I love getting beauty boxes. Who doesn't like a box of surprise goodies once a month? It's like a mini Christmas. So when Pink Parcel, a subscription service that sends sanitary protection and some beauty treats to your door, announced they were giving a completely free box to anyone who signed up on International Women's Day I jumped at the chance to try it.

On the 17th March I received an email saying my box had been dispatched and that if I hadn't received it within 72 hours I should contact them. 72 hours passed and I gave it a few more days before contacting them on the 22nd (5 days after it was "dispatched".) The next day I received a reply saying Royal Mail hadn't picked up half the parcels they were supposed to but they had now contacted them and I should receive my parcel by the start of next week (around 30th March). By the end of that next week my parcel still hadn't arrived and my period had been and gone. I contacted them again on the 5th April, this time in a tweet venting my frustration. At first I had been sympathetic. Royal Mail had supposedly let them down, that's not their fault, but now I was still waiting for my parcel and it got me thinking, surely someone would have realised fairly quickly if half the parcels were still in their offices and it would have just been good customer service to email and explain what had happened without me having to chase them. They replied to my tweet and asked me to DM them with what's happening. I explained and they apologised stating my replacement parcel hadn't been requested and that they'd had a customer service person who "didn't quite work out" and they were recruiting a new person at the moment. They admitted that was no excuse and said they would refund me the price of the box. They then realised I was one of the free box customers and said if I took up a subscription they would "definitely make sure" I got a free parcel again.



I told the lady I hadn't cancelled my subscription so I should be receiving April's box in the next week. April 16th came and there was no sign of my replacement March box or the April box. Once again I DMed them and ask if my replacement box had been requested and that the website said my dispatch day would the 11th but I was yet to receive a dispatch email. They replied with a message that was over 140 characters so I only got half of it. Seriously, first rule of twitter, keep it within 140 characters! How can someone doing customer service/social media for a company not know this? What I got from the half a message though was that she wanted my email address so she could do something... that was the bit that got cut off.

I told her my email address and she told me she'd emailed me so she wouldn't go over the word count again. I never received an email but in the few hours a waited to see if an email would appear my parcel arrived. Looking at contents reviews online the box I received was the replacement March parcel. Once again I DMed and said I'd not received an email but my box had turned up. Again she said she'd emailed me and again I received nothing so I sent her a different email address to try.

This time all I received was an out of office reply. I waited a few days thinking that as it was around 5pm when she'd been DM'ing me maybe she was leaving work and would deal with it the next day. Three days later I DMed again and said I'd only received an out of office reply. She asked for another email address and claimed she'd sent another email. Yet again I just received an out of office reply. By now this had been going on for nearly a month and we'd tried three different emails. In the end I just felt so embarrassed at constantly asking for emails to be resent that I just stopped bothering to complain. I felt like I was looking like an idiot who didn't know how to work email even though it was clearly a problem at their end.

Despite all this I didn't cancel my subscription on the off chance that my parcel would turn up. It never did but I wasn't being charged so I kind of forgot about it all for two months when out of the blue I got an email, "Your parcel has been dispatched." I checked my bank account and I'd been charged £5.95 which is their first box special offer price. The box then arrived within 48 hours of the email and I was suitably impressed. Out of curiosity I decided not to cancel the subscription and leave it to see what happens the next month. Again, this month, just before my period I got a dispatch email and within 48 hours a parcel. This time I was charged the usual £9.99.

I have absolutely no idea what was going on with the emails or why my parcels for April and May weren't delivered.Nor do I understand why after two months of nothing they suddenly realised I am one of their customers and started sending the boxes again. If we're looking for silver linings at least they never charged me during those months.

The thing is, despite all that hassle and frustration, I actually really love the box. Let's be real here, being someone that has periods is expensive. Tampons and sanitary towels are not cheap. So when you consider that Pink Parcel costs £9.99 it really is good value. Each box contains either tampons or pads of your choice. I got the Always Infinity pads which are one of the most expensive brands in the shops. I've done the maths and if you were paying full price in the shops for the number of pads you get with Pink Parcel you'd be paying £6.75! That makes the rest of box cost a grand total of £2.24 and the quality of the extra stuff you get is amazing.

This is by far the best parcel of all three. The serum, mascara and sunscreen are great, high price items. The lip balm seems a bit cheapy but with the other items being so great who cares?


The two boxes I've received for the last two months have arrived on time and with no hassle. I have no idea what the hell was going on at the start but it seems like they've sorted it all out. For value for money it's definitely worth it as long as they've fixed their customer service problems.

www.pinkparcel.com