There's Nothing Royal About This Site
Royal Jelly
I am not a user of ingestible Royal Jelly but I do believe that beauty products containing it can be beneficial. I wasn't, however, looking for Royal Jelly products when I went to the site I am reviewing. I ended up at the Royal Jelly Store when I was looking for a certain Burt's Bees product that must have been discontinued. I didn't find that product but I did end making a purchase from the site.
What the Site Sells
This site sells an assortment of Royal Jelly (prime bee pollen) ingestible supplements as well as an assortment of Burt's Bees skin, hair, and cosmetic products. They also sell a very small assortment of Kiss My Face products.
The Site
This site is very simple yet confusing. I didn't know quite how to navigate it when I went there. The homepage is split into two with Burt's Bees products on one side and Royal Jelly and other bee pollen supplements on the other.
There is a lot of information about Royal Jelly and bee pollen at the bottom of the page with links to informational pieces.
Click on one of the two sides of the page and you will be taken to a list of items sold.
You can browse through the various offerings and click on ones you like. You will get a larger photo and a short description. You often get a discount for buying more than one of the same item but you have to calculate the discount yourself. For instance, if you buy two of one item, take $1.00 off each. If you buy three, take $1.50 off each. You calculate the price yourself and fill it in when buying multiple products.
Click the items you want to buy and they will go into your cart. If you are due any kind of bulk discount, calculate the price of the items and type the figure into the price box.
When you are finished shopping, you go to the checkout. You must fill in your personal information and choose from Parcel Post, Priority Mail, or Express Mail.
The thing is, you don't know your shipping costs for any of the options until after you pick an option. I chose Parcel Post and my shipping for a $30.00 order was $7.42. I think that is way too high and I am not even talking about regular mail. This is the slowest (and cheapest) mail available. Priority Mail would have been $8.55.
They accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover. They also accept PayPal or checks by mail.
You will get a confirmation number when your order is processed and a shipping one when it is set out. Depending on the method of shipping you chose, you should get the order within a couple of weeks or much less.
My Experience
I couldn't find the product I wanted but I did decide to pick up a few Burt's Bees items I like. The prices were comparable with the prices I pay on other sites. It wasn't until I got to the shipping part of the site that I was disappointed. The shipping for my $30.00 order was nearly $8.00 Parcel Post!
I went ahead with the order because I had spent a considerable amount of time on the site and I was too lazy to comparison shop elsewhere.
I used PayPal and it went through quickly. I did get a confirmation email and a day or two later, a shipping one.
My order took about nine days to arrive after it was shipped out. It was decently packed and all was well with it.
But nothing at all made this experience stand out as a particularly good one. I didn't have an issue with customer service so I didn't need to call or write them.
I am satisfied as far as the order goes but turned off of the shipping prices and the funky navigation as well as the small selection of items other than Burt's Bees products.
Shipping and Returns
Shipping is dependant on area and weight. It also depends on what method you choose. They claim that they charge low shipping rates but I beg to differ. I think their shipping rates are too high especially for very light and inexpensive items. You can only find out what your shipping is after you give them all your personal info minus your payment.
According to the site: If you are not satisfied with the quality, or any other aspect of our product, simply return it to us for a replacement or full refund of the product price. This is a no-fuss guarantee on any product at our site. It does not extend however to shipping charges.
They will accept any and all returns minus shipping. You must pay to send the items back as is standard these days.
I like that policy especially for supplements. I do hope they don't resell the supplements that are returned though.
Contact Info
Orders and questions can be called in to: 1-(877) 750-0300.
They have several email addresses for different areas of the site and all can be found on their "Policies" page.
Physical address:
The Natural Shopper (Royal Jelly Store)
530 Mill St
PO Box 153
Green Lake, WI 54941-0153
USA
Conclusion
This site is just too limited for me. I don't use Royal Jelly supplements and, frankly, wouldn't buy them at this site because I know that people are returning products. I don't want to chance getting repackaged supplements.
The Burt's Bees area is decent but the prices aren't better than at the usual outlets yet the shipping is more expensive than many websites.
I do like that I can return a product with no questions asked but that isn't really a special thing in this age of net shopping.
The site is simplistic and limited and I just don't see why I would go back when I could get anything they sell for the same price elsewhere and avoid most or all of the shipping charges.
If you take Royal Jelly or Bee Pollen supplements, you may want to check the prices. I don't know if they are better than average as I don't take them.
I rate this site average. 3 stars. Nothing wrong with it per se but just not enough right with it for me to go back again.
Recommended:
No
