BaubleBar Buried Bauble Friday.

This could have been utterly disastrous, but BaubleBar really knows what's up when it comes to customer service (and marketing, apparently!). Let's start from the very beginning.

I received my first-ever BaubleBar order last week (hello, $10 off my first purchase? AND free earrings for their anniversary? Couldn't resist). When my shipment came (three days later? amaze) all of my lovely new items (the necklace is sold out again, apparently!) were packaged in their own individual adorable velvet envelopes. Talk about the details. Then, one of the included promo cards caught my eye: Buried Baubles.

Every Friday, BaubleBar picks a few items to mark down to $10 - but you have to scour the site for them. You sign up to receive a hint on Friday, and once you get it, you're off on a hunt. I got my first email this morning and immediately begin looking at every single item you think could POSSIBLY be related to that hint.

This morning, it was ICE. Of course, there are dozens of items on the site that have "ice" in their name - I mean it's costume jewelry for God's sake! BUT, I found it! I was absolutely ecstatic not only to have found it, but also because two of the four $10 items were already on my wishlist (this & these)!

I immediately added them to my cart and started to check out - when I promptly ran into a HUGE problem - the site wouldn't load. I sat at my desk refreshing immediately every time the page failed, to absolutely no avail. This refreshing went on for almost an hour before I consulted the site's help for the first time.

It noted an email address to contact (with a 24-hour response lag, standard) AND a Twitter account, @baublebarhelp, to tweet to in case and issue comes up.

I thought to myself, "What a fantastic idea! But I wonder if this just sounds good on paper..." - so I went for it...I tweeted a complaint. Let me tell you - it felt weird, but at that point, my heart was pounding and foot was jittering from the stress that I might possibly miss out on this deal. What if they sold out? What if I lost my place in line? Obviously, life would go on, but this had become such an epic saga that I couldn't just give up.

I very quickly noticed the influx of tweets that @BaubleBar and @baublebarhelp were getting about the site malfunctioning - but WAIT - they were answering! I found out not only that they were actively working to get the site back up, but also that the items, in fact, were NOT sold out. Amaze.

When the site came back, I finally made it through the order placement process and ended up getting both of my lovelies. This whole interaction could have been disastrous (it DID help that I was still able to get what I wanted), but I honestly love BaubleBar even more now. Their customer service is perfect in all the right places, and modern beyond its years to boot.

Next time LOFT has a 50% off sale, they really need to take a page out of BaubleBar's book when their e-commerce platform (inevitably) crashes...