Bodybuilding.com makes every possible effort to include only the highest quality nutritional supplements in its extensive product catalog. The company sells supplements from a variety of reputable manufacturers, including Higher Power, Optimum Nutrition, USPLabs, BSN, Muscle Pharm, BPI Sports and MuscleTech. When you view a product from any brand, you'll see a link above the ingredients list directing you to that brand's manufacturer information page. Here, you'll find details about the company's manufacturing process, including any tests they perform on raw ingredients and finished products. This should give you an idea of the quality you can expect from each manufacturer's product line carried by Bodybuilding.com.
Since Bodybuilding.com sells literally hundreds of nutritional supplement brands, it goes without saying that some of the brands utilize a more rigid and thorough quality control process than others. Bodybuilding.com scores major points by making this information as available as possible.
Bodybuilding.com's quality is also apparent in the Find a Plan area of their website. Here, you'll gain access to BodySpace, a free membership section of Bodybuilding.com that offers complete daily trainers, muscle building and fat loss plans, nutrition programs, supplement schedules and motivational tips, all of which are tailored to your specific needs. You can begin to customize your plan by using Bodybuilding.com's Getting Started tool, which can also be used to receive a nutritional supplement regimen recommendation on the site's homepage. You'll need to enter your sex, goal (fat loss or muscle building) and age (teen, 20-39 or 40+). Bodybuilding.com will then instantly match you with a recommended plan, as well as other plans that could help you meet your goals.
Each individual product page on Bodybuilding.com includes a full list of ingredients, typically presented as an actual image of the nutritional supplement's label. This allows you to see all of the active and inactive ingredients included in the product, as well as any relevant daily nutritional values. The bottom of the ingredient list provides a warning to allergy sufferers by stating whether the product contains ingredients such as soy, milk, eggs, shellfish, nuts or gluten.
Many nutritional supplement users prefer to seek out products according to ingredient, and this is something that Bodybuilding.com fully supports. You can shop according to an A-Z alphabetical listing of all ingredients, or by the most popular ingredients such as protein, glutamine, tribulus, creatine and caffeine. In addition, the site allows you to search according to the top ingredients for both fat loss and muscle building. This is a nice touch that makes the enormous product catalog easier to comprehend and navigate.
Bodybuilding.com makes no blanket statements in regards to the types of ingredients used in the nutritional supplements they sell. Many of the supplements use all-natural ingredients, while some may include artificial ingredients such as colors and flavorings. Some of the ingredients are organically grown, while others are not. This is acceptable given the level of transparency the company uses when listing ingredients for all of its available products.
Bodybuilding.com carries an enormous range of nutritional supplements, and it would be unrealistic to expect to find clinical studies pertaining to all of them. However, some of the products sold by Bodybuilding.com have undergone scientific clinical testing, and the site provides this information in detail whenever it's available.
For example, the product page for Maximum Hardcore Xenadrine Ripped describes two clinical trials performed on the supplement's active ingredient. The twelve-week double-blind study showed that those who took the supplement lost nearly 21 pounds on average, while those who took a placebo lost an average of only 1.7 pounds. The results of an 8-week study were similar, showing that those who took the supplement lost 16.5 pounds while those who took a placebo lost only 1.73. In both studies, all participants were given calorie-restricted diets.
The fact that Bodybuilding.com readily shares this information is notable in part because so few other online nutritional supplement retailers do the same. Although it would be nice to see even more clinical studies on the site covering a broader range of supplements in the future, the site already has a major advantage over the competition in this area.
Bodybuilding.com maintains a separate Product Reviews area in which customers can post testimonials. Each testimonial is specific to a given nutritional supplement. Each individual review includes summary text, a rating between 1 and 10, and a brief profile of the reviewer including his or her height, weight and body fat percentage. Most of the products are reviewed quite extensively, receiving dozens or even hundreds of reviews. Conveniently, the site averages all of the ratings and gives each product a score beween 0 and 10.0. Bodybuilding.com does not edit these reviews in any way, which makes it easy for customers to quickly choose the most highly rated product that will fit their needs.
Overall, the user testimonials on Bodybuilding.com's product pages are a strong indication of the company's ability to deliver safe, effective and consistent products. Of course, with over 12,000 available products, it's obvious that some of the products will be more effective than others. For this reason, it's important to thoroughly read the user reviews attached to any product you're considering. If you're unhappy with a product you've received from Bodybuilding.com, the company will exchange it, even if you've used 100% of the contents, free of charge.
Bodybuilding.com offers direct customer support through email, live chat and phone. All of these support options, listed under the "Need Help?" area of the Bodybuilding.com website, are available 24/7. You can reach the company directly by calling 1-877-991-3411 or emailing
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The customer service area of Bodybuilding.com also includes an order tracking feature that allows you to track the progress of your shipment, view the status of pending orders and browse your complete order history. In order to track a package, you'll need to enter the order number that was included with the confirmation email you received upon placing the order.
Bodybuilding.com also offers customer support through an extensive FAQ section. Some of the topics included in the FAQ include Order Status, Payment Methods, Placing an Order, Returns and Exchanges, Finding Products, Account Management, Shipping, Gift Certificates, Order Changes and Privacy and Security.
Bodybuilding.com is known for offering exceptional customer support, as proven by their A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Although the company has received a few complaints through the BBB, all of those complaints have been resolved to the satisfaction of customers in a timely fashion.
Bodybuilding.com maintains a flexible return policy designed to accommodate a variety of situations. If you order a product from Bodybuilding.com and decide to return it after opening it, you'll receive a full refund in the form of store credit so long as you ship the item back in 45 days. In most cases, this policy applies even if you've completely emptied the bottle. If you return the item after 45 days have passed, you'll receive store credit minus a 25% restocking fee. Unfortunately, the company does not accept any returns after 6 months.
If you receive a damaged product or the wrong product, you can return it for a full refund at Bodybuilding.com's expense. The company will email you a prepaid shipping label that you can affix to the return package, and send a replacement to fill your original order immediately.
If you wish to return an unopened item, you may do within 90 days of the original purchase for a full refund minus shipping and handling. Returning a sealed item results in cash reimbursement credited to your original payment method instead of store credit.
Bodybuilding.com offers extremely reasonable pricing on many of their nutritional supplements, with most products priced at a discount of between 30% and 50% off of retail pricing. In many cases, you can save even more money by purchasing in bulk. For example, 90 softgels of CLA 1250 (a weight loss supplement) can be purchased for $14.99. By increasing your order to 180 softgels, you'll only pay a total of $22.99. Purchased in two separate lots of 90 softgels each, this same order would cost just under $30. Additional discounts are available under the On Sale link found in the Bodybuilding.com top navigation menu. Here, you'll find the following options:
- Clearance items with sales of up to 70% off.
- Promotions and coupons, which allow you to save additional money off of select products after entering a special coupon code.
- Free gift items, which you can select as free add-ons to orders exceeding $75, $100 and $150 in value.
- Free sample products, for which you'll only need to pay shipping and handling. Bodybuilding.com offers up to two free samples per order.
Additional discounts can be had by subscribing to the Bodybuilding.com newsletter. This free email newsletter contains news of promotions and sales in addition to coupon codes that you can apply to your order when checking out from the Bodybuilding.com web store.
Bodybuilding.com charges a standard shipping rate of $5.98 per order. This covers ground shipping, which normally takes 3 to 5 business days. 2-day delivery is available for $7.99 and up, while overnight delivery starts at $11.99. Bodybuilding.com offers faster standard shipping than most online nutritional supplement retailers due to the fact that they own three separate shipping warehouses spread throughout the United States.
Summary
Bodybuilding.com is an excellent source for a huge variety of nutritional supplements, especially those designed for strength building and weight loss. The site is perfect for those who are seeking an education in nutritional supplementation, as it contains more informational resources, free members' features (such as forums, profiles and customized fitness plans) and all-around depth than virtually any competing site on the web. For those who only want to purchase nutritional supplements and require little education, the site's depth and detail may feel somewhat cumbersome.
Bodybuilding.com maintains an obvious commitment to transparency and truth in advertising. The company fully lists the ingredients included in every nutritional supplement, and references scientific research pertaining to the ingredients whenever possible. The user testimonials, of which there are dozens for many products, are unedited and give a very real indication of the results you can expect from any given supplement. These strengths are compounded by some of the best customer support in the health and fitness industry, as well as some of the fastest shipping times you'll find with an online nutritional supplement retailer.
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