Ultra Life supplements availability in UK sucks

[robwhite]

I would start on a good note by saying the few times i have been able to use Ultra Life / Synergistics supplements i was very pleased - they are use quality sourced ingredients, and definately made an impact on my health. The HCL #2 in particular really helped my digestion and was better than any other HCL-boosting supplement i have used. Its just a shame that, for reasons below, i can only use them sporadically, which pre-empts my rant ...

Sorry to say it, but it is really hard work getting many of the Ultra Life / Synergistics supplements in the UK.

For example, two of the supplements recommended to me in my original analysis were totally unavailable in Europe (Pro-Bio 12 and X-HM), even when i use the European Online Metabolic Typing Shop www.mt-order.com recommended from the Ultra Life Inc. website www.ultralifeinc.com/Corp/European.asp . The 'alternative' probiotic product i ended up with was called Bio-Acidophilus Lab 4 and it wasnt even an Ultra Life product - its a BioCare product which are mediocre. Compared to the spec for the Pro-Bio 12 which looked excellent, the Bio-Acidophilus Lab 4 product was a very poor substitute.

Talking of the European Online Metabolic Typing Shop, it seems that about 50% of their catalogue range is now unavailable - even some of the basic multi vitamin complexes in the Synergistcs range they now no longer sell! I fail to see how Ultra Life Inc can recommend such a poor source for European customers.

For UK MT Clients, the best place i found for my 'standard issue' supplements (i.e MultiCom, HCL, Enzigest, Paraplex) is NutriCentre www.nutricentre.com/ who are based in London. They don’t openly advertise these products (why ?!?), but if you tell them you are a MT Client or Advisor they stock a good range, and I presume they are an authorised vendor because they take a note of my MT Advisor's name and number every time I order. They seem to be very well priced (another bugbear i will get to in a minute), and have better availability of the product range - much more so than the European Online Metabolic Typing Shop. They also offer a loyalty reward scheme with Tesco’s (a UK supermarket), who I do my food shopping with, so I get quite a few reward points which I can convert into discounts with Tesco’s. However, a) they take forever to get Synergistcs / Ultra Life stock in (i.e talking months after you order), and b) they are unable to get hold of specialised supplements, such as pregnelone, DHEA, and melatonin drops, which have recently been recommended to me by my advisor (thanks for helping me out with sourcing this stuff Eric).

My final gripe is the price of Synergistcs / Ultra Life products in the UK is absurdley more expensive than in the US. For example, I look on the US Ultra Life Inc catalogue at Multi-Com #3 and it says the price for 2 bottles (180 tabs) is $34.88- a perfectly reasonable price for such decent products, yet i have been quoted by one official UK source for this product as being £40 (currently about £65) - a 165% markup from the US price!

I honestly think these issues are going to damage business for both Ultra Life and HealthExcel in Europe.

[robwhite]

To be fair, i have just noticed on the European Online Metabolic Typing Shop site www.mt-order.com, it says amongst the intro blurb:

"We do have a few special supplements in stock that for various reasons are not listed here. If your therapist or advisor recommended a product and you can not find it in the webshop, please send us a message by going to Contact Us and we will get back to you as soon as possible"

[erictalmant]

Rob:

I already told you this in an email, but if you or anyone else in Europe is interested in purchasing Ultra Life supplements then just email me at [e-mail]. What we will do is that you can tell me what you want, and then I will order it for you and have it shipped to my house. I will then ship it to you anywhere. I can ship priority mail at a flat rate of around $13 to any location in the world. I would simply send you a Pay Pal invoice for the total of your order, plus what it costs me to ship to you. You would not need to pay the first shipping charge from Ultra Life to me in Florida.

The only downside to this is that I would need to know what to put on the custom's forms so that the orders would get to you with little or no hassle, and there is no shipping guarantee when I use US Priority Mail International. In other words, if something gets lost then the only way to recoup the money is to insure the package when it is sent; which I can certainly do!

Anyhow...

The point is that if any of you want to take advantage of this, then simply email me and we will work something out that works for both of us.

[robwhite]

Its great that you are offering this service to European customers Eric. Will certainly make life alot easier for European clients.

[erictalmant]

Yeah, I suppose it will. It really is not that much of a hassle for me, and since you guys only pay for the shipping once it should be a pretty good deal for you as well.

Ultra Life is one of my sponsors and their stuff is the best there is, so I try to drive as much business as I can to them.

This is just one more way to do that!

[robwhite]

OK, i've just been reading the UK HM Customs& Revenue Guide for International Post Users customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document#P24_1088

There are typically two charges they try and sting you with when you recieive packages from outside the EU, Customs Duty, and Import Tax.

To avoid Customs Duty the only way i see it is to mark the value of the item as less than £7.

To avoid Import Tax, its a little easier:

- Put a reasonable description on it - e.g. nutritional supplements (mutli-minerals).
- Mark the item as Gift
- Declare the item as having 'no comercial value'
- Declare the value of the item as £18 or less (currently about $29)
- Make sure the item is sent from one private individual to another (i.e from Eric to one of his clients)

For a package of any reasonable size i dont think Customs would fall for it if you marked it as value of £7 or less (unless it was literally just one bottle of tablets), but i think £18 or less it a bit more realistic for a number of tablet bottles, etc. So basically you can avoid the Import Tax but not the Customs Duty if you do what i said above. The Duty charge on an item valued at £18 or less is not going to be much, so its not a big deal if you get a small Duty charge.

[erictalmant]

Good research, Rob!

Thanks for sharing.

I will be shipping your supplements out in a day or so, and if you have not already emailed me these guidelines I will be sure to adhere to them.

Does anyone else have any input about their particular country's laws in terms of one individual (me) sending supplements to another individual (you) in your country?

If so, then please post it!