This is definitely a rant. An uncharacteristically long ranty tanty rant.
I found out last night that my BellaBox membership was cancelled by the company because I have cancelled the next cycle of payments – without warning or reason. In January this year, I paid for 1 full year’s subscription (that’s 12 + 1 free box) upfront. I have previously written briefly about both my beauty subscription boxes – BellaBox and Glamabox, both of which I find have good and bad months. These boxes sometimes arrive later than the 15th of the month and you know, that takes the fun out of it. I subscribe to the Rough Trade Album of the Month Club and they send me CDs on time from half-way round the world!
Out of the supposed 13 boxes I paid for, I have so far received 6. When I realised that my friend whom I introduced to BellaBox had received hers a few days earlier, I wrote to ask why mine was delayed. I was told that my membership was canceled. This is odd and somewhat unfair because whilst I’m not planning to renew my subscription in 2013, they still have to cater to the 7 boxes I have already paid for. Maybe some administrative screw-up because of scalability issues, I don’t know. But that was the only reply I got.
This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have received my refund via PayPal. And I also noticed that the comments that I (and another frustrated former subscriber, a Miss Foo, whom I don’t personally know) made have been deleted. I can now no longer post on their page. I have since unLIKED the page (not that it would be detrimental to their count or profits).
I’m sure I wasn’t posting explicit or nasty things and I haven’t had any of these issues addressed. In the 3 posts I made, I asked a) why my box was delayed again and what the issue was this time? b) Why my box membership was cancelled even though I paid 1 year upfront and only cancelled the NEXT cycle that was due only in February 2013? I also commented that c) it’s unfair to not take care of existing customers just because they have canceled future business d) I’d rather seek a full refund now than go through the same grief for another 7x (after another user said she was billed again after she cancelled).
What prompted me to cancel the next cycle in the first place, was that BellaBox had increased their prices (by a measly S$5) but I felt it didn’t improve in tandem with the quality of the products received nor their service. I am paying for the service, right?
Oh well, I got my refund – almost S$90. That, I really appreciate. And I think I’ll use it to offset the cost for a brand new subscription with VanityTrove. Because I’m a sucker for surprises and I love getting parcels in the mail – and even though it costs more than BellaBox, they appear to have nicer stuff and fewer complaints. Fingers crossed that I’ll have a better experience!
An Exercise In Trivial Pursuits 