Hatchery, Cuisine Cube, and PetBox on sale at Living Social!
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Cuisine Cube, Hatchery and PetBox are on sale today at Living Social! (Find them via those links, or just search “subscription”) Plus use coupon code 10SALE to save an extra 10% off any purchase! (Thank you Jennifer for the heads up on these deals!)
Written by Liz Cadman
All views in this review are the opinion of the author. My Subscription Addiction will never accept payment in exchange for a review, but will accept a box at no cost to provide honest opinions on the box. This post may contain affiliate/referral links. Read the complete My Subscription Addiction disclosure.
Follow up: I received the replacement box today. I got:
Supercat Catnip Crumples, 40 sheets, $7-8 on Amazon
Petsafe Egg-Cersizer $7
Aussie Naturals Crinkle Pillow ?
Bogo Bowl dry food sample ?
My Little Lion Cat Treat $9.41 on Amazon
Polydactyl popcorn toy ?
The dry food and cat treats are made in the US. I don’t think any of the items are dangerous in this box. I know my cats will like the popcorn toy because they got another Polydactyl toy in MeowBox last week. (I think that’s an Etsy type item, but I’m not sure. )
I only looked up prices on Amazon but my instinct is, this is what the Living Social box *should* have been. I think the value was reasonable and I’m OK with leaving my cats alone with most, if not all, of the items. Although I think only my black cat will be able to figure out the egg-cersizer.
Anyway, I’m satisfied with this resolution. But after all this, I’m probably going to stick with MeowBox, which costs somewhat less.
This is a much better box than the first box. I’m glad that they followed through on shipping a replacement box.
So I got my PetBox today and I’m kind of underwhelmed. I got 2 catnip toys, a dangly toy, and a box of treats. I don’t know if this is normally what they would send out (I guess with their $39.95 monthly package because there were 4 items?) or if they were being cheap because it was through Living Social and I didn’t pay full price. My cats will use everything (I have 4 cats so at least one is guaranteed to like each item) but I just don’t think these things are equivalent to $10 each (I think I paid about half that).
But I am contrasting this with MeowBox (the one from meowbox dot net since there seem to be two), where I got 6 months for $135 and have gotten 4 toys and 2 bags of treats (plus the occasional free food sample) each month so far.
This is not always the treatment I get from sale sites, though. I got 3 months of UrthBox from Gilt City (I think) and the boxes were packed full. I continued my subscription afterwards and got the same quality/quantity as through the Gilt City sub. So I’m happy with UrthBox because they treated discount customers and regular subscribers the same. But I won’t be subscribing to PetBox. Either they’re treating discount customers differently or the value simply isn’t there.
I emailed Living Social to honor their good deal guarantee. Made in China catnip mice and a wire/cardboard toy that can hurt my child does not equate to a premium subscription box. I read reviews on blogs before subscribing to the deal and this is not even close to any of the regular boxes that customers receive.
1. The Honest Kitchen Smittens pure dehydrated Icelandic haddock for cats 3 oz $13.99
2. Cat Dancer toy (literally a piece of wire attached to cardboard) $3.50
3. Bella’s Blissful Hemp Pouch From the Field $6.75
4. Spot Catnip Candy 100% compressed catnip mice $1.00. This is disappointing because it is from China which does not fit in with the image they project of being a premium pet subscription service.
Total: $25.24.
You got the same box I did. Let me know what Living Social’s response is.
My personal thought is that we received the $19.95 deluxe box.
I went back and looked at the receipt from Living Social. It says the value was $39 and the discount was $20 (plus there were 4 items instead of “2-3”). I e-mailed PetBox after verifying this. We’ll see what happens.
Follow-up: I complained directly to PetBox and got a response that said they would send a new box. So that may be worth a try.
Thank you for letting us know. I will do that later today if Living Social hasn’t responded. I much rather have a credit on my account with LS than a second box. I’m annoyed with the made in China catnip mice and the wire toy.
Here are the points I made in my e-mail:
(1) Stated value of the deal ($39) was much higher than the maximum retail value of the products we got (around $25)
(2) Some of the products had the potential to be dangerous (made in China catnip mice and wire toy)
(3) Box LS customers got was NOT the same as what regular customers get
(4) Coupon booklet was almost exclusively dog items (OK, so I do have a dog too…but a lot of people who order a cat box will not have dogs)
If you decide to take it up with PetBox, feel free to use any or all of those arguments. I also provided my order number so they could locate my information.
Wow! I sent an email to Petbox this morning stating basically the same points. Great minds think alike 🙂 I didn’t think of point number 4 and forgot to include my order number. I did include my name and address. I requested that they assist Living Social in refunding my voucher under the Good Deal Guarantee. I also pointed out that I used a similar voucher on a rival company and was not penalized.
I’m disappointed in this because I wanted to try this company for the cats. They have been eating the treats and sniffing the competition boxes. They would had enjoyed receiving their own box.
I also made it clear that they have alienated a future customer. Their marketing plan has failed with me if the vouchers were to help grow their business by bringing more customers into the company.
I probably sound more annoyed than I should be because it is disappointing to tell a 5 year old don’t give that cat nip toy to your kitten or sorry, you can’t play with this toy because it is dangerous. He understands the concept behind the box because the dogs receive their own boxes from a different company and can freely give them items from the boxes.
I should add to those that are reading that all my other experiences with vouchers up to this time have been wonderful. I have used vouchers for BarkBox, Cate and Chloe, Kelly Kits, Kiwi Crate, Escape Monthly, Darby Smart, and Fantasy Box. Escape Monthly even replace my whole entire box in June when the calming mist leaked out on my other items. Most of the companies listed above have retain me as a paying customer. This experience with PetBox is not the norm of what I experience with vouchers from Gilt, Living Social, or Groupon. I don’t want anyone to be discouraged from trying vouchers.
Agreed. Previously, I’ve only used a voucher (from Gilt City) for UrthBox, but was impressed enough to continue subscribing when the voucher ran out. And the boxes I got both before and after the voucher were comparable in size and quality/quantity of items.
I am disappointed in PetBox’s response. I was offered a half off box if I chose to become a customer and a reminder that I should supervise my child during play. They totally blew me off. I haven’t heard back from Living Social yet. I may ship the box back and initiate a chargeback on my card if there is no resolution.
Well I’m still waiting on LS and when I emailed PetBox back, I was referred to someone else who won’t be in until Friday. It seems simple to me that I did not receive a $39.00 box. Refund me or send me the correct box please.
Tune in on Friday to find out what happens.
My response was from Jackie (last name redacted). I was OK with getting another box (as long as it is not a repeat of the boxes we already got). I seemed to have an easier time of this than you did. Although I have not yet received the replacement box (it’s only been a day or so, though), so we will see.
Same person. I guess you did not receive a comment about how the toys are to be used under supervision and that catnip mice are not treats, but toys which could be from China. Also that all their treats are made in the USA even though I have a box of Smittens that clearly reads Product of Iceland. It’s a shame that they acted this way because they could have saved the sale and attempted to retain a customer. My sister was going to order a voucher too, but not after this so that is another potential customer lost.
My cats would totally eat the catnip mice. And I’m not sure I believe they’re only catnip. How do they stick together? I have to be careful because one of my cats has inflammatory bowel disease and can’t eat chicken, fish, turkey, beef, pork, grain, dairy, eggs, or soy. I just keep him away from most treats (I buy him lamb jerky) but what if the mice have an ingredient in them to bind them together that is something he’s not supposed to eat (e.g., glue made with casein)? Labeled as toys, the full ingredients list might not be on there.
Not sure why our responses were so different, but then again, until I get the new box they promised, I am not trusting what they say.
Living Social contacted me tonight via email to let me know that they refunded the amount of the voucher as a credit to my account. I’m pleased with that and promptly bought a voucher to my favorite restaurant. I did let them know that a representative from Pet Box will be contacting me on Friday. Thank you Living Social!
I was contacted by PetBox CS with the offer of a half price box (again) and extra points. The company has not addressed the fact that I was to receive a premium $39.00 box and received a box worth $23.83. I had to downgrade the value because the CS rep pointed out the wire toy is a high rated toy. It is now selling $2.09 on Amazon.
I’m pleased with Living Social for crediting my account and resolving this matter.
The CS department responded again offering a replacement box with made in USA items. I declined because Living Social credited my account Thursday night. I do wish that was offered from the beginning because it would had reflected better upon the company.
That *is* what they offered me from the beginning. I assume that’s what they’re sending although I haven’t heard from them in a few days. I’ll give it until Monday or so and then send a follow-up e-mail. I would be fine with getting a new/replacement box. But I’m not going to subscribe after all this.
It was a strange experience with the emails. I have no idea why I was treated differently than you. They indicated that the box will ship early next week if I accepted it. I hope your box shows up with no problems. I did check out your link on the other blog. Thank You.
I need to remember to start using eBates. I signed up a few weeks ago but keep forgetting about it.
I’ve been using ebates for as long as I can remember. According to my account, I’ve saved almost $1300 to date. It really does add up. Just takes a while to get in the habit of using it. Glossybox, Total Beauty, and I’m sure other box sites are on there as well.
I will try PetBox for cats. I used the code and it worked so I paid a little over $17. I like that PetBox did not make me enter any credit card information (some of these deals with other companies have made me enter credit card information). I don’t know if I will keep it or not — I already get MeowBox — but it will be fun to try. I have four cats so even if one of them does not like an item, one of the others usually will.
Thanks for letting us know PetBox didn’t make you enter credit card info – that makes the deal even better! 🙂
My box is arriving tomorrow. I’ll let you know if I receive the same. That doesn’t match the regular reviews of the box and is disappointing if they are giving Living Social customers a different type of box.
Yes, please let me know. I can believe that the treats (made in Iceland) were worth $6-7 (because I’ve paid that much for special cat treats before). But catnip mice (from China)? Not hardly.
I’ve been thinking about trying PetBox for a while and this provided the perfect opportunity to do that. THANK YOU!!
thanks!! i got the Hatchery box! 🙂