Illumicrate Reviews 

I have been a subscriber for a couple of years until this past week or so. I have found they are doing mediocre books in the sub lately, but I stuck with them, and had never skipped a book.
One book I was actually looking forward to was A Study In Drowning, but when it arrived excess glue had been used in manufacture, therefore when the book was opened it ripped the inside of the book. When contacting them, I was first advised I would have to wait 3 weeks for a verdict due to lack of replacements. When 3 weeks came, I was told that the damage was enough to qualify for a replacement book, however they did not have enough due to other damaged books (great quality control), so my compensation was 15% refund. When I asked how 15% seems reasonable compensation when I would ordinarily get a replacement, they basically advised that it is better than nothing, my damage is minimal compared to others!! I was offered a full refund, if I returned the damaged book at my cost. (This cost was not refunded). No replacement.
As a book collector, this is not an acceptable response. I had cancelled a preorder of Waterstones special edition because this was Illumicrates sub book, regretting that decision. £3 is what I got back, and a damaged book that cost £24.25.
THEN, my October book arrives, again with damage, again a manufacturing fault but this time there was spine sticking out of the bottom. These books are not just standard books, they are special edition books, and I would expect better customer service and customer care. Subscription cancelled. Poor customer service, they clearly do not care.

Illuminate is a scam. Stay far away. Overpriced and under delivers. Still waiting on an order placed 6 months ago. Every time I check the website for “shipping updates” the dates change. Since it’s a UK site you get screwed on the conversion. Stay far far away. Spend you money elsewhere.

I subscribed to Illumicrate during in 2021. Initially, I really enjoyed the selection of books they picked for each month. From hauntingly atmospheric books like V.E Schwab's Gallant to dark academia like R.F. Kuang's Babel.

However, Illumicrate has now decided to become greedy and have now stopped including new book releases by popular authors in the monthly subscription. Instead, they include these popular books as separate purchases on their website and you have to be an active subscriber to their monthly book subscription to get a presale link to buy these popular books. In effect Ilumicrate is getting you to spend double the money.

I found I wasn't really enjoying the selection of books they were picking each month so I cancelled my subscription.

I want to start by saying that the books are cool, but they are on the cheaper side quality wise.

My reason for such a negative score is how they handle their customer's information. I sent an email to customer service and let them know that I would like to move my subscription from the full box to book-only. They got back to me saying that the book-only subscription is full, but that they would put me on a waitlist. During this time I decided to cancel the subscription fully as I got a book that was in less-than-desired condition in a box full of, excuse my language, sh!t items. Weeks later I got a message saying that my subscription had been renewed. Customer service has then taken it upon themselves to use MY information to renew the subscription even after I canceled it. This feels unacceptable to me. After contacting customer service they tried to put the blame on this on me and became very rude and aggressive, and once I did get a refund, I got a whole lot less than I paid due to conversion rates. Now had the issue been mine, fine. But the issue was not mine as I had cancelled the subscription so I think this is poor form on their end.

The books are nice and look nice on a shelf, but they feel cheap and often they arrive damaged in some way. This combined with the items being not so great, and the way information is handled, has made me wary of using this company again.

I've had a subscription plan for a bit over a year now. and I'm teetering on the edge of canceling. I loved it when I started but the romance of it is starting to fade.

Things I loved: they work with a lot of artists who make beautiful drawings of beloved characters. They frequently work with debut authors which helped me discover more authors I may not have tried. And I have LOVED some of the bookish items in the boxes. And getting a surprise book in the mail every month is fun!

My issues:
The special editions are beautiful, but not the best quality. These books are hard to open. The spines are very stiff. I get hand cramps reading theses books. I've only had one or two that could actually lay open by itself but those are rare. (I believe the page grain is running the wrong direction.) Other quality issues include crooked page edge printing, smudged printing, particularly with the gold foiling (also foiling that rubs off while reading).

Shipping and processing is slow. When I started getting books in early 2022, the books shipped early to mid month. Everything was neatly wrapped in paper and the book was kept in a cloth bag to protect it from scratching. I liked the bags and frequently reused them. However, at the end of 2022, they opened a United States fulfillment center. The change was a mess. Books were delayed for months. It just wasn't handled well. Now the books delivered nearly a month after they are paid for (they came faster when they were coming across an ocean). And wrapped in plastic (which does little to protect them) and they put a handful of paper shavings in the box, which does nothing to protect the items inside.

At this point, while I love some of the books and some of the items, I am just not sure the cost is worth it to me anymore.

Illumicrate is a awesome subscription but quite expensive. Every month you get a E-mail with we will send it around 20-25 of the month. But most of the time it's very late, more beginning / midway the next month. Als the customer service is very slow. Like I send a E-mail for damaged book. Someone I know send it earlier then I did and that person got a response 2 weeks after I got a response. They should invest more in quality of books to prevent damage and in customer service.

All in all very happy with my subscription. The books are very pretty and shipping has never been an issue for me. Customer support was responsive and helpful when needed.
I ordered one box separate from my subscription that included bookish items. If these were of higher quality I would give it 5*.

Edit: I cancelled my subscription because as of May 2023, there hasn’t been any non-LGBTQ novels since July 2022. At this point it’s clearly just virtue signaling. They have a separate subscription for romance novels, but only feature LGBTQ books in their normal subscription. They fail to highlight any other form of diversity as much as this one. Updating my review from 3 stars to one.

Original Review:
I’ve had a book-only subscription since July 2022. It’s difficult to get on the waitlist, and pray that you see the waitlist notification email the day it comes through or you’ll have to wait again. Customer service was helpful when I’ve had to use it; the books are beautiful and high quality. The only thing I don’t like is 75-80% of the books are LGBTQ romance novels. I’m not one to read romance books of any sort, and I understand they’re trying to get “diversity” points, but this seems to be their main (and sometimes only) diversity focus. I’ve only been able to get one book in nine months because I have no desire to read romance. I wish there were more books like Babel by a BIPOC author with BIPOC characters without romance.

I received my second order from them, a limited-edition book, quite damaged. The dustjacket was very badly creased, the book itself only slightly damaged (still not good for a new book, but I didn't want to be fussy), so I asked for a replacement of the dustjacket. First I was told to try and press the dustjacket, then they would look into it again. When that didn't help and I asked for a replacement a second time, I was referred to a long list of blemishes they don't consider bad enough to replace books for, never mind that mine had a whole selection of flaws, some of which weren't covered in the list. After I contacted them with photos of all that's wrong with my book, it ended with me being told that I could get a refund if I paid for the international return shipping of the book. That would have been so expensive - and by that time the book, a second title in a series, was also sold out - that I quit and kept this damaged copy so I at least wouldn't end up paying for nothing.

I paid for a mint collector's edition and received a badly damaged one. Whoever put it into the package could see that at one glance and it was shipped anyway. The list of everything Illumicrate consider acceptable damage for a new book is pretty telling. This kind of issue is obviously not an exception and they aren't willing to make up for it when they send out damaged goods. That's why I really wouldn't recommend buying from them. I don't know a single book shop or club that has the nerve to send you something like this and then refuses to replace it.

Great quality items and books. If there ever are delays due to unforeseen circumstances, they email you and apologise proactively. I have never had a damaged item and have been a subscriber for almost a year now. Very well packaged to protect items.

The boxes themselves are good, the books are great quality and the items are always great quality even if you aren’t interested in the specific items.

Customer service however leaves a lot to be desired. For whatever reason your address has to be set in stone 10-15 days before your crate ships, if you miss your windows to change your address well sucks to be you, you’ll be forced to pay postage again to get the product you’ve already paid for shipped to the right address.

Don’t expect however for this problem to be sorted quickly oh no you’ll be waiting days before someone answers your email asking about getting a replacement box shipped out. Then days more after you’ve replied To say you want an invoice to pay the fee to get a box shipped out.

So far I’m still waiting for my November box and my December box has already been shipped to the wrong address so I’ll be paying for postage on these boxes twice and I’ll be charged for a 3rd box before these others turn up.

The rep is also very confrontational as stated in other reviews. This company needs to look at how it operates I’ve never heard of a subscription business that prints postage labels 2 weeks before a box even ships.

Be warned. The product is nice and totally worth the money. If you have to talk to the customer service team it would probably be less hassle to get a refund through your bank and start a new subscription.

Way to hard to get access to the list, 24 hours is too short, people's lives don't revolve around waiting for this link. I was on the list for nearly 6 weeks and the day I couldn't access my email I got the link which I missed and I was then told by the unhelpful support staff if you missed the link to basically resign up, so here goes another 6 weeks of waiting....

I’ve been subscribed to Illumicrate for over a year and a half now, and I have no complaints.

Their customer service is fantastic and very friendly - I’ve had to contact them a couple of times for damaged items, and they’ve always been helpful and polite. They’re very good at communicating any issues they have with their website, sales or renewals using social media so that their subscribers know what’s going on.

Their special editions are beautiful, and in my opinion, keep getting better. I get a full box subscription, and I find myself using a lot of their items on a regular basis, they’re very well made and largely useful. I enjoy the books that they choose and have every intention of staying subscribed for a long time.

I switched from the “full box” to the “book only” option a while back, because I’d never received an item I liked in the boxes, but the customised books were always really good. However, I have definitely noticed a decline in the quality of the books recently. They used to have the best customisations of any subscription service, but now they’re nowhere near as good. I’m hoping it’s just a temporary low point, and they’ll go back to the standard they were at before. Also, you used to get a pin every month but they stopped that this year which is a shame

I've subscribed to Illumicrate for a little over two years now and they're by far my favorite box! I find their book selections to be the most varied among the boxes and the quality of their items (though they may not always be to my specific taste, which is true for every book box) is always high.

In two years I have had to contact customer service only twice regarding one book with a printing error (not their fault, it was bound upside down), and a book pot that arrived broken. Both times the items were replaced and the customer service people I spoke were fast and friendly!

The thing I like most about Illumicrate over other boxes is their variety in books. They choose both adult and YA titles and while most fall into the SFF category, they also choose some that are not and that I would not have read otherwise! I also love that they have been doing more romance special editions lately because it's not something we see enough of!

Another thing I always appreciate about this company is their transparency with their customers. They are always honest and up-front if something goes wrong or needs correcting and I wish more businesses would be transparent like this.

I live in the US so Illuimicrate is currently the most expensive box I get, but that is also not their fault as they don't control international shipping prices or currency conversion rates. In my opinion it is worth every penny!

I had an issue with my subscription not going through and I emailed in on Tuesday evening. Today, Romie was emailing me from the morning until 7pm and was able to help me get my subscription back and get the May box.

She was brilliant and very friendly and helpful!

The boxes themselves are always great, I've enjoyed every book that I have received and the extra items.

All round a great service and subscription box.

Customer service is atrocious. I reached out due to the website change taking away my subscription. I had put my account on hold (financial reasons) after waiting for a year on the waitlist. When I went to reactive it, my account showed no history.

The customer service rep Caitlin told me I had canceled my account and would have to go back on the waitlist. I messaged back saying that I had not canceled. She sent back a message “It was definitely canceled Im afraid” with a screen shot of a drop down menu that says cancelled. I replied back with a screen shot of all my emails with Illumicrate Nowhere stating that I had ever cancelled my account.

No response from Caitlin. Sent another email stating it makes no sense that I would have canceled after waiting so long. 3 days later still no response. Pretty sure Caitlin is ghosting me. Top notch customer service…

HORRIBLE customer service, very rude and confrontational. Resorts to verbal personal attacks when you the customer are worried and agitated about different matters. Very cheap items, a LOT of plastic.

I will cancel my subscription because of the extreme rudeness of one of the support staff members. My bad rating is also due mainly to this person who should NOT work in customer service. How the HELL did this person get a job in customer service?

Amazing staff, thoughtfully curated boxes and items, and clear emails. What more do you need?

I’ve been a subscriber to Illumicrate for a while (with a little break purely due to personal circumstances), I think my first box was in 2018 and honestly the quality of the boxes has just got better and better throughout the years.

In terms of customer service, I can’t fault any member of the team. I’ve had dealings with Chloe, Bec and Lauren over a couple of things over the last year (two damaged books that weren’t Illumicrate’s fault, both replaced in good time, waitlist requests and an accidental order that was cancelled before it made any affect on my bank account), each conversation has been a friendly one and I always feel better after they’ve responded to a request.

In essence, can’t fault the company. Amazing special editions, great items and lovely staff.