Citrus Time

I’m late posting about my box of surprises from Citrus Lane because this month’s box was truly unexpected surprise when I opened it up... everything inside was completely covered in shampoo! They had sent a full-sized bottle of organic Honest Co. shampoo via airmail in a mesh bag. Anyone who has ever flown in an airplane with pop-top bottle of liquid knows what can happen...POP. The bottle was almost empty - what a mess! So I called customer service hoping for a new bottle of shampoo and they were just wonderful. If my box was a mess they wanted to send me a whole new one to fix it, not just shampoo. It’s so refreshing when businesses have good customer service with nice people who have the power to not only fix a problem, but even able to go above and beyond. Maybe I just have bad luck with customer service in general, but so often these days I have negative frustrating experiences. Citrus Lane’s customer service was prompt, responsive, kind and was on a mission to make their customers happy. That’s a big deal in this day and age.

Onto this month’s box - second time’s a charm:

The toy this month was a wooden caterpillar by Melissa and Doug. I love their toys but I wasn’t overly impressed by this one at first. I thought the rain stick and art cards from my previous boxes were much more ingenious... but Oliver LOVES this toy. He’s gaga over it. He likes twisting the sections, chewing the antenna, and swinging it around. So even though I was skeptical at first, the toy is another winner.

There is also a silicone placemat by Oogaa which will be handy when we eat out, but at home right now it just adds to the mess. I’m sure I’ll love it when Oliver is a little older and eating at the table instead of off his high chair tray. There was also a cool stackable food container in the box from innobaby. Since I’ve been making Ollie’s babyfood and freezing it since last summer, we already have a full suite of containers I really like (hello oxo). But these are neat - they can store liquids, purees or dry snacks and there are two ways to open them (a top spout or removing the whole lid). They also screw together so you can easily keep everything together which is also handy. I think a set of these would be the perfect solution for sending in baby’s lunch to daycare/preschool every day. Last but not least, the aforementioned full sized shampoo & bodywash from Honest Co. (now wrapped in 10 pieces of tape!). It’s a combination mom/baby product, an organic tear-free shampoo and bodywash for the whole family.

Overall, this month’s box was good... but it wasn’t great. I’m more impressed with their customer service than I am the box. Everything in the box is useful and innovative, but there wasn’t the “wow factor” item that my other boxes had. There were also only 4 items, none of which are very expensive, making it a lower value box than the others. I knew when I signed up that half the fun is the surprise and I wasn’t going to be madly in love every box, so I’m still a big fan. Of course for other people this box might be their favorite, it’s all very subjective!

If you like what you see and want to join with your very own $10 off coupon, just click on the link:
https://www.citruslane.com/invitedby/citrus.lane.471652

See February’s Box | March’s Box.

**I am not in any way affiliated with Citrus Lane, they did not ask for my endorsement and my opinion is completely my own. I'm just sharing the box because I found it to be fun!

Update: Since posting this early this morning, I've received a few emails about Citrus Lane's customer service debacle over the shampoo. I did know of one other person who was having a hard time, but apparently the issue is much more widespread. More shampoo bottles exploded than the company can handle (according to FB) and many customers are waiting more than a week now for a response. Apparently I was just lucky and got my call/request in early. However since I did have such a positive experience with their customer service, I do stand by what I said above, but I wanted to make a note here that not everyone has such a warm fuzzy feeling.