Meg K.

My first purchase from Zulily went fine. I ordered a bag, it came as expected a few weeks later. The second purchase was a metal spice rack and some other organizational products. Some metal pieces on the spice rack were welded crooked, so the spice jars didn't rest in the grooves. (And what good is a spice rack when it cant even hold the spice jars that accompany it?) I called Zulily and was told it was a final sale and I could not exchange it because it was no longer offered. So they offered me a $10 credit, which would be nice if it covered a fraction of what I spent on the spice rack. I waited two months for them to ship a spice rack that didn't even hold spices. Great.

Since that didn't quite fill up my BS meter,... I fell in love with a duvet cover, and Zulily just happened to be offering it, so I placed my third order with them. I then ran across the exact same duvet on the Bed Bath and Beyond website ten minutes later, for the same price after BBB's 20% coupon. I went back to Zulily to cancel my order, as BBB's shipping is much faster and FREE. Zulily hadn't even processed my payment, but the response on their website when I cancelled was that it would take "several days" to process my refund and they also shorted me the freight amount. Even though the item was never even ordered from their supplier and was never shipped anywhere. So they went ahead and charged me, took days to give me a refund, and I'm still out freight costs.

So, here's what I've found out. Their prices are NOT special. Many other online sites offer the exact same discounts. I still subscribe to their e-mails, and when they have something I want, I google the item and it's usually offered by a big retailer for about the same price. And big retailers aren't going to take two months to ship it to you and deny refunds and returns for crappy items. If you sign up for e-mails most retailers will send you coupon codes that put their prices on par with Zulily. Zulily isn't some kind of exclusive buying website. These retailers are trying to offload overstock, season's crap, and items they can't sell elsewhere, and any store with buying power can and does offer the exact same prices. And if I buy something I don't like from BBB, or it arrives broken, I can march up in the store and get my money back the next day. There is no legitimate company that denies returning a broken item.