As a gift to myself for Christmas, I bought an expensive stationery advent box. I'd researched different advent options and this small business created the most beautiful items I saw when I looked at the previous year's boxes.
They went on sale Aug 2nd. I hesitated because it really is an expensive indulgence and did I really need this? But I talked myself into it because it would be my one gift to myself.
I clicked the buy button.
The description on their website said shipping by Nov 17th so it would arrive in plenty of time for the countdown to Christmas. Perfect. I put it to the back of my mind and went on with life.
And then November 17th came and went without a shipping email. I waited a week, thinking maybe they're just a little behind. Still no email, so I contacted them. I received an assurance that they were just a little behind and that the boxes would be mailed out shortly.
Cool. I can wait.
And then we're into December with no notification of anything being mailed. I join the shop's Facebook group, but there's no information there about the advent box. It takes days, but finally someone else asks about the box. No one from the shop answers. Then a few days later, the post disappears. The shop shares that order questions should go via email, not the group.
Within a few days, the shop sends out an email saying that they're far behind, but that advent boxes will go out in time for Christmas.
We get deeper into December. There's no chance this box is arriving before Christmas. I email the shop again, inquiring about my box. My expensive box. The response? We posted about this in our Facebook group.
Really? The same Facebook group where you said that you didn't want order issues mentioned?
She posted that day. My email had been sent three days earlier.
To shorten the story, the box finally arrived on January 2nd, well after the advent season. I decided to make it a New Year box and opened one package a day until they were all done.
The items are beautiful. The stress of spending that much money for a box and being met with sheer silence about the order were not worth it. If she had kept me up to date with the order, I would have been fine. If she'd said hey, we're dealing with a family emergency and I won't be able to keep on top of things. I would have been fine. But there were no explanations, no transparency, and no updates.
So while this shop has beautiful stuff, I doubt I'll order from them again because the experience was so unfun.
