Shop: To Health By Choice (Healthstart Life products)
Products: Health gadgets (air purifier, juicer, sauna, water filter, etc)
Pro: Speedy postage, flat rate postage
Cons: their chart/e-shop software is very basic. Lack of information about the company and the order process.

Is this shop safe and trustworthy? Yes.

Comments:

Long story short, I was looking for an air purifier and came across some review site which recommends HealthStart air purifier. I searched for stockist but the only thing I could find was their website, To Health By Choice. I was really confused at the beginning because, for a start, the shop name is different from the brand name of the products. On top of that, their website has the characteristics of a scam shop:

1. No information whatsoever about the company other than a mission & vision statement on the home page  (i.e.  no About Us page). I expect information on who they are, where they’re based, what products they specialise on, how long they’ve been in business, etc etc.

2. Clicking the contact us page, there’s no physical location other than a PO BOX address. For a shop that sells a lot of hardwares, I would at least expect to see the address of their warehouse, or an office location. A PO Box makes them look like a dodgy home-based business and not a big company which raises suspicion since they sell big stuff with big price tag.

3. Other than the “Free shipping orders over $250″ on the bottom left, there’s no other information about how to order, how much is shipping, where it’s shipped from, how long it takes to process an order, what payment method accepted. I had to click on ‘View Chart’ to find the minimal info about the shipping process.

4. The site design is very outdated. Moving red arrow is so 90′s. Huge blue next arrow, also very 90′s. The big ‘Buy Now!’ button looks intimidating. The format of the pages are not consistent from one product to the another. Overall, the whole site looks rather cheap.

5. The tone of the product descriptions reminds me of door-to-door salesmen. Trying to hard to convince the audience to buy the product.

6. As I usually do before I use an online shop for the first time, I use google to find out if anyone has bought from them. But I got nothing.

Naturally, I first didn’t want to risk buying from them but I really needed an air purifier and people have been recommending their ION-70 (although these people didn’t say where they buy it from!). ION-70 was way over my budget So I wanted the mini version, ION-25. I looked around for some other brand with similar price range, ION-25 still seems more advanced and good value for the price.

So I decided to test out the ordering process. When I reached the payment page, I notice they use a secured chart (valid SSL certificate) so I felt more comforted and decided to go ahead. My credit card has a protection against fraud so I thought I can always lodge a complain and get refund from my credit card company. Another thing that comforted me was the fact that they say they ship within Australia only. A scam shop would want to scam as many people as possible, not just Australians.

After I went through the whole process, I received an invoice which has their ABN. I looked it up and find that it is a genuine ABN of the correct name so I was relieved.

The next day, I emailed them asking how long it’ll take to process my order. Shortly after I received an email saying my order has been shipped. It took 3 days for it to arrive so altogether it was A 4 days wait. Not bad at all.

I also email them about tracking number and they come back to me almost immediately. Another plus point.

So if you’re doubting this shop like I did, doubt no more, I can confidently say they’re genuine. I’m now using their air purifier and very happy with it. Definitely a genuine product.