Category Archives: Q&A

How can I change the amount I pay monthly?

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I just got this by email from a subscriber. Good question!

Q: How can I change the amount I pay monthly? Not cancel but just change the amount? Thank you

A: If you login to bobcatinabox.com/myboxes and click on the Addresses tab, then click on one of the blue Edit buttons on the right you get to a screen where you can change how much you pay.

Simply change your budget and click the Update button in order to update your budget. You can also change how many packages a particular address gets per month on the same page.

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What if I set the bot to $20 again with 2 weeks being idle? Would that “unpause” or would it just jam a month of packages into 2 weeks??

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Q: The website is a bit hard to work when it comes to payments. If I change TOTAL amounts, it says it’ll stop sending packages… So I kept it at my original amount for a month, then got charged a second month, then set to $0 because I only wanted 1 month… … … The issue is… What if I set to $20 again with 2 weeks being idle? Would that “unpause” or would it just jam a month of packages into 2 weeks???

A: Good questions! The bot will always spend the funds that you give it. That is true whether you increase your budget, decrease it or cancel.

To “unpause” your subscription go to the Billing tab and click ‘Restart’. You would then be charged and a new monthly billing cycle would start.

So for example, if you renewed today with one address at the $20 level the bot would charge an additional $20 and renew May 22nd. If you were signed up for 2-4 packages a month, the bot would buy about 3 more packages with a target budget of $6.67 each. We don’t jam a month of packages into 2 weeks. Your previous orders would be unaffected by whether you unpause or not.

The balance from packages that are bought under the target budget gets rolled over into all pending orders. If there are no pending orders, the bot will create new orders and keep rolling over the balance until all funds are spent.

When you use the slider to set how many packages you want the bot to buy for each address, you are actually setting the bot’s “package preference” for the address, which is a number from 1 to 10. To get to the slider click on a blue Edit button on the right hand side of the Addresses tab. That “package preference” number and the budget tell the bot how quickly to buy packages and what the target budget for each order should be. The bot uses the below colorful eye charts to figure this all out.
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Keywords For Multiple Addresses

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Q: If I were to add another address to have things sent to my grandmother or nephew, am I able to do a separate keyword list for each address or would they all be the same? Thank you!

A: Good question! You can certainly set different keywords for different addresses. The keyword page looks like this with multiple addresses…

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Subscription Modification FAQ

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I got several good questions earlier today about subscription modifications…
Q: If I add/remove/change addresses or funds, do the changes take effect immediately or at the next billing cycle?
A: The changes take effect immediately unless your total budget decreases (across all addresses), in which case the change takes effect next billing cycle.
Q: Can I set my funds to $0 if I need to take a month off? (I will probably be moving in about 6 -8 weeks)
A: You can certainly do that, just email me to restart the subscription.
Q: If I wanted to add additional addresses, is there any way to tag them as “for child of X age” or as “gift”/”prank” or would it be better to create new accounts?
A: Email me to mark the address as a child or gift address, no need to create new accounts.
Q: Do keyword changes take effect immediately?
A: Keyword changes are implemented once per week. However items bought for keywords might take quite a bit longer to show up depending on shipping times.
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How To Sign Up Several Friends

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I’ve gotten this question quite a few times today as folks turn to the bot for Christmas presents….

Q: If I want to sign up to have the bot mail to several friends, can I do this in one transaction or do I sign people up sequentially?

A: You can do this in one transaction. After you sign up you will set a username/password for the bot to login at bobcatinabox.com/myboxes where you can change your shipping address, add multiple shipping addresses and allocate your monthly budget among them.
You can also set different keywords for each address and set how many packages each address should get (i.e. 1-2 packages at $5/month for your favorite cousin and 5-10 packages at $10/month for your best friend).
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Question About Budget Fiddling

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Q: I adjusted my budget and number of packages a couple of times today, as it took a moment to make up my mind. I know that increases are pro-rated on the next month’s bill, but if it is changed a few times, does that cause any issues? My hope is that I was just updating a table that is then checked by some process once a day or so, so that every update doesn’t kick a bunch of things into action.

If you have any other questions for me, I may be slow to reply. I’m in Florida, and expecting this hurricane to be on me in a few hours, so I might be without power or internet. I’ll reply as soon as I can though if you need any other info.

A: Stay safe! It is a tricky question. Like you suggest, if the bot updated the billing amount every minute you might end up with a whole bunch of pro-rated charges and a crazy monthly bill. We don’t want that. On the other hand the bot should respond quickly to changes subscribers make, so it can get on with the business of buying packages. It gets complicated fast.

The site indeed just updates a table, which then kicks things into action every 24 hours only for accounts that have had no activity for the past 4 hours. So there will be no issues as long as you make the changes you want to make within a few hours of each other.

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Question About Pranks

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I got a question recently from someone looking to sign up.

Q: I’m considering signing up for your service as a prank on a good friend. I was actually genuinely intrigued and interested in giving it a try for myself but noticed the for self/for prank checkbox at the last second and decided driving a buddy nuts would be even better.

One thing I’m wondering though, is if this friend were to become frustrated with receiving the packages, what are my options if they begin refusing them or sending them back? Would I be able to refund the remaining balance for the bot or perhaps divert the future shipments to myself? If a person got fed up within a couple weeks I’d hate to see the rest go to waste.
I’m also curious about the details of the service as a prank. Does this cause the bot to prioritize more asinine or confusing purchases? How does it differ in how it’s delivered/presented?

A: The prank option on sign up doesn’t have a huge effect on the packages. The packages are presented/delivered in the exact same way and there are a few small differences in how packages are prioritized. I am just interested in why folks are signing up. Your friend’s packages won’t have any indication that they are from you.

You can add new addresses and change addresses mid-month. The issue is that the shipping time is usually about a month. So there is a month delay in any changes you make. Right after you signing up you will get a login to the site that lets you split packages among multiple  addresses. You could send $20 to yourself and $10 to your friend, for example. That way your friend gets packages a bit more slowly if you want to gauge the reaction.
Also, if you think your friend might get frustrated by the packages… perhaps send them to a different friend! Some pranks aren’t for everyone. If your friend finds my phone number and doesn’t sound like they are having fun I will out you, be warned.
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Question About Totally Random Packages

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I got a question yesterday from someone who just signed up for the bot….

Q: This may be a dumb question, but I can’t find a definitive answer – do I *have* to set keywords to get packages, or does a lack of keywords just make the packages totally random?

I was thinking I’d wait and see what I get before I start tweaking, if that’s an option, but I don’t want to just not get anything because I didn’t set any keywords. 🙂

A: Good question! You don’t need to set keywords to get packages. However the bot will wait a bit for you to set keywords before buying anything, so not setting keywords will delay the first packages by 1-2 weeks.

If you select ‘random’ as a keyword you should get totally random packages a bit faster.
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Question About Messing Up The Bot’s Logic

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I got a question by email yesterday from a subscriber who just got this product in the mail. 

Q: Is there any way to prevent ordering from a specific seller in the future, to exclude them, or to know who/where an item came from?  I received an item today I really would have loved but the bottle broke in shipping.  It was nail polish, so no chance to save it.  It was not packaged well for a glass bottle.

I understand if that’s beyond the bot’s code.  I still rated it as positive because I don’t want a negative rating to mess up the logic.
A: Good to hear from you! That does sound disappointing.

The best way to prevent the bot from ordering from a specific seller is to give the product a negative rating. It won’t mess up the logic. Negative feedback make the bot a lot less likely to re-buy a particular product. Right now the products aren’t categorized by specific sellers. But it is certainly possible for products to get blacklisted if they get negative feedback.

The product was sold by Chic Beauty, a store on AliExpress.com based in China. The item you got is this one.
This nail polish has been ordered by the bot 14 times so far, gotten 5 positive ratings and no negative ratings. The bot really likes products with 100% positive feedback. If you switch your rating the bot will not buy it nearly as much and hopefully there will be fewer broken bottles in the mail.