Fake On The Outside

I’m going to start this by saying I used to love this box. I clearly did as I have been subscribed to it since May of 2016. It used to be a nice surprise every month with varied items such as candles, jewellery and the occasional beauty items in it. This past year has been a decided change with more beauty items being received on a regular basis.

The decision to cancel was confirmed by the absolute mess that was Decembers box and that was reinforced by another poor box in January. Pink Parcel’s communication has been shockingly poor for the past few months. Boxes were apparently delayed due to problems with Royal Mail labels. This was not communicated to customers unless you asked. As a result, my box was 6 days late in December and only shipped when I asked about it. This in itself is bad enough but then to find the contents weren’t what was advertised on the leaflet made it worse.

Again clarity on why the contents are different was not communicated with customers unless they complained. Even then it was because there were ‘issues’. Top that off with two duplicate items, one of which was from this year and another cream highlighter product. As you can imagine, we the customers are not happy. I expect far better from such a well-established subscription box.

The one thing that cemented my decision to cancel is January’s box. I decided to get it as I had a discount but I wish I’d not bothered. This box was one of the worst.

First, it was late. Only a couple of days but it was enough with all the other problems to be one of the final straws.
Again no leaflet. Not a single bit of information with the box, this was in fact emailed to me over 5 days after my box was due to arrive. I’ll admit I didn’t even read it, just deleted. I was so annoyed by it.
The contents felt like they’d been thrown together, which is an impression that was not helped by the lack of information. There were three face masks! THREE! For something that’s not supposed to be a beauty box why would I want three facemasks in a single month? Even in a beauty box unless it was specifically a face mask month I’d be a little put out. To add insult to injury, one of those face masks was a repeat from October last year. I mean really?
The chocolate we received was even a repeat item. I’m generally okay with the two small pieces, after all, they are a portion but it felt like a bit of a smack in the face on this box.
One of the items is my least favourite thing to receive in beauty boxes (which this isn’t even supposed to be) dry shampoo. I’ve never found an expensive one that works with my oily scalp. The other item was an eye cream that I’d had before from other beauty boxes.

All the reasons I left other beauty boxes were represented here. Repeats and multiples of items I don’t use. All in the one box.

So I went and totalled it up.  Of 60 items we received this year (not including the tea and sweets) we only got 5 lifestyle items. Three of those were in the first 2 months as well.

And then when I cancelled I got this via email.

What is this? I have to say it really annoyed me. I mean I think it was supposed to come across as sorry to see you leave but it came across more as we’re cancelling you. Honestly, they seem to be very tone deaf right now.

So I’ve cancelled. I don’t want another beauty box. That’s specifically why I left Birchbox and Glossybox in favour of this one. Pink Parcel has lost the thing that made it unique. So It’s time we part ways. You were a good box. Maybe one day you will be again.

EDIT: It has come to my attention that there is a post from the CEO on the Pink Parcel website. It’s a great post and I feel it answers why 2018 boxes were so poor in my opinion. I do applaud him for speaking so bluntly about this. There are no excuses, just an explanation and promises of a better tomorrow.
Sadly it comes too late for me. Had I read this a week ago I might not have ended my subscription but now given I can not get it at the rate I had I will pass at least for this year. I will, however, keep an eye on the PP and see if it improves.