Glossybox vs. Lucy

EDIT 8/7: I have just emailed the CEO for the third time after all my emails have been ignored again, my last email was sent on June 27th & the one before than on June 20th - no response from either. Not only are they insulting me further but they're also making themselves look ridiculous. Believe me when I say that I really don't want to drag this out any more than it already has been, but it's come to far for me to just let it drop and for Glossybox to get away with yet more dreadful customer service.

EDIT: I posted an update on this situation that you can see by clicking here. In short, the CEO of Glossybox got in touch with me and said they have reviewed their policies and are now going to pay their intern a weekly stipend but there was no mention of what was said about me and I am yet to receive any form of apology off them.

A bit of an off-topic post from me, something that I have been debating posting because I hoped everything would be cleared up with a simple apology but apparently that's too much to ask. Another thing that prompted me to blog this was the negativity that I've seen over the last couple of days regarding the approach to customer service as well as a few other things. I'm not usually one to cause, or even be involved in drama so bare with me but at least by posting this on my own blog, nothing can be deleted if it gets a little bit too difficult for Glossybox to deal with.

If you follow me on Twitter you might be aware of what happened last week between myself and Glossybox. They advertised an internship that had to be undertaken for a minimum of three months, expenses only. Working full time for three months on pretty much nothing is not only illegal, but surely it also violates any sort of human right or general conscience, no? Well, apparently not. I tweeted Glossybox and raised my concerns last Tuesday evening and I received no response. The next day I followed up my previous tweets and I got a patronising, generic response stating that 'CVs take a while to go through but we'll be in touch if you're right for the job'. Fantastic. Not only did I not even apply for the job in the first place, but they obviously don't bother to read their Twitter feed; I quickly replied asking if they really thought I wanted to work illegally for them and did they know that, by law, you can only work for free for a maximum of four weeks. Surprise surprise, nothing back. I then pointed them in the direction of this link, and again asked if they knew what they were advertising was illegal - another patronising response was thrown my way: 'don't worry - everything goes through our legal department' ummm...? I decided to leave it for the time being a d thought I'd pursue my efforts the next day.

That evening, I found out that the person behind the social media for Glossybox is a "popular" and "well known" blogger. I was casually reading through their tweets and found one from earlier that day, posted around the time that I was tweeting the Glossybox account. It read: 'doing internships was the best thing I ever did + is the reason I don't work at McDonald's + is the reason I have a good marketing job' - oh, so not only is that obviously aimed towards me, it is wholly unprofessional, entirely unnecessary and definitely uncalled for. Not only have I never spoken to this person in my life, but she also knows nothing about me and has obviously made it quite clear how she feels about my life, so much so that apparently its okay to degrade, insult and belittle me, based on my place of employment. 

I was so angry when I read the tweet that I didn't hesitate to respond: 'was there any need for your bitchy comment? I raise valid points and what, working at McDonald's makes me less of a person? I've done internships, I've worked for free, it doesn't make it right though and some of us aren't fortunate enough to live close enough to London to scrape by on expenses. What Glossybox is offering IS illegal and it's not okay, nor is you having cheap digs at me on your personal account, not very professional" annnnd guess what? I got absolutely no response.

Had I got a simple apology I probably would have dropped this whole thing but because I didn't, I took it further. Last Thursday I lodged an official complaint to Glossybox about their response to my innocent questions, and also about the way their employees choose to act on their personal accounts. I got one email back thanking me for my 'query' and informing me that my email had been forward to the relevant person. That was followed by another email, from the same person, asking for my telephone number and a convenient time to call; I told them I'd rather keep all correspondence to email and I'm still waiting to hear back, this was last Friday.

I'm not sure about anybody else but I think this whole situation has got way out of hand, through no fault of my own, but through a complete lack of professionalism shown by both the brand and their employees. Surely dealing with customer complaints should be top priority? No? Again, an apology would have sufficed but clearly that's too much to ask. What was said about me has made me nothing but angry, what right does this person think she has to comment on my life? Like I said, I told her that I'd done internships - and believe me, I've worked my absolute arse off for free - and I know that one day it'll all pay off, but for now, McDonald's will have to do. What if I wanted to work there forever though? What if I did want to make a career for myself and work up, would that still make me less of a person? At least I have an actual job, it might not be what I want to do but at least it's something, and in this climate something is most definitely better than nothing. 

The Glossybox customer service is no better either, it's absolutely appalling and I don't think anything is going to change that, they simply don't care about the people that keep them in business. All the 'advertising' they recieve is pretty much done through blogs where their boxes are 'gifted', so why should they care about anyone but themselves and their 'ambassadors'? It really is an appalling company with appalling morals. 

Imagine if Glossybox spent less money on their 'ambassadors' and used everything they saved to pay some poor person's wages, just IMAGINE.