Kardashians helped make Kiwi millions, but new venture faces a rocky road

Friday, 7 September 2018

Complaints have spurred posts about what is expected versus what actually arrives.

A Kiwi e-commerce entrepreneur famous for making millions from her Waist Trainer, worn by the Kardashians, is copping flak for sub-standard customer service in her new venture.

Founder of Waist Trainer, Luxe Fitness and Bambi Boutique Iyia Liu started an online gift box website Celebration Box six weeks ago but has received hundreds of complaints on social media from disgruntled customers.

The boxes filled with packaged and loose confectionery and doughnuts cost between $40 and nearly $100.

Complaints include late deliveries, deliveries not showing up at all, poor communication and getting blocked on social media for complaining.

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Julie Hope took to Facebook to share her frustration after the delivery her daughter ordered for Father's Day last weekend, did not arrive.

Hope, based in Coatesville, north of Auckland, said her daughter paid extra for rural shipping, but has not received an apology nor her box.

'When you have a business dealing with food, timely delivery is key. When we didn't receive our box I went on social media and saw others complaining about their boxes not looking like the pictures on the website,' Hope said.

Do you know more? Get in touch: anuja.nadkarni@stuff.co.nz

The boxes filled with packaged and loose confectionary, and donuts cost anywhere between $40 to nearly $100.

Hope said that after she complained she found out through other posts Celebration Box had apologised for late orders, but she never saw this because she was blocked from the company's Instagram and Facebook pages.

Hope said she had never posted a negative comment previously.

You know you get late deliveries, s… happens. But to go and block me was very unprofessional. I felt something needed to be done.

'She has my address she could have sent me a letter apologising.

'It's a typical thing for Kiwis to not complain. I never bullied or harassed her, I just posted about not receiving my order.'

Another customer complained: 'They do not send you what is shown in pictures. Instead they use a couple lollies from one dollar bags and a whole heap of s…. Stale doughnuts… definitely not worth your hard earned money.'

Liu told Stuff she was struggling to keep up with demand. The business had grown from a few orders a day to 2000 a week.

'We have scrambled to hire staff, we now have a team of five full-time, two part-time and lots of casuals, we are trying our best to keep up with demand, keep in mind we launched a month and a half ago, every single customer who has emailed in saying they are unhappy, we have provided a refund, I welcome you to go on to our customer service email to see for yourself.

'This all started because Julie Hope didn't receive her order last Friday, we refunded her on Monday, the first business day after the weekend as we don't work on the weekend.

'We felt as if we had to block her as she continued to post negative things all over our social media account despite being refunded and apologised to, we have since had to block so many people who are not customers who are jumping on the bandwagon because we don't know what to do. Every single customer who has emailed us letting us know they are dissatisfied has been refunded or had a replacement sent, and if they haven't, it isn't intentional, it would have been missed by accident.'

Her business partner, Briar Howard, said she acknowledged that not all customers had had the experience they expected.

On Monday, Liu said on Facebook she blocked Hope because she had been posting 'negative comments' despite receiving a refund.

'We had not anticipated the amount of interest in our business when we launched in late July, so we have grown far quicker than we expected and take full responsibility for anything that has slipped through the cracks. We've taken all customer feedback on board, and we've been making changes to our processes daily to make sure we only send out boxes with a quality guarantee,' she said.

'Social media is the main reason Celebration Box has grown so quickly, and it's been an immeasurable tool for us to get this business off the ground. We've been blown away by the lovely things so many of our customers post on social media about Celebration Box, but we know it is also a platform for people that aren't so pleased with us.

'We acknowledge that we haven't always got it right – and again we take responsibility for all of our actions and hope we continue to evolve to make things right.'

She said, despite the complaints, there had been a 'huge' number of orders this week. 'Our focus has been making sure we can provide the best service possible for our customers. Because we use a third-party for deliveries, we are rely on customers contacting us directly about any issues or feedback.'

Liu consults on running and growing a e-commerce business.

Liu rose to fame when Kylie Jenner posted images of herself wearing the Waist Trainer on Instagram and marketed herself as the 23-year-old who turned $6000 into a multi-million dollar business in 2015.

According to her website, Celebration Box is on its way to similar success.

She claims in the first month the website generated 5700 sales in its first two months and is set to turn over $2 million within its first year.

Hope and two other customers who contacted Stuff but did not want to be interviewed, said it was important to warn consumers about the website's practices.