Boots Well Being www.bootswellbeing.com

My overall reaction to shopping at Boots online is one of disappointment. I like the high street version, it's a good, reliable, even comforting brand. But the online experience makes using the site as a last resort rather than a regular resource.

I cannot rely on parcels getting delivered. Items went missing. Customer services were unprofessional.

If you're an Advantage points addict like myself look on here regularly as I find there's far more point offers than in Boots' shops. The offers are updated every week.

An example of a good offer was spend £40 and recieve free P&P and a Mystery Of Goodies. This included £15 worth of miniture aftershaves, nail varnish, deodorant, points vouchers, loads of samples and face packs. Definitely worth nearly £40 itself.

I also got a dvd player for £40 (worth £90), a digibox for the TV for £50 (worth £100) and I usually get around 25% back in points for whatever I spend.

I've never had anything missing and everything has come in perfect condition. Very well packaged and always arrives earlier than expected.

I use boots wellbeing regularly from sheer laziness because it saves me from lugging stuff back from town. I have had a few problems with missing items from parcels, but one quick email to customer serices has always sorted the problem out. Absolutly always worth a look is the clearance section, where you can get stuff for up to 75% off - stock up for next xmas now!!

wellbeing.com (formerly boots.co.uk) is the online home of the major high street pharmacy Boots. Here you'll find everything they stock and more at...well, at pretty much the same price to be honest! I can't say I've been around the store with my clipboard but the prices look the same to me...so it comes down to convenience as to whether you want to use them or not. I've used them twice so far, both times out of sheer laziness because I couldn't be bothered to get the bus into town, and have found them to be very good indeed. There's a much wider selection of items on site than you'll find in even the largest stores and if you order over £20(at least that was the level last time I used them) delivery is free so you don't lose out. Straight to your doorstep AND free, can't be bad can it?! It gets better because once registered they often send you special offers and double point events via email(yes, you can earn clubcard points when you shop online as well) so it can be well worth using them instead of visiting the shop. On the down side I often find the site to be quite slow and I have had problems with checking out an order as well which was a nuisance because I had to fill my basket three times before it would finally go through! Delivery is reasonably prompt, they give you a day it will arrive and it has done on both ocassions and really I have no complaints. It's a good site, not the cheapest on general pricing although there are plenty of 3 for 2 offers like you find in store but good service you can rely upon. Recommended.

I'd have liked to have used 'Even Better than the Real Thing' but unfortunately, in this case, it just wouldn't be true... So, sit yourself down and I'll tell you a story. It starts at the house of the chemist, or as it would be more popularly known, Boots.

Now what with all this new fangled internet and e-commerce shenanigans going on these days our humble chemist realised that he couldn't beat them, and proverbially he must therefore join them. So wellbeing.com was born.

Now as we all know, Boots is truly a wonderful place and it's electronic sister needed to live up to it's high reputation. Therefore wellbeing.com is a shop with a difference, or more accurately not just a shop. It also incorporates a full Information and advice section which boasts live chat and hospital guides amongst it's features.

The site also provides an online version of the much coveted and seemingly randomly allocated, Boots Magazine. All the usual tricks are there as well: the option to register, join the mailing list, check on your advantage card etc. In fact, on a personal note, I can find no fault with any of these additional features but I didn't come here for information. Not today anyway... In fact, we are gathered here today to talk about just one component of this wonderful site - the shop.

Now there were three things that drew me to wellbeing.com on that particular day. Firstly it was fast approaching Mrblueeyedbrother's (banjo_2k) 18th birthday. Secondly Mrsbrowneyedmum had recommended that he required an electric shaver and lastly my local Boots is situated in Meadowhall (or more accurately Merryhell during the run up to Christmas). No, I was definitely in the running for some hassle free shopping.

The shop itself is spilt into logical categories much the same as that of the physical store: Beauty, Health, Vitamins & Dietary, Mother & Baby, Electrical, Men, Fitness, Personal Care, Travel, What's new and Special Offers. The products included in the final 2 sections are also included in their relevant 'logical' section so you can't miss them! As you progress into a category you are offered further sub-categories until you discover the exact product you want.

For example the Beauty category is further divided into Fragrance, Skincare, Perfume, Make up and Bath & Shower. Go into make up and you will a choice of different brands.

Also there is a very reliable search facility and a special drown down menu entitled 'Do you need some inspiration ...'. This allows you to choose such things as 'soothe my mind' or 'help me sleep' and be transported to a mixed selection of product suiting that particular mood.

One thing I was surprised and disappointed with was the product range. I had assumed that the site would carry the entire range of products that are stocked in the Boots stores. Unfortunately this isn't the case and some notable absentees can be seen in the make up and perfume departments. However, the product range is constantly growing and recent additions include the Clinique brand.

Now I needed to be reassured that this virtual visit was on par with the real Boots and the offers went some way towards this. The site carries all of the offers that can be found in the store (3 for 2, extra points, save, free gift etc) plus some that are exclusive to the site. The only problem with this is you will often find the special offers are Out Of Stock on the site, despite that fact there are 150 bottles of it sitting in your local store.

The actual shopping itself is very simple. Each product has a basket icon (if in list form) or an Add to basket button. You simply click on this to add products to your basket. One thing I really like is that you are not taken to your basket every time you add something. Instead your basket total is constantly displayed on the right with a quick link to go there at any time.

Another nice feature is that if you register +/ login before you shop, the products will stay in your basket until you remove or buy them. This is brilliant for shopping in bits throughout the day at work! Also once you have registered you can enter your advantage card number, then the site will remember it for you and automatically apply your points without you having to find your card each time.

The account area itself has all the mod cons of an e-commerce site. Multiple addresses, order history, order tracking etc. If you have ever used amazon.co.uk it's a very similar set up albeit a lot simpler.

Delivery is free if you spend over £30 or you can pay to have 24/48-hour delivery. When I made my order I chose to have it delivered for free on Tuesday and it actually arrived on the preceding Saturday at no extra cost. Unless you need the goods in a real hurry I wouldn't bother with the express delivery as standard is very prompt.

Also, my order was delivered in a giant cardboard box, which must have been half the size of me. I had ordered a baby toy which was quite large but even so the size of the parcel was a little excessive. Having said that it was kind of nice getting a huge parcel delivered and my cat was very appreciative of the empty box afterwards (I swear she want to be homeless!).

One thing I was a little wary of was that my cardboard box parcel was torn across the top. It had however been signed by one of the depot staff to acknowledge the package damage. When I opened the box the product were very well packed and there was no damage except for one thing...

The electrics shaver wasn't there! Immediately I checked the invoice, well OK immediately I panicked and then I thought to check the invoice. Phew! I hadn't been charged for it, but why wasn't it there? I dashed off to wellbeing.com to check my order status but the website was not up to date. In fact as far as they were concerned my order hadn't been dispatched yet!

I decided to hang fire until the due delivery date and when that came and passed (with still no change in the website's information) I called Customer Services. They were very hard to get through to but when I did their service was second to none. They offered me a variety of options, although they could not tell me why the product had not been sent, and I decided to cancel the order and try my luck with Merryhell! They did this straight away when I was on the phone and very politely too!

Later that day I popped into Boots and bought the electric shaver I wanted straight from the shelf, then spookily I received an email a couple of hours later my online order was out of stock and had therefore been cancelled. This seems a little odd as I had already cancelled the order myself but I decided to let it ride - it was Christmas after all.

Maybe I will try wellbeing.com again when it isn't such a busy time of year. In fact I have been quite tempted by their January sale but for recommendations sake I think you should just stick to the real thing.

The BootsWellBeing website is excellent for shopping for all your beauty essentials, lots of make-up and sumptious lotions and potions to indulge yourself in.

Very good to browse products and information available. Many discount insentives to tempt you to buy and the great thing is you top up your advantage card too.