I can’t believe Glossier customer service. This happened a little while back now, and I’m still thinking about it. I even snapped an Insta-flatlay shot of some of my Glossier products because I’ve been thinking about it. (That’s not weird at all, is it?)

During the insanely busy holiday season, I ordered a couple of things from Glossier, fully expecting shipping delays given the time of year. So once I pulled the trigger, I didn’t really give the order any thought until about a week later. “Oh, my Glossier package hasn’t arrived yet; guess they really were busy,” was the entire thought.

Several days later, two-and-a-half weeks after I’d placed the order, I again thought, “Right, Glossier package… I’ll email them if it hasn’t arrived by mid-next week.”

Later that same day, though, not long after that last thought, a note from Glossier customer service appeared in my emails:

In case the above screen grab is too small to read, here’s what the “gTEAM” email said: “Thanks for placing an order with us! We noticed that your package tracking has not updated recently (this can happen during the busy season when the carrier doesn’t scan the package), and we want to make sure that your Glossier arrives as soon as possible. To help, I’ve placed a complimentary replacement order with Rush Shipping, and you’ll receive an email confirmation soon.”

Complete surprise. I hadn’t complained or even enquired about my order. But Glossier was keeping track of the package’s progress, and, having decided the delivery delay might indicate a lost parcel, sent a replacement. Just like that.

I figured I’d wait until I got home to see whether the products had arrived before emailing them back. I got home late, and yep, there was the package.

Before I could email Glossier the next morning, though, a courier delivered the replacement!

So I fired off a note to say thanks so much, both packages arrived, would you like me to return the duplicate?

And the response was (as I expected, really), that I should keep it, maybe share.

Um… sorry, but I’m keeping the extras – I got a couple of Glossier Brow Flick pens ($22 CAD and $18 USD at glossier.com), in Brown and Black, and I’ll be using them all up.

How about that for customer service? Well done, Glossier, don’t you think? And it worked – that standout-level of service made me want to hit the site again and order all the things. (My wallet was impressed too, but has much more common sense than I have, so it put the brakes on for now.)

“Pre-emptively shipping replacement product probably costs Glossier less in the long run than the person-hours a back-and-forth email exchange with a potentially irate customer would cost them,” speculated our Liza Herz when I told her about this. It’s also a nice bit of positive publicity in an age when most of us don’t hesitate to complain via every social channel available. (Considered framing this as a how DARE Glossier saddle me with extra product I didn’t ask for post, but decided it was too contrived and way too click-bait-y — as opposed to just click-bait-y like the title image.)

So that’s five twinkly gold stars for Glossier’s customer service protocols covering package delivery when the courier forgets to log the drop. Gold stars and big smiles from my wallet and me.