FYI – Little Lace Box is Ending

ByLiz CadmanMar 27, 2017 | 289 comments

Dear LLB Subscribers,

For the past few years we’ve truly enjoyed having the opportunity to curate boxes for all of you. Few things came close to the rush we felt when we put out a box that seemed to find a place in your hearts. We received feedback almost immediately and it was like we had given a complete stranger a gift and that gift was returned in the form of a smile or kind word that totally made our day. The subscription box business is one that requires an immense amount of planning. In order to find the right new product and get it at the right price to make the bottom-line work, we had to be working on boxes eight to ten months out. With planning also came the capital investment to secure those contracts so far into the future. Venture capital would be essential to success, and as female founders, we knew securing venture capital would be difficult to do but we tried anyway because we believed in our business. But, unfortunately, as reported by Fortune.com, only just over 6% of all U.S. venture capital funding allocated in 2016 went to female founded companies (heavy sigh). Maybe our concept wasn’t unique enough, or maybe our consumers weren’t a desirable enough consumer segment (women are the most valuable consumers in the world), or maybe this female founded company was just, well, too female.

Ladies, we’re deeply saddened that we were unable to secure the capital needed to continue our mission to connect all of you with the wonderful women entrepreneurs who are building amazing businesses across the U.S. We held on to hope as long as we could, maybe too long, but at some point we had to ask ourselves if our tenacious desire to succeed was really sustaining life or just prolonging death. We knew the answer would guide our plan for the future. It is with that as our backdrop that we decided it was time to leave the subscription box business and wish for the other more capable business leaders in this category to win for all of us.

There is a reason why a woman wants a surprise gift every month, even if she purchases the gift for herself. And for one brief shinning moment, we were one of those monthly gifts, and I think we made a difference. I hope the others in this category go right on making a difference for women who love and need these little gifts. A small gesture can mean a lot to someone.

As of today, we have already begun to process refunds for subscribers and we will work to finish all of those in the coming weeks. We can’t leave without also saying thank you to the amazing women who have been kind enough to review our boxes on their websites and blogs. Without all of you providing the service that you provide, we would have gone nowhere. You told us what you liked about our products and called us out when we didn’t meet expectations. We’d like to say thank you to (in alphabetical order): HelloSubscription.com, MySubscriptionAddiction.com, Ramblingsofasuburbanmom.com, SubscriptionBoxMom.com and TheBoxQueen.com, just to name a few.

We feel so blessed to have developed relationships with many of you. You’ve inspired us in so many ways and we’ve loved your life stories, cried with some of you, laughed with some of you and celebrated with many of you. We’re emotionally invested in LLB so this is particularly difficult for us. And to borrow someone else’s quote and make it our own, “forgive me if I tend to romanticize our significance to some of our subscribers, not every one of our boxes was perfect, but I remember each of them that way because our heart was in them and that was LLB at its best.”

LLB Team

(If you have any questions about your subscription, I recommend emailing [email protected])

Starting at $59.99

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Little Lace Box

3.7 overall rating

71 Ratings | 14 Reviews

The Little Lace Box is a bi-monthly subscription for women that features a new product created by an up-and-coming designer sent to your door every month: a special fashion accessory for you or your home. Also included you’ll find a selection of name brand and boutique brand beauty, lifestyle, and ... read more.

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Posted in Subscription Box News

Liz Cadman

Liz is the founder of My Subscription Addiction. She's been hooked on subscription boxes since 2011 thanks to Birchbox, and she now subscribes to over 100 boxes. Her favorites include POPSUGAR Must Have, FabFitFun, and any box that features natural beauty products!

Read More By Liz Cadman >

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289 comments

Acf

Hello MSA community! I just wanted to share my experience with LLB. I never received notice that they were closing business. I only found out thanks to MSA. I had a year sub. for LLB and had received two of my boxes. I contacted them via email and received a response immediately. They were very friendly and helpful. They asked if I would like a reimbursement for the amount owed to me or if I would like them to curate a box with left over inventory for the value I was owed in-lieu of the reimbursement. I choose the box and received an email saying that they were putting it together and shipping it to me. That was in March. I never received a thing or any other correspondence. My attempts to contact them have come to no success. I contacted my CC company and filled a report. I feel very silly for believing they would honor what they had said.🙁

Melanie

Does anyone know another way of getting a refund if they purchased directly through the little lace box website? I paid for a year subscription and only got one box and never had the rest of the money refunded to me, even though the email said refunds would be issued. Any information is greatly appreciated. My credit card company will not give me a refund since it has been past 90 days from the original charge.

Larisa

I just got notice from chase that my credit that was temperorary became perminent, I did request $200 not the full 249 bc I received 1 box and 1 blanket. But now I am fully reimbursed!!

hall0114

I have Chase as well, but when they emailed their letter. I changed my billing info to my debit card. I sent them emails about it and I never received any answers. I noticed that some of you have mentioned CC and Gilt I don’t want to seem stupid, but could someone tell what they are. I want to report LLB to the Department of Justice has anyone done that? Please leave me a comment. I am so upset with LLB.

AngD

Wow I guess it’s good to know I’m not alone. I subscribed to all three. I would just like them to at least acknowledge we are not getting our money back. Something. I think the website is down now. Send some kind of communication saying hey, we’re sorry, we can’t do this. I thought though that they could at least send out the blankets or SOMETHING for our money.

Shane on them

I received a temporary credit from chase bank but was just notified it would be reversed . I can’t understand how they based their decision. I believe the issue is the timing. These ladies are nothing short of con artists at this point and I’d hate to be them going forward as karma is ruthless.

Kristan

Great. I have Chase as well. Did they give a reason for the reversal? I have all of the emails from LLB and this is well beyond a reasonable time for them to issue refunds. I just began the dispute process.

Mad!

So has anyone with chase bank Actually been awarded the refund? They reversed the temporary credit they issued me. Would small claims court be the next route? It’s $229 they owe me. They seriously should be ashamed of themselves !

Paula Leddy

Update to credit card dispute. I received a refund from Citibank when I first called about LLB going out of business. I had subscribed to both LLB and Serendipity in January and hand never received a single box. However Citibank reversed my dispute based on someone on LLB’s end rebutting my dispute. I don’t know if it is LLB or their CC processing company or paying bank as I am waiting for paperwork from Citibank. I will now have to dispute their rebuttal to see if I can get my refund.

This is so frustrating as I cannot imagine what grounds they can use to rebut my dispute as not only did I never receive a box but to this day I can login to my account on LLB’s site and it shows both subscriptions as being unfulfilled. I am not going to give up as I paid for an entire year in advance and this is far too much money to lose without a fight.

jackie

Has anyone received a refund yet? Still waiting on mine for LLB and Serendipity. And I had yearly subscriptions!

Kristan

I subscribed to all three – LLB, Serendipity, and Kozy (whatever?) – and have not received a refund for any of them yet. I loved the service, but I feel frustrated and betrayed.

Jackie

So I’m not alone! Thanks for letting me know.

Ruth

Are other subscribers receiving refunds yet? I ordered back in October so doubt I’ll be able to dispute the charges at this point.

Ruth

Sorry I didn’t hit “see newer comments” so didn’t realize a few of you had been speaking about this recently

Jenn

I ordered too long ago as well (luckily only paid for a month) and have emailed three times in the past couple weeks. Each time, I’ve gotten the automated reply that they’ll send a response within 24 hours. Haven’t gotten a response yet.

Ruth

Thanks, hope you get your money back too. I was worried because they won’t answer their email. Unfortunately I shopped at their boutique before I knew it was shutting down so am trying to dispute that charge also.

Yep.. in the same boat.
Although they changed may account to say that my LLB sub was fulfilled even though I didn’t get my last box.

Anna

Has anyone heard from them through email this past week? i am expecting a refund and lost my wallet last week…sent two emails with no response yet =( i already tried to update my billing info on their website and there is no place to do that =(

Michelle

I have not read all the comments just yet but was wondering if anyone has received their refund yet. I’ve emailed them twice and no reply.

Anna

im in the same spot! i got a response when they were first shutting down…….but now that i lost my debit card and had to replace it……i can’t get ahold of anyone =( i only got one box outta my full year paid subscription =(

Read the comments

Laura

I received a refund today on my paypal and I don’t recognize the refunder:
MISC ADJ ALPHARETTA GA

Maybe it is from LLB? Are they based in Georgia?

Laura

For my Serendipity remainder of 29.97.

Olivia V

Like most of you here, I still haven’t received my refund. I had 2 active LLB subscriptions (one for me, one for my mom) and am owed a refund for 8 boxes total.

While I will be contacting my credit card company, I’m wondering if any legal action can be taken against the owners. They are obviously delaying issuing (or will never give) refunds. They also knowingly took money from new subscribers with no intent of delivering the ordered boxes. Seems like fraud to me.

Paula Leddy

What exactly would you hope to get out of a legal action? This is a company that did not have the money to be able to put boxes together to send to their customers to stay in business so how would they have money to issue refunds? That being said if you were to sue them what could you get from them if they have nothing? You cannot get blood from a stone.

Olivia V

I would not be pursuing money. Fraud is a criminal offense. I work in cyber security where we pursue criminal charges against people trying to cheat people out of money (via phishing, 419 scams, malware, etc). It just seems to me like they knowingly victimized a lot of people.

Patricia

In October I renewed my Little Lace Box for another year and bought my daughter-in-law a years subscription. I received the December box but they said that they could not start my daughter-in-laws subscription until February. And we all know what happened to that box. So I am out the money for 5 boxes on my subscription and a whole year on my daughter-in-laws. Plus 4 Serendipity boxes owed to me. My credit card company said that they will not dispute a charge after 90 days. There has been no response to any e-mails to them. It doesn’t look good. My son says that I’ve been scammed.

Angie

I also called my CC company (Visa) through my bank. Was told the charge couldn’t be longer than 120 days ago (6 mos). My charge was 6.5 months ago and they couldn’t help me. Even though it’s a subscription.

Any helpful advice?

Angie- I would call again and talk to another rep. I also have Visa through my bank and was able to get the refund from a package that I purchased In October, 2016. The rep I spoke to used the expected delivery dates since it was a prepaid subscription. So it can be done!

Mary K

Patricia, what company is your credit card with? You’re the first person I’ve seen have a problem with a dispute. Don’t take no for an answer. Ask to speak to a supervisor & explain it’s a delayed dispute due to the nature of subscriptions. Surely they will understand that? Good luck & please report back!

Angie

Mine said no, too. Also visa.

Auntheffer

Has anyone else never received their refund? I was charged February 5. It’s April, I had to contact my cc comp to dispute the charge. I tried emailing LLB twice with no response. Maybe I just got lost in the shuffle.

Susan

Cc is credit card company and Gilt is kinda like Groupon. I received notice from Citi that my $249 credit has been made permanent. I lost 3 shipments or so of Serendipity, so I guess I am better of than a lot of folks. These women should be ashamed. Opening up the throw subscription is particularly infuriating. I am thankful I didn’t jump on that one.

Linney

I contacted Gilt since I saw that their website is selling LLB only to new customers? I was told they had no information on how to contact LLB, but give me a website [email protected]. I tried going on this website, but nothing came up. I so mad!

Jenn S

has anyone seen a refund, at all? their contact us page is gone & i’m wondering if it’s time to contact my CC about this & contest the charges.

Susan

I got verification from Citi that the dispute I filed has been made permanent. I recovered the 249 I paid in November. Lost about 3 Serendipity boxes. I paid that with a different card.
Karma is a b#*+^*. These folks scammed a ton of people.

Katherine

When I spoke with my CC company I was told that LLB had 15 days from sending the “we will refund you” email to actually do so before I could file a dispute. The CC rep was very nice and took my info and said she would call me back Monday to open the dispute claim with them if the refund was not made. I’m owed for 5 LLB shipments and 4 serendipity shipments that were purchased in July and August of 2016. The credit card company did not say it was too long ago to dispute.

I’ve sent LLB 3 emails asking about the refund and received no replies. I also ordered something from the website the day after the “we are closing” email and not gotten that either.

Jessica

I made a call to my cc company this past week. After explaining the situation, i was transferred to the dispute department. You will need to give detailed info. have in front of you the date LLB indicated they were closing, the date of your initial order, and the last date of contact with them. Save your emails, if you have email contact with them. The cc company may want it. they will also want a phone number (which does not exist) and an email address if possible. my person went on line himself to look for the company, which no longer has a web page… they gave me a temp. refund. i was owed 5 serendipity boxes. i will assume if LLB does pay up they will take that payment for themselves as they are now giving me what i am owed. make the calls ladies, i’m sorry this happened, but thats just life sometimes.

Mary K

They never even sent me an email telling of their demise. I had to find out on a post here about LLB, not even Serendipity, but I assumed it was a goner, too. That’s not cool. There’s never a good reason to leave your subscriber base in the dark. Emails take only a moment and cost nothing.

Because they’ve already had two weeks to process refunds or, at the very least, answer emails and have done neither, I went ahead and disputed the charge. I did it all via my c/c’s website, no phone call necessary, so it was a piece of cake. I was told two days later that LLB is not responding to the c/c company’s inquiries, so winning my case was a done deal. If I were y’all, I would not wait for LLB to do the right thing. I’d go the chargeback route.

Jessica

Refund update:

I don’t know how everyone else is doing, but I thought I would give an update. Today I called my credit card company and inquired about any recourse I may have if LLB does not follow through with refunds. I initially subscribed to serendipity back in september. I prepaid for 6 boxes, but only got one. i explained the story and got connected with the dispute center. The person I dealt with was very nice. He did ask several clarifying questions. He did ask for specific dates (when did i subscribe, when did I find out the company folded, when was my last contact with them) I was on the phone at least 20 minutes with him. My credit card company is giving me a refund. they call it temporary as I’m assumming if LLB does eventually follow through they will they will then recoup the money they refunded to me. So the general advice I have is to go ahead and check with your credit card company ASAP. save any emails and contacts with LLB you have as the CC company may want them at one point. Good Luck everyone… and Have a great night..

Saffy

Oh, please. They didn’t fail because they didn’t get VC funding. They’d failed long before that with poor customer service, insane rants and vitriolic emails. The blame shifting is ridiculous.

I’d be more impressed if they’d thanked customers for their support and processed immediate refunds while fading into the woodwork.

As a side note, there are a LOT of women running subscriptions out there. While Birchbox and Ipsy may be the most high profile of women operated subscriptions there are wonderful ones like My Texas Market, Handmade Hive, Co-Op Crate and others that are curated by awesome women entreprenuers working very hard.

And let’s not forget Liz! She started this all by herself and look at her now! I’m so proud of what she and Eric have put together, I could pop!

Curious

Did anybody’s day get their refund!?

Toby Valmas

I have not received my refund. I never received an email with notice of LLB shutting down. After repeated emails to LLB asking where my subscription was, they responded telling me “this months box just wasn’t good enough yet, it will be sent next month.” 5 months later, no box. No refund. Kat Taylor finally responded to my email telling me I had to dispute the charge with my credit card company. How am I supposed to dispute a charge from 5 months ago made with my debit card? This company continued to process orders though out the christmas/holiday season. They are nothing but con artists.

suzym

I gave LLB the benefit of the doubt when I commented here after their email. I loved their box and sometimes it can be tough on this forum. However, after saying they would refund and not doing it, not answering emails and now telling subscribers to go dispute it with their credit cards (when they actually answer emails)- I am disgusted. They could have gone out with a little class, instead of screwing their subscribers.

Shana

Has anyone actually gotten a refund?

Jessica

Can anyone tell me if their refund has been issued yet?

Emily

I haven’t been issued my refund for my remaining three months of Serendipity yet and have no real confidence that I’m going to. I bought a year-long sub all the way back in July 2016 so there’s no way I can file a dispute with the credit card company. It’s going to be pretty shameful if they just end up basically stealing a whole bunch of people’s money.

Kate

yes- someone else said earlier in the thread that you should dispute with your credit card company based on the expected delivery dates of the boxes, not the date you paid for the whole year.

Emily and everyone else- it wouldn’t hurt to still try and call your credit card company and explain the situation. I purchased only a month after you and I was still given a refund. And it’s much less frustrating than chasing them around for a refund.

I spoke with paypal credit on the phone – I explained everything. The rep still said it is a 2 billing period (2 months) dispute process for LLB to respond to the dispute. Paypal wouldn’t just refund me. Thankfully Gilt refunded the 74.00 for LLB 2 days after my request.

LLB has done nothing but give me the same canned response (after me emailing them).

I meant to say for Serendipity I went through Paypal since Gilt gave me my LLB refund.

Hi I received my LLB refund/ credit . I’m still waiting for the serendipity subscription funds CCcompany gave me a temporary credit allowing them time to respond to a dispute . I did receive 1 box so owed for the equivalent of 5

The poster nana (further down this page) is the only one on here that has said they have received a refund from LLB.
I still haven’t received my Serendibity refund – after 3 emails I received a canned response that ridiculously still said:
“If you haven’t already completed our LLB Style Survey, please help us make your future boxes more personalized. Click the following link to complete our survey” at the end of the email”.

I don’t believe we will be getting back refunds. I think they know people are contacting their credit cards and they don’t give a damn. I am just going to write off the $40 they owe me for 4 Serendipity boxes. I emailed them 3 times, only received the generic response that they received my email. Never a real reply.

I will however be more careful with boxes going forward. As soon as I see a delay, or something that’s strange in my eyes I will cancel right away. My gut told me to cancel Serendipity but I didn’t. Oh well, life goes on.

Just for the record, it’s my personal choice to write off the $40…I am IN NO WAY saying that anyone else should do the same, in case there’s any confusion.

stef

FYI ladies!!!

Good morning ladies. I wanted to share with you the conversation I had with LLB via email yesterday.
Your MARCH box LLB or Serendipity will not be shipped. so should be refunding ppl within month or so. so don’t look for a package from them because there isn’t one coming. I have to say they responded to my email in less than 24hrs. I wont lie I wish they did send out the last box, I wanted to see what curated, but I suppose we will never know.

Tiara

At least they got back to you. I dint get that. But I will forgive them if they give me my annual subscription money back. Would hate to have paid $250 for one box. Going to miss it they where one of the good ones. Thanks 4 the update!

Stef – that’s the canned response everyone has received – although it took 3 emails and a week for them to answer me (with that canned response). Also – at the end of the response it still says “be sure to fill out the survey so we can personalize your box”.

DelayDelayDelay

I don’t see any reason why it would take a “month or so” to issue refunds? That is ridiculous. Hope it’s just not a delay tactic so you all loose your rights to dispute the charges. Glad I didn’t waste any time playing games with them and called my credit card company right away for the refund.

Susan

I totally agree that you should not wait. I loved LLB, was my favorite sub box. The way I see it is that they kept taking money for product that they knew they could not deliver and even added the throws. If that was desperation, it was ill advised. The throw money should have been spent salvaging the LLB and Serendipity Sub business. As the situation became dire, the money should have been given back to paying customers.
Don’t wait for a refund, call your credit card company and explain that while you paid at one time, the purchases were to be delivered over time. Cover your own tail just as LLB did.

Tracy Lynn

I have sent two unanswered emails to LLB. Since it has been over 60 days (I paid $49.99 on January 27th), I cannot file a dispute with my credit card company. I am concerned other boxes could follow suit and am tempted to cancel my remaining subscriptions. Feeling so let down.

Mary K

This is only the second box that has been discontinued on me. The first was Essence and they did promptly issue refunds, although they made some false promises regarding their clearance sale of boxes, so it wasn’t all rosy with them. (They still owe me one clearance box, but I’ve given up at this point.) Anyway, it does leave you with a lingering distrust over prepaying for annual subscriptions, especially for start-up companies like LLB (vs established companies like Sephora or Book of the Month). I went from having 14 subs to just 3 and except for PopSugar, they are month-to-month and I intend to keep it that way from now on. It’s just not worth the risk of a company going bust and forfeiting refunds.

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FYI – Little Lace Box is Ending

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