I think I am cursed with bad online shopping luck.
I love the conveniences of it — you can buy anything at the tip of your fingers like this fitted mermaid dress for prom. But when it comes to clothes and shoes, I have the worst luck. For every one successful outfit, I’ve had five failed online shopping attempts. Sometimes it’s my fault, sometimes it’s their fault, sometimes the colors are misleading or the outfit is too short, too tight, too loose or just plain ugly on me. And then there’s the dreaded visit to the post office to mail it all back. Shudder. That’s one of my least favorite errands.
My latest online shopping fail was about a month ago. I spent two weeks scouring Dorothy Perkins, a cute UK online boutique. I took measurements of my whole body, polled a few of my friends on which items I should get, and made sure to select the correct sizes and colors. As soon as I picked my four items, I double-checked all of the sizes again (since UK sizes are funky), and made sure my UK Size 8 was on every single item I ordered. I also had a combined 25% off through specials and promo coupons which would turn the $115 order to $85 (great deal on four pieces!). I decided to press that scary Complete Order button hoping for a success and excited to beef up my working wardrobe.
A week and a half later I receive my bag. How exciting it is when you get that bag full of new clothes and custom clothing tags! My heart immediately dropped when I saw Size 12 on all of the hangers. Maybe size 12 is the new 8? But then I tried the three shirts and one dress and they were all too, too big. Sad face.
I know it looks like maybe I could pull off the baggy shirt-with-tight-pants look, but the shirts were so big I just looked sloppy.
I tried to contact Dorothy Perkins to get an exchange for my right size but never heard back. I also really wanted them to pay for my shipping back, since the error was on them, but no such luck. My return window was running out, so yesterday I finally mailed it back after the package had been sitting in my backseat for about a month, and it cost me about $17 for international shipping. For any shipping needs and concerns, check out this website here!
So, lesson learned. No matter how adorable the outfit, how great the deal, I am finished buying clothes online. Unless maybe, maybe I can take it into a store to return it. But online boutiques? No mas.
Do you do most of your shopping online or in stores? Have you had better luck with clothes shopping online? Any tips and tricks for successful clothes shopping online?
That is so frustrating ! And pretty terrible customer service for something that was their mistake. You should write an angry letter and say that you won’t ever be shopping there again, maybe they will give you a gift card or something?
This is why I don’t shop online unless there are free returns as well as free shipping. Or at least free in-store returns.
After they didn’t respond, I probably would have tried a credit card chargeback rather than paying the international shipping for the return. Presumably your receipt shows the sizes you ordered and they were not delivered. I bet the card company could have helped fix this!
I hate online shopping also. It almost never fits!
I hate online shopping for all of those reasons. It never looks as good on me as it does on the model and returning it is such a pain. Boo.
That sucks! I would email again and again and again until I got a response. They should definitely have to pay you for the return shipping!
Well, there’s NO WAY IN HELL I’d suck up the return fees when it was THEIR MISTAKE!!! – I would have called my credit card company to stop payment, sent them back (with delivery confirmation/insured) and then expected the FULL amount to be credited back WITH the return amount credited, also. I’m really stubborn like that. So I tend to go with the retailers that are VERY easy with returns (TARGET.com is great – in-store returns for stuff bought on-line) and others. Even BODEN is great with returns. Guess it’s live and learn – but you can’t save money when you LET them take advantage of you when it was their mistake.
ran into that problem with TopShop which is also in the UK but thankfully their return HQ was right across the river in NJ so I only had to pay to ship it back there… thank goodness!!!
What a frustrating experience. I recently bought three pairs of shoes online on super sale…I am almost always an exact 7.5 so that is what I ordered- each pair fits about half a size too big. I have to look into whether or not I can return them, but this is exactly why I rarely shop online. Even when the company sends the correct size, sizing varies so much that it feels impossible to find something that’s just right!
i do shop online more so for appliances and phone accessories than anything but this past summer i had been buying clothes from online boutiques like crazy. some were fine. others were either too small. didn’t look like the photo or just didn’t look right on me. i think of all the bad orders i only shipped one back. my problem with online ordering is the wait. some places ship fast others take forever and im the type of person who likes to buy something and have it right away. so from now on i wont buy anything else on line unless its a MUST! and believe it or not going into the store is way cheaper than buying it online and most of these outfits you think you can only find online is definitely in the stores