Despite Birchbox’s silence amid customer and vendor concerns, the company’s website appears to be back up and running.
As of March 2, the beauty subscription retailer had a disabled website for several weeks, according to previous reporting from Retail Dive. The website displayed a “deployment disabled” message at the time.
Although the website appears to be working again, users are still unable to check out and are instead provided an error message about technical difficulties.
Customers have been left in the dark after the company posted on Instagram in November that it was experiencing setbacks. Since then, subscribers have not been able to use points accrued over years of loyalty toward purchases online, and several claim to have been charged for boxes in October that were never delivered.
Vendors have also brought forward complaints about not being paid for services.
In addition to court complaints filed by vendors against Birchbox and its parent company FemTec Health, vendors and debt collectors have been waiting to hear back regarding unpaid bills.
Debt collection agency Fair Capital told Retail Dive that one of its clients is owed $7,500 by Birchbox. Fair Capital declined to provide the name of its client. On Feb. 7, Fair Capital received a response from a company handling Birchbox's accounts payable. However, soon after, the accounts payable company followed up to tell Fair Capital it was no longer working with Birchbox.
Additionally, FemTec Health’s chief marketing officer and chief financial officer were furloughed as of Jan. 24, according to an email obtained by Retail Dive. After a representative for a content creator inquired about an outstanding debt of $2,500, CMO Gayle Bock responded noting they and CFO Christine Ramello had been furloughed.
Gayle Bock, Christine Ramello, Birchbox and FemTec Health did not respond to requests for comment.
Birchbox was once known for its monthly beauty subscription boxes, and it also operated an online shop that sold products from various beauty brands and some private label options.
Two other beauty box retailers, Ipsy and Boxycharm, recently combined. Though the brands previously operated separately under the same parent company, they announced in February that they’d combine operations by offering four subscription boxes through Ipsy, including a full-size box called BoxyCharm by Ipsy.
