My Julep Debacle

I apologize for the lack of posts recently, but either the weather hasn't been good for photographing indies (i.e. no sunshine) or if it has been good, I've been off doing something else. Between an incredibly weird busy time at work and a busy period in my personal life, I just haven't had a ton of time to devote to the blog. I'm headed out of town this weekend, but when I return, everything should be back to normal and I can finish up with the remaining brands that I want to discuss for indies! (I actually shot for a new blog post earlier this afternoon, so there should be a new one before the end of this week.) In the mean time, I thought it would be really easy to do this post since it's all text. I want to preface this post and say that I am not writing this with malicious intent, but rather to inform you all about a company that I feel does not deserve my business and really, anyone's business. I'm also writing this because I have advertised their services in the past and I want to let you know my change in heart toward them.

What company am I talking about? Julep. If I haven't mentioned it enough, I am a pretty avid Redditor and I belong to about one million and one beauty subs there. One of them is called /r/BeautyBoxes and it's completely devoted to subscription services. I discovered that sub shortly after I had started my subscription to Julep and to my dismay, the sub was littered with horrible reviews of Julep; not because of their products (there's mixed reviews on their polishes anyway - I happen to like them aside from the horrible stench) but because of their customer service. If you're curious, all you have to do is go to /r/BeautyBoxes and type "Julep" in the search option; you'll see the chaos. I, however, already had my subscription to Julep and since, at the time, you could only cancel your subscription over the phone, I just hung on to it. I did eventually attempt to cancel my subscription over the phone, but I could never get a customer service representative on the phone. I eventually gave up and just continued to skip every month of the subscription. Then the month of June happened...

You have to skip your box during a certain window of time on their site; it's "open" for something like a week. All you have to do is log in, go to the Maven section and go through a few more screens and you will eventually be presented you with the skipping option. I did this at the end of June, meaning that I would be skipping my July box, and carried on my merry way. Well, merry until I looked at credit card statement and noticed a charge from Julep. I attempted to call them since I had skipped the box, but I was unable to get a hold of anyone (shocking), so I emailed them. It took them a week to get back in touch with me; an entire week. At this point, my box had already shipped and there was nothing that they could do for me. Along with that, the customer service rep obviously didn't read the email I had sent and simply copied and pasted a response back to me.

Here's the thing with me; I worked in customer service for over seven years and I have no patience for people who don't do it well. I understand that Julep is probably completely understaffed or I at least hope that they are since they never seem to be able to answer the phone, but that's no excuse for not reading an email that is time sensitive and then sending back a canned response. I responded back to the CS agent in a very frank and matter of fact way and she got back to me immediately and cancelled my subscription (I requested that this happen) and said she would send me a prepaid label to return the box once I received it. The label, however, would take about two to three business days to show up, so I had to wait for it. Well, those business days passed and then a few more passed and I received nothing. At this point, I took to their Facebook wall which got fairly prompt attention and after a few more business days, I received my return shipping label.

I returned the box of nail polish that I didn't want and it was received by Julep on the 21st of July. In one of my previous emails, the CS agent stated that it would take 5-10 business days for a refund to show up on my card. I patiently waited those 5-10 business days and on the tenth day, when there was still no refund on my card, I called the customer service line. Amazingly, I got a hold of an agent on the phone (this was literally the first time ever out of dozens of calls) who proceeded to tell me that no refund had even been processed yet and that we would go ahead and it get it processed while I was on the phone. He did so and then told me that it would be another 2-10 business days before I got my refund on my card. Here I am on August 19th and I have finally received my refund. This is the ninth business day since that phone call. My bank is not the hold up here since every other refund I've ever received has shown in 24-48 hours but rather Julep's refund procedure.

It took almost an entire month from the date that they received my package to give me a refund and if I hadn't called them to check, who knows how long it would have taken. I have emails and Facebook posts to show how many times I had to contact them regarding this ONE charge. The amount isn't even that much, it's the fact that they are so irresponsible when it comes to everything. Take one look at their Facebook page and you can see complaints from a slew of people. Look at the Reddit sub that I linked earlier and you will find tons of people who have had slight issues like me and others have had huge issues with $70-$100 orders.

I am not writing this out of spite to bash the company but rather to warn all of you readers about the potential of getting screwed over. Since I recommended this company in the past, I feel that I needed to do this follow up. Honestly, aside from this, I never had any issues with Julep and I kind of though that people were blowing it out of proportion; guess I was wrong, huh? If you do want to subscribe to Julep, please, tread with caution.