The Sixteen92 Dilemma

An issue that often plagues indie brands, especially those that are only run by their creators, are that due to the huge amount of work that comes with running a brand, they burn out. There are many issues that come with indie brands because they aren't run by corporate groups, nor by people who have business backgrounds, they're simply people who had a passion for what they were creating, and wanted to set up a way to profit off of their creations. Similarly, fans of indies are very aware of this - the culture is more understanding towards creators because it is such an undertaking for one person. 

There are many notable examples of indie brands which have run themselves into the ground with poor business management - the key problem being that they have taken money from customers and chosen not to fulfil those orders. I myself have once experienced this from an Etsy seller, and for those who might experience the same issue - do reach out to Etsy, Paypal or whoever you can in order to get your money back because those are your rights as a buyer.

The most recent example of this indie burnout is the Alpha Musk (AM) debacle - a company that first gained a cult following on the IMAM subreddit. After launching in 2019 with a very affordable price point and a cheerful giveaway to kick off the new brand, it was an extremely successful marketing move to garner interest in the new brand. However, about half a year into the business, AM was swamped with orders, generally refused to close shop despite the many outstanding orders, had a huge delay in TAT but was still creating and promoting new collections. An update was finally given that largely appealed to fans with liberal amounts of pathos (rather than the more objective logos or ethos arguments, but I digress), in light of family emergencies and health issues. To her credit, she did also attempt to close the shop a few times to catch up on the TAT. However, while attempts were made to finally communicate the status of customer orders (such as having customer service volunteers) and keep them up to date on the TAT, there was a subsequent huge uproar in regards to speculation about her work ethic, and since then, AM has since closed up shop indefinitely with almost no presence on social media. 

In my opinion, this event highlights a few things - firstly, the importance of transparency in regards to running a business, such as keeping customers up to date and having a good customer service system, and secondly, not to take on more than you are capable of. 

These things, TAT issues, non existent or unsatisfying customer service, is a key point of this issue. Customers should be informed - and as this is a business endeavour, they have a responsibility to deliver goods in exchange for the money paid. 

However, the notion remains - Should a company continue to pretend to operate as normal if there are outstanding orders, missing parcels and no communication to people who have paid money to them in exchange for goods they have yet to receive for months? 

Sixteen92, unlike Alpha Musk, has been a company that has been around for a while. While people have previously praised Sixteen92 for their professionalism, murmurs and whispers of unfulfilled orders, missing parcels and unresponsive customer service grew stronger and stronger over the course of 2020 - which leads us to what's happening now. 

Sixteen92 tried to explain most of their delays as an issue with USPS - in both delays with TAT and mostly missing parcels that seemed to never have been shipped, and orders which had never arrived. Despite late and missing orders, Sixteen92 customer service would largely place the blame on USPS - and it's hard to do much about that from both a seller and customer perspective. In light of everything that has happened during 2020, the postal service is one that has been affected greatly. Indies typically rely a lot on postal services, to ship components of scents and also packaging, so basically, supply chain disruptions. This cause and effect situation ended up affecting the TAT of a lot of indie brands because they simply weren't able to get access to the things they needed due to shortages in supplies, on top of the inefficient postal service (especially in regards to the USPS situation in America, where these orders are being shipped out from.) 

Some brands like Poesie, have opted to stop shipping internationally in light of all the missing packages they've had to replace. Others have just continued on as normal, with a warning for updated shipping times, but other brands like Sucreabeille, warned customers before purchasing, that they also hold no responsibility for parcels after drop off, and need to tick the "I won't send angry emails!" checkbox due to those issues. However, shipping has more or less gone back to manageable status, there are marked delays here and there and general sorting nonsense, but it is nowhere as bogged down as it was in early 2020. But there were still people who had not received their orders. 

Unfortunately, Sixteen92 has always had a long wait time. Even before the issues that 2020 brought with it in regards to supply chain disruptions and postal service woes, the brand has often had extensive TAT - usually within 15-25 business days, which is from 3 to 5 weeks. Sixteen92 claims that every purchase is made to order and bottled which is why the TAT tends to be longer for the house, especially when it comes to bath and body products like whipped soaps and sprays. While it is likely that they might choose to do so, houses which do spend time to make each purchase "made to order", one needs to look no further than AM to know that it simply isn't a pragmatic or pratical method of running a business - if you want to keep TAT low and things going out the door without closing the shop, you need to streamline things. Unfortunately, as the house had simply been running like so for the time it has been open, they've simply seen no issues, and customers were still happy to wait, as TAT was well within the stated expectations. Even with events such as Resurrection, which typically took a while longer, didn't usually take more than 6 months, and explicit information was being updated to customers while the event was ongoing. In my opinion, Sixteen92's model was less than efficient, but transparency and clear information goes a long way (again, one needs to look no further than AM), and customers who do purchase from indies are more than willing to accomodate to support the brands they love. 

I imagine that the problem really starts on January the 2nd, the 2020 Resurrection event, and the problems start to snowball as the house refuses to close, but continues to do seasonal releases as normal and still taking orders as normal. 

I myself, had placed an order during this event, and I had asked a friend how long they had waited for their order last year, and they had received their order around April. Depending on what you do choose to purchase, it might be a longer wait, so I decided to split my own Resurrection order into two. I wanted to pay more with shipping, so that I could have one parcel arrive before the other. On the processing times page, Sixteen92 had actually claimed that some orders would be split up even more in order to keep orders going out the door. 

Imagine my disappointment when I was not contacted or asked about my orders being bundled, having to paid money for TWO shipments, only for both orders to arrive in one package, without any shipping refunds. I was extremely disappointed, and genuinely frustrated because I explicitly made two separate orders and paid the extra money on international shipping in order to receive one parcel before the other, only to have them both arrive as one parcel instead, with a longer TAT. This was also done while I saw many people get split shipments after only making one order - which was incredibly frustrating for me to see. I imagine while I was reasonably lucky as I only waited 7 months for my Resurrection order, the customer service aspect here left a lot to be desired. Why was this not communicated to me? 

In regards to Resurrection, when placing their orders, customers usually expect a longer wait. While the original wait is around 3-4 months, as I write this, some people have still not received their Resurrection event, while the 2021 Resurrection event has just closed. 

Posts such as this, this and this, which have been ranging since October last year, to just a few weeks ago. In fact, even normal orders were going missing. 

Orders going missing are normal, I also experienced a missing package from Alkemia, but after messaging them, instantly got a reply and a refund. However, despite all these outstanding orders and questions, those who have posted to Sixteen92's private facebook group have had evidence of their posts and queries removed, and those who have sent Instagram or Facebook messages, or sent a question through the contact me page on the website have yet to receive a reply (as seen in each of those posts). Most of the issues with missing/delayed orders were simply given the same reply concerning issues with USPS. 

An update was posted 2 months ago from Sixteen92 to coincide with 2021: a post written to apologize for the poor customer service due to all the missing orders, the delayed orders, and more importantly, the lack of communication regarding the issues the house has been facing. As a result, the house has made an attempt to hire a customer service agent in order to address everyone's problems (however, they are only reachable via email), and the house is aiming to transitioning to have things "Ready to ship" rather than "bottle to order". 

Unfortunately, despite this issue, much like the post from a few weeks ago, this claim of the customer service agent didn't seem to have any change to the issue. More and more people have continued to post queries of their order status on the Facebook group (evidence of deleted posts included as well), who are simply curious as to where their orders are. This post outlines OP's attempt at contacting the house with very minimal success, and this post suggests perhaps trying to suggest some sort of compromise between the house and customers - through a Reddit AMA in order to promote transparency, to address customer concerns, to do a mass update in order for everyone to be on the page. However, as the reply says, Claire, the owner of Sixteen92, only acknowledges the problem, and requests that customers accomodate for the issues. 

Much like some of the comments in this post, I very much agree with the sentiment: "don't make the customers accountable for your job". In comparison to a lot of other indie brands, Sixteen92 has the customer service most reminiscent of a big company - delayed orders will be delayed with no compensation, and there is often no compensation. In fact, for those orders which have been delayed, they come with coupons and code which often expire before the parcel even arrives - which in my opinion is such a glaring oversight considering the extensive issues S92 claims to have had with USPS and delays in shipping. 

There are a lot of questions that arise from this which stem from the general ineptitude from the house to keep everything under control. Why is the shop still insisting on creating new events when they have not fulfilled outstanding orders? Why have other people gotten their orders before people who have made orders from well over a year ago? Why have they not tried to streamline their working process in order to lower TAT, such as closing the shop or halting new releases? Why not hire more people? Any attempts to answer this question from my end would only be speculation, and therefore I think, unfair towards the brand.

Another post was made in the private Facebook group, which was reposted to IMAM. More or less it mirrors AM's previous posts, highlighting the creator's health issues and their own personal struggles without actually answering any questions that the customers have had. They briefly address the deleted posts in the group without answering any questions, refuse to pursue any other method of reaching out to their customers outside of the private Facebook group and social media (IG/FB), and inform us that their new customer service representative only works a few hours a week. 

So, despite having written those questions before this post was created, I still have no answers. 

As the owner expresses discomfort over their "personal medical conditions discussed and dissected on a public forum" - I believe that customers only speculate about health conditions and personal issues BECAUSE there is transparency and communication. I truly do believe that if this update had been addressed the missing orders and the TAT, such as offering a coupon code or refunds for people who wanted them, and taken the time to highlight what was actually happening on the business end, there would be no need for customers to wonder why the business was running into these problems. As one comment points out, "I have compassion for people and expectations of businesses".  Another comment points out that it would simply be as easy to address outstanding orders, and open up the possibility of refunds if necessary. In fact, I don't think it was even necessary to let the customers know in depth about the timeline of the health issues that the owner has faced - most customers are aware that there is a global pandemic that has adversely affected everyone, but what they have rights to, is the goods they are expecting in exchange for the money they have given the brand. As this comment (thank you u/milentlesslyabused) concisely states, 

I don't think people want:

1. To know about her personal life/private issues
2. To speculate on how these issues impact business

I think what people want:

1. A reliable contact method that is monitored, accessible, and utilized.
2. An update on the status of outstanding orders, with either a fulfillment date or some option of resolution (refunding).
3. A system in the future that will provide mass communication which can easily provide information/updates without the need for customers to have to dig/fight for this information.
4. A better business process in the future that can improve these issues (which is does seem they are attempting)

I think clear, concise, business-oriented communication that has specific resolutions would be what's best served here, and I hope it's coming for those impacted by these unfulfilled orders.

I couldn't have expressed this sentiment any better - and I think that looking forward, other indie brands should also be aware of these issues, especially because many of them do not come from a business background. It is not enjoyable to see businesses fail, especially because I myself have purchased many things from Sixteen92. In fact, it's extraordinarily difficult to watch them struggle through something that shouldn't have gotten this out of hand. 

I wish Sixteen92 the best of luck as they continue to tackle this issue, as I believe the overwhelming amount of evidence has, and will severely impact Sixteen92's reputation. Deleting and ignoring customer queries is NOT addressing customer concerns. There needs to be a better way to handle this situation, especially in light of the continuing issues despite the new customer service agent. For this, I reinstate my point - I believe that customers want transparency and communication from brands, and I hope that they will take notes and constructive criticism from customer feedback in order to learn from their mistakes, and hopefully, come back bigger and better than they were before.