Millionaire’s new business on rocky road
A Kiwi e-commerce entrepreneur famous for making millions from her Waist Trainer, worn by the Kardashians, is copping flak for sub-standard customer service in her new venture.
Iyia Liu, founder of Waist Trainer, Luxe Fitness and Bambi Boutique, started an online gift box website Celebration Box six weeks ago but has received hundreds of complaints on social media from disgruntled customers.
The boxes, filled with packaged and loose confectionery and doughnuts, cost between $40 and nearly $100.
Complaints include late deliveries, deliveries not showing up at all, poor communication and being blocked on social media for complaining.
Julie Hope took to Facebook to share her frustration after the delivery her daughter ordered for Father’s
Day last weekend did not arrive.
After she complained she found out through other posts Celebration Box had apologised for late orders, but she never saw this because she was blocked from the company’s Instagram and Facebook pages.
Hope said she had never posted a negative comment previously, and blocking her was ‘‘unprofessional’’.
‘‘It’s a typical thing for Kiwis to not complain. I never bullied or harassed her, I just posted about not receiving my order.’’
Liu told Stuff she was struggling to keep up with demand. The business had grown from a few orders a day to 2000 a week, and she had had to ‘‘scramble’’ to hire extra staff.
Every customer who emailed with a complaint received a refund or a replacement ‘‘and if they haven’t, it isn’t intentional, it would have been missed by accident’’.
Hope was blocked because she ‘‘continued to post negative things all over our social media account despite being refunded and apologised to’’.
Liu rose to fame when Kylie Jenner posted images of herself wearing the Waist Trainer on Instagram and marketed herself as the 23-year-old who turned $6000 into a multi-million dollar business.