Reader 247

hi FT,

First of all i would like to say I am a blogshop owner. Once in awhile i would surf lowyat forum for preloved clothing.

Recently i came across this new online blogshop (BLOG BB) ,i knew by first look i have seen the clothes in lowyat forum before, the exact same "PRELOVED Blogshop clothes " in lowyat forum , she selling the exact piece in lowyat forum (saying is preloved )and her blogshop BB (her site linked as brand new clothing).

And this blogshop BB used to have Cbox in her site, so i try to ask her if she is the same girl in this lowyat forum, but she deleted her cbox without answering my question. Feeling suspicious isnt it. What if she is selling her PRELOVED CLOTHES from other blogshop and SELL IT AS HIGHER PRICE AS BRAND NEW CLOTHES?? so this person, she can just buy new clothes from other online blogshop , wear few times and sell it as higher/exact same price as brand new clothes. Even tho i never buy anything from this girl personally before, but what she is doin now is really not honest .


So US, Buyer should be really careful, BRAND new ITEMS should come with TAG right. Please correct me if im wrong.


cheer

thanks for FT

Reader 246

(seller backing out on offer made)

-------------------------
Dear FT,

23/7 - I found a nice shirt on 50% discount (after discount RM18) from Store S and emailed the blogshop owner to find out if it's still available. It is.

29/7 - Blogshop owner emailed me asking if I still want the shirt. I said yes but i'll need more time to find more stuff from her site

30/7 - Blogshop owner was happy and informed me "Basically, I'm doing a Free Postage (Registered Post) now for all normal priced item. Juz bundle the sales item in also entitled for Free Postage ;). Another benefit I offer to customer is upgrade of free postage to PosLaju for juz RM4. It's a worthy for bulk buyers cuz you save a lot on postage." The free postage offer is also plastered all over the blog.

1/8 - I spent a few hours looking for something else to buy, preferably a normal-priced item so I could get the free postage. Not finding anything to my taste, I resorted to a white tube which costs RM5 at normal price. I happily emailed the blogshop owner with my order.

2/8 - She replied my email with the final price of RM23 (exclude postage) and a choice of postage..registered post, pos laju, or pos ekspress. Puzzled, I emailed her to clarify on the free postage.

Her reply "Its for "normal" price item. And if you bundle the sales item with the normal price item also available for free postage." Puzzled again, I clarified whether the tube is normal priced item and bundled with the shirt on sale, it should entitle me to the free postage. I even apologised for not understanding.

She replied "RM5 item how to give free postage le...the tube is juz an extra service offered. Tats why its rm5. Others are selling at rm15, Postage will be around rm3. My cost for the tube is more than rm3. So sorry. Thx for your interest. Hope u can find the shirt u wan. Thx."

Here's where it gets juicy...

I replied:
"Hello,
That's not very nice.
Irregardless of the price, i think u're not sticking to your end of the bargain when you post (If you bundle with Sales item also we'll give you Free Postage!!)
There is no t&c stating that "the sales item + normal-priced item must be above RMxxx to get free postage and will be at seller's discretion". Or something along those lines to avoid such misunderstanding situations. Then us shoppers get called names like "backout buyer" and get blacklisted bcos we cancel our order due to disagreements.

I only ordered the white tube to enjoy the free postage, otherwise I would not have bothered to look further. It is not my business to ensure you make profit from each sale. As shopper, we are always looking for bargains and how to get the most bang for our buck. So happens that there is a loop hole in your sales offer that you do not get to profit from this sale, too bad but I am sure you have profited from a lot of previous successful sales, albeit it may not be much.

Although RM3 isn't much for postage, on principle-wise I will not buy the items since you are not upholding your offer. Better luck with other buyers."

She replied:
"Dont you think you're being unreasonable & unfair here? You purposely bought a RM5 item juz to have the free postage! Do you know WHY I didnt put up a sales for the tube???? Cuz its juz an RM5 item! How to discount on tat????? You think about this!

Anyway, I dont like arguing with ppl. Pls go ahead with all the cursing & scolding as you want."

Now, I wonder who is being unfair/unreasonable and doing all the cursing and scolding as I do not see any !! or ?? in my email to her but she was furious in her reply to me. I feel I merely explained in a civilised manner of the loophole in her offer, hoping she would appreciate and honour the offer. In her last reply where she explained why she did not put the RM5 item on sale indicates that the item is legitimately a normal-priced item, which qualifies me for the free postage offer. Even if I chose to only buy the RM5 item without the sale item, I should be entitled to free postage, don't you think?

Yes, obviously it is a non-profit or even losing sale but it is her fault for the oversight and she should honour it, not punish buyers for her mistake. I stand by my principle and what I said in my email to her. I will not pay a single sen more than what I should simply because I am not supposed to..consumer's rights. I am attaching screenshots of the offer, sale item, normal price item, and our email exchanges as proof, I'll even fwd you the whole email if you want. I understand that it is FT's policy not to expose blogshop owners (u can always blur out the names) and I respect that but I really hope you will post this story to educate other buyers and sellers. Seriously, read the t&c before ordering/paying to avoid regrets.

Thanks, FT..for being our ears.

Reader 245

Hi FT.

i would like to have the opinion of the public on this matter :

Clothes sold online may be of poorer quality compared to outside. This statement varies depending on the item itself, right? well. in my opinion, i dont expect top-notch quality when i purchase from online stores. Even for blogshops that is very reputable and claims that they only bring in quality goods, i dont trust them. i've personally purchased from one of this "reputable" stores before and was disappointed because there was a hole in the dress! However, although there's a hole in the dress, i was marveled at the service that was given to be by that store. She was willing to give me a full refund, and allowed me to keep that dress.

BUT recently, i purchased this dress from Store Q. I got the dress, was happy, because it looked nice. During COD, when i felt the material, it felt plastic-ish. polyester type, i think. but i couldn't remember what was the description on the website regarding the material, so i thought i myself have forgot that it was polyester cotton. However, when i checked the website, the material was stated as : THICK COTTON.
Polyester Cotton and Thich Cotton is VERY DIFFERENT

i went home, tried on the dress, and felt uncomfortable due to the stiff POLYESTER COTTON. it's sooooo different compared to THICK cotton. i can't believe that seller actually thought of saying it's thick cotton. anyway, since i can fit in the dress pretty nicely (although the elastic band at the back was loose, the girl said a girl about the same size as me could wear it. and i figured it wasn't a big problem, so i just left it aside).

few days later (or was it about 2 weeks), i can't remember. i dont wash my clothes that quickly, especially clothes that require hand washing. Anyway, when i hand washed it, the colour ran. it's a black dress. i understand that some shirts/dresses ' colour would run, so i didn't bother. washed it, took it out to hang, and when i ironed it, i noticed the COLOUR WAS DIFFERENT!

the BLACK colour was no longer the RICH BLACK that i saw when i first received the dress. it was faded black. as if the dress is an old dress.!!! i WAS FURIOUS!. who wouldn't ?!

i emailed the seller, and she said that she wouldn't know since they dont wash the dress before selling. OK. GRANTED. but the thing is, The dress that was sold to me is NOT IN GOOD QUALITY when the colour actually ran! the colour faded!! if the colour runs to a certain extent, i'm ok, as long as after wash dried and ironed the clothes still look good and new. but this is certainly not the case.

to everyone, what are your opinion on this matter?

Reader 245

Hi.
just wanted to share.
i made a purchase with a blogshop selling accessories.
i asked the owner, whether or not she'll be at the 3K bazaar somewhere in mid July. She said "no, it was last month". (i remembered seeing the notice somewhere that she'll be at the 3K bazaar, but since she said no, nevermind, i left it there)
the reason why i ask about whtr or not she'll be at the bazaar is i wanted to save on postage. if i can COD at the bazaar, it would be so much better.

so she said no. so i had to go for postage. previously, i wanted to buy 3 items, and she said she would give me 10% off on the last item should i take all 3 items. it was too expensive. so i didn't take it.
after paying up, and waiting for postage, i went bk to their site again, and guess what?
they're on SALE! the item that i wanted to buy was discounted more than 10%. and the notice that they'll be at 3K bazaar was up too!!

i was so so disappointed.
then i thought, it's really not their fault. BUT i think again, if a buyer is so willing to purchase and is worried about the high cost, the seller could've gave a special discount ? (since they are already going to be on sale few days later!!!)

=( disappointed.
i'm not sure i'll ever purchase from them again because it's definitely not a good experience.

holla!

been receiving loads of emails from readers although we're inactive at the moment.

here's one that we would like to share with u guys =)

-------------------------------------------

Dear Fashion Truth,

Before proceeding, I really wish to thank you in advance for helping me to post this message up. If, in the event that you find it irrelevant, do notify me in case you do not wish to have in on your blog. =)

I understand that it's really not easy being...you. Doing price comparisons are bound to ruffle a few feathers here and there, and sellers who cannot accept this will always try to justify, defend and offer explanations for their actions.

To sellers,

Price comparisons have exist since time immemorial. In world of competitive marketing, no one is exempted. Turn the pages of the newspapers, do you see how different brands compare their prices against competitors? That's is even more obvious, and for the whole nation to see.

So instead of emailing the webmistresses with harassing or demanding requests, I suggest that you revise your marketing strategy. Perhaps you can endeavor to stand out from other blogshops offering the same dress. For example, offer dresses that are not seen in other blogshops. You can do this buy not buying from the same supplier that supplies clothes to every Tom, Dick and Harry shop out there. If you've been in the business for some time, I'm sure you can roughly guess which blogshop orders from which supplier...I mean, for example, the denim ruffled skirt with zipper is seen everywhere.

Another method is: Learn from the Singaporean blogshops. Have you seen Bonitochico? Lyla Rose? Agneselle? I am frankly amazed at the clothes they offer to their customers. Though they claim that their clothes are handpicked from overseas (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand), which roughly translates into the same suppliers most Malaysian blogshop owners rely on, how is it that their clothes are so much better in terms of design and quality? You wouldn't see many Sg Wang-ish kimonos in those shops, or clinchers that can be bought from the Taman Connaught pasar malam.

The best part is, some of them even manufacture their own clothes.

The bottomline is, instead of complaining, please do channel your ideas towards improving your blogshops. If your design is unique, your customer service is good, I see no reason why girls like myself should fuss about higher prices.

Cheers, and all the best to you!

----------------------------------------

from FT :

will provide a more detailed update soon.
thanks!

Reader 244

Hi FT,

I just wanted to share an experience I had with an online 2nd hand designer goods shop. First of all, do you think it is reasonable to ask for many pictures of the item especially when the item is branded? Secondly, do you think that the shop owners would have the decency to inform you that the item is damaged in some way the first time you ask? I'm not angry but I am annoyed that this particular shop didn't seem very forthcoming in telling me about the product the first time I asked. I was interested in one of their handbags which was selling at a really low price. From the two pictures on the website, it looked like it was in really good condition even though the description did say its condition is 70%. Due to this detail, I know for sure that there are some problems with it. Naturally, I emailed to ask about this bag and to ask for some more pictures. I got a reply telling me that - it is in very good condition and for me not to worry about it - that was it...no pictures attached. I thought ok...they probably just overlooked that part of the email...fine...i'll email again. This time I asked how they knew it was genuine and again to ask for more pictures. They replied and gave me a list of their policy which didn't tell me at all how they know it's genuine, one line read "We have the way to prove it is that genuine befor collect from clients or..." What "way" is that? It still doesn't reassure me at all. So I thought I would do my own research but I need more pictures of the bag which they still haven't sent or let alone acknowledge! They have a habit of ignoring my questions but when I show interest of buying by asking about CODs and postage, they answer that straight away.

Anyways, to cut it short, I did get some pictures in the next reply from them. One was a new picture while the other two were the same ones they had on their website! A whole lot of good that is! I called them in the end to talk to them and this is when the truth comes out after all that emailing! They finally told me that the bag is damaged in the inside pocket, she said she couldn't explain it so I asked for pictures again and she said ok. I also asked her on the phone how she knows it's genuine, she sounded offended that I would ask such a question but this is a natural question, I thought, to ask a blogshop that has no guarantees on the product's authenticity. So, I got the picture of the damaged pocket and it looks bad. I couldn't figure out what went on in there! It looked green like mould or something and the coating of the fabric was torn. You would think that they would have told me that right at the beginning when I asked about the condition of the bag, don't you think so? What if I had bought it and only realised this after I got it? They have a no refund and no comment policy which means I would have been cheated!

I just think that these 2nd hand designer shop owners need to tell the truth from the beginning about their items and I think they need to provide more than 2-3 pictures of their items. These are designer items, the amount they are asking for is still quite high. I know some people will say "then don't buy 2nd hand items" but that is just being ignorant. Sometimes we do find good bargains but we still need to know that it is authentic otherwise we will have been cheated. We should get as much information as possible about the items just like people do on ebay where they give pictures of all angles of the item. They don't have to post it on the site but at least they have it ready to be sent off when customers ask for them. I also don't want to go back and forth about the item through email or SMS because I know it's a nuisance. If they provide all the information in the first place, it would be a lot easier AND a decision could be made a lot quicker!

Reader 243

Dear FT,

I would like to share with you my online purchase experience with Summeracres. First of all, her clothes are highly affordable and good quality. At first I thought that her clothes are not good quality since her price are unbelievably cheap. But I was so wrong. I spent RM30 for a RM50 quality. She was nice enough to travel all the way from Kajang to The Curve to meet up with me for COD (I bought in bulk) with no extra charges plus she gave me some discount and free gift! Since I bought in bulk from her, she insisted that I try on the clothes first cause I told her that my concern is the chest area.

Secondly, I'm very impressed with how fast she replies my email queries. This is what so great about buying from a full-timer owner. On my second and third purchases from her and she was busy for COD, she gave me free postage plus some slight discount and my parcel is sent out on the same day! Sometimes she has new stocks coming in, she is also able to send out my parcel the next morning. It doesn't really matter if she gave discount or not but what matters to me is that she try to give discount although she doesn't profit much. I love her way of doing the business as she puts customer first.

To Summeracres, thank you for making my e-shopping such an enjoyable experience. I love all your clothes. Hope you will continue to list more and more pretty clothes with such a good price! I will continue to shop from your store. Congratulations on the new domain!

Thanks FT for reading and hope this will get published cause I think this girl really needs a pat on the shoulder to let her know that she has done a great job and keep up the good work.

Reader 242

Hi FT.

I'm gonna make this short and sweet. I'm very laid-back and I don't mind if the sellers reply late nor do I bargain with sellers because I totally understand that some sellers have already offered the best price for us buyers. If I see something that I like but I find it too expensive, I'll just move onto the next blog shop. However, I've came across 2 pre-loved blog shops with (in my opinion) disappointing behaviors.

Pre-Loved Blogshop #1

I inquired about a dress on May 23rd, she replied back on May 25th. (I understand that she may not be in front of the computer all the time to promptly respond). I asked another question on the 25th and she replied on the 26th and I confirmed on the 26th itself that I wanted the dress like below;

"Alrighty. I'll take it. Send me the price quotation and account details. Postage is via Pos Express. (:

{My details; name, address and so on}

Btw, do you have a Maybank account? If so, I can make payment faster through Maybank2u. (:"

I asked her because it was stated on her blog that she has a Public Bank account.

She didn't reply, until a week later where I got an e-mail from her saying the dress was already sold. :/ She didn't give me her account details so if she's gonna give me the "first come first serve basis" excuse, it's not fair on my half. Perhaps she was lazy to deal with me because I couldn't make fast payment to her Public Bank account?

Plus, if she took about a week to reply (she might have not come online in that duration), how could she have sold the dress? And no, there's no phone number on her blog for anyone else to contact. Unless, she sold it to a friend of hers. Then I take back what I said.

Pre-Loved Blogshop #2

I inquired about a pair of shoes, she never did reply and when I checked yesterday it was already sold.

I would have really appreciate it if she had the courtesy of letting me know that the shoes have already been sold, even if I could check myself. Replying to one e-mail is not that difficult right? A short "I'm sorry it's sold" will do.

-------------------------------------------------

I purposely did not put in their blog shop names as I do not want to give them free publicity on FT and it's nothing THAT serious, just a little complaint.

I know that pre-loved blog shops' main purpose is getting rid of their junks and it's nothing permanent. But come on, be more courteous.

Reader 241

Hi FT,

I am writing this with reference to Reader 240 as I am also facing the same problem. It seems that e-shop owners do not get it when we tell them that we want to unsubscribe from the "updates" email from them. Worst of all I did not even subscribe for those emails in the first place.

Therefore, to e-shop owners please take note of this matter as it is rather annoying to receive "updates" emails that we did not subscribe to.

Thank you for your cooperation & thank you FT for putting this up.

Reader 240

The straw that broke this camel's back came from an email that dlookingglass.com sent.

Since a few months ago, I've been getting spam email from them, telling me about their updates, sales, etc. The thing is, although I might have inquired about something once (can't remember), I definitely didn't buy anything from them, nor have I ever asked to be signed up for their mailing list. I understand if they automatically put emails into their mailing list without being asked, but even after I asked them numerous times to remove me from their list, they never did!

On my second time firmly telling them to remove my email, they replied

"Hey Dear,

Unsubscribed. Thanks ;)"


And I thought that was the end of it. Oh boy was I wrong. More emails were sent to me, even after I got quite pissed off, and asked them to remove my email in BIG BRIGHT BOLD RED LETTERS, and had "REMOVE ME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST" in the subject line. Quite hard to miss, don't you think? Apparently it was, for whoever's managing DLookingGlass' emails.

To make matters worse, my secondary email address was also on their list. Again, they sent that account the fake unsubscribed email only after my second time complaining to them (also in BIG BRIGHT BOLD RED LETTERS. I was really really reallllyyy annoyed then). Again, I still got emails!


All the emails I have with me now are only from when they changed to a .com from .blogspot.com, so you can imagine how long I've been trying to get them to stop spamming my emails. If only I didn't delete their previous emails, for even back then they were spamming me!

Yes, they don't send spam mails that often, so I'm not so ticked off about that. It's the fact that they still spam mail both my accounts after at least 4 emails asking to unsubscribe per account was sent.

D Looking Glass, if you're reading this, unsubscribe me for real this time, will ya?


----
End of major rant, but not of complaints. Am gonna keep this short though before I start cussing.

1) Blogshop owners, please remember to put your list of emails into the BCC column. I'm sure all your customers will rather not have everyone else know their emails.

2) Also please stop "stealing" email addresses from the tagbox/mailing list of other blogs. I've gotten emails from random blogshops that I'm 100% sure I didn't contact before, and I know that I'm not the only one who's had that happen to them. Also, don't take blogshops' email addresses from their blogs to auto-subscribe them (unless they asked to of course). Business is business, private is private. Keep it that way.

3) Don't auto-subscribe people (customers or inquirers) just because they've emailed you before, or did business with you before. It's all right if they (customers or inquirers) asked to be on the list, but just because we emailed you doesn't mean we want to be spammed with your updates. Some of us prefer bloghopping or use RSS feeds.

4) If you give an option for people to unsubscribe, really, truly unsubscribe them. If you're lying to your potential clients over something small like that, how are we supposed to trust you on other more important things?


----------------------------------------

Dear Fashion Truth,

Thanks for informing us about the complaint and we'll definately work it our to improve our service :) here is our reply to our beloved customers
:)


Dear Reader,

Saying sorry doesn't really change much but we're still really sorry for the inconveniences we've caused you. Allow us to clarify.

Our mailing list consists of more than 1000 email addresses and we admit that we have a hard time trying to maintain it; not due to laziness but due to the lack of time as both owners are working full-time. We are already currently in the process of doing some house-keeping on the
list which will take a long time as the list is not even in alphabetical order. (On a side note; our email addresses are all gotten legally and we did not steal from other people's tagbox. As mentioned above, we are both working full-time and we do not have the time or the unethical
character to do things like that.)

However, we can honestly tell you that we did unsubscribed your email address from our list, 'for real' as you quote. There is seriously no reason for us to lie about unsubscribing you from our list because how will that benefit us? Nonetheless, we’re not sure how your email address got into our list time and time again. Maybe due to the fact that our list is updated with new addresses once in a while. Or maybe there are duplicates of your email addresses in our list (which as mentioned above, we are currently vetting through and doing some clean-up). Hence the email updates coming through even though we've unsubscribed you from our mailing list.

We can assure you that the last email you've received from D Looking Glass will be the last that you'll ever receive from us now and in the future. Would appreciate it if you could email us both your main and secondary email addresses (and any other email addresses) that you
wish to remove from our mailing list (just to ensure that none of your email addresses remains in our mailing list).

:) Sorry again for the inconveniences caused.

Sincerely,
D Looking Glass

Reader 239

Hey there Fashion Truth,

I would love to talk about this blogshop - Fascinate88. I recently bought a fedora from them and boy, I find them super nice. Firstly, I was enquiring on the prices of the postage, I wasn't too convinced to pay so much for postage and they were kind hearted enough to give me a 2buck discount, not much you might say, but its really a nice gesture. Unlike many blogshops out there who are really unwilling to give us discounts - " business is business sorta thing ", "sorry not negotiable " which annoys me to the very maximum. But what can I say, I am lucky I found em' !

Secondly, I have a very very naggy mom and it was pretty tough to ask her to bank in the money via online banking because she thinks I shop too much (maybe), for one week, fascinate has been asking me (not bugging) in a very nice way, with all the smilies in her email, whether I would still want the item. They waited for me for a whole week, and my mama have finally banked in (thanklord).

Posted this because I would like everyone to have a look at their site, they deserve the attention :)

Click here to enter

p/s : they support a very good cause too - PULAU KETAM DOG RESCUE MISSION

With love,
XXX

Reader 238

Hi FT!

I came across this contest recently - held in April on an blogshop - and was appalled. The winner for the contest was based on how many email addresses the person can provide to this blogshop!

Worst thing is, just the winner of the contest alone submitted more than 300 email addresses! The owner of the blogshop even stated that she has verified that all of the 300+ email are valid. I wonder how did the winner get hold of these many addresses, and do the owners of the address consent to their email being used for this purpose?

To quote the blogshop owner, "i will use those emails to promote my blogshop". Isn't it very unethical to acquire email addresses through this way and then spamming the inbox of people who didn't even request to receive mail from you? And also, it's equally disgusting that people are willing to help spam for the sake of winning a prize.

The blogshop in particular had some nice items I might have been interested in, but with this bad impression, it just doesn't make me feel confident about the products she sells and the service provided.

Reader 237

Hello FT,

I've been an avid online shopper for about a year plus already. And I would like to share my experience with this blogshop Lush Serendipity. It's been quite some time I've been purchasing stuffs from her onliine boutique. Recently she's been undeniably unreasonable, self-centered and very arrogant. I've read about the complaints other customers said about her. And now, I'm starting to agree with them. I reserved 2 pair of heels with her last month. I emailed her asking about the heels.

"Hey babe, I'm interested in the Flats in white and the gladiators. both in size 40 available? :) "

Within few minutes, she promptly replied me through via sms,

"Hey babe. Yeah Flats in white and gladiators I'll restock for you next week yea? :)"

"Ok dear. Thanks. Do let me know when you have the shoes yeah. Then I'll arrange the cod timing."

"Hey dear. The gladiators sold out already. So it's only the flats :("

"Yeah sure. How about the lindsay pumps?"

"Owh that one sold out too. :( So it's just the flats dear? "

"Yeah. Will arrange the cod date soon :) Thanks."

"Hey dear. Can you cod tomorrow? My sis will be able to cod with you at Monash Uni."

"Yeah. At 3pm ok?"

"Yeah. :) Thanks"

As the cod time was arranged at 3pm, she last minute sms my sis and told her to change it to 4pm as she was having her facial. It's ok to cancel cod last minute as sometimes certain appointments have been arranged in advance. And by 4pm, she told my sis in 15 minutes she'll be there. =.= and guess what time she came? At 4.40. I don't blame her for being late as sunway area is always jam at certain timing. But she proudly came and pass the top to my sis without an apology for changing the cod timing last minute and for being late! My god! i really think thats rude!! Other blog owners will have the courtesy to apologize even if they're 5 minutes late but she was 40 minutes late and delayed the cod last minute have the guts to just meet up with my sis and gladly took the money and went off. Her shoes are undeniably nice. Just that her customer service is bad. My sis then passed me the shoes when she came home and told me the whole story. At first I didn't want to make a big fuss about it. Till one of the midnights she updated with new heels and clothes. I emailed her again and ask,

"Hey dear. Is the stylish adele available in black or white? I'm interested. :)"

"Hey dear. Yeah. Both available. When do you wanna cod?"

"Erm this Fri again? Same timing? 3pm?"

"Yeah sure.. :)"

* As I do not want the previous incident to happen again, I emailed her and told her

" Oh yeah babe, this Fri at 3pm right? Confirm?"

"Yeah. :)"

"Owh ok. Please be punctual yeah cause my sis has to rush off somewhere."

.....

I did not get a reply from her till today. -.- Was I being rude? I just told her politely to be on time cause who won't be pissed if you're always late? We have better things to do than to wait for you so yeah -.- And I again texted her and ask her

"Hey dear. So, is the cod still up? Are the heels still reserved for me? "

I assume it is cause in her blog it's still reserved there so yeah. And when I called her. She cancelled my call again. Texted her about 7 times but still no reply. I mean, come on! If you're not willing to sell it to me, then just let me know, rather than me asking her and texting her about the cod time. Cause honestly, I really didn't think I was being rude.

So the moral of the story to myself is : never buy from LS again. Lousy customer service.

.Annonymous.

----------------------

Received no response from LS regarding this matter.

Reader 236

I thought long and hard before deciding to write this. I am an avid e-shopper and have bought from a number of blogshops for the past 3 months or so.

Here are my comments on the blogshops that made an impact on me:

Dr.Pizzicato = I loved the fact that she made such a lot of effort to liaise with me for a COD. Her schedule and mine was totally clashing, but she went to great lengths to arrange for a COD. Thanks girl (and your bf too for passing the items to me :P)

TheItGirlOnline = She too was reallllly sweet about arranging for a meetup and tried her best to accomodate by crazy schedule. The top that I bought from her had a few seams that were loose, and she immediately offered an exchange and apologized profusely but I didnt think that I would hassle her again for an exchange. A stitch or two on my end would do the trick nicely. Im not a huge fusspot really ;)

However, the blogshop that made me the happiest was MidnightCarnivale. I was looking for clinchers and suggested a few types that I wanted and she specifically restocked one for me without me paying her first. And though the picture on her blog of the clincher (Feisty) is not so good, but gosh, the real thing is awesome! Im sooo glad I bought it from her, in black at that! And also, I bought the Topshop inspired floral dress from her too at RM48, and OMGGGG Im lovinnggggg it to bits! Planning to wear it tomorrow if possible :P The quality is really good, im amazed she's selling it at that price. I would say that this item is the best item out of the dozens of stuff I have bought from various blogshops.

Knowing that I will be unavailable and busy, MidnightCarnivale delivered the items to my apartment by COD without any fuss. Thanks girl for the effort.

I have a grouse with one blogshop though. ABLINC. I bought three items from her, and she did give me a discount. However, I felt that the Tomb Raider jacket that she is selling (which is stated as containing 10% leather) to be untrue. There is no leather ANYWHERE in the jacket. I did mention this to her, and she said that the supplier claims that there is 10% leather. I believe that sellers should not believe what their suppliers say 100%. One must be wise enough to be proactive to check and verify. I feel that she should remove that 10% leather claim on her blog as it is misrepresentation and would mislead potential customers. Apart from that, she was quite polite and nice towards me.

So sellers, do make an effort to go the extra mile for your customers. I know that I am one of those customers who would make repeat purchases from your blog merely on the grounds that you were nice to me, and not just coz of price alone ;)

Reader 235

Dear Fashion Truth,

I would like to have your favor to publish this bad experience with this seller, her name is Patricia XXX. She does not have a blogshop as she is just an individual who has posted in Shopping Critique to help her out to sell a t-shirt which couldn't fit her. I've even asked Shopping Critique to help me out in this and Patricia did not reply her. I've countless emails and lastly, all i get is failure in delivering the emails, which can only mean one thing: the email accounts are gone! like, *poof.

So here is the sequence of events from day one till to date:

Feb 13:

Heys dear,
The owner of the 'cutecloset' blogshop told me you would like to sell of the 'emo' tee... can i get it RM15?(=

Seller: hi, im sorry but im selling it the price i got it for cause it's totally brand new. are u still interested in it? if
so, the total is RM22 + RM6 = RM28
my maybank acc:

Me: RM6? but can i opt for RM4 for pos express?Thanks

Seller: um im really sorry but posexpress is really out of my way, i have to take a bus 20 minutes away just to get to the pos office and by the time i reach there it'd be around 6:30 which means it's always closed. but poslaju is a lot more nearer, just 5 minutes walk away.. do you mind? im so sorry :(

seller: i live in johor... it's just an additional two ringgit, please?

me: oh, ure from johor...i see, i see...do you mind if i get the t-shirt from for RM20 well, plus pos laju then? is the shirt made of good quality cotton and is the graphics on the shirt nicely done? just wana check if i'm buying good stuff, hope you understand..(=

seller: im selling it for the price i got because it's in perfect condition and totally brand new. and yes, the graphic, material is really good. :)

me: awrites. whn can you post it to me?i should be able to bank in tmr..

seller: right after i receive the payment :) let me know :)

So, the day came by and i made my payment on 18 Feb and she did not reply me until 22 Feb because she was away for competition ...or so she says. So i believed her.

I apologized to her for being antsy and at the same time asking for the tracking number on the 24 Feb and 27 Feb.

Then only on the 28 Feb she replied:
"will do real soon sorry about the delay!!"

>>> so what does this suppose to mean?she said that she will immediately do it after i've made the payment and counting the days, it's 10 days after i've made the payment. So ok, it's 7 days after taking into account her days at 'competition'. She has the knack to ask for RM6 for postage (pos laju) instead of RM4 for the sake of her convenience! Did she not say that it's just TEN minutes away from her house...?


So I keep waiting and waiting for the parcel to arrive. I sent numerous emails ....and then,

on the Apr 1, she replied:
"what! i sent you eons ago! what is all these? my laptop was out for repair and there are so many mails from you asking for that t shirt!
i SENT IT OUT TO YOU ALREADY! LONG AGO!"

>>so it's my fault for asking for the status of my shirt? wow, great... and avoid getting strained our transactional relationship, i apologized and asking for the tracking number, for which she could have given me instead of shouting, roight? =.='''

me: which is why i need the tracking number.. and now that it is definitely lost somewhere by those post office people, would appreciate your help to furnish me the details so that i can track it and spare your troubles.. thanks

seller: okay. i'll try to help find as much as i can. sorry bout what happened.

>>> so she has a heart afterall, and like any of you, putting yourselves in my situation, would give her the benefit of doubt after all that has happened. Wouldn't you?

But believe me, that was the last of her reply after promising to help me look for my parcel. The question lies, "why cant she just give me the tracking number? What's so difficult?" So i sent emails on the Apr 3, 7 and 21, May 6 and lastly, May 13:

"Hi Patricia,
Week in, week out i have been emailing you. I hope you can furnish me the tracking number of the t-shirt which you claimed to have sent to me! Thanks."

>>>In return, I got this:

" This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification
Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:
onfla*******@gmail.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
The email account that you tried to reach does not exist. Please try double-checking the recipient's email address for typos or unnecessary spaces. Learn more at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6596

----- Original message -----
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by 10.141.43.19 with SMTP id v19mr163496rvj.226.

1242189772757; Tue,
12 May 2009 21:42:52 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: ....
References: .....
Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 12:42:52 +0800
Message-ID: 4e748b2f1ff7fb6@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: the emo tee(=
From:@gmail.com>
To: Patricia
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=000e0cd20a32261cbd0469c3d808

--000e0cd20a32261cbd0469c3d808
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hi Patricia,
Week in, week out i have been emailing you. I hope you can furnish me the tracking number of the t-shirt which you claimed to have sent to me! Thanks.

----- Message truncated -----"

>> So, there goes the t-shirt of which I know not where it is. To date, it's been THREE months and the parcel has yet to arrive. If there is anyone of out there who KNOWS who this PATRICIA from Johor is, please let me know. All i need the tracking number and i would like to do the finding... ):

Thanks!

Reader 234

HI FT,

Thanks for having such a blog so that us buyers/sellers can share our online shopping experience with others. I used to hesitate buying clothes online because of not able to look at the real item itself and had to make a payment first. So i consider myself not a risk taker and had alwayz been cautious wit money issue. But then last year, i've changed my POV abt buying clothes online because it's so much more convenient and there is various types of designs/clothes available in juz one clickaway. I've tried preorders but becoz of the lengthy time waiting for it and stimes it doesnt turn out to be wat im expecting (e size might defer frm the measurements stated), i've then turn to sellers that gets frm local suppliers which i thk much more promising. (based on my own experience, no offense to preorders sellers yea!)

My favourite blogshop will be SIISONE ( http://www.siisone.blogspot.com/ ) which i thk their clothes r pretty and selling at a very reasonable price. I've bought from other blogshops as well, and most of them provides gd service but then some is a bit too pricey. I have a budget to spent on clothes every month so i cant afford for impulse buying.

Once i saw e same top i bought on9 in Sungei Wang and my jaws drop down e moment i saw the price. Its oni RM 35.00 meanwhile i bought it for RM55.00. So den they will say that they get it from other suppliers which use different material, but it was exactly the same with mine!! Den i sort of taken aback frm that seller and turn to other blogshops. There is a blogshop which sells the same style of dress n tops for each updatez and with prices around RM50 for most of it, stil, they r able to sell off most of the clothes. So im juz curious what is the buyers looking for now. Is it the quality of the clothes? The design? or the price?

I'm sorry if i have offended the sellers in anyway yea. It's solely my opinion and shopping experience.

Thanks,

LittleDottie

Reader 233

The reader that sent in *Alternatives 300* also would like to compliment Phat Culture for their services :

Oh and I also want to commend Phat Culture because I asked her about a dress I was unsure about.. and she went out of her way to get a larger sized girl to try it on and tell me if it would fit..even if it would risk the sale of her product... ! Other blogshop owners should take this initiative too.. kudos Phat Culture!! :)

Reader 232

First and foremost, I think whoever thought of this idea of this was a genius!! My friend told me about this site,.. and I think it's grea tto keep the online shoppers in the know of who's best to shop from ;)!

I would like to share my online shopping experience too... :)

Simpli-licious has very good service.. she reserved the shirt for me for longer than a week and when she COD-ed with me there was even a free pair of earrings in the plastic bag!! and she was very friendly too.. service with a smile always helps. I will definitely shop from her blogshop again.

Red Lips Closet is quite good too.. they are very caring.. and answered all my questions (i like to ask alot of questions about the product) and reserved my product for quite long.. I think as long as we customers inform them we'll bank in at a certain time and keep to our word, blogshop owners will be less wary to reserve products.. it is customers who have no consideration for others who give others a bad name...

A bit of everywhere is really good too!! I was interested in purchasing something from her and asked for fashion help and she was so helpful. I did not buy the top in the end but I will definitely buy something from her as she is pleasant and lovely enough to answer all my detailed questions.. haha.. She recommended that I don't take her top as I told her my measurements.. I mean how many blogshop owners would do that wei?? She should really be commended for this behavior..

I once enquired about a top at Dovey Lovey and she was nice enough to let me try the top on when we COD-ed and told me I didn't need to take it if it didn't suit me.. I didn't take in the end... but she was lovely about it... this is another attribute that is truly commendable!! Plus she answered all my questions satisfactorily.. :)

I would like to remind blogshop owners to remove photos of things that are unavailable.. this is mainly for those pre-order sites because it is very disappointing to see something cute and to be told that it's out of stock etc etc...

And blogshop owners who keep demanding customers to pay up for items only to be told that the color they wanted is unavailable?? this happened to me but I was okay with it.. but obviously I would have been happier if she found out first and informed me beforehand so i could perhaps change my order or something..

Anyway, Thank you FT .. keep up the good work!!! :)

Reader 231

Hey there fashion truth.
I just wanna share my experience in buying things online for the first time.
Im always browsing thru clothes online and such but I've never actually bought anything .
I've been looking for a pair if black gladdy wedges and I found one blogshop selling it in my size.
And that is www.duskywings.blogspot.com :)
So i thought why not ?

So i submitted the order and I actually paid quite late but she was very patient bout it.
There was something wrong with the machine and it wont accept my rm 1 or rm 5 ,so i banked in extra, and I told the seller that she could keep the change. But to my suprise, when the parcel arrived this afternoon,There was change inside the shoe box too. I was very very happy cause the shoes fit me perfectly and the seller was very nice . Two thumbs up for her.♥

The next blogshop is www.simpli-cious.blogspot.com :)
I bought a black coat/cardigan from her. the seller is a very patient person as i was asking her quite a number of questions.
After submitting the order, I paid quite late again. I was busy with school and such and i informed her. And she was okay with it.
When i received the parcel this afternoon, I tried it and even my mom loves it!. And i paid extra cause there was something wrong with the Maybank Machine, so i told her she could keep the change. And guess what? There was a free earring attached with the coat ! I was very suprised. And that earring is very cute too :) Two thumbs up for her too.

Overall, Those two parcels made my day. :) They came in good and awesome condition too. Will definitely buy from them again.
Thanks ya ! :D

-Happy customer

Reader 230

Hello Fashion Truth,

This is my first time writing this to you and it is after my FIRST EVER ONLINE PURCHASE.

I am so surprised that malaysia online shopping has gotten so far and i am really happy after i bought few accessories from
A Fashion Story(www.afashionstory.blogspot.com) .

Before talking about my good experience, i would have to say i am so tempted to buy things online, but i was afraid that i got cheated.
So, after hesitating for quite some time, i finally decided, "Why not give it a try?"

So i started with AFS, and to my amazement:

The owner is very patient and she even informed me the status of my delivery after she sent out that day itself.
She knows that i am new to online shopping, and she actually guided me steps by steps , she didnt force me to buy anything from her. She kept on mentioning it is alright if i just enquire. and i have to give 2 thumps up for her good service.

I am really satisfied with the jewellery bought.. and i have to say," I WILL BE BACK FOR MORE" HAHAHAH

and i wish that every online sellers can bring more stuffs to this online shopping world for the convenience of the buyers.

I think i gonna shop more in other blogshops since i also see quite a lot of nice clothes!!!

and also for those first time buyers: Dont hesitate to start online shopping in Malaysia, they are really trustable, so i will just continue my online shopping journey!!!

Hope this also serve encouragement for all blogshops out there!

Thank you!

Regards,

Satisfied customer