GlobeInReviews of globein.com

Globein is a neat idea, support artisans from around the world, get beautiful things every month. But they seem to have overextended themselves during covid days and that makes the whole experience significantly less enjoyable. I signed up for a six month subscription over the summer and only my first (August) box arrived when promised, my second box was delayed by a month, and I have no idea when I'll get the next two boxes I've ordered. Now that we're in holidays I can't trust that anything will arrive in time for Christmas, which is part of how I was hoping to share this subscription. I have enjoyed the beautiful items I've received, but I can't recommend that anyone join right now and honestly get annoyed when I see their ads pop up. They need to get back on top of how to operate this lovely idea, not add more numbers they can't keep up with.

I hope they’re better to the artisans than they are to their customers. There are some beautiful artisan goods on GlobeIn, which is why I signed up. But don’t expect anything even remotely resembling customer service. I’ve had two processing errors with my selections in four months. They have no number you can call for help, when you email they’ll email you back in a week or two, and by then it’s way too late to do anything about it. I expect this from overworked and understaffed nonprofits, but this is a for-profit sales business—a very poorly run one.

Either the company is purposefully duping people or their website/platform tech has gone haywire. There has been some slight claims last month that is was a 'tech issue' but the tech issues seems to be continuing and depending this month. Membership site seemed ok my first 3 months. (but I never tried the redeem feature to use a 'credit' for add-on items rather than straight order a box)...and I just one with the flow a lot, tried to order my box, do a few add ons, straight payment method. But maybe it was July or August, I'd already selected my box, went back to check and maybe do some add ons and the box I KNOW I'd selected was gone like it never happened. So that was the first sign of trouble and they continued to seem to have trouble keeping items/box in cart as selected. But this month it went to 11 in terms of wacky. The last two months now I'm in month 5... (I got automatically re-upped for another 3 because they call it a '3 month recurring membership'...so is that 3 recurring months together, or every three months you'll automatically charge me again? They are not clear in their description/wording and I found out the hard way they'll keep re-subscribing you every three months unless you cancel.) But I could live with that if that was all...a lot of membership sites are tricky and crafty with their renewals. Like other recent reviewers...it seems they are baiting and switching their offers, baiting and then removing items and offers when check out comes the pre-paid redeem credits selected disappeared without being used on any selected items, (redeem is how you use your pre-paid box credits on something else rather than their rather repetitive selection of boxes in the 'membership boxes' etc in the membership app. I just found an email invoice for items that when they appeared in my cart, looked like my 'redeem' credit AN an additional promotional credit were covering the whole thing (maybe I had to pay $6 shipping). Then when that part of the month ended and I went back (of course there's no way to see what you've ordered during the different 'add on parts of the month...another transparency problem) it looked like I STILL had a redeem credit and of course I couldn't find any record of what I'd tried to order, had it been ordered, was I being charged...nothing. (no I didn't stake screen shots. I didn't realize all the bat guano crazy stuff that was going on until I just got the email today) But yes I am being charged. Luckily I had some issue with the credit card and they denied it, and so I will not receive the order/ or remit payment and am removing all my payment info from their site right after this. I have to deal with the last month of trying to navigate trying to get a 'box' ordered (also they offer pretty not interesting 'membership boxes' mostly it looks like all the stuff they can't give away...and no one will pay for, and so their trying to force that on there membership box folks....and if you don't want the boxes and try to redeem...well like my situation it just doesn't credit you, and I'll most likely get another 'unwanted' box they choose even though I tried multiple times to make my own choice (redeem) this month. Whatever. If it wasn't for corona who would have time for this bs. The regular order an item + pay the normal retail website seems to work fine. Products are of nice quality and from what I have seen are as advertised. But...they are really going to have to rethink their membership platform/tech and/or approach to survive. You can't jerk people around forever (intentionally or not). I tried the membership because I wanted to see what kind of discounts and what items they put into the add-ons...the selection seems to have gotten less interesting also. And the discount is not worth it. Bummed honestly. Of course there's no real way to know if they are giving their artisan / suppliers real positive benefits either, and if their tech/customer service is any indication, it's at least hard to say. I've emailed all this to the company as well, and from the looks of it I'm certainly not the only one who would be bringing up similar issues. I feel bad IF?? they are really a nice company or owners having a bad time with their tech...but buyer beware of this one. I'm going to bet that it's their tech platform that is causing the problems, because there are TOO many problems for it to be planned this way. I gave two stars (not just one) because the products themselves are VERY nice and have so far of probably 20 items I've received from them all been very good, and many beautiful items. The happiest I've been though was just from a straight retail order I made as my first purchase from them. I hope they are able to fix their issues and get their customer service and platforms working for everyone's sake.