Subscription Boxes and Customer Service

Customer service is a big deal to me. If a company has poor customer service, I really don’t want to do business with them. I always start off contacting a company in a polite and friendly manner if I have a problem, so their attitude toward me is also an indicator of whether or not I want to continue with their services. Lately, I’ve had a few customer service issues, shipping issues, and item quality issues with subscription box companies. Here are two instances I’ve dealt with in the past two weeks or so.

1. Naturebox – I like Naturebox. It’s just a little expensive for me right now. However, they have no means of cancelling your account online. None. You have to call their toll-free number to cancel. To me, this is unacceptable for an online-only company. For a brick-and-mortar store, sure. For a company that deals only in online business? No.

I called pretty much as soon as their business hours started. After the automated stuff, someone did answer right away. However, the customer service representative was somewhat rude and had an attitude in their voice. (I’m using neutral pronouns because I don’t want the person to get in trouble [as if anyone from the company would read this, lol] in case they were just having an off day.) I get that it’s early, but it’s also technically business hours so you should be in business mode. The representative asked why I was canceling, and then cut me off mid-explanation. They did offer me a discount, which is nice, but I declined. After that the representative was fairly brusk with me, but did cancel my account like I asked.

2. Popsugar – My last Popsugar box was pretty good, but I got some damaged goods in mine. I e-mailed Popsugar’s customer service, and they were really nice. They sent me replacement items for the ones that were damaged and didn’t even ask for the other items back. They were very polite and apologetic. It’s nice to have a no-fuss customer service experience.

 

It’s weird to me when companies are rude or angry with customers who are being pleasant, especially over the phone. Even if I’m cancelling, I might want to resubscribe in the future, so being unpleasant deters me from doing that a bit. The nicest customer service experience I had was years ago when I had issues with an online video game subscription. I still remember how nice the guy that talked to me was!

New Subs and Old

1: I caved and re-subbed to Birchbox. I’ve been seeing loads of good stuff in their boxes lately on some makeup websites, so I’m going to give it another try.  The samples seem bigger and of better quality than when I subscribed with them before. Hopefully I won’t be disappointed again.

2: I am impatiently waiting for my Julibox subscription to arrive. Julibox is a monthly booze subscription! I don’t drink that much, but it seems fun. It’s $40, which is a lot for me to spend on a subscription box, but I decided to try it out. You get what basically amounts to four drinks’ worth of alcohol and mix-ins, plus sometimes little extras like muddlers and stir sticks. The box also comes with recipe cards so you know what to do. The only thing you need to add is fresh fruit or garnishes. The drinks are pretty much a surprise until your box arrives. Julibox emails you before everything ships to let you know what you need to do or get. This month all I need is a lemon, apparently. I guess it winds up being what you’d pay at a nice bar per drink, but you get to try things that perhaps you wouldn’t normally try (and you don’t have to get all dressed up and leave the house.) We’ll see!

3. Still waiting on my Popsugar box. I ordered one when they sent me that 50% off coupon, which was right before the cut-off date for this month’s subscriptions. My box did get sent out, but several days later than other people’s. Plus it’s been lingering somewhere in California for about three days, which is making me worry a little about the condition of the contents.

4: I cancelled my Ipsy subscription after the last bag. The more I looked at it, the more I realized there was not a single thing in the bag that I really liked. There has to be at least one or two useable or interesting items in a subscription box/bag for me to continue subscribing, even if it is only $10 a month. I know subscription boxes are all about trying new things and getting surprises, but Ipsy is so hyped up around the internet (and I unfortunately bought into that hype, which is my fault) that when I got the bag it was just like, “Oh. I see.”