Neko Snacks reveiw

Hello everybody, today I'm going to share with you my first (and last) experience shopping with a Japanese snack subscription called Neko Snacks. 

Neko Snacks is a Japanese/Asian candy subscription store on Weebly that, originally, made some pretty amazing promises. As many candy subscription sites, they had three sizes of boxes to chose from: Mini, Original, and Premium

(on beejubox's blog, I had seen in these descriptions that a free gift would be included with the original and premium boxes, but I see that it's gone. Honestly I don't remember for sure whether or not it said a gift would be included when I placed my order.)

Now, when I heard that for only $15 I would be getting up to 13 candies, a drink, a gift,  and free shipping, I thought that it sounded too good to be true. I mean, that would be competing with candy crates selling that much for double the price! Who wouldn't jump at the chance to get a crate full of goodies for only $15?

well 

I ordered my Premium Neko box on August 12th, and got a confirmation email stating that they ship out their boxes on the 25th of each month, which was fine with me because many candy crates have a specific date that they ship their boxes. 

So I waited

and waited

...

and waited. 

At this point, it was about September 10th, and I was wondering if I had maybe forgotten to order my crate, or I had just simply visited their site intending to order a box, but hadn't. I checked my transactions records and yes, I had ordered my crate. Which was a bit odd, because it had been nearly 15 days since it was supposed to have shipped. 

I decided to check Neko Snack's shop and maybe see if there was any notice I had missed and to maybe contact them and ask about my box. Sure enough, on their site was a message that read:

I was a little bummed that I would have to wait a while longer for my candy, but at least they gave me a heads up.

 So I waited....and waited...and waited some more.  

And finally, on September 23rd, almost a month after they were supposed to have shipped my box, it arrived. I was both happy and surprised that it arrived, because at this point I figured maybe it was just a lost cause.

My Premium Neko came in a rather large box, pretty much the same size as most candy box sites' "large" size. Which was expected, because I did order the large box. 

Well, time to open this baby up and-

oh.

oh.

ohhhh no no no no. That is not even CLOSE to what I was promised I would receive! First things first. When I opened the box, I saw a handful of random single candies, two tiny Hello panda bags, a drink that had been rolling around in there for god knows how long, and a note. Oh, and the random little square of bubble wrap just hangin' out.

Soooo...I wasn't even sure what to think or say at that point. I was sort of just staring into the box confused and saddened. Either way, let's examine further

Here is what came in my Premium Neko crate. 13 single candies, a Ramune can soda, and two little Hello Panda baggies.

Here is the note that came with my candy, which doubled as an apology note and a promotion note. 

In the corner it says "We sincerely apologize for the delay!" and says that you can share your box to win a mega box. From what I've seen so far, I'm curious to know what they consider to be mega

Next, we got our friend the bubble wrap sheet

 The first candies I received were two mini bags of Hello Panda candies

Many of them came crushed or broken, which was sad. Either way, Hello Panda still tastes good

The next candies I received were two gummy...things. I forgot what they were called, but they usually come in a pack of 10 in a stick

 The flavors I got were grape and orange. They are like taffy, but with little gummy bits inside. I really like these candies and I usually get them when I go to candy stores

Next up were two little gummy Lychee candies

 Again, I like these candies a lot because they have a nice Lychee flavor and are a soft kind of gummy. Too bad there were only two

Next, I received a strawberry Hi-Chew, which, well, tasted like strawberry high chew (I don't know if anyone on earth hasn't had it)

Again, there was sadly only one

The next two candies I got were Chocolate Milkita

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Milkita a Mexican candy, not a Japanese or even Asian candy? I mean you can't go wrong with Milkita, but it's not even Japanese

The next two candies I received were Lychee hard candies

They were hard, but not too hard to not chew. They tasted good and had sort of a crystal-y look 

The next candies I received were two Milky candies

They tasted....milky. I liked them, but again, nothing very unique 

Next, I got a Flower Candy

I'm not a huge fan of these, but they're not bad. They taste like guava or fruit juice

Next, I got a little box of melon bubble gum

Inside were four little gum balls. I like this gum, it's very soft but it's the type of gum you chew for five seconds then swallow because it's so candy-ish

I was promised a drink, and I did, in fact, receive a drink. The drink was a canned Ramune in original flavor. You can't go wrong with Ramune, but this can had been rolling around in the box for who knows how long. Maybe it had been wrapped in the bubble wrap, but it surely wasn't by the time i had gotten it. Thank goodness it didn't spray all over me when I opened it

☆~Ratings~☆

quality:♥

Ah...what can I say...Well, technically, I was promised 11-13 items, and I did indeed receive that many, if you count single-candies as "items."  I got a drink as promised, but what about the free gift? Oh wait..maybe it was the bubble wrap. 

I went back just to check and make sure that i wasn't losing my mind (which I wasn't) and found this:

I now have proof that full sized snacks were promised. Sample sized snacks too, but I only received sample sized snacks. I mean, it's not that any of the snacks I received were bad,  it's just that there was way too little of it and not what I had expected at all. such sadness

shipping:♥

My box was promised to ship on the 25th of August, but it wasn't. It was then said that it would be shipped "this week/weekend," whenever that was, and it wasn't. It two days short of a month to get here, which made no sense. Also, they sent me my candies in a very large box, which also made no sense, because what I received only took up maybe 15% of it. Also, nothing was held secure. My soda was rolling around freely in the box, and could have gotten damaged! Plus, it looked like the candies were just tossed in. not good

cost:♥

I had a discount code, so I think in total I actually only paid $12 for the box instead of $15. That would have been an amazing price if I had been sent what was advertised, but I don't think what I received was even worth $4. 

overall:♥

Overall, I was very upset and disappointed. Neko Snacks had such an adorable website, and even offered allergy-customizable boxes, which made it even more sad that things didn't work out.  Even if I had only been promised a handful of small candies and a drink, I wouldn't have paid $15 for it. I was not given what was promised, shipping took nearly a month with no updates (other than what they posted on their store), and everything was packaged  very poorly. Right now, I would not recommend shopping from Neko Snacks.

I'm not sure what happened here. To my knowledge, this was their first batch of boxes sent out, which wasn't a good start at all. If they had issues with shipping, the least they could have done was sent out emails, but something tells me the issue here was money. I mean, what they were promising would have been VERY HARD to pull off for only $15 plus free shipping. And, if paying for all the Japanese treats and shipping really was the issue, I would have had more respect for Neko snacks if they had simply sent an apology email and gave me a full refund. I'm still feeling second-hand embarrassment for them and this box, so for now, I'll leave it at that. 

Neko Snacks, I'm not sure if you will continure selling boxes like the ones I received or not. But if you plan on turning your company around and sending people what you promise, then I wish you the best of luck. 

Thank you everyone for reading!