🎄 2025 Style and Beauty Advent Calendar Discussion ***SPOILERS*** THREAD 8

[BakeOffRewatch]

New thread!

At least they have now ensured they will get none 😜

It’s a bit shitty that the couriers had to lie too. My order says it was undeliverable and that they left a card. My physically being here, lack of card and my Ring cameras say otherwise. I will be cancelling the subscription based on the lack of any kind of customer service alone. Some of us here but a lot of perfume over the course of a year. An email would have been far more appropriate

I suspect you will all get an email over the next few days. Come on, take it on the chin. Other than the early birds who genuinely just lucked out with what they thought was a GWP, most people only ordered because it was too cheap to pass up. And if you're annoyed, it's only cos you got called out!

We have probably all at some point benefited from these glitches (I personally got the White Stuff sock advent a few years ago for a couple of £), but it's a wee bonus. Too right they should cancel the order, and there is some wording in their T&Cs to the effect that if they discover a pricing error they can cancel your order. For them to go to the effort of recalling from couriers, I can only assume that the number of orders placed and the number of freebies sent would have a significant negative impact on them. I remember the White Stuff sent an arsey email basically saying 'we know you're chancers, but fine you can keep it'. Presumably the impact was fairly negligible on them.

What an extraordinary development with this PS discovery box. I'm somewhat relieved I'm not into perfumes because I would have definitely placed an order.
I'm not even sure how it works from a legal perspective. If the order confirmation shows £0 and the customer received the box, not sure anyone can do anything about it. If it was an IT error, they could have emailed each customer individually and ask for payment for the free box or for the box to be returned within x number of days. Inconvenient yes, but a more personal touch. They might have re-coupe rated some losses. Most people would surely be understanding when dealing with a small independent company.

Recalling a delivery as it is taking place. I've never heard of this. But, technically, they get the boxes back so not loosing the stock I guess. And they are back to not honouring an order if there was an error. Which is within their rights by the looks of it.

I forgot about the socks AC! That was quite a find. Yes I did order at the time.

Yeah I agree @owlpassport we have no idea what volumes of orders PS got it could have been hundreds involving a huge amount of stock and losses for a small company and we don't know what margins they operate on .So I think they are right to recoup what they can
If it was my company I would do exactly the same
And yeah it sucks for those who had cancelled deliveries but what would you do with it anyway they would probably expect you to pay for it or return it now so probably best not to receive it in the first place
I remember the white stuff debacle too; still got some of their socks

I don't think they can do anything with those who received it in time except to ask nicely for the payment or return, no law has been broken once it has been received surely especially considering it was ordered in good faith.

I can’t believe this PS debacle. I do understand if they are a small company that they can’t afford a big loss, but as others have said, a lot will have been supplied to them FOC or very low cost at least.

I think for the amount of people who would have honoured the subscription and continued to support the company, they would have made a profit or at least broken even on those orders, either way maintaining their reputation.

I recall a number of glitches in the past where companies took it on the chin, and in turn had returning customers. And in the early days of Gruum, they did some “loss leader” sales to promote their products, I got a couple of freebie sets, and purchased more products from them, as I’m sure others did. They are quite a well known name now.

I think that businesses can sometimes recall parcels after they’ve been sent out. I had this with Hobbs once when I accidentally ordered something with an old delivery address. I contacted them and they couldn’t stop the parcel going out, but they were able to recall it from the courier and stop it from being delivered.

@IDontHateRainbows not sure everyone has assumed it was a gift with subscription but there was never anything advertising this . The two items appeared as separate items in the basket and were put in separately by the buyer ,( it's not like they suddenly appeared in your basket like a gift with purchase does) it's just one hasn't been charged for so I think they probably can demand payment (but I am not a lawyer so guessing) Whether PS will chase it though who knows

But what law has been broken? Not theft, not fraud. I reckon TPS would struggle to take any legal action here.

I imagine people at PS have gone into panic mode, not necessarily due to financial implications, but generally due to the f*-up. Someone may be getting it in the neck. I thought the payment side would be handled externally and they might be covered for losses if external error, but possibly not. It's a shame that they've alienated potential customers. I'm a member and purchased the set full price, but I definitely would have gone for the 'freebie' and subscription option if I could have done. I did feel it was wrong when people mentioned 'accidentally' putting 2 boxes in their baskets though. That took it to another level.

I did assume it was some sort of glitch so was fully prepared for the order to be cancelled although I didn't expect it to be yanked back at the point it was almost at my door. 😄
For that reason I'm not mad about it as I was taking a chance knowing it probably was an error. I don't think posting on MN is the best way to deal with it though. Just send an email explaining the issue. I only paid for a subscription box so if that's what I end up with I'll have got what I paid for.

Well you have ended up with stuff you haven't paid for so I am guessing PS can go after that . Just because you assumed it was free doesn't make it true and you added it to your basket with the intention of paying the price advertised. It was only the checkout bit which failed
I don't know though.....I guess we might find out!

Are there anymore HN codes sitting unloved in some inboxes? After being on the fence I have now decided I would like to buy the frag calendar if I can get it discounted. Having added it to my basket did not trigger any algorithms and no code was sent :(
so if any of you ladies have one that you will not be using I would be most grateful for it :)

If they want to recall mine I will return the subscription box and keep the discovery box, as it was the latter that I intended to purchase but was happy to chance the subscription as overall it was a good deal.
Having seen what’s in the subscription box, I don’t think it’s worth it as stand alone, it’s basically a bunch of freebie testers and a face cream (why?).
If they don’t do a recall, I’d be happy to continue with my subscription to balance out the cost for what I’ve received.

Oh okay, that’s interesting. It is definitely giving D&G LB vibes.
I also have the Glossier You and like the smell of that one but haven’t tried it on my skin yet, just a sniff test

I'll happily defend any theft allegations in a court of law.

They can't recall the boxes. They can ask for us to pay, but under UK consumer law, the contract is made either when the dispatch notice is sent or when goods are received. They'd have to prove that we did it deceitfully, whereas I think we all honestly thought that if we subscribed, we received that as a gwp as part of the perks of having an subscription with them 🤷🏻‍♀️

For those doing DIY calendars I thought this was worth sharing. I saw it in Hobbycraft and it is really pretty.

www.hobbycraft.co.uk/gold-christmas-village-pop-up-advent-calendar/6772501000.html

If anyone is looking for a calendar for teens, the Benefit cube is nice. Various codes take 20% off at Cult Beauty (i used SALICB) and you also get a free Benefit drinks cup similar to a Stanley cup for any Benefit spend above £50

Well I certainly didn’t think that when I saw your post . My first thought was there is no way they are giving that discovery box as a GWP that is an IT glitch 😂. But maybe I am the only one ( I doubt it though)

Vogue unboxing on YouTube if anyone is interested in that:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pvPnz8jbqKk&pp=ygUTYmVhdXR5IGFkdmVudCB2b2d1ZQ%3D%3D

Yes that was my understanding too. I thought it was a good way to get people to subscribe. I wouldn’t have bothered with a subscription otherwise, I’d have just got the discovery box.

If they want to ask everyone to send back their box of what appears to be free samples and cancel their subscriptions, I’m sure people would oblige as long as the postage cost is covered.

I’ve sent you a code

It's strange that there has been no email from them at all. I wonder how they will rectify this. I am happy to pay for the box - that is what I wanted. But I would want to cancel the subscription as I only added that in as it seemed such a good deal with the 'free' box. Yes I know this wasn't mentioned on their website but I genuinely didn't consider that it might be a 'glitch'. At the moment, I haven't received anything.