Jennifer M.

The concept couldn't be easier. Like any other clothing box, you specify your measurements and style preferences, and they ship you a box of things to try out with your existing wardrobe on your time. You keep and pay for what you like. You send back what you don't like in a postage prepaid envelope.

The only thing I'll mention is that, while their clothes do seem to be made with a mom bod in mind, the price point for each item of clothing is a bit higher than with other clothing boxes. That said, there is no styling fee, so you can order as many boxes as you like until you find something with no risk involved. You will find that the clothes are of great quality.

I absolutely love this service. I fill out a detailed questionnaire about my measurements and style preferences, and someone sends me clothes to try out with the things already in my closet. If I like it, I keep it. If I hate it, I send it back with postage already paid. Even if I don't keep anything, I still feel like I'm saving myself money by not having to go to the store to shop, but so far that hasn't been an issue for me. My stylist has REALLY done an amazing job zeroing in on my style and my budget.

I absolutely do want to caution that with clothing boxes it can take 2-3 before the stylist gets the hang of what you love. So I absolutely recommend requesting that they include a piece of jewelry that you'll love and want to keep so that you don't feel like you've wasted your styling fee. Make sure to leave lots of feedback and be as detailed as possible. Link up your Pinterest board to give your stylist ideas. This will absolutely work for you!

I figured I'd be fair and add a review for Ipsy after leaving one for Birchbox. So far, all of my bags have arrived on time and in great condition. The value of the products has been great, so I do feel like I'm getting my $10 worth. My November 2015 bag, for example, has a value of over $34 (not counting the included monthly makeup bag) when calculating the price per ounce value of the products included, which is awesome for a $10 bag.

I do have one concern, the waitlist. You're removed from the waitlist by sharing your social media information and contributing to them via viral marketing. Not fun, and I'll admit that it annoyed me when I first signed up, so I can see how this would turn off other potential customers.

So far so good, but there's definitely room for improvement.

The service itself is going great. I've received each box on time, have gotten tracking information, have loved the samples, etc. My November box has a value of over $52 (calculated using the price per ounce of the full size versions of my samples). That's amazing for a $10 box, and all of the samples are ones I will absolutely use, so it saves me from having to go out and purchase the kinds of products that I would likely be purchasing regardless!

The issue I have is that there will inevitably be a problem with an order, and there's no real reason to reach someone immediately. Case in point... I ordered a pair of earrings to add on to my November box. The charge went through on my card, I received a confirmation email, and the points for the purchase were added to my Birchbox account. When my box arrived, it was in the oversized packaging with bubble wrap that is used when an add on is purchase, but there were no earrings. Only my November sample box was included.

I get it that these things happen, but when they do, it's imperative that they're resolved quickly. There's no easy way to find a number or email address on the site. Instead, I had to wade through a maze of of FAQ and then fill out a form. (If there's contact information more easily listed, I didn't see it. That needs to be considered, as contact information needs to be easy for customers to find.) The number I did find asked that I schedule a call back time. Emailing via their online form them resulted in a promise to respond within 24 hours, which I never got. Finally, I tweeted the company, and I was told to email them at *******@birchbox.com. THIS and ONLY THIS got me a response, and a fast one at that.

Birchbox should be commended for handling it quickly once I got my email to them. Within just a few hours, they'd shipped it to me overnight via UPS, and it should be arriving today. That's absolutely AMAZING and well above and beyond what I'd have expected them to do. (I'd have been happy with USPS snail delivery so long as I either got the item or a refund.) So they do deserve a KUDOS in that regard.

But I do remain somewhat concerned. What if I hadn't tweeted them and gotten the email address to contact them directly? What if I'd simply stuck to the online form method of contacting them? Would I have received a response? Would I now be on the phone with my credit card company disputing the charge and cancelling my sub? These are things for the company to honestly consider.

While many of those cheap game codes you see might be legit, here's the problem with sites like Gamesdeal... You're dealing with a company not inside the U.S., and there's really no way to guarantee that you will get the item you've purchased.

My one and only purchasing experience with Gamesdeal happened without any prior research from me, and I learned the hard way. I purchased a game code, the price was deducted via Paypal, and then I immediately received a confirmation email stating that I would get the code I purchased within 15 minutes. After several hours with no email, I contacted them asking where my promised code was. No response. After a few more hours and another email, I finally got a response in broken English saying that they did not have the code in stock despite the fact that they were still selling it. That sounded fishy enough for me to ask for a refund, and thankfully I got it, but I did some searching on Google after that, and I found that others haven't been so lucky.

Gamesdeal has a history of rotten behavior, from not delivering products sold on their site to selling Steam codes not licensed for use in the U.S. (a violation of Steam's TOS that will result in termination of your account) to selling codes that were obtained in bulk with stolen credit cards. The last one got many Gamesdeal customers caught up in the infamous Bethesda/ESO scandal. What's worse, often sites like Gamesdeal use the credit card information from their own customers to purchase these codes, meaning that purchasing from them puts you at risk of identity theft, and as I've already noted, they operate outside of the U.S.

So you're probably wondering then why they have such glowing reviews on Trustpilot, which Gamesdeal themselves link to. Well, the answer to that is simple. Gamesdeal is a Trustpilot client, and they pay to have Trustpilot help them cull poor reviews. (This is SOP for Trustpilot, by the way, which is why I reviewed both Trustpilot and Gamesdeal.) Upon attempting to write a review warning customers to stay away, I found my review promptly removed as I was given reason after reason why I needed to edit it so that it would be acceptable to publish.

A company with a history of fraud and selling stolen goods that pays for glowing reviews and hides negative ones... Obviously, this seller is NOT to be trusted.

E. L. f. Already makes amazing products for pennies compared to their competitors. No complaints there, and if there's a problem, their customer service takes care of it for me in a jiffy. (I've had a few cases of an item being incorrect or not included, and they were swift to correct it.)

My only complaint is that they can't seem to keep up with demand on some of their more popular items. These will sell out in days and can take months to become available again. And while the site layout has been improved as of today, it seems to have removed some of my favorite tools like the wishlist option and the ability to be notified once an item is back in stock.

The original content makes this service better and better, and it's so much cheaper than cable!

My adventure with Trustpilot begins with another company-- Gamesdeal-- which sells game activation codes, among other things. Upon purchasing a code from Gamesdeal, I got an email that I'd receive the code within 15 minutes. Several hours (and two emails asking for my purchased code) later, I got a response that, while they were still selling the codes, they did not have them in stock. As I requested a refund, I did some research on Gamesdeal (as admittedly I should have done before I purchased) and found out they were a third party "grey market" reseller and had in fact been involved in quite a few shady dealings. In one situation, they'd even been known to have resold codes that require the use of a VPN (which violates the TOS for Steam) or codes that were purchased in bulk using stolen credit cards. Essentially... People were very likely purchasing products either not licensed to be sold in the U.S. and/or stolen goods.

Thinking to myself that this should be something customers are aware of, I very naively followed the link from Gamesdeal to their reviews on Trustpilot. The first red flag should have been that, despite all the complaints I'd fished up in Google and from Reddit users, they had a seemingly glowing rating with only one negative review. I posted about my experience and was (I thought) done.

It wasn't long after I got an email from Trustpilot saying that Gamedeal had reported my review and that I'd have to take it down or edit it. The first time, it was because I mentioned Google in my review. Then they wanted me to remove what they called "defamatory statements." Then they wanted me to only post about my own personal experience without leaving out the other stuff. By then I had Googled Trustpilot itself and realized that it was just a game. Negative reviews were simply reported by the company who of course didn't want people getting honest customer feedback, and then the reviews were obediently culled by Trustpilot. This seems to be a habit, as my experience is far from unique.

If you want HONEST views on a company, do a Google search. I can say from experience that you won't get honest reviews from Trustpilot, and it honestly leaves me a bit wary on review sites as a whole. Thankfully, I've not had such an experience with SiteJabber.

Ordered a Pyle bluetooth heart rate monitory and watch on September 16. The watch arrived not working. On my first attempt to contact CS (no phone number, and you are forced to fill out a form on their site instead), I was told to check with the manufacturer since the item was under warranty. Um. No.

I explained that the item was DELIVERED not working and that I didn't purchase a "broken HRM/watch" from Woot. They could either replace it or refund my money. The next email was apologetic and asked if I preferred a replacement or a refund. I asked to have a replacement, since I wouldn't have purchased it if I didn't want it. The next email said they were out, so they sent me a return label, and I mailed it back on September 25.

As of today (October 8), it has been nearly 2 weeks and 10 business days, and the item I shipped still supposedly hasn't arrived, and there's been no credit to my card. I wouldn't know because I've never gotten a tracking number (even after asking for one) so that I can monitor its progress. At this time, I'm out $50 and don't even have a broken watch to show for it. I might contact BoA to see if they can pursue the charge to my credit card if it goes on much longer. I feel like I've been scammed.