Liberty Beauty Drop Subscription Box Spoiler Part 6

[Housewife2010]

Shiny new thread

I just cancelled as well. I saw this as a scheme by Liberty to capture my spend. I’m someone who will buy nice/expensive beauty stuff and via this system they were securing that spend rather than me spending it at JL, Cult Beauty or Sephora. So good for them for devising a way of doing that/capturing market share via the Beauty Box. But I’m not now going to actually pay for my spend to be captured, why would I, so 🤷. Liberty will now be back into competition with the other sellers. Cult Beauty troll me daily with endless emails with discounts for the same stuff, which I previously ignored when I had my Liberty balance to spend, but now I’m a free agent. Their loss.

I'm another one who's cancelled. Given Liberty charge premium prices (above their competitors), the free boxes meant we probably broke even and they got my business when it would usually go somewhere else (with better prices) for the same brands. But the extra charge means it's no longer worthwhile. And all the bs about new benefits (that we already get anyway!) just irked me. Treating customers like idiots is never a smart move.

I’ve been thinking about this. I don’t know how many people use it as a savings account, but let’s assume people save up to buy the advent calendar. So, we lend them £240 a year for free. They don’t pay any interest. It’s a cheap way for them to borrow money. They now want to charge £60 for that privilege, in return for beauty samples which I assume they often receive free/cheaply from suppliers.

I'm going to hang on for a bit to see how it pans out over the next couple of boxes.

I've had several different beauty boxes that cost £15-20 and all of the Liberty boxes I've had are better than those at a similar price point, but I like eye masks and hand cream.

I've always thought it was a bit odd that they've been seemingly happy with the interest generated from our credits as Amazon etc. require payment for delivery.

But...I thought the sale was disappointing and the limited things I did buy were sent back so anymore signs of financial distress and I'll be spending my credit. The comms were confusing today and the website is dismal.

Im staying in at least for a couple of months. I'd like to see if the contents of the next box are improved. It'll also hopefully give me sufficient credit for the Spring GWP.

I'm going to hang on until the April box and see if the quality/selection changes. I was with Latest in Beauty who has just pulled out of the monthly box market and saw that another company is dumping the monthly box model too. What was a nice extra for a lot of people has just become too much extra expense and I suspect that beauty companies can no longer give the same discount on items they once did.

my payment usually goes out on 14th.. my cancellation time is 11am tomorrow.. odd that! it does look like they plan a finl payment

I’ve just emailed them to query the final payment- mine gets taken on 20th of the month and, surprise surprise, my cancellation will take effect on 9.30pm on the night of the 20th.

The T&Cs tell you you have to cancel 72 hours before the payment date- which I’m well within.

Love it- they are timing my cancellation so that they get the £20, that’s then stuck on account but I don’t have free p&p when I want to spend it.

I have cancelled too and spent the last of my credit although it says mine will be canx from
the 12th March …3 guesses when my payment is due - no reason for it to take that long and I have been subscribed for over 18 months so it in contract - looks like contacting the bank - it’s the only way to
cancel as they have a continuous payment authority set up on the bank card they hold clever as it is harder to cancel that if it was a direct debit

My subscription cancels the day after my payment is due too! Why would you treat your customers like they’re idiots?

This cancellation date malarkey is either sharp practice or incompetence. Having seen their website, I suspect the latter.

I found the cancellation date thing confusing too, but are we sure it's not just that the perks of being a member are kept until that date?

I’ve just cancelled as well, and got the message saying it will be cancelled on the 19th, which is coincidentally the same date they take my payment 🤨 the website says you can cancel at any time, so I think that’s a bit off, especially when they’re the ones changing the terms and conditions. I’ve emailed to tell them not to take another payment.

I’ve also spent all my credit in case they are in financial trouble, the first thing they always do is refuse to honour gift cards.

It’s a shame because I wouldn’t otherwise have spent much in there as I live
so far away so I only ever popped in if I was in London, but I had been buying things online because I had the credit.

Agree the ‘benefits’ were things we already had, I’d only ever used the credit on fabric before anyway.

They must’ve found people weren’t buying as much as they’d thought they would and want to scale it back.

Very disappointing. Just spent up & cancelled - my usual payment date is 8th & the message says cancellation is on March 7th so will see if they try to take another payment...

Cancelled, really disappointed as there is nothing I want to spend my credit on at the moment.

They should just launch a £10 annual fee for free delivery or something. As it stands this is a big disparity between them and other luxury beauty retailers and department stores. That was the main benefit for me of the scheme, as ultimately the boxes were just a nice but not essential perk, and the savings I could put into a bank account and earn interest on!

I think I'll wait till the April box & then cancel.
I'll also start putting away £20 each month in a 'Beauty Advent Calendar' savings space in my bank a/c

@ChardonnaysBeastlyCat I got Leatherize £155!!! Thought I might as well splurge as it was just sitting there earning me nothing.
Mascara was Dramatic lash.

Managed to get my card off and cancelled the standing order on HSBC app.

Why is it taking so long to cancel ?? It’s all a bit odd

I’ve emailed to point out I’m not tied in as I’ve been with them longer than 3 months and that I expect cancellation with immediate effect. I’ve also contacted my bank who say they will stop further payments.

Just had my confirmation - ‘as you are outside of your fixed term contract for the Beauty Drop, the changes outlined in our email, including the increase in your subscription fee from £20 a month to £25 a month, will be effective from 16 March 2024’ So… 4 days after my payment date?? And over a month from now??

Liberty’s customer services team will be extremely busy tomorrow as I’ve messaged them too.

I haven’t cancelled my subscription yet but will more than likely be doing so as I’ve only ever used the money to fund the advent calendar and after 2 years I’m bored with that now. I should have really cancelled once last years had been paid for, but didn’t and now have money sitting in my account with nothing I want to buy. I hope that their request for additional money is not an indication that the store is in financial difficulties as I would hate my money to be lost but equally I don’t want to spend it unnecessarily
Even though I understand that the scheme must be expensive to run, the way the introduction of the £5 charge has been managed has been inept and doesn’t inspire any confidence that those responsible for managing and administering it are up to the job. Despite all the spin I don’t believe that subscribers will see any benefit from the additional £5 they'll be paying every month, although had they asked for a small monthly increase to cover the cost of packaging and posting each of the 4 boxes I would have had no problem with that.

They haven't emailed me so if I hadn't seen this thread and suddenly got charged £25 I would have been seriously pissed off.

Was planning to cancel anyway so definitely will now. I have over £100 credit and no idea what to spend it on.

I remember seeing something in the T&Cs about the fact that you have to continue paying for boxes after cancelling until you've covered the cost of the scheme (I can't remember exactly how it was worded, but basically, you can't just cancel immediately after receiving your beauty box)

I'm sure that there is something in the T&Cs about the fact that you have to continue paying for boxes after cancellation. I remember scrutinising them before I signed up as I'm always a bit wary about signing up for subscriptions.