Birchbox October 2012
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She didn't direct any foul language toward her. She said "fucking elastic." Now, unless a user was calling another user a "fucking elastic," that's not something to get upset about. If it were the case, I would certainly be upset about being called an elastic. How dare someone!?Originally Posted by heatwebb000 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I agree with you that was some foullanguage towards you for no reason!
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I'm a sucker for anything orange. Let me know how that smells? Got a sample from Atalier of their Orange Sanguine, along with 6 or 7 other scents. I have never smelled perfumes I LOVE like I LOVE their scents! But they fade before I even leave the house. Even if I put it in my hair and clothes, it's gone right away. Makes me so sad! =(
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i personally love it, if i ever had excess points that i didn't know what to do with, i'd spend it on this product because it's not terribly priced. i'm not super in to citrusy scents, but this is the perfect balance of orange and floral imo. i haven't actually used it yet since i just got it today but i couldn't resist opening it and smelling it.
Missglammygirl
Lexy
Lol! What would being an elastic mean in that case?
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I wrote this comment to them, emailed CS and also posted on their FB. :| I put it under a spoiler tag because it's so damn long.
I'm not really sure what to say to get your attention or to be taken seriously. I do feel like there is a lot of unnecessary and uncalled for griping, but on the other hand, people with legitimate comments and suggestions on how to improve BB are equally brushed off, or just plain ignored. For example, according to my phone log, I called Birchbox 6 times yesterday, between 1pm-3:30pm, evenly spaced out, and my call was only picked up the 6th time. I understand Monday are very busy for you, but you can't say I didn't make an effort, and I couldn't leave a voice mail and expect to be called back at any point and time because I have to answer and make calls all the time as well. Now onto the issue of my box: my box, Box 3, was supposedly shipped on the 10th (Wednesday) but it didn't actually update until the 14th, and according to tracking was not expected to arrive until the 19th -- though thankfully it did today. I had called yesterday because I very much wanted to take advantage of my 20% anniversary and I couldn't get enough points to reach $20 worth of points if I didn't review my products, and it would be disingenuous to review products I had not yet received. That put me in a situation of 1) not making a purchase and 2) lying in my product reviews to receive the points (because I wasn't going to purchase without the 20% coupon). Thankfully, I reached Paulina on the phone and she was very helpful and offered to honor my 20% off until after I got to try my products, but thing is -- as nice as she was about that, I know I'm not the only one with the shipping/20% off problem, and that only resolved the issue for ME, while other customers who are in the same boat may just not have been tenacious enough to call 6 times. In regards to what I actually received -- I am not upset about the products Birchbox CHOSE for me. I understand the point of BB is to try lots of different products and sometimes you don't like them, which is fine, and sometimes you find something new you love. However, the sample sizes for Box 3 are SIMPLY ATROCIOUS. Disregarding the "deluxue samples" issue which has been beaten to death too many times by too many customers now, I understand that Birchbox is a sampling-to-buy company. If I'm also to understand correctly, we're supposed to try the samples to see if we'd want to purchase the items full-size, preferably through Birchbox.com. I'm going to let you in on a secret: the only product I purchased from the BB store was a a FULL-SIZED item that was sent to me in a box first. I didn't realize how much I loved this product until 2-3 weeks after receiving it and finding that I used it every day -- because I had enough of it I COULD use it for that long. Instead in Box 3 I'm given a total of 4 beauty products: a tiny sample of Lulu's dry shampoo -- enough for 1-2 uses at most, which is certainly not enough to convince me to why I should give up the $18 dry shampoo I'm currently using, Lait-Creme which I was super excited about until I realized it was TWO PACKETS which is good enough for 2 uses, a ridiculously small sample of lip gloss, and possibly the only generously sized item: the Karuna treatment mask. I'm still happy to try these items because I like trying new things. However, that being said, I'm not going to buy them and certainly not through BB because I don't have enough uses of these products to know if I'd be willing to shell out $16, $20, $30 for them. I love lotion and I've gotten generously sized lotions (30mL) for FREE as a sample from a beauty store because I had used it enough times to realize how much I would miss it. Not sending deluxe samples, or at least generously sized samples, is bad business for BB because no one will remember the product enough to actually want to buy it. Another thing is Box 3's value. I did the math for the equivalent value of the box and, according to BB's store, it's as followed: Luna bar: 1/15 * $18.75 = $1.25 for one bar lipgloss: 0.008oz/0.10oz * $26 = $2.08 for the sample hair powder: 5grams/113.398grams (~4oz) * $30 = $1.32 for the sample Karuna mask: 1/4 * $28 = $7 for the mask Embryolisse creme: 4mL/30mL * 16 = $2.13 for the two packets Which gives us a total value of $13.78, only $12.53 was in actual beauty products. In other words, I barely got the value I paid for the box, and none of the samples were big enough to make me want to buy the full-sized item. Even more than that, from a competitive standpoint, why should I give $10 to Birchbox when I can buy a $5-7 FULL-SIZED item from Ulta or Sephora that I know I need or want, pay for shipping, and still get 3-5 samples from that which will be the same tiny size as what I'm getting and pay the same amount for? More than that, there is a sense of injustice in the fact that Boxes 1 and 2 have $30+ worth of items, and the people with the Beauty Blenders get an item that is pretty much worth $13 -- or the entire value of the box I got. And this isn't just a sense of box envy -- I didn't particularly want the Beauty Blender even. I'm not jealous of what other people receive, I'm upset over the fact that they got more than 3x the value of what that paid for and I barely did. Even if you just added on a the Essie polish ($8) which would bump it to just over $20, I would be less upset because even if the value is lower, I would have more things to try and potentially buy. What I'm saying is, from this month's Birchbox, I got a feeling that the company didn't care about me as a client. Not only were several of my attempts to reach CS ignored or took forever to get to, my box was shipped extremely late, and I really did not get the value of what I paid for. If that's the case, why shouldn't I shop elsewhere where I'm not ignored and I'm appreciated as a customer? I understand that it's hard to work in CS. Like I said, I receive and make calls too as part of my, and oftentimes I'm on the end of angry yelling about things I can't control. I know it's hard to be both the face/representation of a company and not actually be able to change much, but I hope that my commentary at least gets passed along. I'm trying to be as objective and fair as I can be in this email, but I am frustrated. If I didn't care about Birchbox and want to USE the service, I wouldn't have spent this much time writing out my frustrations and how I think the service could be improved -- I'd just leave and never look back. The only thing I really want out of this commentary is to be taken seriously as a customer and to have what I said actually be regarded and not just responded to as with mindless PC things to attempt to assuage my frustrations. Thanks for your time and consideration.
Just watch me get mindless PC bullshit as a response even though I said that's what I DIDN'T want.
Your move, Birchbox.
I'm not really sure what to say to get your attention or to be taken seriously. I do feel like there is a lot of unnecessary and uncalled for griping, but on the other hand, people with legitimate comments and suggestions on how to improve BB are equally brushed off, or just plain ignored. For example, according to my phone log, I called Birchbox 6 times yesterday, between 1pm-3:30pm, evenly spaced out, and my call was only picked up the 6th time. I understand Monday are very busy for you, but you can't say I didn't make an effort, and I couldn't leave a voice mail and expect to be called back at any point and time because I have to answer and make calls all the time as well. Now onto the issue of my box: my box, Box 3, was supposedly shipped on the 10th (Wednesday) but it didn't actually update until the 14th, and according to tracking was not expected to arrive until the 19th -- though thankfully it did today. I had called yesterday because I very much wanted to take advantage of my 20% anniversary and I couldn't get enough points to reach $20 worth of points if I didn't review my products, and it would be disingenuous to review products I had not yet received. That put me in a situation of 1) not making a purchase and 2) lying in my product reviews to receive the points (because I wasn't going to purchase without the 20% coupon). Thankfully, I reached Paulina on the phone and she was very helpful and offered to honor my 20% off until after I got to try my products, but thing is -- as nice as she was about that, I know I'm not the only one with the shipping/20% off problem, and that only resolved the issue for ME, while other customers who are in the same boat may just not have been tenacious enough to call 6 times. In regards to what I actually received -- I am not upset about the products Birchbox CHOSE for me. I understand the point of BB is to try lots of different products and sometimes you don't like them, which is fine, and sometimes you find something new you love. However, the sample sizes for Box 3 are SIMPLY ATROCIOUS. Disregarding the "deluxue samples" issue which has been beaten to death too many times by too many customers now, I understand that Birchbox is a sampling-to-buy company. If I'm also to understand correctly, we're supposed to try the samples to see if we'd want to purchase the items full-size, preferably through Birchbox.com. I'm going to let you in on a secret: the only product I purchased from the BB store was a a FULL-SIZED item that was sent to me in a box first. I didn't realize how much I loved this product until 2-3 weeks after receiving it and finding that I used it every day -- because I had enough of it I COULD use it for that long. Instead in Box 3 I'm given a total of 4 beauty products: a tiny sample of Lulu's dry shampoo -- enough for 1-2 uses at most, which is certainly not enough to convince me to why I should give up the $18 dry shampoo I'm currently using, Lait-Creme which I was super excited about until I realized it was TWO PACKETS which is good enough for 2 uses, a ridiculously small sample of lip gloss, and possibly the only generously sized item: the Karuna treatment mask. I'm still happy to try these items because I like trying new things. However, that being said, I'm not going to buy them and certainly not through BB because I don't have enough uses of these products to know if I'd be willing to shell out $16, $20, $30 for them. I love lotion and I've gotten generously sized lotions (30mL) for FREE as a sample from a beauty store because I had used it enough times to realize how much I would miss it. Not sending deluxe samples, or at least generously sized samples, is bad business for BB because no one will remember the product enough to actually want to buy it. Another thing is Box 3's value. I did the math for the equivalent value of the box and, according to BB's store, it's as followed: Luna bar: 1/15 * $18.75 = $1.25 for one bar lipgloss: 0.008oz/0.10oz * $26 = $2.08 for the sample hair powder: 5grams/113.398grams (~4oz) * $30 = $1.32 for the sample Karuna mask: 1/4 * $28 = $7 for the mask Embryolisse creme: 4mL/30mL * 16 = $2.13 for the two packets Which gives us a total value of $13.78, only $12.53 was in actual beauty products. In other words, I barely got the value I paid for the box, and none of the samples were big enough to make me want to buy the full-sized item. Even more than that, from a competitive standpoint, why should I give $10 to Birchbox when I can buy a $5-7 FULL-SIZED item from Ulta or Sephora that I know I need or want, pay for shipping, and still get 3-5 samples from that which will be the same tiny size as what I'm getting and pay the same amount for? More than that, there is a sense of injustice in the fact that Boxes 1 and 2 have $30+ worth of items, and the people with the Beauty Blenders get an item that is pretty much worth $13 -- or the entire value of the box I got. And this isn't just a sense of box envy -- I didn't particularly want the Beauty Blender even. I'm not jealous of what other people receive, I'm upset over the fact that they got more than 3x the value of what that paid for and I barely did. Even if you just added on a the Essie polish ($8) which would bump it to just over $20, I would be less upset because even if the value is lower, I would have more things to try and potentially buy. What I'm saying is, from this month's Birchbox, I got a feeling that the company didn't care about me as a client. Not only were several of my attempts to reach CS ignored or took forever to get to, my box was shipped extremely late, and I really did not get the value of what I paid for. If that's the case, why shouldn't I shop elsewhere where I'm not ignored and I'm appreciated as a customer? I understand that it's hard to work in CS. Like I said, I receive and make calls too as part of my, and oftentimes I'm on the end of angry yelling about things I can't control. I know it's hard to be both the face/representation of a company and not actually be able to change much, but I hope that my commentary at least gets passed along. I'm trying to be as objective and fair as I can be in this email, but I am frustrated. If I didn't care about Birchbox and want to USE the service, I wouldn't have spent this much time writing out my frustrations and how I think the service could be improved -- I'd just leave and never look back. The only thing I really want out of this commentary is to be taken seriously as a customer and to have what I said actually be regarded and not just responded to as with mindless PC things to attempt to assuage my frustrations. Thanks for your time and consideration.
Just watch me get mindless PC bullshit as a response even though I said that's what I DIDN'T want.
Your move, Birchbox.
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I always comment on the size of samples in my reviews if I can't make a decision and state that it definitely affects my decision on purchasing or not.
on another note: I placed a small order with my points and 20% off (paid under $2) and only 2/3 items shipped. There was no email or disclosure about separate orders or WHY something didn't shipped. Anyone have this before? I emailed orders@BB, but I'm just curious. It seems a bit odd as most companies usually let you know why something didn't ship or when it will.
on another note: I placed a small order with my points and 20% off (paid under $2) and only 2/3 items shipped. There was no email or disclosure about separate orders or WHY something didn't shipped. Anyone have this before? I emailed orders@BB, but I'm just curious. It seems a bit odd as most companies usually let you know why something didn't ship or when it will.
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I have not heard a word yet about my Birchbox this month. I decided to keep:
Birchbox
NB Test Tube
MyGlam/Ipsy
Love with Food
Birchbox
NB Test Tube
MyGlam/Ipsy
Love with Food
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Well said
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I seriously couldn't love this post anymore. It's so true and just so damn perfect for my feeling toward Birchbox. I'm a box number three girl as well! Let us know the response you get from BB!
Thank you for adding up the total, too. I was planning on doing that!
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Missglammygirl
Lexy
Probably. I really wanted to try that lait-creme concentre! but Im happy i didnt get it since its in a foil packet,
Yes the actual semantics of the 'sentence structure' does indicate that the profanity was directed towards the elastic... but I believe that all who are familiar with the English language beyond 7 years of age can discern that the adjective for the inanimate object be it something that prefaced "where's my $#)(%* beer women" and "please shave your !$*(& hairy back" are really misdirected hostile expressions angled at the receiver of the sentence for their action or lack of action.
I think it's great that one of our MUT members created her own ties and I agree that it is a nutty amount of money to pay... but they have the right to charge as they wish, that's why this is a free economy and you can never give them a penny of your hard earned money. But the other member who cited business models is completely accurate, if you knew the mark-up on cosmetics in terms of raw material, you'd flip, not QOP the original postee.
It's higher then any other products... well perfume maybe... The cream that's sold for $68 was manufactured for $3 to $6, the bulk of it is spent on advertisement, hiring the mega-glam movie star, GSA (general services administration) and $3 of that goes to the PO for shipping it. Let's allow this to be a forum of open communications where thoughts can flow freely without being spanked by profanity, directly or indirectly, pretty please?
gypsiemagic
Grace
THAT'S ALL IT IS!!!!!!
I understand its like a new way to use the stuff, but its not really a hand crafted product, or whatever Etsy says they are supposed to be a marketplace for
/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />
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It's there. It just got bumped down a couple by other people's comments. If you click on "Recent Posts by Others on BIRCHBOX" and "see all", it's the 5th comment.
gypsiemagic
Grace
thank you. the ties are fucking elastic, could also be a compliment to it's propensity for elasticity
/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> some people i think just sort of read things really quickly and take offense at them despite it not being directed at any person in particular.
but thats not really a makeup talk problem, thats a life problem, people are very self centered and are quick to want to be the one who is the victim.
and no, I don't believe that anybody here is any more elastic than the others.
/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />
gypsiemagic
Grace
I don't know how somebody could construe fucking elastic into an insult, but maybe for some people their elasticity is a touchy subject
/emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> 
