FYI – Whimsey Box Appears to be Going Under

Check out Darby Smart (www.darbysmart.com) as an alternative.

And it looks like the site is even down now too!

Ah, I should have looked into this earlier. I was wondering why I hadn’t seen any boxes come through in a while, and then noticed some refunds on my card. You’re right, complete lack of communication is completely unacceptable. I need to check my statements to make sure I’ve been completely refunded and not charged for anything else.

Wish I had found this post sooner, I ordered a Gift Subscription + a $20 box for Christmas. The web site threw an error when I submitted the order, but my card was charged for both items.

A couple days later I got a notification that the $20 item was being refunded. No explanation of why. I sent an E-mail asking for details. Nothing. A couple days after that both the subscription and item were refunded. I sent another mail. Nothing.

I called the listed phone number this morning. Busy.

Won’t come anywhere near these people ever again.

thanks so much for this post. i feel like a crazy person, sending email after email as my “subscription” (which was a gift) dwindles away with absolutely NOTHING to show for it. honestly, they should be horribly ashamed of the way they are handling things! how hard is it to even set up an auto-email-reply saying that they are having difficulties and will respond when they can?!

Any update on this?

I had a similar experience with a nail polish sub, the Inzuri I.N.N. box. By the time I got a refund I had been charged for FIVE months worth of boxes that never came. All of my emails went either unanswered or I would get a reply saying sorry and that they had just shipped, when in fact they had not. Finally in May I sent a pretty rude email saying they had 48 hours to refund me or send me tracking numbers or my lawyer would be contacting them (total lie but it worked! Lol) and lo and behold the next morning I had a full refund and a few hours later they emailed all subscribers saying their sub service was on hold and refunds were coming lol.

Whismeybox is listed in an article under “bankruptcies & liens” on Business Journals, but as I’m not a paying member I can’t see the full article. I also read on a forum somewhere that someone found that one of their bigwigs was tweeting to a new prospective employer regarding interview stuff.

I had signed up and August would have been my first month, but after checking their Facebook page when I still hadn’t received my box at the start of Sept I disputed the charges right away. I got my money back. I feel bad about the folks who bought multi-month packages or who waited too long to dispute.

I’ve looked into Darby Smart but I think I’ll skip a new sub right now. The holidays are coming and I have more important things to buy.

I’ve been having a hard time with A&j Smelly Goods and Stuff. I ordered a 6th month membership as well as 2 extra August boxes I have finally received 2 of the boxes. I’m still waiting for 1. I’ve left several messages with no response. No word on when September box will ship.

Thanks Liz! I hadn’t even noticed that they charged me for three months on August 9th, but I hadn’t received anything. Too much on my plate I guess. I contacted my credit card company. Let’s hope they will help.

I did get an apology email from them on Aug 27 for the delayed August box. Then I got charged in Sept. I just cancelled my subscription. I have been getting Whimseyboxes since 2012 on and off. Honestly this subscription seemed to good to be true–I don’t know how they kept up with it for so long.

I signed up in August for my very first box, and was charged the price. I changed my billing information in early September to a different credit card, and a few days later received an email that my subscription had been cancelled because my credit card information was not correct and couldn’t be processed – even though it’s a brand new card with plenty of room. I emailed them almost two weeks ago asking about the August box (if it would be sent since I was charged for it, and what the deal was with the credit card situation) and haven’t heard back. I was just going to email them again today when I saw this post. What a bummer. Thank you for letting us know, Liz!

This is sad, not only because of the demise of a fun subscription, but the poor handling of the end of the boxes.
I’m rather embarrassed, as my son’s girlfriend signed up with them in August on my recommendation. When I tell her that she has to contact her CC company about this mess, I’ll send her one of my boxes to make up for the bother.
A real shame.

Wow, I am really sorry to hear this. I really loved this sub, but luckily unsubscribed last month because I don’t have time to complete their projects. I’ve never had a problem with their customer service. They even emailed me once correcting something I hadn’t noticed myself! I hope they can sort this out, they really seemed like they were going strong.

Liz, I love you for keeping us inform on things like this. I have never brought one of their boxes before, but something like that happen to me also when I was subscribe to AngelBeautyBox, so thank you for keeping us inform about issue like this.

It is too bad to see it going down this way. I have been subscribed to Whimseybox for over a year. I have always loved their subscription and have remained subscribed. It may sound strange, but with everything going on in my life (and so many subscription boxes) I didn’t notice that August was missing. I am a “Pro” subscriber and frequently ordered extra supplies from their shop, so I will check on it…as I was likely charged $45 recently.

Their customer service was always reliable before. Saddened, but thanks for the heads up, Liz.

I subscribed to Whimseybox when they were just getting started, and they haven’t improved one bit since I unsubscribed well over a year ago (maybe even two years?). I sent them multiple e-mails, consistently reached out to them on Facebook and Twitter, and in the end cancelled and posted an open letter to them on my blog because they never addressed my concerns. The complaints I had with the company were easy to fix, and they took no steps to improve their service. Sad.

On a side note– Liz, do you know anything about Taste For Sweets being discontinued? I emailed and sent a FB message but have not heard back, and it has been several weeks…

Wow, that’s really sad! Customers should definitely dispute the charges with their CC company or bank. On a side note, the new box, Blue Velveteen, is handling pr horribly, ignoring customers, and degrading subscribers on their FB page… you might want to avoid that one (I deleted my review of their box after receiving a “blogger box” instead of their regular box).

That’s very sad. I always liked what they offered. 🙁 That’s terrible how they are handling things. UGH. I don’t like that at all.

Hey, Liz. I didn’t know where to put this. I know it’s not necessarily a sub box, but I thought it was neat. Yes To (the Carrots, Cucumbers, etc) is offering two different mystery boxes for $25 & $40 respectively right now. Here is the link: http://www.yestocarrots.com/category/special-offers?category_id=0000034. I thought that was neat.

I am so glad you posted this. I have been charged for August and September whimseyboxes and emailed and called them with no response from them. This is so annoying and unprofessional. The sad thing is this was my favorite box. 🙁

I had the same issue with The Organically Green Soap Company. I paid for 3 months of product I never received. No email or notice. Their website/facebook was just gone and they never replied to my emails.

This reminds me of the atrocious way Lily & Eve handled going under. I made the mistake of subscribing for their last month of service. (Of course I didn’t realize it at the time.) They refunded all existing customers for the last box because they realized it would be seriously sub-par in value but since I had signed up the previous month and was charged over a month in advance they missed me in the grand refund.

So I ended up paying $25 for a little makeup bag like Ipsy sends out. Then they completely ignored all tweets, emails, and Facebook. I never was refunded and I technically can’t protest the charge since it was a subscription box with no guaranteed value but needless to say I was very disappointed and try to pick subscriptions that aren’t going to go under.

Anyway, thanks for keeping your eye on this, Liz!

pretty sad that they are doing this and haven’t even disabled new subscriptions, i’d think that should be one of their first steps

Thank you for posting this, good to know. I’m always looking for the next box, based on this I’m glad I did not subscribe when I was thinking about subscribing. I’m hoping that for you and the rest of the subscribers, that they will get back to you, mail off the august boxes with a few extras in it.