Birchbox

This website must have been designed by the animals in the zoo. It is almost impossible to complete an order from this company.

First, the LOGIN nightmare. They want you to CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD ON A REGULAR BASIS, so to simply log in you have to go through the process of changing your password. And I am RUNNING OUT OF PASSWORD IDEAS, because they have SO MANY RULES ABOUT WHAT THE PASSWORD CAN BE! I can spend 15 minutes of my precious day simply figuring out a new password, that I cam remember and that complies with their ego-inflated requirements! This company is NOT A TOP SECRET FEDERAL SPY RING for goodness sakes! ALL I WANTED WAS SHAMPOO! What are they afraid of - that some desperado will break into my account and buy me a bottle of shampoo?

NEXT IS THE SHIPPING. Believe me, they are not in a hurry to send my orders after I have paid. It could be anywhere from one week to one month before my orders arrive.

And it is difficult to navigate the website. It is a very fashionable site that simply REEKS of snobbiness, but it really isnt all that functional, popping up error messages at every turn. This is an absolute mess.

There is only ONE REASON THAT I KEEP GOING BACK, and that is because they have exclusive rights to sell my favorite shampoo. So, they have me over a barrel. I dread order day and so wish I could get this product somewhere - ANYWHERE other than this crazy, screwed up place.

Snobby, overpriced, and dysfunctional. If you have any other choice for the product you want, then RUN AWAY!

I'm embarrassed to say that I've been a member for a few years now. Mainly because I signed up for auto-renewal the first year and they have a horrible cancellation policy. Only able to cancel within your renewal month. When you try to navigate and do it yourself online. Drop boxes do not fill so that the information can be submitted. I had to request a call from a consultant so that they could do it.

I did receive a call within the requested time frame at 0930 EST and this girl seriously sounded as if she just rolled out of bed. Pitiful. At least do some vocal warm-ups and TRY to get rid of your morning voice before calling people. I assume she's getting paid to call subscribers.
So, I'm stuck receiving the the same trial size waste that I've been getting the past 3 years for another 11 months. So what do I do with it? I save it up for the year and add as stocking stuffer to my tween nieces who are just being introduced to makeup. Half of it is tiny sample perfume and they must have a surplus of dry shampoo they're trying to unload.
Honestly, I enjoyed the first 6-8months... after that it has been a repeat of samples, even after "customizing" several times. If you like little boxes (which are nice when they don't arrive damaged. I use to line/ organize my drawers)... or you like just opening a "surprise" in the mail (only to be disappointed when it's the same thing over and over again) then you should totally sign up.
However, I highly recommend you skip the monthly "surprise" and fleeting enjoyment and PUT $10 IN A BOX ON A TOP SHELF AND DON'T OPEN IT FOR A YEAR! You'll be financially better off and much more satisfied. #truth

I tried to love Birchbox; I gave them chance after chance after... wayyy too many chances. Shame on me, as someone with a Bachelor's Degree in advertising, I shouldn't have been so lenient on a subscription box that promises to tailor to each customer's "beauty profile". The beauty profile is there just to make customers think they're submitting the company information so that the boxes will be relevant to them. Too bad my "beauty profile" clearly stated I have medium skin and twice I received the same crappy 2-time use CC cream in light... Maybe. Just maybe this could be forgivable had my beauty profile said my skin was "light-medium", but it didn't... and my fiance with ivory skin (way way lighter than my medium-olive skin) was too dark for this CC cream I received [not one, but two!] too many times!
This isn't the only thing; I could go on and on about Birchbox but they're not worth my time after they would not let me submit a message (I guess it was too detailed) after cancelling my subscription.
Please take my (and the other subscribers') advice and do not get a Birchbox subscription!
For hair products, you're better off DIYing or ordering a good quality product off of Amazon (or if you have a place that supplies chemical-free products/foods near you) and for your skin products and makeup, find a Mark Kay consultant. Mary Kay has been around for over 50 years and my mom has been using the products for as long as I can remember. She's 67 now and barely looks like she's 50. FYI that's all I'm using now... I'm more than upset with Birchbox but I'm done with my rant... can't let Birchbox ruin my mood:-):-)

Disappointed from the start. My friend got me the year subscription as a gift and before my 4th box arrives I can't wait 'till it runs out. I always feel like "I am missing out". For the April box if I had caught the birchbox email a day earlier I could have gotten a free lipstick to try, maybe. In May they sent an email telling us we could customize our box by choosing some of the products, within 3 days that email link was no longer accessible. I emailed customer help to find out the deadline for picking my choices and found out they would send an email the next week with our options. Everyday I checked my email 2-3 times a day hoping to catch the selections, the email finally comes and 3 hours later there is only one choice for customized products and both choices are sold out. They were even nice enough to have a special offer where you could add a "guest editor's box" to your June box for an extra $10. Guess what? Sold out. Apparently you get less than 3 hours to use their offers. Oh, but if you refer people to birchbox, you can get preferred access to choose the items, the email comes a day or 2 earlier. Why would I refer this company to anyone I liked? You are always missing out, unless you have an office job that allows you to sit and read personal emails all day. It sucks because they seem to have some nice offers. I liked the "Mad Men" boxes, of course by the time I opened the email only the New York box was left (not the L. A. version). I don't get it, out of everything they have in their stockpiles they put together these monthly boxes and special offers and the are consistently out of stock-with what they offer! And I noticed out of stock when you go to the site to order full size products (that I would have liked to have tried in my monthly sample box, but did not get the opportunity). If you can find something you want to order, and it's in stock, if it comes with a sample of another product to try for free, forget it, it was available for a limited time. Thank God for Amazon, which in every instance has the products in stock and either at the same price or cheaper and with Amazon Prime no shipping charge. Super frustrating, stop teasing me with these email telling me what great products are available for the first 5 minutes after the email is sent. Stop offering these specials when the supply is more limited than clean water in a third world country.

I have been using Birchbox for two years now, and I have to say, I still really like it.

The samples are hit or miss, and some months are pretty crappy. They are also REALLY in to sending me anti-wrinkle serums, and even though I'm 31 and all, acne is still a much bigger problem for me. But, I just set them aside and give them as gifts to my mom. I have put other stuff I can't use aside and also given those as little bonus gifts for friends, too.

There have been a few times where they've really hit it out of the park and sent me a sample of something at just the right time, and I've found a new product I'm really in love with. Sometimes, I find out that product is nine million dollars which is of course a bummer! But, sometimes I'm willing to spend 4.5 million dollars, because at least I know something works.

I have had to contact them twice; one time for a box I never received, and another time for a sample that wasn't in the box. They seem to never have samples/boxes left, but both times they sent me 100 points. There was another time that I didn't receive a box and didn't contact them. I suspect someone stole the package from my building, so I felt guilty, especially since I'd JUST gotten 100 points and didn't want to look like I was "taking advantage," but I suspect if it happened again, they'd still give me the points, especially since I've been with them two years.

There was another time where they straight up sent me the wrong thing. But I decided to just keep it since it was twice the price of what I ordered in the first place. If they screw up, I won't feel bad about it. Other mistakes have also worked out in my favor, like putting two samples in my box. The prices on the site are fairly competitive; really overpriced on some stuff, but then there are some very strange things (especially home goods) that are much cheaper than even Amazon. Keep an eye out on the home goods.

Once they started giving 10 points for product reviews of stuff you sampled in the month's box, it was unquestionably worth it to me. A lot of people have complaints about the fact that there's not nearly enough makeup and way too much of the following: perfume, shampoo, conditioner, wrinkle serum (or maybe that last one is just my complaint). This is a definite possibility, but I've also found some great hair products through this, and now that they are letting you pick one of your samples each month, this is definitely going to be less of a problem.

The service itself is going great. I've received each box on time, have gotten tracking information, have loved the samples, etc. My November box has a value of over $52 (calculated using the price per ounce of the full size versions of my samples). That's amazing for a $10 box, and all of the samples are ones I will absolutely use, so it saves me from having to go out and purchase the kinds of products that I would likely be purchasing regardless!

The issue I have is that there will inevitably be a problem with an order, and there's no real reason to reach someone immediately. Case in point... I ordered a pair of earrings to add on to my November box. The charge went through on my card, I received a confirmation email, and the points for the purchase were added to my Birchbox account. When my box arrived, it was in the oversized packaging with bubble wrap that is used when an add on is purchase, but there were no earrings. Only my November sample box was included.

I get it that these things happen, but when they do, it's imperative that they're resolved quickly. There's no easy way to find a number or email address on the site. Instead, I had to wade through a maze of of FAQ and then fill out a form. (If there's contact information more easily listed, I didn't see it. That needs to be considered, as contact information needs to be easy for customers to find.) The number I did find asked that I schedule a call back time. Emailing via their online form them resulted in a promise to respond within 24 hours, which I never got. Finally, I tweeted the company, and I was told to email them at *******@birchbox.com. THIS and ONLY THIS got me a response, and a fast one at that.

Birchbox should be commended for handling it quickly once I got my email to them. Within just a few hours, they'd shipped it to me overnight via UPS, and it should be arriving today. That's absolutely AMAZING and well above and beyond what I'd have expected them to do. (I'd have been happy with USPS snail delivery so long as I either got the item or a refund.) So they do deserve a KUDOS in that regard.

But I do remain somewhat concerned. What if I hadn't tweeted them and gotten the email address to contact them directly? What if I'd simply stuck to the online form method of contacting them? Would I have received a response? Would I now be on the phone with my credit card company disputing the charge and cancelling my sub? These are things for the company to honestly consider.

So I ordered a birchbox sample subscription box A week past and I realize that I hadn't received any email about it. So I went to the website and it said it took 10 days to ship so I waited 10 days then I realized I didn't want to go through dealing with this every month so I canceled my subscription. I was under the impression I would get a refund however none came. I did receive an email that said my box was on the way it was two weeks and I got nothing. I contacted customer service and a woman told me it took five days in between the USPS scanning the package for it to update she said she would send me a full-size product to compensate. However when it came it was a tiny lip gloss and a one small eyeshadow color. I again contacted customer service and she said The box was lost. I asked her why didn't anyone contact me her excuse was they don't have any way of tracking a shipment once's it left there facility. I thought that was extremely unprofessional you should do better it's 2019 that is not an excuse for any company asking for money for a service whether it be they send you something or doing something. They should keep track of their packages. So she claims I can get a refund it took almost a week for that to come then I contact the post office about the missing package they said they never received anything from that company under my name or with the tracking number. I felt as if they were going to keep my money because I canceled my subscription and hope that I either forgot about it or I would never figured it out. They are cheaters they are scammers and I would not trust this company. Birchbox knows that they charge an unnecessary price for a tiny samples. I don't know if they're losing business or subscriptions that is not my business but what I do know is that they tried to keep my money which is technically a crime no matter how you justify they should've told me that they never sent the package in the first place. And they sent all that fake information about shipping and the US Postal Service who has no reason to lie said plain as day they never received a package from that place addressed to me or with a tracking number. So when they told me that the whole scam fell apart and I knew that those people try to cheat me. I would not recommend this bogus company to anyone there are hundreds of different companies out there that provide beauty boxes. I suggest you try those I beseech you to never ever subscribe to Birchbox.