then add the product. There is almost always a photo displayed on the page
and the images are clear. If you wish to get a closer view you simply click on the item and a larger image will appear. You can have some items gift boxed but there is an additional charge for this of £2.95, this is the same no matter how many items you wish to be gift boxed. It does state that they will try to use one box for all items and if additional boxes are needed no extra charges will be made. This is fine if you are buying for one person but if you are buying for more than one person it won't be practical. A gift message can be added free of charge though and would make a nice touch. There is a little box on the left hand side of the shopping basket details for you to type your message.

Once you add the item it will tell you, for example I just added a Barefoot Doctor Skincare Kit and it tells you what has been added underneath the basket details. I find this really good as you know the item has definitely gone in your basket. When an item is out of stock it does say this next to the product description and you can have the option of being emailed when the product is back in stock. I have found in the past however that by the time you are ready to complete your purchase some items may then become out of stock. This doesn't happen all the time but when sales are on it can happen and it is frustrating. The only thing I can suggest is to be quick about putting your order through, if it is an item you really want then put that order through on it's own. It may mean paying an extra delivery charge; you will have to decide if it is worth it.

Wellbeing now offer 3 free delivery options and details are as follows:

Orders over £30 on standard delivery to arrive within 5 working days. If less than £30 is spent the charge will be £1.95

Free 'named' day delivery for orders over £60 otherwise the charge is £2.95

Free 'next' day delivery on orders over £120, otherwise the charge will be £4.95. <
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For most of us then the delivery will be free or £1.95, I find this very reasonable, as it doesn't matter how large the order is. If some items have to be sent separately when the order is placed you will be informed of this. My recent order was full of sale items are fantastic prices, some with 67% off. You can imagine that demand was high and only part of my order was despatched on time. I received notification of this via email and a list of which items would be sent was included. I was also informed that no extra charges would be incurred as more than one delivery was now needed.

When some items became available they too were despatched with an email informing me. The full order was not yet ready but instead of keeping me waiting they have sent the items out as each one became available, again I didn't need to pay an extra delivery charges. They keep you informed at all times and you can also check your order status online.

Delivery is usually on time. I have only had a late delivery once and this was because I placed the order late in the day when they used to have a 48-hour delivery time. Apparently although I received an email stating when my order was going to be delivered it came the day after due to my order being placed after the cut off time. Now they have changed to a standard 5-day delivery they have never gone over the specified time and they usually manage to deliver in 48-72 hours.

If you order any medicinal items or the order is more than £100 someone will have to sign for it, it has be a person over the age of 18. If you are out a card will be left, they will not leave it behind bushes!

~~~~ REGISTRATION ~~~~

You don't have to register with the site to browse or add items to the basket. You will of course need to register if you wish to complete a purchase. This is straightforward and you are required to give your name and email address, create a password and password reminders,
gender and date of birth. You can also choose to opt out of receiving information in the future. If you have a Boots advantage card you can input the details to ensure that you receive points on all your online purchases. If you don't yet have an advantage card you can tick a box to apply for one.

You do not have to enter any credit card details at the point of registration. When you complete a purchase transaction it will ask for these details along with your address details. You can choose different credit cards or store the same one for future purchase and you can have more than one address listed so that items can be delivered to an alternate address.

It is worthwhile registering even if you don't wish to make a purchase just yet. You will get advance notification of any forthcoming sales or special offers. I have had a couple of exclusive 25% off emails that I wouldn?t have received otherwise. It also enables you to log in to the site when you visit. One advantage of this is that any items you add to your basket are saved for 60 days so you can add items as you think you need them and purchase them all together. If you get interrupted or loose your connection all is not lost.

~~~~ CUSTOMER SERVICES ~~~~

I have spoken to customer services on a few occasions and they have always been more than helpful. Once my advantage card points didn't appear from a wellbeing purchase and I phoned them. They were very helpful and explained that after about a week or so I needed to go to a store and put my card in to an advantage card machine, my points would then be credited. They used to send out points vouchers but maybe they were too costly or open to abuse.

Once I lost my card and when I discovered this I phoned to order a new one. Unfortunately someone must have found it and spent all my points. They were very helpful and sent me a new card out and actually re-credited the points that had been spent.

M
ost recently, and this is what prompted me to write this op I did something rather embarrassing.

After taking delivery of my parcel my wonderful daughter decided to open it when I went upstairs. Apparently my stepson told her that it was full of Barbie Dolls! She didn't do a good job with the box as she opened it from one end instead of lifting the lid up and I didn't think to check the contents straight away. My husband then decided to take the 'empty' box to the council tip. It was only when he left that I decided to check the items against my email confirmation. Oh dear! A couple of items were missing along with the enclosed receipt. My daughter had not emptied the box properly! Luckily the main items were there and it was an insect repellent roll on that I bought for the holidays and a £5 skin care voucher that had been thrown away. They would not let my husband retrieve them from the skip so I told wellbeing about our mishap. She was very helpful and the roll on had now sold out but she refunded me for this, she also sent out another voucher for me. To me this was above and beyond the call of duty and a lot of places would have said there was nothing they could do.

~~~~ OTHER IMPORTANT INFO ~~~~

The site itself is very secure and you can check their security status, all personal information is encrypted and they claim that no one has ever suffered loss through a purchase on their site. They also state that if fraud is committed and you have to pay part of the claim to the card company, they will pay up to £50.

Your personal information will be shared between Boots and wellbeing unless you specify otherwise, it will not be passed on to any other third parties.

You will earn 4 points for every pound you spend just as in the store. At the moment you cannot redeem the points on purchases made online, you can only spend them in the Boots stores. The advantage card although only a point's collectio
n card and not a credit card can be open to abuse. You do not have to sign on the card and if you loose it anyone can go in to a store and spend the points you have earned. Report your card lost or stolen immediately and try not to save too many points without spending in case this happens.

Prices are the same as in the Boots stores so you may find some toiletries cheaper in Superdrug etc but remember to check out the special offers. The sales after Christmas are fantastic; I have just order a Glitter Babes personal CD Walkman reduced from £40 to £13.33 and most items that were previously £10 like Gillette/Lynx gift sets were £3.33. You can get items in the sale at better reduced prices than in the store.

There are area's of the site designed to give you advice and more information to Boots Health Services, they are too many to mention but I urge you to check them out.

~~~~ OVERALL OPINION ~~~~

You can probably guess that I quite like this store as it is full of information and useful products. The prices are pretty good and the range is plentiful. The only qualms I have is that popular items can be out of stock and even on broadband some pages take a few seconds to load, this is due to the images. It can take a while to browse the site if you are not exactly sure what you are looking for. I rate as follows out of 10:

Speed Of Pages: 7/10
Navigation 7/10
Clarity 9/10
Range Of Products 10/10
Product Availability 7/10
Price 8/10
Delivery 9/10
Security 10/10
Customer Service 10/10

Recommended

If you need any further info you should visit the site in the first instance at www.wellbeing.com and complete an online form.

Thanks for the read I know it's been a long one!

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