Wantable Intimates Subscription Box Review – January 2016

Wantable Intimates is one of the subscriptions from Wantable, and it is probably my favorite box they offer. Like all Wantable subscriptions, you can heavily customize what they send you by filling out your preferences – and you still get to be surprised!

My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

The Subscription Box: Wantable Intimates

The Cost: If you subscribed before October 24th, you were locked into the previous $40/box rate. However, for new subscribers (anyone who signed up after October 24^th) the new price has increased to $50/box.

The Products: 3 intimates products based on your profile settings.

Ships to: US, Canada (additional $6), UK (additional $7) and Australia (additional $10)

Check out all of our Wantable reviews and the Women’s Subscription Box Directory!

Here are the order details of my box. Wantable recently added free individual item returns to their subscription plans, so you can send back any item(s) you don’t want and get the refund based on the “Your price” listing. (Returns are free for US subscribers). However, if you keep everything, you get a “$4 credit” to your account making your next box $46, plus you are issued a full refund of the “your price” of the item you return. If you return anything, you have to pay the full $50 cost for the next box.

When you first sign up for any Wantable subscription you take a style quiz and you can get very specific about the items you want and don’t want. (This is the list of my loves, likes and dislikes from my invoice).

Cotton Connection Thong – value: $10 (my price: $5.41)

These are okay. They’re soft and functional but I’m not super excited to get underwear in my boxes anymore. I should change my preferences, really. It’s just that I’ve received 2 or 3 pairs I’ve really loved in past boxes a while ago and keep hoping I’ll get more.

Aztec Mixed Legging – Value: $24, (My Price: $12.97)

If you read my review last month, you’ll understand just how frustrated I was when I saw these were in my box. Long story short, you can no longer choose whether or not you want leggings in your intimates boxes, nor can you pick your preferences for solids/prints/colorful/etc leggings. I’ve never been sent a pair I like (read: are long enough for me or aren’t super thin). I put a lot of effort into contacting Wantable’s customer service after my hot mess of a box last month (more about that later in this review), but one of the main things I was asking was why they send items subscribers have no say in, not even preferences of details? On this specific issue, customer service told me (twice, by two different people) that they added a note on their end to not send me leggings anymore. And here we are, with a pair of leggings. Almost completely identical to the ones I got last month. I’m really frustrated, to be honest.

I contacted Wantable about this issue after opening this box and they told me the note is, in fact, in my profile but the stylist missed it; they gave me $15 store credit as an apology, which I appreciate. That’s better than what they did for me last month (they just offered to not penalize me the normal $4 for next month’s box cost for returning an item). Last month, I also talked about how (in my experience) I’ve felt the stylists have become pretty inattentive to the details in my profile or my notes across my intimates and makeup boxes. Needless to say, I was disheartened to see they missed this note too, and sent me more of these leggings yet again this month.

Hooded Sleep Shirt – value: $40, (my price: $21.62)

This is something my stylist did pay attention to: I have in my notes that I like tunics and tops and such. She sent met this, and I like it! It’s hooded, has thumb holes in the cuffs, and is made of a type of thermal-feeling fabric.

Sorry for the mirror selfie – I wanted to snap a photo of this shirt on for you fast. I think it fits great!

Many of you encouraged me to try and talk to someone higher up than Wantable’s front-line customer service reps about the issues I voiced last month. Well, I did, and I was actually able to get my email passed along to the customer service manager. To summarize the things I asked about, they were 1) that they send items you can’t customize or opt out of in their preferences quiz, 2) their re-design to send “mini collections”/cohesive items in boxes, which I haven’t seen to actually be implemented in my 2 boxes since their big changes, 3) increasing the price of the subscription without also increasing the value or quality of the items they send in each box, and 4) my dissatisfaction with customer service’s response to my issues last month (which was resolved – she also agreed they could have done more for me than say I can return the box).

Her responses were, to summarize 1) the new design just doesn’t allow for liking/disliking certain items like leggings, but you can absolutely request to not get them sent to you in your notes or via email (I’m sure this decision was made much further up the corporate ladder than her), 2 and 3) they absolutely intend to send more cohesive items and “their buyers are currently working to purchase more cohesive and higher value products, but this is usually 6-8 weeks out.” She said the first couple months of the transition are a process, which is why they grandfathered in their current subscribers to the $40/month rate. I feel like they should have gotten their new vision implemented with actually having their new stock in house before upping the cost for new subscribers, though.

Ultimately, I’m happy that I felt heard and sympathized with. She opened her email with "While I completely understand all of your comments and concerns, I unfortunately do not have an answer for them all.  I wish I did.” I know she’s only in charge of the customer service aspect, so I understand her limitations of what is within her realm of control. I appreciate her honesty, though, and the fact that she acknowledged that there are some issues with the things I’ve experienced makes me feel better.

Verdict: Sometimes you can find items that Wantable sends on sale online so the value can be a little tricky to evaluate – personally, I think as long as all the items included are worth the subscription cost to me, I count the box as a win. I would not pay $50 for this box, so I’m not really thrilled. I like the shirt a lot, but I’m probably either going to return or swap.

What do you think about Wantable Intimates? What did you get this month, and what do you think about the changes? Have you been having a better last couple months than I have?