French Box February 2015 Box Issue Update

I looked today and they are no longer taking new subscriptions. I really doubt that we will get a refund. Liz, can you estimate even how many subscribers they have? If there are somewhere between 4000 to 5000 subscribers, and not everybody paid $24, a refund to all you are looking at close to $100,000. I doubt a small start up can afford to do that. I have cancelled my sub, but I so wamt them to succeed.

Reading between the lines on this, tells me that this company is in BIG trouble. Here’s what they’ve done – they’ve completely broken subscribers’ trust. I wouldn’t trust a single product from them after this, because who knows where they got it.

Then, the big one for me, is saying that they can’t afford to do this box at $24 a month. So, what I see coming is them telling us that they are going to have to raise the price of the box substantially each month in order to provide products not sourced from dollar store bargain bins. It says to me, “hey, I sent you crap for $24 thinking you all were too dumb to notice. Now, I’m hoping you all are dumb enough to give me more money each month!” I don’t think so…

Then they said they aren’t going to ship March’s box out until further notice if at all – well this is great for monthly subscribers, but what about annual subscribers (or 3 month or 6 month)? Those subscribers already paid for March’s box and beyond.

Next, they say they are still trying to figure out a way to make up Feb’s box to everyone. The only way they can make that box up is to refund everyone’s money. But, since that didn’t seem to be on the table, I am guessing they 100% can’t afford to refund everyone without going under.

On top of that, there are several newspaper articles about Frenchbox’s owner Mickael Cohen and his prior business ventures in the Miami area. These articles depict a businessman that is running on debt, absconding with creditors’ money, and very shady business practices.

After reading those articles and seeing this from them, I would run from Frenchbox. They do have beautiful packaging, but that only goes so far.

The other lesson I take away from this Frenchbox situtation is to never, EVER sign up and pay for an annual subscription to a box. I might chance it on a bigger company like Popsugar, but even then, I don’t think it’s wise. If any of these companies go under or filed bankruptcy, annual subscribers would just have to take the loss. I’ll take it monthly with subs. Subs come and go, so monthly is the only way to go. 🙂

Wow. This is even worse than the overlooked/not shipped strivectin that was to be in Feb glossybox. French Box completely over explained too much and gave too much information out. In doing so they look inept. They also chose the wrong direction to go with the apology letter. First, you don’t start out an apology saying it isn’t an attempt to gain forgiveness. BAM, loss of sincerity, which makes your credibility (French Box) plummet. One can also tell there isn’t much experience in the customer relations area based the verbage they chose to print. To admit in writing “the premise (of a “french box” full “french products” imported to USA) of has been hard to sustain” BAM, another nail in their coffin. Who admits to having a terrible business model and not doing enough research on availability of french products and pricing of such products if that is what your business plan offers as main product? The stupidity of the email makes my head spin. The “going forward” and “Next Step” paragraphs are pretty much the gist of what needed to be said. However it is all open ended, not saying if anything will be actually done at all, nor when they are shooting to have their problems resolved. This email gives hints of a terribly run business. I’m thrilled I waited to see how it would play out before I joined the mailing list…as I didn’t see how they would import that many truly french items at such a small cost. Glad my instincts were on mark. Sorry for all those who signed up. At least they are suspending charging your monthly fee.

Darn! I actually got a French box for February – though I thought the subscription wouldn’t start until March and they never sent an e-mail saying they were shipping it. I haven’t opened it and I’m thinking of just sending it back.

I guess I should call my credit card company first and see what they recommend I do.

Hmm..it think it is interesting that they reiterate the fact that for six boxes prior, they sent out great boxes. Many times this was said in the apology letter as a desperate plea for customers to hang on. Did anybody check on the freshness of those products? I am very curious. I wonder if they were abusing the system all along with 3rd party sellers. Checkcosmetics.net. This was my first box, so I don’t have any prior products. If they have been doing this from the beginning, I wonder if somebody will take this on as a class action lawsuit. These boxes need quality control regulation.

I’m curious how people know the serum is made in China. Is it on the bottle? I know on the cosmetic website you can zoom in on the products and one of them said made in France. When I looked the other day I did not see anything about the serum being made in China.

I think that giving all the money back for February would probably close their business down. Substitute goods at a higher value would be find with me. My biggest concern beyond expiry dates is the Made in China serum. If you are French box you do not ever have products made in China.

My husband gave me a three-month subscription for Valentine’s Day, starting with the February box. I went to France last summer, and thought this would be a fun way to continue my fond memories. Kind of a nightmare.

The more emails and comments from FB I am reading, accompanied with the posts from customers really makes me believe this is a situation that FB will not recover from. That’s just a personal thought but if I were still a paying customer, I’d rethink that.

I still keep seeing FB claim they did not check their product first. But then where did they get it from in the first place? You can not tell me a reputable company sold them these products under the impression they were current. Even a moron knows that 3rd party sites out of the country sell old stock.

And if they truly did not know that, then they are not qualified to be running this company. Not even a little.

I think we should give them a little bit of time to resolve this situation. Just imagine how stressful it must be for them. Hundreds of angry emails to read and answer, getting items for next months boxes, getting solution for February and March boxes. They must make some decisions and I am sure they are working very hard on it. I think it is very good idea to wait with March box or completely skip it until they are proud of items included in this box. Maybe they should send a box every two months so there is more time to get nice items subscribers will love. And I am sure they are working on solution for February box fiasco. I feel for them.

I feel bad for them because this situation has to be really stressful. At the same time they did put themselves in it and have not handled it well. They should have been transparent from the beginning and taken more accountability. They are placing blame and although they wrote and apology letter I haven’t seen the words “I’m sorry” yet. I feel bad for anyone that subscribed for a year…

I really believe we should NOT be using the heart bath, it did not come with a packaging… it could be expired even if they post a date, that does not mean our bath pearls are still good.

Is good that they are reaching out to customers, and I hope they make a big gesture to fix their mistake. Is such a big break of trust, it will be hard for customers to forgive them (and we might be suspicious of the items they send).

I’m glad they sent out an apology letter because it was desperately needed in this situation. However, a lot of the wording really concerns me and I’m more concerned that they have a failing business model and can’t afford to refund our money like we deserve. I’m going to go ahead and dispute the charges because I can’t afford to waste my money on crap. I’m so disappointed with this whole situation, FL has lost me as a customer forever.

I have a wholesalers license myself. I’ve seen huge lots of L’Oreal products available at discount usually because the packaging is outdated or the product has been discontinued. If the packaging is old enough to be outdated, then the product itself is probably well past its useable life. That’s fine if you want to sell product at a swap meet, but it is NOT acceptable for a subscription box. (Beauty Box 5 has been guilty of this, but on 1 product in a box, not 3!!) French Box would be better off to raise their prices and offer a well curated box full of quality products as opposed to a cheap box full of poop.

I think the response is well-written and takes into account objections that have been raised by subscribers. It is wise for them to hold off billing for March boxes and to look for a solution for February subscribers. I do have my doubts that they will recover from this. It sounds as though in the beginning they were able to purchase items from France and later had to rely on companies such as Alibaba or a different company to provide the products needed.

There are things that they have written which concerns me such as : “a great challenge for us”, “This premise has proven difficult to sustain”, ” and the sentence that causes me the most concern: “…we sent you two products that we did not verify and that should had never been sent had we been more vigilant.”. Are they using a 3rd party purchaser or a warehouse to package the items? How do I know this will not be an issue in the future? Verify and vigilant …that is concerning to me.

My opinion is that if FrenchBox continues to be in business that the $24.00 pricepoint is not sustainable. Either the price point will have to go up or the box is moved to bimonthly or quarterly with a higher pricepoint. I hope future sub owners are reading about this and understand the dangers of having a too low of a pricepoint and that it is not sustainable or could result in compromising which could be damaging to the brand and customer base.

I was a subscriber who received my last box in December with the intentions of resubscribing in April. My health issues necessitates trust in both my beauty items and subscription boxes. I will not be resubscribing to them.

I don’t know why they are “working on a solution to February”..in my opinion, they are sourcing their products from cheap discount sites and don’t know how to scramble another box together with quality fresh products. Maybe they are trying to contact vendors in France now, to see if they will give product for people to sample, so to speak. But giving the money back is the biggest losing proposition for them. So we will have to wait, I feel.

Glad they acknowledged the expired products and missing ingredient list. guess a solution for feb subscribers is not an easy one to make. Figure they woukd have refunded at least 10 to 15 $ for those who got the feb box. I hope they reinvent the box going forward. Yet with so many subscrbers loosing trust it will be hard to do. I subbed to the very first box yesterday I tossed out all the makeup and beauty items from that box. I wont subscribe again.

I think they’ll have no choice but to increase the price of the box. It sounds like they’re almost blaming the subscribers by saying “well, what do you expect out of a box that only costs $24?”

Either a refund or another box this time curated well!

I do not trust the ingredients list that they posted for the bath beads. They don’t link to where they found the information, nor do they list a manufacturer.

I think it’s bizarre that they aren’t refunding customers or sending anything to make up for the expired products in February. So what exactly did February paying customers receive for their $24…?

The ingredients and expiration date for the bath pearls are now posted on their facebook account.

I guess no one at FrenchBox actually checks the products once they are received from vendors, how could they not know? Hopefully whatever they come up with works out for everyone, customers and company.