My friend Dramaqueenie2 recently sent me a MUA link concerning a harsh letter sent by the CEO of Koibox.
Koibox is a hip nail polish company. They have been featured in Lucky magazine and have enjoyed great buzz on Makeupalley.
The Background:
A MUA regular received a popular Koibox polish called Uncle Vince as a gift. She went to the website to check out the rest of the line with her future stepdaughter who is eight years old. The site features a nude model covered in a white powder.
She is modeling nail polishes.
The muaer was not enthusiastic about the model nor was she a fan of the packaging.
The muaer decided that she would write a letter to the CEO discussing both issues.
Here is where it gets interesting.
I am posting the response she received from the said CEO.
The Koibox Letter:
Well (***I removed her name***) seeing as how you took the time to voice your opinion and elucidate your rather obviously limited knowledge of branding, packaging and design, I thought I might also take some time too respond.
First of all thank you for showing an interest in our product glad you liked the color of Uncle Vince unfortunately everybody does so that makes you.. not so astute. As for the packaging, we let the professionals determine what is good and what is bad. When we designed the packaging for KOIBOX it was a deliberate move to "wrap" the bottle in a manner that was different and unique, that is what good branding and package design is about..stirring interest and conversation. I say this in confidence given the award KOIBOX received from Communication Arts Magazine 2002 Design Annual..Best of Packaging. The award was given along side a few other notable companies like Evian and Skyy Vodka...but what do any of us know about package design especially Communication Arts Mag!
I am certain that you don't even frequent a newsstand that carries such high brow periodicals.As for your second issue. To begin with we did not intend to sell this product to women that are pent up with personal biases towards the beauty of the female body, in fact the reason we chose such a demure and unclothed women was to fortify the notion that all women are beautiful and the same in general terms...it is color and accent that makes them different to the eye of the beholder. You will notice that the model was dusted in white and posed in a manner to suggest that she was not the focus or the impetus for our campaign..the polish is. I feel sorry for your daughters that they should grow up in an atmosphere that obviously has disdain for the female body and anatomy..remember they too carry the same equipment and should be proud of it.
As far as you and your friend are concerned...sounds like one guy was dumb and the other was glad of it.
The TITS stay.
Go find another product to bitch about... Quaker.
Best,
***I also removed his name...but it is the CEO of Koibox***
PS. check our feature out in the March Issue of Lucky Magazine..just another publisher that doesn't know anything about women.
My Thoughts:
I have seen harsh letters from companies but this one takes the cake for rudeness and insanity. Many MUAers are writing to Lucky and firing off letters to other members of his company.
First of all thank you for showing an interest in our product glad you liked the color of Uncle Vince unfortunately everybody does so that makes you.. not so astute
He insults her for liking his product.
As for the packaging, we let the professionals determine what is good and what is bad. When we designed the packaging for KOIBOX it was a deliberate move to "wrap" the bottle in a manner that was different and unique, that is what good branding and package design is about..stirring interest and conversation. I say this in confidence given the award KOIBOX received from Communication Arts Magazine 2002 Design Annual..Best of Packaging. The award was given along side a few other notable companies like Evian and Skyy Vodka...but what do any of us know about package design especially Communication Arts Mag! I am certain that you don't even frequent a newsstand that carries such high brow periodicals.
She gave him constructive criticism about his packaging. The wrapper does not allow the polish to stand upright. If she removes the wrapper then it does not have a label. I think this is a legitimate concern to bring up. A nail polish salon would need for the polish to stand upright. They would also need the polish to have a identifying label.
This is just common sense.
Who cares if your product is attractive when it can not be displayed properly!
No one will see the polish if it has to be laid down on a shelf or thrown in a drawer.
As for your second issue. To begin with we did not intend to sell this product to women that are pent up with personal biases towards the beauty of the female body, in fact the reason we chose such a demure and unclothed women was to fortify the notion that all women are beautiful and the same in general terms...it is color and accent that makes them different to the eye of the beholder. You will notice that the model was dusted in white and posed in a manner to suggest that she was not the focus or the impetus for our campaign..the polish is. I feel sorry for your daughters that they should grow up in an atmosphere that obviously has disdain for the female body and anatomy..remember they too carry the same equipment and should be proud of it.
I think it is very difficult to use a nude image to sell a product successfully. The image has to be exquisite or disturbing to make any impact.
This nude makes no impression at all.
It is just a waste of time.
The muaer objected to the image for whatever reason. He should have responded with no insults and then explained his reasoning in a calm and gentlemen-like manner.
It would have been up to her to decide if she wanted to return to the site or not.
It is his business so he can do whatever he likes with it.
But he does not need to realize that there might be more customers out there like her.
My humble opinion is he got ripped off with the ads and website.
It is lame.
One of the descriptions for his nail polish caught my eye.
Baboon: "Pink like its ass. A bright pink".
I am guessing he was going for clever and demure.
http://www.koibox.com/index.html
So here is what is going to happen:
His letter has been published on several forums on Makeupalley. This site is a huge force when it comes to purchasing power. The boards have been responsible for sold out products and the sucessful launches of niche brands. I have witnessed the Bath and Body board cripple a "Mom and Pop company" with their orders.
He has lost business with these hardcore nail polish consumers.
He will lose potential business with the nail techs that read the boards looking for new polish brands to introduce to their clients.
Letters have been sent to Lucky and Denver Business Journal.
If you are upset by his response you can find his contact information at this link.
http://www.manta.com/comsite5/bin/pddnb_company.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=4490&id=g39kkz
photo: Blogdorf Goodman
These polishes are Essies...not Koibox.
Essie=Good
Koibox=Bad
posted by Annieytown @ 12:06 PM
58 Inspired Comments
58 Inspired Comments:
Glad to know I will never spend a cent on this product. The customer should never be treated like this. How could someone treat people like this and expect to be successful. Too bad, thanks for the heads up.
Thanks for the post, Annie. I surely won't buy a thing from this company.
What a jerk! He'll never see a penny from me. I just don't understand what his problem was, or what he hoped to accomplish in treating her that way. Notoriety? He'll get that. But not all publicity is good publicity, *especially* with MUA. Thank you for sharing this!
Good Lord! Well, he isn't as bright as he seems to think he is. Dude ... "Never underestimate the power of a woman scorned" ... or beauty bloggers, for that matter.
He'll never get a cent of my money and I'll pass the word.
I think what bothers me even more than the horrible letter written to a consumer is the CEOs complete lack of control over his words. He has written a scathing (or what he intended to be scathing) remark to someone in a completely inarticulate manner, something I find to be more insulting than the actual words. If you're going to make an attempt to insult someone, at least try and sound intelligent while doing so. I think you lose any and all credibility for your position when you can't even sound remotely intelligent. Furthermore, I think it is completely disrespectful to customers to have a multitude of grammatical errors on your website in the color descriptions. I'll be honest, nail polish isn't really my "thing", but I would never buy from a company where the staff can't take the time to proofread simple words.
Absolutely incredible... thank you for publicizing the company's behavior, and kudos to everyone writing letters to get this in the news. Any executive worth his salt knows just how important it is to develop positive company/consumer relations, and this guy has done some irrevocable damages. I can't wait to see what their publicity team does about it!
And you're right about the website... in addition to the nude woman, the descriptions of polishes are simply offensive. It's not sexy or funny, it's just disconcerting.
Unbelievable! That was so unprofessional I have no words. I don't have any problem with nudity, as long as it doesn't exploit women, but I have a huge problem with a company that is rude and disrespectful towards its clients.
My money will continue to go to OPI, Essie and Chanel.
Really shocking. I'm glad you're spreading the word about this. He sounds insane, to put it mildly.
Wow. What a piece of work! This guy seems to lack even the most basic business sense let alone common sense! I personally have no issue with the site imagery, and probably would have bought some of their shades. Not now!! Not smart, big guy.
Agree with Stanzi, this CEO sounds insane. It is one thing to "respectfully disagree" with someone who writes you a letter (I answer reader email from my job, I get that) but it's another to rip someone apart. Also, it's one thing to love and respect the female nude, it's another to use it to hawk your goodies and pretend you're some "feminist" for doing so. What a jerk. Note to self: do not buy from them, ever. I like OPI, Essie and Lippmann just fine, thank you very much.
A few people implied on a later MUA thread that they thought perhaps the letter was made up...and in fact, the original poster says "it didn't happen to me, but to another MUAer". Frankly I think the whole thing sounds fishy, but will eat my words if it turns out to be true.
NST: Its legit. The original poster is a nail polish regular. If you search the nail boards you will spot the original thread. She is the one that received the letter.
I can see why you would doubt it....the letter is so over the top and nuts.
I think he needs to not open his in-box after boozin' it with the boys! Because surely a person in his position must either be a)Drunk or b) Crazy (But certainly not ASTUTE, no?)
Thanks for sharing that with us. I hope some publication puts that email in print for all the world to see. (But then, maybe he doesn't frequent newsstands that carry such periodicals... GAAAHHHH!)
I think it's actually kind of funny because he sounds like a complete mental case, and now everybody knows it. That response was downright abusive. If you don't know how to deal with customers than you shouldn't be running a buisness.
I have to admit that the letter made me laugh it is so ridiculous in its arrogance. Is this man mentally ill?
A, truth is indeed stranger than fiction!
I guess deep down, this fool has a fear of success. And guess what? His wish will come true, because none of us will ever purchase his products.
Hugs!
How many grammatical errors can we find in this letter????
It's almost so over the top that it's hard to believe there's not something strange going on here.
Anyway, I've never heard of Koibox (guess I'm not "hip" either!) so I won't have a problem not buying their products.
Wow what a jerk. I cannot believe that this person would right a letter like this to someone. The company sells nail polish and from their web site it looks more like they are selling the girls girl's....
I would boycott him just for not knowing the difference between its and it's. The website is a disaster. Geez.
Melanie, thanks - the person who posted it on the fragrance board was somebody else reporting on the incident, and I never saw the original post. Ok, I eat my words!
I'll post this whole debacle when its proven that he wrote the letter. I would feel horrible if it killed someones business because of a false rumor...
Beauty in the Breakdown:
That is a smart and wise thing to do.
I am going to do the opposite. I am going to keep my post up. I am going to trust this muaer for now. Based on the thread, I came away with that she was truly horrified and disturbed by his letter. I can not imagine ever receiving something so harsh and vile from a company.
NowSmellThis: It might be me eating my words.
We shall see.
I will keep you updated.
I have been lucky enough to have 20 years in the "executive" end of the beauty business and it never ceases to amaze me the egos of, especially, MALE, C.E.O.'s
I sent off a letter to the "Sales" department of Koi-Box just now, recommending that they clean this up, NOW, apologizing profusely to customers/distributors/bloggers/magazines.
As an earlier poster said, this clearly is a very small company and it will go down as fast as lightning if all of this is true. If I hear from Koi-Box, I certainly will let all of you know.
Thanks so much Elaine!!!!!
It's as though he wrote a letter venting as hard as he could, then, instead of deleting it as any sane businessperson would, he hit send. Regardless, what an incredible amount of venom he carries. Not someone I'd want to meet or buy from. Thanks for sharing. - minette
Still nothing on this... I really thought he was going to deny it completely.
Everyone: No more information yet. We are still waiting.
wow, what a tool! he doesn't sound too bright either. thanks for the heads up.
annieytown---as soon as word hits that this is real though, i will post it immediately. my jaw was definitely dropped as the whole time i read it. As a business major, i can assume his degree (or lack thereof) is not in business as he broke every single business letter writing rule...
Idiot!
I personally like the packaging. Of course, it would be smarter for them to incorporate some sort of non-removable label so as to capture the interest of customers getting manicures for instance...
But the Baboon description, and the letter from the owner...wow. I mean wow. Total moron.
Thanks for posting!
i cannot BELIEVE that letter...it baffles me. i need to read it again...this is beyond unprofessional. i will not be purchasing koibox
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Good on you for publishing this information. It really his astounding, his attitude and that letter. I also peeked at the website and it does seem to be picture wordplay on koi"box". Yuk!
It's too bad he didn't use the same genius marketing team that designed his website and packaging to write his letter for him too.
I cannot believe that CEO's letter! That's what he thinks is an appropriate response to some honest complaints? A few years ago my interest was picqued in KOIBOX - never, ever again.
Disclaimer: I have not seen the nude image or the offensive descriptions on the KOIBOX website BUT I am sick of women being used as objects. Oh, she doesn't represent sex or nudity - she's just nude to represent women! Frankly, we ought to use the power of beauty blogs to boycott all the companies that egregiously use women's bodies to move product.
Perhaps you could post the letter the person wrote in the first place? I personally don't find the nude lady even remotely offensive and wonder why anyone would, BUT his response is deeply unprofessional, and whilst in some ways I understand what he's trying (and failing) to say (I'm a product designer myself and sometimes a small percentage of consumers don't always 'get it' but they are par for the course and certainly won't make a massive difference to the overall profit margin), he should never have sent such a rude, obnoxious letter. In all honesty I don't think this letter being published in blogs will make that much of a difference to his margins I'm afraid, but it might shame him into re-evaluating his attitude to complaints.
as a person who can appreciate the naked body, i find it hard to understand how a naked girl with messy hair and her legs spread to reveal nail polish is "demure." i would talk to mr. dior if he wants to know about naked and demure.
secondly, how on earth does this man expect to get anywhere if his company makes less in a year than most upper-end makeup buyers?
i think i'll continue to stick with essie and opi. i don't want anything on my nails that looks like ass, animal or otherwise.
Meow Ladies,
I find the whole conversation very interesting. What was it in the original letter sent to Koibox included to receive such a reply. (Only a rendition of it appears online.)Whatever was said, it must have been a rather direct attack on Koibox,it's product and the company's personal morals. The girl is obviously an "visual piece" to conjure up emotions,(a sucess!)whether those are that of someone who finds it salacious or a avant guarde artsy statement on how sexy the right shade of nail polish can be. With regards to the daughters viewing of such an ad, we must take care the kinds of messages we send about the female body and it's innate beauty. Shame and disdain for nudity in a tasteful display of woman that is not being tortured,solicited or attacked is unfortunate. Also, this is an $11 nail polish designed for Women not small children. Police your childs internet viewing as I do mine. In any case this is an obvious and simple situation for both parties involved:
Koibox maybe rethink your next artsy visual piece as not to upset your more puritan customer base. Never be rude to a customer, no matter how right you think you are. Discuss the merits of your packaging and marketing,don't land on someones head as if you have nothing to loose--You DO!!!.
Lady:Find another nail polish site to visit,kiss your daughter and tell her she is going to become a beautiful woman regardless of what cosmetic she uses. Aim your anger and frustration at injustice and intolerances in the world.
Bloggers: Try not to punish (boycott) someone infinitely, for a moments error in judgement.I am sure this guy is thinking he was an !@#$&*! idiot for saying what he said by now. It is obvious we all agree with that assessment,much to his dismay at this moment.
Lastly everyone on both sides. Lighten up it's just nail polish!!!
Is it just me, or does the anonymous comment at 12:58 (#41 or so) sound like a contrite CEO?
Anon 2: The post caught my eye too.
Anon 1: I do think this will make an impact on his future sales.
MUA is large and has incredible purchasing power. They can make or break brands.
The nail board is filled with potential customers ranging from nail techs to gals who just love polish. The woman he insulted is a nail board regular. This means she is a person who loves polish. She could have been a repeat customer and someone who could have spread the word on the brand. Instead she received a vile letter that even shocked people that worked in the beauty industry. There is no excuse for it.
It was beyond poor judgment on his part. I am not going to cut him any slack.
He lost my business and I was lemming that Uncle polish. I will keep on buying my OPI's, Nars, Essies, Creatives and Zoyas.
You see...My voice & blog might not mean much in the scheme of things...but my wallet does. I am a girl who spends too much money on beauty products. I "think" companies kinda like that.
I also plan on telling my nail tech all about this tomorrow.
She will then proceed to tell her fellow techs at conferences and the state board classes they are required to take. I imagine that she will rehash the story at the beauty supply stores, with various company reps and her contact at that nail trade magazine.
You mention that we "all need to lighten up that it is only nail polish". You are 100% correct.
My fellow muaers on the cafe board have produced this to make us all smile.
http://www.makeupalley.com/board/m.asp?id=50330659&keywords=
Sorry
Annietown and Anonymous 6:28 PM
I am just a beauty blog surfer and I am not a contrite CEO or any affilate, friend or otherwise. I don't even wear nail polish (allergic). I just found the whole situation distasteful on all sides. No one wins when poor judgment and glaring rudeness is responded to in kind with bitterness and vindictive behavior. It only serves to perpetuate a cycle of negativity which brings all of us even with the best intentions to vindicate, punish to meaningless end. It only serves to make us look as bad or worse than those whose behavior we seek to correct. At best, the offended party's grievences have been heard and validated by our many sisters and a rude bastard has gotten a well earned tougue lashing. At worst, this company that made an obviously stupid blunder could be damaged financially (possibly permanently) and we claim to love the innovation and passion brought to our lives by any and all offerings by Koibox or any other companies of the products -- we read, contribute or create these blogs to celebrate.
P.S. If I was the CEO, I would have apologized (publicly or privately) by now and sent "Lady" full set of polishes free of charge.
TAKE THE HINT: MR.KOIBOX!!!
We don't "claim to love the innovation and passion brought to our lives by any and all offerings by Koibox." The guy had one vampy plum color that was cool, and a bunch of overplayed colors with names and descriptions that some found funny and others found offensive. Caligula is like a tossed caesar salad and Babboon is like the primate's ass. You'll be hard pressed to find anyone who loves those descriptions or feels it brings passion into their lives. His product line doesn't back up his arrogance, and that is the bottom line.
The lady didn't write to him directly. She wrote to marketing about the packaging of the product and how the bottle doesn't stand up straight when the wrapper is on, so you have to take it off and lose all branding to actually use the product. She also mentioned that the site she went to to retrieve the e-mail address was not appropriate for her stepdaughter, age 8. Most companies would either not respond at all or would thank her for her input and say they stand behind their design as being innovative and unique to the market place and leave it at that. Some assholes actually believe that any publicity is good publicity, so maybe he wanted this to happen when he fired off the letter. Now, he will have to face the music and find out.
Horrible, despicable, stupid letter. I'll never buy from them. However, the MUA-er sounds like such a prude. I assume she was American, because Europeans are used to seeing nudes in ads! BTW, I'm an American but appreciate European advertising and the less uptight attitudes there. I don't find the nude body offensive. However, this guy should have blown off her little Puritanical complaint in the usual polite way, not with this insanity.
while i cannot say anything about the letter, not having seen the original mail, i CAN say that the website is a copywriting nightmare, with its rampant apostrophe abuse and constant use of fragments. i recognize that the naked lady is actually a pun on the company name, which is borne out by the names of the nailpolishes (hootchie, anyone?) - honestly, given the names and advertising of the polishes i'm more shocked that they whited out the woman's nipples in an attempt for subtlety.
either way, OPI is excellent at clever puns for names and has prettier colors; i'll continue with them instead.
Per other posters, it would be fair to publish the letter she sent to them too. Even if she was as vile as this guy was, that doesn't excuse his lack of grammar and punctuation. But let's not get one side of the story. Maybe her letter to them was hysterical and insulting also. If it wasn't, there should be no reason not to share it.
I read Annie's post and I read the letters a couple of times. I have gone through the comments too.
As a person who had business connections (covered his line back when I had my own online magazine for about 2 years and 2000 pages of content) with this company, I am surprised that he went this route both in packaging (which originally was to be quirky in an Urban Decay sort of way) and in his reply.
I have sent an email to all departments and addressed a couple to him directly commenting that I used to cover his line and that I had read the emails from the consumer and from him. What's interesting is that none of the email addresses have bounced.. and if one gets to him directly, I will get his side of the story because I indicated that the story is spreading like wildfire across the web and should it hit the mainstream or conservative media like Bill O'Reilly, this could be a big mess.
What concerns me is that the company started out as a coy (play on words deliberate) way to grab attention and the baboon description must have been recent. It's like describing roadkill... but not offensively.
Some of the references are sexual in nature and probably shouldn't be on counter.
Quite frankly for that ANON person who commented about the little girl, it's hard to find a sitter to go shop and see that sort of packaging opens a can of worms and really would just be one of those things where one turns around and doesn't buy the product at all.
There are other ways the CEO should have handled this and Koustas will regret his choice of words and tactics. Granted his packaging was beautifully photographed however and nudes are all over museums and art galleries and even in some spas.. but not in the general public unless painted so obviously that the body part is less a body part but part of an actual art work.
This photo was not a work of art. It was a commerical photo meant to grab attention-- however by choosing that photo-- he and his marketing staff would have/should have/ and KNOWN it was going to create some sort of response both positive and negative and had prepared statements for both situations because they were sure to occur.
sorry to blather on so long
OH.MY.WORD. What was this guy thinking? That was the rudest most obnoxious letter I have EVER read. I cannot even imagine how furious she must've felt.
I'm going to post a link to this letter on my Weekend Pulse of the Blogosphere on Pierce Mattie Public Relations blog. Hmm. I wonder if they will let me write an entire post about this. Annie--I will let you know.
Wow. That fact that this guy (*read: idiot) is offended by this women's comments on his totally sexist (*read: tacky, crude, crass, badly shot, not artistic in any way, has nothing to do with nail polish, FHM style) photo makes me wonder. Let me guess. This ad/picture was shot by men, for men, by a company run by men. Clearly clueless about marketing, advertising to women in any way. Oh, and they sell nail polish and insult their paying customers. Can we say how NOT to do business in this competitive beauty industry? Clearly this company's intent is on the bottom line and making bucks and that's all. They'll soon learn that their 'philosophy' will kill them and their business if it hasn't already.
Elke: Finally someone agrees with me that the photography was badly shot!!!!
I thought I was the only one.
Everyone: The muaer wrote the email to the marketing department. The email she received was from the CEO himself.
She is not a former employee.
She is just a gal that loves nail polish.
She was disturbed by this letter but most likely has moved on. There are plenty of other nail polish brands to start lemming. The new OPI collection should be launched soon. They have great colors, adorable names, an easy to use website and do not send horrific emails to their future customers.
I am going to guess based on her rep on makeupalley along with the nice email she sent me....she did not write anything vile to the man. She wrote a letter stating that she loved the product but that she had an objection to the packaging and the site.
She did not deserve this letter.
Not liking the nudity on the site does not make you a puritan or a prude. Personally I thought the photography was poorly done. This just looks cheap....and not in a cutting edge way.
We have not even mentioned that the models nails look like a hot mess.
LAStory: No one has received any response from the CEO or anyone else in the company. The emails have not bounced back and according to one of my Nancy Drew MUA buddies...the email address is legit.
Risa:
The crass descriptions are distracting. I just think the whole thing fails from the photography to the descriptions. He needs a revamp.
Shannon: Can you email me? I need to pick your brain about this.
Lennon: You can see more about this on makeupalley. It is mainly on the nail boards. Type in Koibox and you will see all the threads.
She posted her 2nd email to the CEO.
She received bad service and took it to the boards. These are her friends and peers. She did not ask me to put it on my blog. By no means did she want or expect this kind of attention.
I posted about it because it disturbed me.
Thanks for all the comments.
Lets hope for a good outcome in all this.
I thought his letter was hilarious. Yes, it was rude; but I somehow like how she at least got a response and personal letter. A customer does not need to be bowed down to, and sometimes politeness is not owed. She wanted a response, and she received one. You can not critize or write to someone expecting a certain response, that is a contrived and arrogant way to behave as a consumer.
I would also like to see the original letter.
For my case, this nail polish gained a customer.
(THIS IS LONG!)
Hi ladies. First off, I am "THE GIRL" that recieved this letter. It is not a hoax of any kind. I am new to MUA and read a review about Koibox and my friend bought me one from a retailer here in Texas. I loved the color and the quality but didn't care for the packaging at all. I have a LOT of polishes and hated that it didn't have a label or that I had to remove the paper wrap in order for it to stand up. For the price, I expected more. Well I went to the site with my future daughter to check out other colors...I didn't like what I saw. The woman's body didn't "offend" me as I'm not "pent up with issues of the woman's body" the way I was insulted as. But I thought that with it between her legs and the nipples showing was distastful. So I wrote to Marketing. I did NOT write to the CEO himself. I didn't cuss at them but I did tell them that they should have picked more tastful poses. Hid her nipples or something. And I did say that for the price being more than more popular polishes, I expected more and that if they planned on having lewd nakedness on the site, I would no longer purchase. A few day later, I recieved the message from the owner himself. (will continue in another post)
(me again)
I don't think I deserved the letter as it was very harsh and insulting. Not only did he insult my intelligence, my self and my friend (being dumb) but he insulted my parenting. HELLO! I did not think going to a nailpolish site would yield boobies! She's only 8 it's my right to expect her not to be okay with looking at them. Yes, she'll have them but not yet. I know I should have just deleted but I was like, "WTF!" lol and I went and "ranted" to my fellow MUAers. After all, it was their reviews and/or pics that got me wanted the polish in the first place. So I thought they should read what the jerk thought of women not liking his site/product. I did not once ask anyone to post the message anywhere else or to write any other publishing company. My post just seemed to explode. Very quickly! And to call me a Quaker? How is that professional? And to insult me for liking a color that is well liked? I don't think OPI would insult anyone for liking "I'm not really a waitress". Could be why they were able to have a book with that name!
IF it wasn't the CEO that wrote me and was an employee posing, don't you think after all ya'lls letters, that the REAL CEO would write and tell me that it wasn't him? I've gotten no response and so far no one else has either. If he was so right and me wrong, wouldn't he step up and fight for what's right? I'm sorry for such a long post but I wanted to clear the air. This was no prank or marketing scheme or crooked hoax. I was just a consumer that shared a very crappy letter from an unprofessional company.
I wonder if anyone has called or plans to call the company? If no one is responding to the emails maybe try calling?
Also, to Anonymous above shortgirl75, no, she was not 'owed' politeness, but that's how companies should treat their customers. It's simple MANNERS.
His letter was, as you put it, a 'contrived and arrogant way to behave as a [CEO OF A FRIGGIN COMPANY]' Shortgirls letter was NOT a personal attack on him. HIS response WAS a personal attack.
If that's how you like to be treated as a consumer, go for it. But some of us don't like to be treated like shit for no reason, let alone by a trashy nail polish company.
maybe he sleeps with this unattractive model and was hurt deep in his heart :)
Thanks Shortgirl!
It will be good for non-muaers to see how the Koibox drama unfolded.
I suppose that it should not shock me that he has not responded...but it does. I am guessing that he is anticipating that it will die down. He does not realize that MUAers never forget.
Thanks for coming here and posting!
Anon: LOL! I am surprised that he found a customer in all this mess. It is a quirky thing to become a loyal customer based on another's horrific experience.
Forwhatitsworth: Thank you.
Anon: I think the photographs are very unflattering. Soooooooo not the models fault.
Thanks again for all the comments!
Hmmm... according the info posted on Manta.com, this company is doing $44K in annual sales after 8 years in business... not exactly a force in the industry, despite a nice article in the Denver Business Journal (in 2001!) and something in the March Lucky mag. I know Mary Kay ladies who sell more than $4K a month!
the woman who posted this letter from the ceo is a coward. you know why you did this and it is unfair. a past relationship gone sour is no reason to post a false e-mail to cause controvery. a response would only dignify your actions. let this one lie MUA'ers, you don't have the correct information.
anon:
If you are a member of the Koibox team...it is very important for you to fix this situation. You could start by replying to the emails sent to you from various members of makeupalley.
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