FYI – for subscribers to BOTH these excellent book subscription boxes, you already know that both picked the same book for the last two months (see our Uppercase reviews & our OwlCrate reviews).
From OwlCrate:
Hi everyone. We’ve been receiving a lot of emails and comments about the fact that OwlCrate and Uppercase featured the same book for two consecutive months. We want you to know that your feedback is incredibly important to us and for those of you who received duplicate books, we understand your disappointment. The reality of this situation is that here at OwlCrate we plan our boxes 6+ months in advance of shipping. This includes selecting the book, choosing the theme, and finding the wonderful small businesses to work with on that box (some of whom require many months to create their product).
Given the fact that we finalize our book pick early on (and set all the other wheels in motion) – if it later becomes apparent that another book box has selected the same book as us, this is something that is completely out of our control. There is no foul play or copying going on. With every box aiming to send out the best books being published, it is likely that if there is a highly anticipated title coming out, more than one box may pick it as their featured book.
We reached out to the owner of Uppercase, because we wanted to find a solution that worked for everyone involved. We are both willing to give subscribers who receive duplicate books a 50% refund off the Amazon price of the book. When we both give this refund, these subscribers will essentially have received one of the books for free! If you would like to claim this refund for duplicates that were sent out in June and July, please email [email protected] with a photograph of the contents of BOTH boxes (OwlCrate and Uppercase) in the same photo, side by side. If you have sent emails to us about this prior to this announcement, please write in again so we can give you your refund. Photos will be required to claim refunds if this happens again in the future as well.
PLEASE NOTE: If you remain subscribed to multiple YA book boxes who include newly published books, you always run the risk of receiving duplicate books in a given month. If this is something that you want to avoid, we recommend reconsidering subscribing to more than one book-box. However, if you choose to remain subscribed to multiple boxes, we are happy to continue offering partial refunds for any duplicates you receive going forward.
We are so incredibly grateful for all of your support. It means a lot to us that you choose to subscribe to OwlCrate. We want to thank everyone for their positive words, feedback and ideas. We have big things planned for the rest of the year, and we can’t wait to see what you think of the upcoming boxes! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!
From Uppercase:
Please read this post in it’s entirety to understand our updated policy regarding subscribers receiving duplicate books as a result of subscribing to other book subscription boxes.
We’d love to hear your feedback so that we can do the right thing and do what we’re able to make all of our subscribers happy!
We choose the very best book for you each month and it would diminish the quality of our book choices if we were to coordinate with any other book subscription box.
For this reason there is always a chance for duplicate books when you are subscribed to more than one book subscription box.
One of the unique benefits of being an Uppercase subscriber is that your book is always signed by the author. We hope that you agree that this adds value to your book and your Uppercase subscription. Even with this added benefit that other book subscription boxes do not provide, we understand that it’s disappointing and frustrating to get duplicate books.
Last month, we went out of our way to send our subscribers a bonus item if they emailed us with confirmation that they had received a duplicate book from another book subscription box.
Starting today we are happy to announce that we will go even further by providing you with a 50% refund for the cost of the book based on the Amazon.com list price.
Since we cannot control or prevent duplicates from happening, a 50% refund for the cost of the book is our part to help compensate you for the unfortunate circumstance.
If you’d like a refund for the remaining 50% of the cost of the book, feel free to reach out to the other book subscription box to see if they will do the same. This will allow you to receive a full 100% refund for the cost of your second copy of the book while still keeping your signed copy of the book from Uppercase.
Please email us at [email protected] to redeem your choice of a bonus item OR a 50% partial refund of the Amazon list price of the book.
Each of you who subscribe to Uppercase are incredibly valuable to us and we sincerely appreciate your business.
Comments
This is why I wish book boxes “spoiled” the boxes they plan to send. The book choice is key to the enjoyment of the box, and I don’t feel comfortable subscribing to one of the boxes if I run the risk of getting a book I won’t enjoy. The supplementary items can still be surprises.
Just my opinion, though. There are clearly lots of people who don’t mind getting books of all kinds, and it seems to work well for them as long as there are duplicates.