Disappointing News from Glossybox Headquarters

A few minutes ago, I got this email from Glossybox.

Dear Sue,

First of all, may we take this opportunity to thank you for subscribing to GlossyBox! While we spotted a gap in the market for a high-end and niche beauty box, we never would have dreamed of such enthusiastic and loyal demand for it. Thank you! Since we are a very young and growing company, it is important to us to communicate clearly with our customers what GlossyBox is about, where we're going and any changes we are making. GlossyBox aims to be the answer for the woman who feels overwhelmed by ads, paid-for editorials and advice in her quest to be fashionably groomed. We help you stay on top of what is new and what works in all things Beauty. We are working hard on the mechanics behind customizing the contents of your box - please bear with us, while we improve the beauty profile. Of course, we will notify you as soon as it is live on theGlossyBox.co.uk website. In order to help you make that leap of faith and subscribe to GlossyBox, we offered free shipping for the first four months – May, June, July and August. One of the upcoming changes that will affect you all is that from September onwards, we will be charging a flat fee of £2.95 for shipping. GlossyBox will still be £10 a month, shipping will be £2.95, the total amount charged will be £12.95 and as always, you may cancel anytime. To clarify: July and August boxes will be £10 with free shipping. Exciting news for the coming months is that we are in the process of creating unique, original and collectable cards to be included in your monthly GlossyBox. The GlossyLooks cards will be easy-to-follow How-To's on the biggest looks for the current season as well as important and timeless styles like Smokey Eyes. Another milestone for us is the imminent re-launch of GlossyBox.co.uk! We hope you'll enjoy browsing the new website and the soon-to-be live GlossyBook – our own online magazine - dedicated to the contents of the monthly box and of course jam-packed with the newest trends and video manuals. In the meantime, I hope you're as excited as we are about the arrival of the next GlossyBox! With thanks we remain faithfully yours, The GlossyBox Team Ok, so I quickly got onto their facebook page and sure enough a lot of girls are voicing their disappointment.  I also wrote a long comment on there as well.  I think that the disappointment is not the mere £2.95 shipping, but the fact that we have all been victims of an obvious bait & switch.  Let me explain.  As my previous post has shown, we went from 2 full size items in the beginning to none this month.  The decline of full size "luxury" items has been drastic and therefore, like many speculated, the first box was pumped up in order to make glossybox attractive to many.  And it worked, in fact they have a huge waiting list until September.   Surprisingly, now in September, that is when you get this shipping increase of £2.95.  I wonder if the people on the waiting list were told this? They probably expect to get the box for £10 like the rest of us.  I may be way out on the limb here, but there is only a certain amount of products that can be given and in fact that is why May, June, and July had sold out so fast, so by charging an extra shipping cost, I wonder if they anticipated people to cancel and therefore making room for people who are so eager to join that they are willing to pay £12.95 for the box vs. £10.  Well even if that wasn't their intent, it sure worked.  I know several people who will be cancelling in September. Anyways, I'm disappointed that a new company such as Glossybox would be willing to loose customers over a minuscule amount of money and not have disclosed that information from the beginning.  Even the people who are staying on board definitely won't be feeling great about this, especially after such a short time.  For an additional £2.95 profit, they will end up loosing a lot of customers, including myself.  I'll stay on board until September, but in September, I'm going to cancel and allow the people on the waiting list to take my place.  I don't give my money to companies that do shady things like this, no matter how great of a bargain it is. I'm not trying to bash this company, but I like to state what I clearly see.  It is a marketing tactic to price something low, and make it look alluring and once you nab a bunch of customers, you raise the price on them.  That has been done many times, and nobody is happy when it is done.   That is my opinion, and of course you can agree or disagree with me.  I'm sure Glossybox will do something fabulous in September to make it worth that extra £2.95 that the new customers will be paying, but to me, I don't like being lured into something only to get something switched up on me.  I'd rather take my £12.95 and save it and put it towards something that I really really want. Also, their letter stated that they aim for women who are too busy and innundated with ads and what not.  I sort of laughed at that statement, because what Glossybox really is, is 1 big ad for the companies that have given them free samples to pass onto us so that we can sample it and hopefully buy from that company.  Come on Glossybox....All your fancy wordings and marketing wordings are NOT fooling everyone.  You guys are a big AD that is wrapped up in a pretty pink box, and nothing more than that.   And one last rant.  This was suppose to be a "luxury" box, well Batiste is £2.35 for a full size bottle.  I do not consider that high end either, as many have voiced on the facebook page. Ok - I'm done my rant. I'll be cancelling in August, and won't continue with this after September.  It's quite a shame really...the concept was brilliant, but the execution....not so much.