The iPhone Wallet from Redbubble

Update 5/28: The Support Team and I have exchanged several emails. I am still convinced none of them were real people, but help bots that chose the most appropriate responses from a queue of options available to them. So frustrating! Anyway, they assured me that they are sending me a replacement that is much improved. We shall see. I’ll update this review again once the new iPhone wallet arrives. I explained in detail that the problem was not  the printing but the construction of the product.

Update 6/4: Well, the new iPhone wallet came in today and it is equally beautiful. And equally useless. Just as I suspected, my entire string of emails were carried out with bots using a set script for communication. The new one is exactly like the old one, with the exception that they made the printing a little more vivid. However, as I stated multiple times in each email correspondence, the issue is not with the image.

The issue is the strip of sticky stuff meant to secure the phone to the wallet. I’m done with the iPhone wallets at Redbubble. I can’t recommend anyone buy one of those products.

So Disappointed!

Nothing like disappointment to rouse me out of a blogging hiatus. I had so looked forward to getting my custom self-designed iPhone wallet but was thoroughly unhappy with the product after a few hours of use.

Usually when I am not impressed with a product, I just put it aside and forget about it. I rarely leave negative reviews.

However, this particular item begs for this review.

The depth of my disappointment grew with time.

Give it a chance

I recently got a new iPhone and thought it would be a great opportunity to get one of those folder-cases with my Water Priestess drawing on it. I have a lot of my photography and art loaded to RedBubble.com and they’re available in a lot of different products, phone cases being just one of many. I knew the drawing would be beautiful on it.

So I edited the image to make it sit just right on the case and ordered it. Couldn’t wait for it to come in. This was something I’d wanted for a while but didn’t want to buy one for the old phone, knowing I’d need a new one in the near-enough future.

When the mail arrived with my package. I opened it.

First reaction. Love at first sight.

“It’s Beautiful!”

Second reaction. Took a closer look.

“It looks kind of cheap.” The construction left a lot to be desired. All the beauty was definitely skin deep. On the outside.

But it was gorgeous, right? For a little while the glow of beauty masked the utter uselessness of the product.

My biggest complaint.

There is one flaw with this cell phone folder that makes all else (pro or con) pale in comparison. The only thing holding your phone in there is a strip of sticky stuff.

This sticky stuff doesn’t hold well once the phone gets warm… say from carrying it in your back pocket. Or leaving it out on a warm day, not even in direct sunlight (which is probably a bad idea anytime).

I took it out while at the market to set up my Square reader and connect the app. My phone flew out of the folder, flipped a few summersaults before hitting the pavement. Of course the glass cracked.

Beauty only soothes so many flaws. There is no amount of it that can make me overlook the utter uselessness of this product.

Adding fuel to fire

So I contacted Support through the website. On the main page options if you’re dissatistifed are exchange, store credit, or refund. Refund is nowhere to be found once you go to the Support page. I sent a message, explaining why I was unhappy and that I wanted a refund. I was clear that the way it looked on the outside was fine, but my problem was with the interior design of the product.

Guess what? Of course I get a near immediate response. They said they’d send my complaint to the printer right away. Is the printer responsible for interior design and refunds? Hmmm. Sounded suspiciously like a bot-reply to me. So I emailed back to ‘Ashley’ to clarify that the printing was not the issue, but the inside design.

Another bot-reply in response that really didn’t seem like it understood the message I’d sent and chose what it thought would be the nearest best response from the automated responses in queue.

What a way to further infuriate someone already angry! A real person on the other end of the line, capable of responses not scripted, would have been a nice touch.

We shall see how this plays out and I’ll update this post with the resolution, if one ever surfaces.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.

Not everything sold at RedBubble is crap. The tote bag, coffee mugs, posters and the stickers seem to be of good quality. I can’t vouch for the other items but I can totally recommend you avoid the iPhone wallets. Since I can’t afford to buy each of the other items to test them, I think it’s best to err on the side of caution.

I’m taking all of my work down from RedBubble , except the items I’ve listed above, before someone else orders something of such poor quality and associates that experience with me, rather than RedBubble.

Can you vouch for a product from RedBubble?

Have any of you ordered anything from RedBubble you thought was worth the cost? Tell me which item it was and I’ll leave that one standing too. The rest of mine are being cleared from the deck as soon as I have time to get back online long enough to do it.