Bloody Beauty Pie!

[Kollin]

A cautionary tale ...

Someone recommended to me a face cream by Beauty Pie so I took out a membership of £5p/m, the lowest of their subscription levels.
I ordered, it cost me £8.95 (the membership price, down from their "full price" of £65) plus postage.
It came, it's crap.
I don't want to reorder or carry on with my membership.
You can't cancel from their website, you have to email them that set alarm bells ringing, for one.
I got a reply stating if I want to cancel my membership, I have to pay the difference between the membership price and their regular price (£56!) or carry on the membership for a minimum of 3 months (depending on which level of membership you take out, this could be £15, £30 or £60! Luckily, I had only took on the lowest membership of £5pm so for me it would be £15)
Or I can return the product, if it's sealed I can have a refund ... or if it's not they will take it back but I still have to pay for it ... I mean, how am I supposed to have deduced that it's no good if I haven't used it and why would I send it back, pay another postage and then still have to pay them £56 for the privilege of no longer having the cream in my possession

Anyway, I have cancelled my card.

Lesson learned!

I would have just done the 3 months personally and tried some other products. What did you try? I've liked most the stuff I've tried from there.

They did make clear there was a minimum 3 months when I last signed up but that was a while ago. And the cancelling my email was very efficient.

I would have just done the 3 months personally and tried some other products

What if I don't want to spend any more £5's, for a service I don't want, or £9's on products I don't want.
If they're happy to take £9 for a cream then that's all it's worth and the "regular price" of £65 is just a £56 mark up con.

It's morals are basically akin to MLM but without the Huns.

What makes you say 'it's crap' when you then go on to say you haven't used the products?

It's made clear your commitment is 3 months. Why did you sign up in the first place, knowing this? It isn't hidden

Hmm. Ive always had good experiences personally. I love a lot of their products. I did cancel and came back to it. I didn't find the process difficult and I didn't have to pay what would have been full price either. Are you sure that's what they are requesting?

This sounds really dodgy

You didn't read the FAQs before you signed up. It's no secret you sign up to a minimum of 3 months.

Our monthly memberships have a 3-month minimum.
You do have a statutory legal right to cancel any membership of any kind within 14 days of your first purchase, with no further charges, as long as you don’t have an order pending or have already purchased products, but keep in mind, cancelling forfeits any unused spending limit.
If you want to cancel your account, just email us at [email protected] or give us a call on 0808 164 8264

I cancelled recently by stopping the monthly payment through PayPal. They have some good products. I will rejoin later in the year.

What makes you say 'it's crap' when you then go on to say you haven't used the products?

I have used it, I wasn't looking for a refund for the product I was just looking to stop my subscription.

They said I can't without either
a) carrying on with subscription for a set time
b) paying the difference of £56
c) returning product unused (can't, obvs!)
d) returning product used but still "having the difference deducted from my membership"

I'm not doubting that I should have read the small print.
I do refute that "it's obvious" though. I didn't see that it was a contract that I was entering into.

This post is a cautionary tale to anyone who might have seen them and wondered about their service.

Sorry you feel like you have had a bad experience but the website is explicitly about the 3 month membership period.

I have been buying from beauty pie for ages and the vast majority of their products are good - I especially like the body care products and their scented candles are lovely. The perfume smells good but doesn't last.

I gave some stuff to a neighbour recently as a thank you gift and was pleased to notice that she has had other deliveries of their products so she obviously liked them enough to buy her own stuff.

I almost signed up for Beauty Pie but the clearly stated 3 month minimum sign up put me off - I didn't have to go digging around for the t&cs, they were completely upfront that they had a minimum requirement 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Kollin

I'm not doubting that I should have read the small print. I do refute that "it's obvious" though. I didn't see that it was a contract that I was entering into.

This post is a cautionary tale to anyone who might have seen them and wondered about their service.

That's fine you don't have to agree but as you say lesson learned. The FAQs are there for a reason.

Have you cancelled your card without paying the three months?
If you have they could hold you in breach of contract and may pursue you for the money.

Skincare is very subjective, you only have to look at the boards on here to see that.
How many times do you see threads of Use this, it's awesome. Followed by a mixture of "meh, it was ok - X worked better for me" or "god no, that set off my excema something rotten"
If it works for you, great. It didn't work for me and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay them £5 a month for nothing.
Their target market is people who waste money by taking out endless subscriptions to shit they don't use and are barely affected by the money disappearing because "it's only a fiver"

Yes, lesson learned!

I understand what you are saying, but you have agreed to a contract. If you don’t pay them they can pursue you for the money.

I've just checked and it says on the page where you decide your membership option there's a minimum of 3 months.

They can't have people signing up to get the product cheap and then cancelling and then signing up again. It's a buyers club.

I feel your pain with Beauty Pie. I had a great experience in the first month so signed up for an annual membership and - it’s terrible. The products are crap and overpriced.

I used to buy skincare from Ren, Clarins, Clinique etc and have slowly switched across to Beauty Pie for pretty much all of it over the past couple of years. I thinks it’s seriously good - I started off slow with minimum £5/month but now I’ve increased to £15/month because the products I’ve tried are absolutely comparable to the brands I used to buy at 3,4,5 times the cost. Every now and then I get a product that doesn’t do it for me - the eye creams just don’t - but that’s just like any product like PPs have said. I’m surprised you aren’t willing to try anything else for two months, there are so any decent and brilliant products.

It is obvious there is a 3 month minimum. I signed up last week as my SIL rates their products and it was there in black and white before you could go any further.

Calm down, it's not Beauty Pie's fault you didn't actually read what you were signing up to properly.

Anyway some stuff from them is really very good.

How long have you tried the face cream for? And out of interest, which one was it?

I have tried a lot of their stuff, and rate some of what I have tried. Some is ok and some is not suited to me. It's a case of trying to see what suits you, as with any range.

I'm a bit cynical about their claims that 'it would cost £x full price'. However, I factor in the membership price to get the 'real' cost to me and I'm happy to pay that. If I was you I'd pay the membership and try a few more products. You're entitled to your opinion but dissing a whole company one the basis of one product not suited to you and a price structure which is crystal clear on their website is not really fair criticism imho.

But what would you do in normal circumstances if you’d bought a product and used it, but didn’t get on with it? Surely you wouldn’t be able to return it then either?

Meant to say, if you bought a product from a store without a subscription. Presumably you wouldn’t return a moisturiser that you just didn’t like to the shop once you’d used it?

Read the op and my subsequent replies. I don't want to return it, I want to stop my subscription.

I’d be careful with cancelling your card to avoid a contract you signed up to, could they put a mark on your credit file if you don’t pay the debt?

Can anyone explain how it works and what the different levels of membership mean? My SIL got me some for Christmas and I love it! Sorry to hear you had a bad experience OP