oh the horror! (of shopping…)

Last week I mentioned a great shopping experience through iHerb (fab fab fab) and mentioned that I had also had a bad experience that I thought you could learn from. It’s good to be positive first, right?

Us fit chicks can’t help but notice the proliferation of membership shopping sales sites. If you’re like me, you probably get emails from several.

How it works is: they email you, usually daily, with the list of the designers that they have been given certain items to sell for. Usually it’s a 24Hour long sale and you log in to see if there’s anything “good”.

The issue is that these sites are just the middlemen. Or the “brokers”. They have the software, the email lists and the contracts with the shipping company. They do not stock the actual items. Once you purchase something, it takes WEEKS to get to you. Even if you live in the same county. (Trust me)

If the deal is good enough, who cares, right?

Well, you’ll care if you ever have an issue with the item- say, perhaps the size is wrong or there is damage. Because after the, usually 24hr, announced sale you cannot go back and get more, or an additional size, or whatever, of the designer’s item.  Or what if the shipping company loses your item?

The latter happened recently to me at one particular ‘hot’ company. The shipping arrival date (2wks after the order was processed) came and went. Then I read on the tracking page that the shipping company U Possibly Select for other items, had “lost” the package and it would contact myself and the clothing membership site. After waiting another day to see if anything happened or it I’d be contacted (-nothing, and nope), I alerted the shopping outlet. So I did. Twice.

I learned the process then works like this: They try and investigate with the shipping company and the process takes about 10 business days (read: 2 MORE weeks). If the item is found, it’ll be shipped to you at a later date (over a month since you ordered it). If the item is not found, you will receive store credit.

See, the shopping company does not want to be out any money for this issue, or your return, because it has already collected its “fee” for your item. They do not have a warehouse with which to stock returns. Even though, THEY, not you, would be the ones to collect from the shipping company on the insurance for the item lost, what’s done is done (meaning- your payment). It makes things simpler all around (for them) to just issue a credit. It also means avoiding additional credit card fees.

As experienced shopper chicks, we know that a good sale is usually a “final sale”. We understand “store credit”. But what if you are not sure you’d ever shop at a particular store again AND it wasn’t your fault? And you already have store credit at different stores that you haven’t found anything to use ‘em on yet? If you paid for something that you never laid hands on, and then a month later were just given credit towards some future purchase this next year, would YOU expect a refund?

Buyer beware.

Tags: clothing outfits, clothing trends, fashion, fashion trends, online shopping, shoe trends, shopping, shopping membership, trends