Introduction
I’m a fan of Boxed… well used to be. I’ve written about them in the past with the La Croix and the wine. But let’s be honest; we’re only shopping with them due to the Amex Offers. My guess is they are just doing this so they get bought out by Costco like how Jet got bought out by Walmart. Doesn’t take a genius to know what’s going on here.
How I got banned
Eventually, I ran out of toilet paper and paper towels to buy. So I did the next best thing – I started buying gift cards from them. I had asked a few other readers what kind of volume they were doing and some were able to do 20-30 consecutive orders last month. So I did a few days of 20-30 orders and all shipped just fine. However, I did find out that once you’ve added ~50 cards to your account, the system won’t let you add any new cards manually. The workaround is to add them via the AMEX Checkout system.
Once this new Amex Offer started this month, I banged out another ~25 orders in one day. About 10 of them got shipped and the other 15 orders were cancelled. I didn’t ask why; I just assumed they ran out of stock. I gave it a week and then I tried to order a non-gift card order and that was automatically cancelled. That was no bueno. I emailed them asking what happened and this is what they wrote:
Your order xxxxxxxx has been canceled as a result of suspected abuse of our terms of service.
Possible reasons for this include (but are not limited to):
* Duplicate accounts per user
* Promotional abuse
* Contemporaneous orders
I then replied to that email asking what specifically it was. They then said this:
Hi Vinh,
Because of the status of the account, according to their analysis it looks like a high risk and the payment processor agrees that the status of the account is an indication of a fraudulent practice and they cannot open the account. Please contact fraud@boxed.com for further assistance.
Thank you,
Jill
I then wrote to the fraud dept telling them that I’ve ordered over 100 orders and not one order has been fraud. That was a week ago and I haven’t heard anything back. The worst part was that I had nearly $250 of Boxed credit saved up.
Conclusion
The ironic thing is that I had told some readers last month I should probably use it up before they banned me, but I didn’t and now it’s wiped out. Lesson learned here folks – earn and burn! And good riddance to Boxed! I hope they go bankrupt before Costco or anyone else buys them out.
A lot of shade getting thrown your way on the DoC linked post….a lot of haters out there! Keep up the good work!!
Yeah I saw. There are 2 types of ppl in this game – the pigs on their high moral horse and the hogs who ate all their food. I’m not going to change my ways because of them.
Yea man you earned the 250 in credit where is the moral outrage there? Haters gonna hate hate hate
Over last year I ordered from box like 300 times using different amex cards everytime there is an offer. I used coupons, portals, etc. i was mostly ordering stamps with some extras to get the minimum needed for the offer. They have banned me couple month ago. My address, all my amex cards (incl. new numbers for replacement cards), my IP are banned. I was able to open a new account with new IP with different amex cards in a different name and place some orders. But I will not have as many orders obviously unless I open bunch of new cards with AU.
Thanks for dp alex.
Sadly, there are just some people who think they rule the world and it should bow down to them. The author appears to be in this camp.
I would be very surprised if Costco bought them. Jet.com built a strong infrastructure and did it right and Wal-mart had weak e-commerce, so that made sense. I only order from Boxed with the AMEX offer and the last 2 orders I’ve placed have been damaged. The last one a box of Clorox wipes broke open an leaked all over the box since it wasn’t packed properly. They are very nonchalant and she acted like stuff like that happens all the time. Plus their selection is awful.
You’re hoping they go bankrupt because they shut you down from essentially stealing money from them?
Keeping it classy as always
Explain to me how I’m stealing their money. Maybe they should target the offer to only certain customers like other retailer AO’s. Or how about they send out a warning before just banning people without giving them a reason.
You’re just a moron, accept it. Its because of people like you that the good things seem to go away quickly. ‘Entitlement’ is what gets you guys carried away and offers like these and many more get shut down for all of us eventually. You’re not ‘entitled’ to this or any other offer or promotional scheme.
People hating the player and not the game. And writing off the liability of your 300 bucks in credit is outright a scumy thing to do so…
Vinh, don’t feel bad, I’m banned from them too, and so are a quite a few of my family members… seems you don’t have to do anything but place an order for the ax to fall. Curious why they participate in amex offers if they ban you for taking advantage???
I have no idea. They should just do targeted Amex Offers like other retailers or stop doing them all together.
I got the email today too but was only ordering 1 order of gift cards yesterday and haven’t done more then 2 per account. I ordered one set from my account and then one from my wifes account using the same promo code and using my CC on her account (only one with the credit left). She got the cancelled order email today with same reasons. I am guessing me using my CC on her account led to it.
So they literally banned you for using multiple cards for payment?…Ah well on to the next thing!
You are like a walking advertisement on how not to do this stuff. Kinda scary how much stuff youve been banned from.
We need someone like this to discover the limits for all these places. And besides, the pigs get slaughtered with the hogs more and more these days anyways.
My boxed account still works just fine so…have to disagree with you there.
I think there is a reasonable limit to how far to push the envelope if you like a service. Boxed can be quite profitable if you use the promo codes in conjunction with AOs. These AOs roll around not infrequently. I’m netting like $15-20 profit per AO when I can get them and promo cards both working…not to mention the 2 free samples, boxed credit and portal payouts. Hitting 25 gift card orders in a day is just asking for unwanted attention. Not smart
What portal is paying out for you? My orders track w/a couple different ones but they never pay out – even when no coupon code is used.
Ibotta. https://ibotta.com/r/akfjimq