Oprah Circle of Friends Subscription Try & Keep Review #2

Thank you for providing this forum!! I’m a longtime Oprah fan and I almost bought these for my sisters. Thought I’d do a quick search first….

I canceled this subscription box last April and received verification in writing, so I thought I was all set. This month, my credit card was charged $199.00 and when I contacted O’s Circle of Friends, I was told it would take “several weeks” to remove the charge. Be sure to check your debit/credit card statements if you think you have canceled this box.

I literally just LOLed when I saw the photo. With the Burt’s Bees one, I thought, “well, I’d actually use this,” but was still baffled why they’d include something I can get at the drug store. But this has to be a joke. Maybe write a letter to the editor of the magazine? They seem to actually read those. THANK YOU for saving me $199!!

I got an email asking me to complete a survey regarding my experience with Circle of Friends and I was definitely honest about my displeasure. I guess they finally got enough negativity that they needed to address it somehow.

Thanks for the info. I found this site when considering signing up for O Circle of Friends – $199 Premier Membership. It was tempting but after reading all the posts I will definitely abstain. Oprah needs a better grip on her maintaining her brand. It appears she blew it.

For those who are counting the magazines as something of value…the O magazine can be purchased for $2-$5 for a yearly subscription. It used to be a free subscription with surveys as the magazine did not have a lot of readers which greatly affects the value with the advertisers. So not did Oprah get people to pay literally over 100x the value of a magazine that no one wants to read, but she also managed to squeeze in her book to pad the sales and a couple drugstore goods that you can buy at Grocery Outlet (a Ross for food). And yes, I guarantee she knows all that’s going in with her sub. She’s rolling on her fans’ dollar bills while laughing.

this is the most sad pathetic box ever!!!!!
3 boxes of twinnings tea.
i hope they read this…the whole thing has sucked and been so disappointing such a waste of money!!!!

I just received 3 boxes of Liptons tea for me to test and keep. So far the items that I’ve received don’t even come up to $150. I’ve been conned big time!

So, doing a little bit of math off of the chart in the review…

Plus (Subscriptions and newsletter) is valued at $387.

Prime gets you the luxury beauty box and a second gift subscription. Those two items are valued at $104 together.

Premier gets you a birthday card from Oprah, a surprise gift from the O List, and Test (and Keep) products. Those three things together are valued at $106.

The issue seems to be the $387 value of the things in the Plus membership, and the extra subscription, being very inflated.

Maybe the birthday card will be diamond encrusted or come with a pair of diamond earrings…. Keys to your brand new scooter?

Today I received a full size tube of Mary Kay Lash Love mascara. I still have not received anything near the $199 I spent, let alone the promised value. I am now very careful about boxes I choose to subscribe to and canceled about 70% of my subscriptions. I just can’t justify paying to be disappointed, but Popsugar, Little Lace Box, Candy Club, A Beautiful Mess, and Birchbox/Ipsy still give me a thrill.

What a lack of imagination! You can find lower cost items that are novel, fanciful, TRENDY (Vaseline???) You are O magazine for God’s sake…you know how many up and coming designers or companies would LOVE to be in this box. It is fun to see how bad it is getting…but I do feel for those who spent all their money on this.

So glad I contacted them and cancelled my box, not worth the money.

At this point it’s almost amusing to see if it can truly get any worse, but that is only because I didn’t purchase this sub.

as an aside has anyone seen the picture of her on the inside cover of the new edition of O??? Talk about photo shop—-she looks a size 8

Whoa-I just saw the sub had a promised value of almost $600! Anyone else catch that? Are you able to tell us what the estimated valueis in products that you’ve received so far, Liz? Seems like it would be pretty far away in terms of value!

I think this is so deceptive. As a subscriber to the magazine, I can say that I can never remember then feauturing drugstore brands in the magazine. In fact, aside from Adam’s fashion under 100 dollars page, they mostly feature things that are waay out of my price range. This is just not representative of O Magazine, nor is it representative of the pictures on their facebook/webpage or the pictures of the subscription. I feel the pain of people who spent their hard-earned money on this.

omg this is crazy! I wonder if Oprah even knows about this. I just don’t get it.

I think you should had gotten your money back when others posted they did. I remember seeing Vaseline Lip Therapy in sub box reviews last year.

Has anyone else that has this subscription received these other items or are they just trying to send more to Liz because of MSA?

This one is near the top of the Sub Box Hall of Shame list, if not at the top, based on both price and celebrity affiliation. Seriously, I’m shocked they haven’t been used yet for false representation/misleading advertising. Who knowingly pays that much for samples of drugstore products that aren’t even new releases? The key word there is knowingly.

Has the value of all the things you’ve received even met the price of the subscription? Such a disappointing sub box from the woman that gives away free cars.

Vaseline? OMG! They should have stopped while they were behind.

Even though they say “New” on the package, I had the rosy lips from a limited edition Birchbox ages ago. You’d think “test and keep” would be something actually new to the market, especially if it’s going to be inexpensive.