2023 megaaa DECEMBER DAILY thread (ALL December projects)

I know there is no perfect way of doing things, but I have a pretty big problem with Ali’s boxing period. I can put up with the long drawn out wait, but I think it’s kind of garbage that they create this frenzy where you set your alarm, and hurry to add your favorite things to your box to ensure you get the things that you want the most, and feel this huge sense of relief when you get the things you want before they’ve sold out. Then, someone else can order one of those same items 4 weeks later after all sorts of low inventory warnings, and they then receive the item, and you can be told, sorry it’s out of stock, because we chose to ship your box last, even though you ordered first. I’m sorry, but what a joke. I am actually so turned off by it, that I don’t know if I’ll participate in Ali’s boxing period next year. Sorry for the long rant, but as someone whose box is usually one of the last one’s sent out every year, I’m pretty annoyed by the whole thing. I don’t need my box right now, I’m fine with the wait, but I think I might prefer in the future to give my money to a company that is first come, first serve on their products. Good luck to everyone else still waiting, may the odds be ever in our favor 😏

I wonder the same thing. I ordered immediately as well and also added items later. I received my box today. I only live about five hours from their base. I would think after shipping internationally, they would start on the coasts and work their in but what do I know.

I hope they don’t make a habit of doing this, and that they hear loud feedback if they do. There is no excuse, they should have a better system of inventory management to make sure this doesn’t happen. I would be furious. (especially if they charged your credit card when you placed the order).

Are you saying you got an email from AE that items you ordered actually went out of stock before your box was shipped?

No, i haven’t received my shipping email yet, I’m assuming that’s when they let you know. Someone above was just saying that it happened to them last year, and I remember people having it happen in the past, and the later your package is in the lineup, the better the odds you don’t receive everything when they run short. Hopefully this is the year that they kept better track of their inventory. I just think it’s super frustrating to order in the first minute, but not be guaranteed your products, because of their crazy system.

I'm probably the odd one out, but I think it's fair that international ship first.

It takes parcels up to 2 or 3 months to reach the recipient sometimes. That's well after December in some cases. And by that time, if there are damaged goods, there isn't anything left in inventory. If they do have stock, the replacement needs to be sent back to the recipent once again, same delay. Not to mention, if packages are lost, there is a two month period before which Inked won't take into account your missing parcel claim.

We used to get the short end of the stick on top of paying indecent amount of shipping fees+ currency fees+ taxes+ custom fee for it.
Don't think Inked is being kind to us - they only know that they can't alienate internationals as much they used to do. The old way used to be a shame. Think SC at its worst. They made the change for a reason, it was hurting their sales.

Also, just because some international have received their packages does not mean all have, not by a very long shot. Those who did spent huge amount on their boxes. People whose orders ship USPS will receive their boxes long after the US receive theirs. So domestic orders still are better off in terms of quickness of delivery, contacting AE and replacements should they need one. While paying less for it.

So, not perfect, but much fairer to internationals.


Fwiw, someone ordered for me within the first hour and it ship expedited because of all the purchases they made, not to mention my name starts with one of the first letter of the alphabet.

I wonder if they do ship in order. However, every time you add to your box, it puts you back at the end of the line. So those that only order on the first day get their order before someone like me who ordered three times, the last being 9/26. This is my first time ordering any of Ali’s DD product so fingers crossed I get everything intact!

Argh!  This is the first I have heard that ordering more would put you back at the end of the line - does anyone know for sure this is how it works??  

Asking because that would CHANGE my ordering behavior in the future plus it also seems like you are punishing people for continuing to order...  So in this case, you would motivate me to only order within the first 10-15 minutes and then I would be motivated to not order anything else in order to ensure I get what I ordered and get it earlier.  It seems easy enough to look at the original time stamp and ship from there.

And I was the one earlier who last year ordered within the first 5 minutes (but did add to my box later) and ended up getting a notification mid-October that the plastic trees I ordered had in fact run out.  I was frustrated because I had ordered so quickly and it took them 2 weeks AFTER boxes closed to tell me they had run out.  Why not check your numbers once an item sells out to confirm you can fulfill the orders? It was 6 weeks from the time I ordered and got confirmation of order and the time I was told my item sold out.  I get that there are imperfections in the volume #s, occasionally, but the experience was really negative.  All to say, I am really hoping that there are no issues like I had this year.  I love the products, but I am saving and then spending a lot to find out weeks after I ordered that something is actually not available.  And then on top of that to see so many people get their ordered for weeks before I do, it's just not a good customer experience.  

Lastly to the comment re international, I posted earlier, but will say it again, I 100% support shipping to international first for all of the reasons listed.  They need to get product in a reasonable amount of time to get to use it for the project. No issues at all with that.  And to be honest, I have no issues with it taking a couple of weeks to get it all shipped, but beyond 2 weeks, 10 business days, is not reasonable.  You have an entire month of the boxing period to get things ready to ship there is absolutely no reason for this to take so long.

Still waiting (impatiently!) to have surgery. It’s scheduled for 10/31. Another three weeks of these constant headaches. I’m trying to distract myself but it’s getting harder and harder. I know I’ll feel better afterwards though so that’s what I’m trying to focus on. Keeping my eyes on the prize!

I placed my first box order when DD shopping first opened, and my last box order two days before the boxing period closed. I received my box yesterday (Saturday) and I live on the East Coast.

I don’t think they are shipping based on when you last added items to the box. Maybe they do domestic shipping based on zip code?? 

Either way, since AE has been selling DD products for several years, I would hope they’ve got a handle on updating inventory and that folks aren’t missing items this year because they couldn’t keep track of what’s in stock—there really is no excuse for that 🤞

I remember this now! So freaking annoying. I hope that people who ordered after you did not get them. That would have been really wrong. Did you get free digitals? Not that anyone can actually recreate those.


I don't get shipping notifications from AE. I don't know when they stopped. I get other emails but no emails regarding my orders.

I have checked my account a few times and nothing has changed. It still says Active.

But there have been other times when I have gotten orders and it says active even after it's in my hands.

So shipping theory #1 apparently isn’t correct. Shipping theory #2: They put everyone’s name in a giant hat and pull them out randomly to fulfill orders. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think it’s great that they try to get the International orders out first, since they can take so long to get to their destinations. I think I just really hate the whole boxing period concept, mainly because they aren’t great at keeping up their end of the bargain on inventory. I think the suggestion above where you can choose to close your box sooner, and get it shipped right away, and then would just have to open another box if you want more later would be a better solution. That way it could be more of a choice at least.

I got my DD order one hour ago 🙌🙌🙌 yay! I just did a quick look into my package, so far everything is there, nothing broken or missing. My two mystery albums were: one red 4x6 album with December Daily in Alis handwriting and the other was a grey 3x8 Album with golden stars and sprinkles ( I‘m a little sad not a 6x8 album was in the mystery slot but they’re both fine)
I still have a little fomo, because I didn’t got a „new album“ and I have the 3x8 transparency set and the envelope set in my cart - I‘m curious if they put DD inventory into the addon boxes tomorrow with the next subscription period.