POPSUGAR Must Have Subscriptions Are Changing to Quarterly

Looks like my box has been shipped and will be here by May 11th! I did notice that the robe appears to be shipping separately. Hope it’s good!

I was wondering why my March Box didn’t come in. I really liked the monthly boxes. Sometimes I would gather some of my unopened PSMH items and put them together for a little nice present to give someone. I will try the quarterly. I was not super excited about the past ones I’ve received. But will at least give it a try.

Is the summer box going to be the first quarterly box?

I’m interested in this quarterly box but curious to know more about the add ons. What is the price range? What types of items are offered? I’m familiar with (one) FabFitFun add on sale so if it’s anything like that let me know. I appreciate any info. Thanks!!

I emailed them and inquired about getting a cash refund for my remaining credits (3). I didn’t want to pay $35 out of pocket for the second box. My credits were from last year’s promotion where I paid about $20/credit. It looks like they will issue a cash refund for the promotional price paid. Here is what “Andy D.” wrote to me:

“Thanks for reaching out. At this time we see that you used a promotional code to purchase the credits currently on your account so we would only be able to refund you the price you paid, which would be $63.64. Let us know if you’d like us to move forward with this refund or if you’d prefer to leave the credits on your account.”

Given that it will be approximately the same number of items in the box but at a higher price point, I’m going to pass. There are too many items with grossly over inflated retail values.

What are you ladies with credits going to do?

I think what annoys me most about this situation is the suddenness of it all. Honestly, I fall firmly within the category who likes the monthly box, even in my small apartment it never felt like too much stuff because I got something I didn’t have or could use more of. This new box seems like a weird combination of their two previous offerings, with a lower price point than their previous seasonal box in a quarterly schedule. Life I said before, the last box notice is really off putting. I wonder how long popsugar knew in advance. I assume at least two months because of planning schedule, to tell the procurement team to skop for a different schedule of items. What was the rational of not telling anyone then? Let people spend down their credits, get some feedback… I reviewed the boxes every month and they never asked if I was getting item overload. Why only listen to the customers leaving you and not the ones still with you?

As for alternate monthly boxes, I think I’m going to give Free Trade Friday a try. $30 monthly with 3 items. And I like their mission which is to empower small enterperners globally. I’ll try to see a February review before buying their March box. GlobeIn is similar but $50 for 5 items, a little more focused to home goods and some food. Loved the celebrate glasses from Mexico for January though.

Does anyone know if we sign up now in February if we will be receiving the Spring box? Or are they skipping the Spring box and making people wait for the Summer box which doesn’t get shipped out until May??

It looks as though they aren’t going to do a Spring box and start with a Summer??

I am so disappointed. I loved getting the box every month and really looked forward to the limited editions. Oh well, nothing lasts forever.

If this ends up being more like a quarterly Neiman Marcus than their LE box.. count me in! I just recently started PSMH and love the NM box but didn’t care for the LE even for the sale price they had. Guess we will see what they have in store for us!

I have mixed feelings about this but one thing that I am glad about is that the boxes will not be shipped January, April, July and October like most quarterly boxes. This is a plus to me as the shipments will not all come in the same month. However, a major disadvantage is that the price is a bit above my usual ‘gift price’ for many occasions so that option has disappeared for me.

In order for me to ‘bite, though, I will have to see a significant increase in value over the monthly boxes. They are now in between the cost of monthly and LE boxes and the LE boxes always seemed to be more upscale and valuable. Holding out judgement.

I thought more about why this news left me kinda sad, and I think I figured out why:

They’re basically just killing the monthly box completely. They’re saying hey, no monthly box, but you can sign up for a cheaper quarterly LE now! So that’s the worst of both worlds. No monthly box, and no LE. I know they’re still doing collabs, but just feels like so much less to consume lol. As someone who bought every single box (which I know I didn’t need, lol) it makes me sad. I loved the monthly surprise even if some of it was a little junky. So now we don’t even get things that are quite as luxurious as the LEs, but are paying around the same for it. Does that make sense?

For me, I love RZ and get that every quarter. FFF is hot or miss- I feel like they have one or two great items but the rest honestly seem like off-brand junk. PS monthly was the perfect balance for me.

I like the monthly boxes even if I don’t care for some items. It’s a minimal cost loss, yes I understand that I will be paying less on an annual basis for the boxes. I do not want a $125 scarf, necklace, cover up, poncho, earrings or bracelet that I don’t like. I’d rather have a lower cost value per box – less disappointment in a $35 item that I don’t like.

I’m thinking/hoping they have a big boutique sale soon to unload all of the extra products from their monthly sub boxes. I’m hopeful they will do that over another mystery box offer. I think people have had their fill of unwanted inflatable swans, winky lux lipsticks and stowaway palettes to last a lifetime!

I’m extremely happy about the change! I was Basicly with tax paying 42.50 a month! I would much rather pay 75.00 every Quarter it’s not only saving me money but it sounds like the Retail Value will be there. I’m also on Product overload as I have been a SubMommy for 5 years now. I would gladly take a quarter box with better price and Products. I’m not going to cancel my Subscription I’m keeping mine for sure! I’m all about saving money 💰 and Higher Retail Value! Way to go Popsugar! The only thing I would suggest to PS is their Add ons… their prices defiantly need to come down a bit. So far I have not done any add on with them yet because I just don’t see the Value there.

I am so disappointed. ☹️ I’ve been a loyal subscriber for over 3 years. Receiving my box always gives me a dose of happiness and adds excitement to a sometimes otherwise mundane day. It’s been my personal little splurge, and I love being able to treat myself to fun finds every month.

This is a misstep, in my opinion. Yes; part of the fun is great content. But, the element of surprise and the frequency of receiving a fun package is also a major factor. I think it’s important to consider that. People who are in it solely for quality products can always just go spend their money at a retail store. For most of us that are loyal sub box subscribers, we’re largely in it for the thrill of the surprise; the gamble that we might score an amazing deal; that little burst of Christmas feeling every time a pink box arrives on our doorstep!

Having a frequent box also allows me to care less if a couple of the products are a miss. Didn’t love the body wash? No big deal; the other products were pretty good and I’m only 30 days away from finding something else I love! With a quarterly box, there is SO much built up anticipation, and so much expectation. If I receive a box that happens to be a miss, there goes an ENTIRE QUARTER of built up excitement, and another quarter of waiting for the next. That’s HALF A YEAR before I find joy in the content.

It’s also a bummer that we’re looking at a somewhat relative number of products to what we’re receiving monthly. If we’re stuck with quarterly, then I’d like to at least receive a sort of mega box, chockful of funds. Quality doesn’t always equate to price point. I am sometimes elated to see a $3 snack, or a $10 beauty product, or a $15 knick knack. And on the flip side, a $50 scarf may as well be a 50 cent scarf because I’m in South Florida and don’t use scarves! So, while I do love an amazing high quality and expensive here and there, I also do enjoy lower priced goodies that are still functional and cool. Even though some items have been a miss for me in the past, getting 6 items each month allowed a ton of room for discovery and fun. With 8 or so items every 3 months, that’s a much more narrow path.

Anyway, just my two cents. This really does feel like the Must Have Box is simply being cancelled entirely, and they are just running with the LE boxes at a reduced rate. So sad. At the very least, I hope to see more pop-up surprise boxes like the Target one, maybe some themed ones, etc. Something we could order to still get a more frequent experience.

It seems to me that this is PSMH phasing out.

They have had a lot of customer service issues in the past few months and whenever the box reveals come out, there are a lot of complaints about the curation of products. Honestly, it’s probably quite difficult to come up with 6 or so novel products every month that consistently appeal to thousands of subscribers with different tastes for years on end, so I understand that this move may make it easier on their team, giving them fewer items to select overall and more time to do it.

However, it also seems that it will bring the pressure in other ways, as people will be expecting the value of the box and quality of curation to reflect the increase in price, and it will also throw them into more direct competition with FabFitFun as well as Box of Style to a certain extent.

I realize that cost of the monthly box is higher overall, but since there are several quarterly boxes I enjoy, I’ll likely be choosing one box from FabFitFun, PSMH, Box of Style or Causebox each quarter so that I won’t be shelling out so much money all at once or around the same time of year. This means that PSMH will be getting significantly less money from me, and I imagine others feel the same.

So, it seems that they might potentially lose customers and revenue from this switch and I won’t be surprised if I see an announcement that PSMH is ending within a year or so.

I am also curious to see how this will affect swaps, as it seems safe to assume that there won’t be as much product from PSMH in circulation….

Is there a comparable monthly lifestyle box I can replace PS with? I’m really going to miss that excitement each month.

This is throwing me, too! I have 2 Popsugar subs that are paid through Feb 2019. I took advantage of piggybacking 6 month subs on black friday 2016, then added an additional 3 months to each during the 2017 black Friday offer. I am worried how they are going to translate these credits fairly.

I do really love getting my monthly Popsugar deliveries, as receiving a package is always a thrill. While I understand the concept of moving to quarterly, I fear there could be some really big misses in this model. I have always purchased most of their LE boxes, but sometimes they are a total flop for my tastes. I absolutely thought both the women’s and men’s holiday LE boxes were terrible! I swapped absolutely everything from both!

I really do want quality items, not just stuff…but quality does not always translate into brand name or inflated price. I feel like the monthly box did a much better job of quality and value for a reasonable retail price. The $135 value for the men’s wallet in the holiday LE, or the unlined leather bag with metal loops for an inflated value is not what I am looking for! If you are going to make a change…please send quality items at reasonable values so my $$$ are well spent!

Popsugar is set to launch a line at Ulta Cosmetics. Congrats to them! They simply cannot dedicate the same resources as in the past. I really will miss the monthly box. I have FFF quarterly and I really have enjoyed them both. I’m not sure if I’ll stay with PS or find another monthly box.

I’m relieved, actually. After almost 4 years, I wasn’t planning on renewing after February anyway due to product overload and just needing to take a break to let myself get excited about subs again. I’ve always liked the LE boxes, so I’ll definitely try their quarterly model, which seems like they’re planning a hybrid of monthly/LE type products. Funny to read through the comments and see how a lot of people *really* push back against change of any kind. And some psychics who seem to think they know exactly how it will all play out. 😉

It’s been a tough year for those of us that have multiple subs. I’m at the point where I’ll, just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and say, “Whatevs.”
I’m good with seeing how this plays out.

This makes me super sad. PopSugar has been my fav for years and I’m definitely going to miss my monthly MustHave box. 🙁

This is interesting considering that the December box was pretty great and had a value of $243…pretty close to the quoted value of the new quarterly Box. I’m not sure I would’ve been as excited about December if I’d paid $75 for it. How is New quarterly version going to be better then the really great monthly boxes other than having “at least 8 items”? Maybe they’re under quoting the RV so the actual RV will be more impressive? Really looking forward to seeing how this all plays out! 😉

“If you wish to continue as a subscriber of our new and improved quarterly Must Have subscription, no action is necessary. On April 23rd, your Must Have account will continue on a quarterly subscription basis and will be charged $75 + tax for each quarterly box. For any outstanding monthly box credits remaining on your account, $40 per credit will be applied to your future quarterly box(es). Any such credits will be applied to your order at the time of billing.

If you’d like to opt out of continuing your subscription and receiving quarterly Must Have boxes, simply log in to your account here and cancel your subscription by April 15.”

I was planning on getting a refund for the credits I had remaining but since I added them on during black Friday with the promo code I only paid $82.66 for 3 months, so for me I might as well stick with them if they are gonna give us $40 per credit.

Does this mean no more Neiman Marcus boxes?