Beauty advent calendars 2024 #3

[virgocatlover]

Have we made our decision(s)?

Thread 1 - https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/styleandd_beauty/5108657-beauty-advent-calendars-2024

Thread 2 - https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/styleandd_beauty/5156541-beauty-advent-calendars-2024-2

I ordered on the 10th and mine is due for delivery tomorrow.

I'm sure they will get everyone their advents soon, I imagine they are inundated with orders and they are trying to catch up. They haven't sold out so I'm sure you'll all get them.

Yeah, I ordered in 10th too, and Space NK don't appear to have dispatched mine either. Not impressed. I appreciate that they've probably got a lot of orders, but they should be fulfilling the earlier ones first.

For those of you having issues with SpaceNK, I would suggest taking to social media rather than emailing. They tend to be more responsive when being challenged publicly.

Might be worth expressing disappointment to
Space NK? I’ve only had to contact their customer service once but was surprised at how good they were. I bought the Vit C edit last month and it was excellent value at £100
and then got £20 off in the £20 off £100
promotion. It arrived and the bag it came in was grubby - I contacted them not expecting much and they refunded me another £20. The vit c edit was suddenly exceptionally good value then!

I did mention that people were discussing on social media and appears that later orders are being sent out before earlier ones.

It's also very inefficient, why would a company even do that? You work through orders as you receive them.

I've only ever had problems with Space NK at sale time when they took ages to despatch my goods. Clearly they can't cope with an overload.

Hope all those who ordered calendars get their soon. I must have been lucky as mine arrived on Saturday

My Glossybox has arrived for my daughter. I’m really pleased with the look of it, not too huge and the chest with the drawers will be very reusable for storing her make up.

I've commented on their Instagram. Will continue to pester periodically. The saving grace for me is that it's the first year I've not actually been desperate to have a calendar, so if they cancel I'll buy the six or seven bits I really fancy (from Sephora or CB!) and save myself about £70. It would be disappointing though, Space NK are generally reliable.

Space NK replied to me (via email) and said that my calendar will be dispatched on or before 24/09

Got space nk today. I’m not opening it. I just need one with some decent make up in it for my 20 year old niece I don’t want to go over £100 though.

I'd be interested in how they put together and manage calendars. Maybe rather than thousands of boxes sat around ready made up they create them in batches as the orders come. Having their brand suppliers send further boxes of items as needed. I assume it's something like this.

I wonder if supply issues are in part due to a mismatch between the product being marketed and what customers actually use them for. The retailer thinks they have a long lead time putting something on sale in September that isn't needed until late November.

Except loads of us buying aren't using them as advent calendars and instead as large beauty boxes. I'm only going to use 1 of the 3 I've bought as an actual advent calendar in December.

When I buy for the beauty products then I want it to arrive quickly but if I was using it as intended then I'd be okay with them saying something like 'the calendar will be delivered no later than 15th Nov'.

Not sure where I'm going with this but I guess it causes the supply chain a headache maybe when people are essentially buying the products and don't care about the advent aspect?

@OvaHere I wonder if supply issues are in part due to a mismatch between the product being marketed and what customers actually use them for. The retailer thinks they have a long lead time putting something on sale in September that isn't needed until late November.

I doubt it, I got F&M last year. Ordered in September with an expected delivery date of mid-October. No dramas, clear communication. It's the fact Space NK said it would be shipped immediately, then it gradually got bumped further and further away while I can see other (later) orders were fulfilled. If they had just taken lots of pre-orders and then sent them out at a future date none of us would be bothered. Anyone ordering an advent calendar as a beauty box would just have to cope I'm afraid.

Maybe the issue is the other way around then? They realise many people buy them to open and use immediately to they're trying to cater to that customer as well as being an advent calendar for Dec and now they're overwhelmed.

@OvaHere I think they've just effed up tbh, maybe unexpected demand, or staff sickness. I don't think we need to try to find excuses or reasons for them. I do think it would make sense to take it off sale temporarily until they've fulfilled current orders, other brands have done that in previous years and had multiple drops. This isn't reflecting well on them as a company.

Agree the f&m approach allows much better planning.

I agree that it just comes down to retailers doing what they say so people don’t feel messed around. Maybe it would be better for them to take pre-orders well before they aim to dispatch them if stock control is becoming a problem. But they can’t be held responsible for what people plan to do with them and how quickly they want them delivered. I do think it’s a reasonable assumption that the majority of people buying an advent calendar intend to use it in December, if that’s part of their calculations at all.

It doesn't matter what people are using them for. Clear communication is essential. If Space NK told me that it would be delivered mid October that would be fine. It is the fact that they promised to despatch the pre orders within a few days, yet now they keep moving the despatch day, not communicating clearly, cancelling several.pre orders and posting out ACs that were ordered later, rather than in order.

So weird about SpaceNK - it is still available for me to buy on the site now. I don’t understand what is going on.

I wonder if the site was overloaded on launch day and they have had some glitches. Then, rather than coming clean, orders have been refunded/different info given, etc. It’s all a bit sloppy.

I might pop over to another store on Friday and see if there’s any in stock, (I will check the instore stock availability online first!)

My Space NK calendar has arrived today. Ordered on 13th. I will open later to check it over.

It’s a shame that some earlier orders have been delayed, it seems an odd process but I am sure they will honour all orders. For those still waiting, it’s worth sending them a message to express disappointment, it may help to expedite it, or you might get a bit of money back

Exactly this. If they'd said that the dispatch date would be October then no problem, but they didn't, the dispatch date was supposed to be 13th September. What if someone is planning a holiday and they now have no idea when to expect their calendar?

They didn't even send me an email to say that my order would be delayed, so I've told them that the lack of communication and clarity is very unhelpful.

It's also not on to be sending out later orders when you haven't fulfilled earlier ones. Being 'overwhelmed' is not an excuse for that. They've messed up.

I agree with the posters who say that it's about clear communication and setting expectations. This is not a small purchase and I expect to be kept informed of progress. I also expect to see orders delivered in sequence of order date / time.

I got a bit of a sarcy reply from Space NK when I raised it with them saying they "understood I was eager to receive my advent calendar early".... err, no I'm not, I just want to know what's happened to my £250, why has it been refunded, will it be charged again, am I at risk of being on holiday when the delivery arrives etc.

@Theresalotgoingon I assume that the temporary hold on funds from your account has expired as they haven't sent orders yet and it's usually a week or so for funds being authourised and held. They can (and will still charge your card without the funds being held but if you dont have the money in your account when they charge you, it'll fail. They charge on dispatch.

That’s not impressive @Theresalotgoingon

I hate it when companies just send out the standard reply without bothering to read your actual query!

I had a similar issue with LF recently - I messaged many times about a missing item and got increasingly frustrated with the incorrect/inapplicable suggestions being given. Eventually I got someone who actually bothered to read my message and the item is now en route.

It’s this kind of shoddy CS that puts people off companies. If you’d asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would have said LF’s CS was good, but this is the second issue I have had in a fortnight, (have given up on the first one!)

I really hope everyone waiting for SpaceNK gets a happy outcome. (It could well have been me - I almost ordered on launch day but talked myself down!)

@Theresalotgoingon

I got a generic nonsense reply from Space NK too so I've emailed back and been more explicit - Can Space NK explain why customers who ordered later have had their orders delivered, while those who ordered earlier are being kept waiting?

If I don't get a satisfactory response I'll call them. Hate being fobbed off.