Birchbox! You are not making this very easy! I want to love you, I mostly do, but then you go and say something completely asinine about the quality of a product being of lesser importance than how cute it is, and I just can't.


Last week I wrote, with no small measure of excitement, about how Birchbox—the monthly mail-order grooming service for woman and recently men, too—had finally included a gadget in their women's box, rather than the usual bonus candy or snack samples. Because by the way women like—and use—tech, too.


I brought my bonus earbuds on the bus to DC this weekend and found them to perform not better or worse than the pair that came with my iPhone. But, Gizmodo-reader Miriam G-C wrote in to say that she had received a faulty pair and, disappointed, wrote in to Birchbox to communicate as much.

Below is Miriam's email to Birchbox, as well as the reply she received from the company's rep: