New Site Coming Soon!
We've been working hard behind the scenes to create a brand new home for Studio Calico, and we're excited to begin sharing some of the site's new features, process updates, and more in the weeks leading up to its official launch later this month. Over the next few weeks we will send out more information to keep you up to speed so stay tuned!
Over the past eight years, our main focus has been the experience of our loyal community. That's why we continually look for new ways to improve and make our monthly subscriptions not only the best inspiration for your crafting projects, but also the best value. In order to make it simpler and an even better value, we worked hard with our team to update our subscription pricing structure to make your experience with us each month an even better one. Beginning with the launch of our new site later this month, all of our kits will be available under the following commitment and pricing levels. The really great news is that all of these prices include shipping.
This chart demonstrates current pricing (plus shipping) in italics vs. new pricing (plus handling fees) in bold:
Domestic customers, here are the new pricing plan options:
Scrapbook Kit (shipping included)
- Month to Month - $39.99
- 6 Month Commitment - $37.99
- 12 Month Commitment - $34.99
Card Kit (shipping included)
- Month to Month – $34.99
- 6 Month Commitment - $31.99
- 12 Month Commitment – $29.99
Project Life® (shipping included)
- Month to Month – $29.99
- 6 Month Commitment - $27.99
- 12 Month Commitment - $25.99
Planner Kit (shipping included)
- Month to Month – $24.99
- 6 Month Commitment - $22.99
- 12 Month Commitment - $19.99
Shipping
Domestic Shipping Changes
Free Shipping During Bundling. Starting with our new site, subscribers will be able to add to their kit with no additional shipping fees!
Choose your shipping method. During checkout, you will be able to choose from three shipping options: economy, upgraded, or expedited. Each subscriber will default to economy shipping which is the most affordable service to your address. If you'd like to receive your items faster, just choose upgraded or expedited for an additional fee (listed at checkout).
Free shipping with $79 purchase. If you choose to shop outside of the bundling window, the $79 threshold will still allow you to enjoy free shipping.
International Shipping Changes
Low Handling Fee. All international subscription kits will ship for a $3 handling fee per kit. We heard your frustration with the 3.9% + shipping fee and have worked hard with our shipping companies to make shipping our kits to you more affordable than ever.
Choose your shipping method. During checkout, you will be able to choose from three shipping options: economy, upgraded, or expedited. Each subscriber will default to economy shipping which is the most affordable service to your address. If you'd like to receive your items faster, just choose upgraded or expedited for an additional fee (listed at checkout).
Nominal Shipping Fees for Add-ons. If you choose to bundle items with your purchase, your shipping fee will now be calculated on weight. Our team worked very hard with our shipping vendors to offer you the most affordable, yet reliable services. As you add small and lightweight items to your kit, you'll notice nominal shipping fees. All shipping fees are calculated based on weight and size. As you add larger items to your cart, you'll notice your shipping charges increase. If you don't order any additional items with your kit, you won't be charged the additional shipping fee beyond the $3 handling fee.
Canadian Free Shipping. Canadian customers will have a $99 threshold for free shipping.
*Free Shipping applies to Economy Shipping only. Shipping charges may apply with more kits. Our updated shipping FAQ’s will have more details once the new site launches.
**No additional shipping charge applies to Economy Shipping only. Shipping charges may apply with more kits. Our updated shipping FAQ’s will have more details once the new site launches.
Current Subscribers
Choose Your Plan. Not sure which plan you'd like? You've got plenty of time to decide. Once you make your decision, simply open up a conversation with our Customer Service team once the new site launches and they will help you. All subscribers with a remaining commitment will have their cancellation fee waived provided they are selecting one of our new plans. If you haven't switched by January 1, we'll place you in our month-to-month subscription plan at the new month-to-month price. If you decide you'd prefer a 6 month or 12 month plan, our Customer Service team will gladly place you on your preferred plan.
Rewards Program. Your Rewards status will not be changed by this new subscription model. We are currently evaluating this program and looking to make improvements to it later this year. However, this will not affect your eligibility or status in any way.
Cancellation Policy
Please start a conversation with our Customer Service team in order to cancel a subscription. To allow adequate time for Customer Service to process subscription orders, subscription orders can't be cancelled between the 1st of the month and the 5th of the month. After your subscription order has shipped, you can contact Customer Service, and they will process your cancellation.
If you have a month-to-month subscription and request to cancel after the 25th of the month, there will be a $15 cancellation fee. For subscriptions with a six month or twelve month commitment, you will be charged 50% of your remaining commitment at the time of cancellation. Six month and twelve month subscriptions will not incur an additional $15 cancellation fee if they are cancelled after the 25th of the month.
Update - A response to your questions from our CEO, April Foster:
Late last year and early this year, we took a hard look at how to make sure we could maintain price stability while still providing inspiration, education, and high quality products. We needed to make sure we didn't have money spent on wasted inventory which most certainly would result in price increases which we haven't done in 8 years and we didn't want to start doing now.
Instead, we chose to be better predictors of inventory which means a requiring a commitment from our customers. By accurately predicting quantities, we would not need to raise prices, which after listening to our customers and focus groups, we determined was the correct course of action.
As always, we will continue to reward our customers, especially the most loyal. We wouldn't be here without you! Our current practice is to ship rewards orders on the first day of shipping, and we have not discussed changing that benefit. However, we are constantly reviewing our perks and trying to improve them, and we have been collecting information from our customers on what's important to you as a rewards member. We're in the early stages of analysis there, but do plan to make a change later this year or early next year so we can change as your needs change and as our offering grows.
I understand the concern about canceling with a penalty. If an emergency arises, please let our CS team know and they will work with you as they have in the past. We are real people here with compassion and big hearts and want to always do what's right for you.
Especially for internationals, we couldn't sustain the current model considering shipping costs and excess inventory. In exchange for your commitment, we are giving you the least expensive price, along with 6 months to think about what's the best option for you.
In closing, for those currently subscribing, you have 6 months to enjoy all the benefits you are used to, but at the lowest price. That gives you time to understand how these changes have affected you, your buying habits, and make a decision on whether to stay at the month-to-month price or make a larger commitment.
That's it for now! We'll be continuing with more site updates later this week. If you have any questions please open a conversation with Customer Service.
I think you have just made ordering / subscribing to multiple kits less attractive as a deal. Not only the pl kit price has gone up, international subscribers will have to pay more for shipping extra goodies...pay by weight...rather disappointing.
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@Mgodwin89 i didn't see her response.. Am I missing it or was it deleted?
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Just keep treating everyone like idiots by sugar coating your increase. Your stock control sucks, your quality control is practically non existent and do you really want me to comment on your customer service ? wake up ! WE are people. You, you're just a money-making machine.
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To be honest, it's not even the price increase that bothers me. I get that things get more expensive over time. That's why my salary increases to account for inflation. But be honest and up front and tell us that. Don't pretend that we should be delighted about it. And don't penalize us so heavily if we cannot keep our commitment.
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@ramicon its right below the BLOG before the comments get started.
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You should be able to predict better without crazy commitments
If you have a few left over it shouldn't be such an issue, sales, deals, and new subbers will buy them easy enough, surely there are not thousands or hundreds of extra kits produced and if there are predict better!!'
All companies can't predict, who will turn up on a given day and what will be sold, that's just the way it is.
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You should be able to predict better without crazy commitments
If you have a few left over it shouldn't be such an issue, sales, deals, and new subbers will buy them easy enough, surely there are not thousands or hundreds of extra kits produced and if there are predict better!!'
All companies can't predict, who will turn up on a given day and what will be sold, that's just the way it is.
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@ddccfay So once you cancelled your subscription, you can not access any class content at all for the past classes, kits you had already paid for? That's not right.
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@Mgodwin89 thanks, I can't believe I missed that... I better clean my glasses. Lol
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@ddccfay Where did you see that we will no longer have access to our classes? I just read April's update and I didn't see anything.
I still haven't recovered from BPC's changes, you are making me very nervous.
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its not the price increase that bothers me, what bothers me is how they try to hide the price increase, can you show a little of respect to your customers and dont treat us like we are dumb. it shouldn't say free shipping with bundling. it confuses people just remove the FREE word and put no additional shipping charges during bundling if order with you kit subscriptiion.Free to me means you will substract the shipping charge from my kit during bundling. THAT FREE SHIPPING WITH BUNDLIND claim really bothers me cause it isn't free shipping. shipping for scrapbook $5.49 for pl $6 for card $5.49 that is $16.98 for shipping double the amount we were paying before. HOW IS THAT FREE SHIPPING WITH BUNDLING how is that a better deal. SOMEONE CONVINCE ME THAT I WILL BE GETTING A BETTER DEAL HERE PLEASE. im not dumb
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Not cool, SC. Although I really like the AE and ABM products, I have been turned off by the pricing and commitment/cancellation penalties. I have not purchased kits from either.
I am afraid I'll need to find a new place to shop.
I miss the old SC.
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@ddccfay That is absolutely not the policy for the Story Subscriptions and I'm working on getting that adjusted for you. Even after canceling you should continue to have access to the class content for any months you purchased. I'm sorry to see you go.
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@AliEdwards - if I cancel my SC subscription, will it affect my Story Subscription at all? Coz I'm definitely cancelling my PL kit sub now that they're increasing the cost.
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@phaedra_e No, it shouldn't impact your Story Subscription.
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@Mgodwin89 thanks for clarifying the steep price increase if one subscribes to all three kits. It is clearly a disadvantage to sub to all 3 kits under the new structure even with the longest commitment rates.
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thanks for the prompt response @AliEdwards. much appreciated.
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I don't see how this is legal. Entering into a contractual price protects both parties. I don't see how they will be able to switch everyone over to their new price structure if some customers are under contract for another price structure. As much as SC would like to streamline things, they are obligated to honor their existing contracts' price/shipping structure.
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So, basically April is saying their business model is to only keep enough inventory for subscribers. That would be current subscribers apparently. I had a huge problem with this business model in the past. I began a conversation regarding my concerns. I thought the conversation was very productive as we discussed problems I was seeing on the boards from others. I made several suggestions to improve customer service with regard to lack of inventory (I was NEVER able to purchase a single add-on I wanted). I realized my comments were going nowhere when April herself responded stating that SC has a very specific business model that does not include producing more product than can be sold in a month. That they rely on subscriptions to predict the production volume. (Never made sense because they were obviously missing tons of sales based on forum comments.) She also stated that there were no plans to change that model. With that, I felt it was my invitation to leave. Recently, I decided to give SC another chance, but I soon realized April was correct, there are no plans to change the inadequate business model. As a business owner, I would never base my business solely on subscriptions. With regard to SC wholesale business, I see SC presence diminishing on all of the websites I shop with or visit for crafting inspiration.
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@AliEdwards, You are a Story Telling Rock Star and a genuine inspiration. The hardest part of canceling my AE SC subscription is no longer having access to your products. If you ever make the switch (or SC changes their Customer Service practices), I would eagerly support your business. Thank you for taking the time to help with this issue. The access to my class content has returned and I am so grateful for your help in rectifying this. Wishing you continued success!
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Since the email issues still haven't resolved, this is a shock to find this morning. (I'm still not receiving any SC emails at all. Yes,I have a conversation. It's been open for 17 days with no resolution.)
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I have an inquiry about group buying to save on the shipping fee, with this new price module with the shipping fee included in the price per kit. How am I suppose to buy extra kits without being charge another shipping fee on top of my existing PL sub?
Is possible just to list the price of the kits without shipping and just let the shipping be reflected in our carts?
All this shipping included makes it more confusing and difficult for people who wants to buy extra main kits.
I already made a convo but the answer I got doesn't really answer my main question which is weird cause I waited to get a proper answer now I have to wait again since I didn't really get one
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I am confused...If i want the card kit for one month only can i still get it? or does it only go to month to month then i have to remember to cancel it. This all seems silly because i am getting penalized by paying more each month for the PL kit when i always hit the $79 for free shipping now i am spending more and getting less.
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I am ABSOLUTELY appalled, not at SC, at this community. No I'm
Not excited to see price increases to my subscription but I do understand that things are more expensive, that decisions need to be made to keep a company profitable (if it isn't then it doesn't last) but I DON'T understand the chirping going on here. It's awful. If you have questions or issues, take it up privately with SC. Open a conversation. I'm sorry, but I'm so tired of coming here for inspiration only to find negativity from the "community". We're supposed to bring each other up, not drag us down. At least that's what I'm teaching my girls, good thing they are both too young to read right now.
Congrats on the new website SC!
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I don't think it's the increase in price that makes people angry; it's the insincerity. "It's going to be better value", "we only care to make your experience better", "you're going to save money", "we care about our community", all that stuff. If they honestly said "things are more expensive now" from the start, no one would have been that angry. People think they're being fooled, and I can't blame that for that. Honesty is the best policy. Always.
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