Quarterly Will Now Charge For Shipping + GQ Box Spoiler

I only had the Hitha on the Go box subscription and just got a note that it was being discontinued. I liked that subscription.

Given this and their new position on returns, I feel that there is no rush for me to want to subscribe. There are 3 subscriptions I’m keeping, both Book Riot boxes and the Kevin Rose box. Anything else, I can take the chance that it will appear on Best of Quarterly. It will be the same price. If it sells out or doesn’t make it to Best of Quarterly… oh well, it wasn’t meant to be.

Well, I decided to re-subscribe to Arianna’s box making the assumption that the subscriptions prior to March 1 would apply to all subscriptions, not just to one. It won’t ship until May (if then…) so that gives me plenty of time to back out (assuming the next policy change won’t be to charge us as soon as we subscribe!). Their website still says shipping is free – maybe that will change tomorrow.

I noticed that Hitha disappeared from the list of curators. I don’t know if that’s because people were not happy with her boxes or if it’s because she’s expecting a baby soon and decided to drop out of the box business.

I received a quarterly email that the nina box theme is… luxe hair care
No poducts mentioned though

Since they are only starting to charge shipping March 1, and the Nina Garcia box was supposed to be shipped in February, I think that those subscribers should not only get free shipping on that first box after March 1st, but then the “free shipping credit” on the box after that. Not my fault you can’t get it together and get boxes out on time.
Another thing – they sent me an email yesterday saying that MSA is no longer a curator ( 🙁 ), but here are two that we suggest based on your interests – Design*Sponge and Nina Garcia. Good work figuring out that I’d be interested in the Nina Garcia box, since I’ve been a subscriber forever.
Ugh. Really not feeling the love for quarterly recently.

I’ll stay subscribed to Bianca’s (MizzFit) box because I pretty much adore her and what she embodies. However, and I’ve said this before, I wish someone would come along and compete with Quarterly. All they do is facilitate the box infrastructure elements, while the curators do all of the actual selection. Quarterly sucks when it comes to shipping, timeliness and to add a charge and call it a “shipping charge” is just such a bad move considering that the shipping is the most frustrating part from a customer standpoint. Why not just raise the cost of every box by $5 and just call is a cost of living adjustment or inflation adjustment or heck, just say that you need to raise the cost to keep afloat. Starbucks raises their prices and they don’t feel the need to describe WHY they are raising prices.

I’m afraid this will be it for me as well. The only benefit of a subscription over a single box purchase was the free shipping. Quarterly already provides a terrible dollar value. The curation is good, but why not just wait for the reveal and buy the items you want somewhere else or wait until they put the boxes on sale.

I never even got the email showing the changes and I was supposed to get two boxes in March. Guess I’m going to go cancel them too. Too bad, but like others have said, I can take that money and go get something I actually like.

I went ahead and canceled my Wil Wheaton box last night. I signed up months ago at the original announcement, and part of me felt like “Well, I’ve waited this long…”, but the other part of me said that it was time to move on from this company. As some of the other commenters have mentioned, some of the changes, while unpopular, just make good sense for them as a business. It was so nice when they offered returns (and free at that! We didn’t even have to pay return shipping, which is sometimes required by even non-sub companies), but I can understand why that was working against them.
My main concern with Quarterly boils down to lack of communication. For example, I subscribed to this box months ago, knowing that it was not scheduled to ship until February. However, there has pretty much been only one mention of the box since. So with every email that came from them about new spoilers, curators, or other announcements, I was left anxious waiting to hear more about this one. The only spoiler that was listed was an action figure, not even specifying which type. It was more like a vague hint than a spoiler. With Wil Wheaton’s box having a higher price point, it’s hard to justify spending that much money without a real sense of what I might be getting. There have been posts on FB from people asking when the box will ship. The response was that it would be last week, with no update since. I understand that things occur that delay the boxes, but I just wish that in all of the announcements that they send out, they could at least acknowledge the people that have subscribed to this box (“Hey Wil Wheaton subscribers! Hang tight! Your box is coming soon!”).
And another area where I feel that their communication is lacking is the announcement of changes. I do understand why they made them, but it does feel like it was brought up in a rather shady way.

I feel with each email they just push me further away. I’ve already broken up with you Quarterly, now you’re just sealing the deal.

:: Sigh :: The only Quarterly box I subscribed to was the MSA box (sad to see it go but am totally understanding of why it ended). I’ve considered Wil Weaton’s box (love Wil Weaton) and Hitha’s box (good curation, but not a great value), but I haven’t taken the plunge on either. There were also several “best of” Quarterly boxes I debated getting but ultimately didn’t buy because of the high shipping cost (shipping was never free on old / “best of” boxes). Because I consider shipping costs as part of the cost of a box, it’s like Quarterly is raising prices without raising value.

Subscription boxes are changing and morphing as the landscape changes. I was an early subscriber to Quarterly and remember some of those first Jason Kottke boxes. I loved them! An ant farm! A pinhole camera! Mexican jumping beans! Stuff I would never even think about buying for myself (or even think about in general) showing up on my doorstep. I felt like a kid.

Those early boxes were more about curation and wanting to see things through the eyes of someone you found interesting. They were about the experience, about exploring things you might never have considered. They weren’t about value necessarily, although I recall giving one of the Cool Huntings boxes the side-eye because it seemed underwhelming for the price.

The addition of so many new niches and the community that has been building around boxes have both added to new attitudes. Subscribers are interested in a balance between value and curation; no longer is receiving something interesting from someone interesting enough.

Quarterly’s model – return any box for a full refund, free shipping – was simply unsustainable. One factor here must be manufacturer agreements. In the early days of sub boxes, companies were probably excited about getting their products in front of a waiting audience. Today, with many of us subscribing to 5, 6, 7 and more boxes a month, companies have most likely come to realize that we are waiting for our next surprise and not necessarily beating down their door to purchase seconds. I certainly have bought items after discovering a new product that I love, but because I am getting several (heh) boxes a month, my desire to shop is tempered by “what might I get next?!”

French Box found that $24 was unsustainable (they said so in their letter to subscribers) and I expect that they will restart with a higher priced box. But instead of doing what Quarterly did and raise pricing, they first tried to snow subscribers by sending out expired and very un-French products.

I think that only the companies with the largest backing such as Birchbox and PopSugar and FabFitFun as well as small niche boxes which have a particular demographic like the vegan boxes will be sustainable in the long haul. I think that we will see less makeup and jewelry startups and more niche offerings. We will probably see some large companies get in on the box idea (like Target and Wal-Mart have done).

Just some thoughts!

Quarterly is slowly going down hill. Before too long, there will be only a handful of curators left.

I don’t even have any quarterly subscriptions since there is no more MSA but I feel that quarterly is on its way out.

I don’t understand how a coffee book is related to a date. Is it to reenact a Barnes and Nobles quick date away from the kids?

I have really enjoyed the Book Riot box, but now that there is competition with a few other book boxes, I don’t know. I just don’t know. I have the feeling after my free shipping box comes, that will be it for me.

What’s going on with this company lately? Were they bought out?

I decided to unsub from Nina today…just before receiving this email from Quarterly. The reason being there have been no spoilers or even a hint at a theme for her box…not a good sign. Now that shipping is charged separately and there are no returns they should be able to improve the value/quality of the boxes right? 😉

I could see why they dropped the returns (they had to be losing a lot of money) but the shipping is very odd. I’m guessing that they are hoping for a flurry of re-subscriptions before March 1 (the e-mail said it was per subscription) but I’m not sure what their game plan will be after that. Maybe the next step will be billing as soon as someone signs up (like PS does). They can sometimes lure more people in by posting spoilers but they also cause a lot of people to cancel too.

I’m keeping Bianca’s box because she really did provide a nicely curated box with good value. I’m debating on Ariana – I cancelled the last one because I didn’t need the fitness tracker or more yoga DVDs (although I did think the box was great) but overall she has done a nice job putting together good value and good curation.

I am wondering if Quarterly is going to make it. Some of their curators seem to have a pretty big cult following but not all.

Shipping isn’t free and you “pay” for it somewhere, whether it’s built into the cost of a box or a charge tacked on afterwards. That being said timely shipping/delivery has been Quarterly’s worst area of performance for pretty much as long as I’ve heard of them, so to start charging for something that you are legitimately terrible at does not make sense to me unless you PRESENT it as a way to improve in a weak area, which they did not do. If they had bothered to “spin” this a little differently, I bet the overall reaction would be markedly different.

I feel like Quarterly is not long for this world. I signed up for the Renarda Joy box after yours ended, but then I got an email before Renarda even did one box saying that she was no longer a curator. Then I signed up for Food52’s, so I’ll get the shipping credit this time around, but after that I think I’m going to be done with them as a whole for good. It’s too bad, I think they have potential and have had great boxes/curators in the past, but based on the experiences you shared with us it seems like there’s a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that is making them scramble!

Cancelled!! Done.

I’m waiting for two “February” boxes to ship. I wonder if they will actually get them out by Saturday or if they will push them to March 1 and charge me shipping. Very confusing to me.

I will stay subscribed to Bianca’s box but I am not happy about additional $5… still her boxes always have a high value and I adore her curation 🙂

quarterly is getting out of control! I used to love them, but after all the delays around the holidays, the no-return change… AND now this!!! I guess This help me decide between the travel box or the LE PS box.