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May 24, 2015

Why I Will No Longer Be Purchasing/Recommending Notoriously Morbid

A few days ago, Carrie, the owner of Notoriously Morbid made a post in their private Facebook group that is supposed to be for fans of the brand to share pictures, reviews, and looks. If you saw it, you definitely already know which post I'm talking about, but it has since been deleted. A friend of mine happened to grab some screenshots and sent them to me. The post in question was referring to MY email, and I've left the group, cancelled my Vanishing Cabinet subscription, and will no longer be purchasing from or recommending the brand, Notoriously Morbid. I have blurred out any private information.


First of all, I'd like to state that no matter what was in my email, it is never ok to publicly talk bad about a customer, let alone in your own brand's Facebook group. That is something that business owners need to deal with on their own time, and act professional in a public setting. I was by no means doing what was said, but for full disclosure, I'll include screenshots of my emails back and forth. And especially considering the person who emailed was in the group? That's just not OK.

Here's a little summation of my issue: For some reason my Vanishing Cabinet subscription was never turned back on for May after they put it on hold for April. I sent an email as soon as I noticed I wasn't charged on the 4th, like I normally would have been. Here's what resulted. The blur on the bottom is because I originally sent these from my personal email address.


I got a reply in less than 24 hours.





Then I don't hear anything back for 10 days, so I ask for an update to my issue. Usually I would have sent another email earlier than 10 days later without hearing, I like to be on top of issues so they get handled as quickly as possible. But I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.


No reply. I email again, 3 days later.


And then still nothing. I begin to hear from friends who were charged that their subscriptions hadn't shipped yet. And they announced a new release was coming up, and their TAT was still quite high after they said they had since switched over to an inventory system. I am not sure that actually happened. Now maybe my email could have been worded differently, but I still don't think it's unreasonable considering I had not heard back for 14 days. I would have been fine with an email back explaining it still wasn't resolved. Just something, don't just ignore me because you haven't fixed the issue. Sometimes I have a different perspective because I have several friends who discuss their purchases and customer service experiences with various companies with me, so it's not just my experience I am seeing, but the overarching problems that have been going on for months.


There are plenty of ways to reply, deal with, or help me that were not post a passive aggressive post in your company's Facebook group about my email. You may note that nothing I said was a personal attack, but instead talking about the brand and company itself, which can be hard to separate. I try to do that as much as possible, because it's important to distinguish the difference. I know owners have a hard time with this as well, I can't imagine taking criticism about something you've worked so hard on to be easy. A simple apology would have done much more good than what was done. Hell, just a response would have been better.

They explained to us that Vanishing Cabinets would be sent this month in the order they billed and that the shop's current turnaround time would not affect them. I was pretty excited about that when I realized that the 4th was the first billing day, and meant I would be getting my subscription early in the month. As soon as I wasn't billed I notified them of the issue. 16 days later after my original email, and my issue still wasn't resolved. At this point, if I had been charged today, I wouldn't have seen my subscription until June at the earliest. Friends I spoke to who had been charged still had not had their subscriptions shipped. My subscriptions used to arrive on the 23rd of the month at the latest. It's obvious shipping as people were billed was not making them arrive any earlier like was promised. If you cannot stick to a promise made to your customers, communicate to us about it!

Because I discuss indie companies and issues with quite a few other ladies, I sometimes see problems that the rest of customers aren't seeing or aren't dealing with. With Notoriously Morbid, several had been dealing with a long TAT. Many who had actually been charged for their subscriptions were still waiting for it to actually ship. And it can be very discouraging to see a company not caught up on orders or subscriptions releasing new products. You begin to feel like the order you already made isn't important to them. I see companies often releasing new products when their turnaround time is going up and up, and I always wonder why they wouldn't rather get caught up on orders before shifting their focus to new products. And there were several months of the Vanishing Cabinet that just felt like everything was sub par and rushed.

I've been feeling dissatisfied with Notoriously Morbid more and more recently. And this was the nail in the coffin so to speak, as I do not appreciate being talked about in a group I am part of, or even if I wasn't in the group, as a way to try and get sympathy when no one has any idea what was really going on. Even if they wanted to make a post about it, there were plenty of other things to say than talking about a "hurtful and upsetting email", and saying they were being scolded or bullied. I have never been afraid of expressing my dissatisfaction with a company in an email to them. If you don't let them know you are unhappy, how are they supposed to do anything to help change that? But not once was it publicly talked about on the brand's Facebook group. And now people will wonder if they send a disgruntled email to them, if they will post about it publicly.

When their turnaround time was climbing higher and higher, they only once closed the shop. It seems very logical to me that if you cannot keep up with orders, shutting down the shop is probably going to be the best option for you, as well as your customers. But I don't own an indie business, and it's easy for me to say what should be done. I've increasingly felt like the product quality was suffering due to these issues. And you would think that if a customer is having an issue where they cannot give you money, you fix it as soon as possible. Again, I don't own an indie business, and it's easy for me to say what should be done. However, I watch them quite closely and some are more successful at what they do and how they treat their customers. Notoriously Morbid lost me as a customer and I think many others as well.

I will be adding a link to this post to all of my past reviews.


18 comments :

  1. Thank you for sharing your experience. Unfortunately, I just ordered from her for the first time several days ago and this does not make me feel confident about that order at all. I was a little concerned that I wasn't given any indication about when I'll receive my my eyeshadows (I did receive confirmation and an update to "awaiting fulfillment", so I know she's gotten it). Now, instead of waiting excitedly I'm going to be wondering if I'll ever get it. Not fun at all.

    I just do not understand why any business owner would do this and think that it's okay and that it won't come back to bite them in the ass later on. It's just so incredibly childish and petty. There are tons of indie companies now to choose from and I won't be giving my money to any that act like this. Unbelievable.

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    1. I am not sure what their turnaround time is currently, it should be on the site. I don't think there will be any problem with receiving your order, and I hope it makes it there in a timely manner. I don't understand it either, but I guess sometimes you have to learn the hard way how to run a business.

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  2. They lost me on how they handled this. And it's true-why have a huge tat and spend time making new products?

    I saw the post on the FB group...I did send an email regarding their actions of liking certain posts, talking about how its unprofessional and just not nice, but no response.

    Thank you for your version...you could have went ahead and blasted them personally but chose to focus on the topic. It's great to see folks taking the high road.

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    1. It seems their customer service has kind of gone silent lately, at least regarding to this issue. And thank you, I appreciate it :)

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  3. My goodness - luckily I'm not on Facebook much anymore, but saw some reference to this post a few days ago, after it was deleted. I agree that the quality of the VCs has been decreasing - I think the last VC I got had the pots of pigment "secured" with a little circle sticker - and one of them still had a loose cap and spilled some product. I absolutely understand that the owners of NM believe their personal identities are synonymous with the brand - so, a criticism to NM is a criticism to Laura and Carrie. But this was wrong - flat out. I am seeing this more and more - these "woe is me" posts, almost asking for sympathy (at least, that's what it looks like). We're all flexible - but NM has not had a great year so far. I know they were trying to switch to an inventoried system (like GDE) - that was largely a fail, because so many products were out of stock. They're trying though - I give them that. I love the interaction they have with their customers in the group. But, sometimes they don't keep things at a professional distance. Vanessa at GDE could give them some great lessons.

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    1. It's just such a mess. And yes, they could have definitely been more professional in many of their posts in the group.

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  4. Kelly as much as their formula works for me I cannot support a company that treats customers the way you were treated.

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  5. Thank you for writing about this. You did it well and it's really respectful. I was in the group when the post was made and watched the whole thing unfold until it was finally deleted. I ended up leaving the group. I won't be purchasing from them any longer. This was just too much for me. I saw some of the things some people said and seeing Carrie and Laura like those comments made me really uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable enough with the initial post, that's just something you do not do. D=

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    1. Yeah I heard about them liking the comments, and I think one of them said they were liking everyone's comments. There were several times they could have said something about hey let's not talk about the person that way, or hey let's keep things civil. They did not, but instead just kept defending their actions. And I will always wonder if they only deleted it because some commenters were not ok with the post, and not because they actually felt like they made a mistake.

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  6. I actually placed an order with them after reading one of your reviews. I'm trying to find and support indie companies and after checking out your blog and their swatches, I ordered the sample pack. I must have missed their disclaimer on their shipping schedule and inquired about my order. I wasn't rude about it but found their response to my inquiry a bit rude and I felt like I had received a scolding. It's my first order and based on this experience as well as yours, it'll be my last.

    I too believe you shouldn't introduce new products until everything that needs shipping is shipped. Why add on another load of orders that you can't seem to meet.

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    1. I've heard from you and others that they've had less than stellar customer service interactions, and I think it's good that they are coming out into the open so others can be better informed before making a purchasing decision.

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  7. This is upsetting to me because I own a lot of their eyeshadows. I support you 100% and I'm really sorry they did this, I would be just as upset as you if this happened to me. I will be destashing all of my eyeshadows this Sunday and clearing them from my makeup kit.

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    1. Thank you, I haven't decided what to do with my shadows. I will probably just keep them, but I should go through and get rid of some that I never liked anyways.

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  8. Kelly, I am sorry that this was the experience you had with them. I have had nothing but open dialogue and positive interactions. I can't make excuses for them, because I honestly don't know 100% what happened or what was going on in their lives at the time (although I am aware there was a move involved and I have moved more than a dozen times... moving sucks). I think that when people are exhausted and emotional, they make somewhat stupid mistakes. I am sure that most of us have done or said things that we wish we could change. It is also a two-sided conversation with many emotional attachments. I hope that they can get past it and move forward, and learn from it because I really do love their product and have only had good things to say about them. Tone is also really quite impossible to convey in writing.

    I respect your decision to stop purchasing from them, but I think that people also need to know that it isn't always this type of interaction you'll receive from them. Not being judgemental, so I hope it's not coming across this way. Everyone has the right to choose with whom they do business! I just know that I have had nothing but the best CS from them, and maybe all the stress in their lives made them do something they otherwise wouldn't have.

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  9. Hi Kelly, I am just curious - if the group post was not directly because of you (although it does seem strongly suggestive) would you be able to forgive NM? Also was there any point where they could have made amends? It does seem that they either forgot or hit some challenging roadblocks in reactivating your subscription. As a international, I always see what feels like everyone get products before me even when I paid first. However, being ignored is always hurtful :(

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    1. Even if it was not about me, I don't feel that any company should be talking bad about a customer, or making it seem like they are the enemy. And they certainly shouldn't be discussing the specifics of a customer email to them either. They've still made no effort to reach out to me, which is too bad. So to answer your question, no I wouldn't feel any different if it wasn't my email that prompted the post.

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    2. Thanks for answering! Given that the crypt is still pretty small, it seems really dumb/rude/ignorant to post (or not check for names) in before posting. And just after a member was kicked out for being snide! I personally read it as a bit too much emotion - not really work appropriate but I recently had a few emotional bursts when pregnant (example telling the Starbucks barista not to patronize me when they corrected my drink order because my pregnant brain forgot coffee words - I apologized the next time I them!).

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