I learned about this site from my kids, who love their videos. Vat19 products give my kids a 5 minute excitement rush. Usually I wouldn't waste my money on these types of useless products, but given covid 19, decided it's worth it to see them excited.
WHAT HAPPENED
I was a repeat customer of Vat19 (BUT now will never purchase from them again). I bought a $100 Mystery Box, the most expensive and largest box of assorted stuff. A month later, I wrote to Vat19 customer service to make sure that if I ordered a SECOND Mystery Box, it would have different contents. They assured me they change out box contents frequently and each build is "unique". When the box FINALLY arrives 2 Weeks later, it arrives with EXACTLY the same contents as the first box I ordered. You can imagine how my kids' faces went from super excited to. Is this some kind of joke? They were obviously deflated and upset.
I contacted customer service to tell them they sent me the Identical box and would like a refund. They first had the audacity to state I could only return non food items (this means I would essentially lose $50+ of the $100). After a lot of back and forth with the customer service manager Rick Bouxsein and the fact that I had written proof customer service said the box contents would be different, he finally said he would make an "exception" and allow me a refund BUT I had to pay the Return Shipping... WOW, what a great result I said sarcastically to myself. This was OBVIOUSLY not my fault but I had no more energy to keep going. I had lost so much energy when the customer service manager would not reply to my emails and I had constantly chase him up by remembering to email him again to follow up.
Once I mailed back the box, at my own expense, the owner, Alison Salvatori, admitted to the mistake and said "We are simply not able to offer free return shipping due to constantly increasing shipping costs." Basically saying that they want to find ways to gouge the customer for their mistakes to protect their profits.
Anyways, I'm out of pocket time and money. My kids were unhappy. And then I came up with an idea.
WHY AMAZON IS WAYYYY BETTER AND HOW I COULD EASILY CREATE MY OWN MYSTERY BOX. WHY DO THIS THROUGH AMAZON?
1) If you search "Vat19" in Amazon, you will see they carry identical products. But also show you reviews of real customers and what their experience was with the item
2) Lower prices. For some of the items, Vat19 can cost DOUBLE what Amazon charges. See photo attached.
3) 2 Day Delivery. Yes! You don't have to wait 2 weeks.
4) Free Returns. You just print a shipping label and drop it in the mailbox. Don't even have to provide a reason.
5) Save time. You don't have to deal with suboptimal "customer service".
So I made my own Mystery Box and named it "Kids19". It's a mystery box of incredible stuff I got from amazon and then threw it into it's own box so it has the same experience for the kids. I even could tailor items so they are directly relevant to their ages.
Do yourself a favor. Pay less, get it faster, save time, and return it if it's not what you expected by going to Amazon. Hands down best online ecommerce company!