Sam B.

Around 2 days after I'd posted this review, the website had a new and somewhat interesting feature implemented. It is called a "waitlist"! A 2014 version of the old "wishlist" (which still exists but services very little purpose). Unlike the "wishlist", the "waitlist" allows forever21.com's users to select an option called "I still want it" on items that have run out of stock. It's still not as great as it sounds tho', the option is available to only a very limited amount of items and is yet to be available for the majority of the items on the site (And we don't even know how many items will have the feature in the future, but here's hoping it will be available for the majority of the website's items), more importantly we have yet to see it in action as it has only been implemented for a few days now. I had actually never thought that forever 21's employees read the reviews posted online, there are quite a few nasty ones about their customer service, employees, return policy and items. As a result, I'd written reviews out of sheer frustration and didn't expect to be taken seriously. After this, I'm not sure that forever 21 is as horrible as the poor depictions of it on the internet. I mean, when you make a major adjustment to your policy within 48 hours of a complaint, you are doing your job right (although this adjustment is yet to endure the test of time and well, it's not as largely implemented as I'd hoped).

The old review:

It's "okay", not great (but could be!)

The site itself is great and no, I have never had a bad experience shopping there, however, I do have some comments regarding the items that are sold on the site. Like any other site, it's got items that are great and ones that are... well, not so great. Naturally, the "great" items run out of stock quickly, and are unfortunately rarely restocked, sizes small and medium run out extremely rapidly and although the items receive great reviews and are frequently requested to be put back on the site, they're hardly ever back. The site itself doesn't display any info regarding forever21's re-socking policy and when you email the employees, they respond saying that they don't know if the items that are out of stock will ever be restocked. The US store underwent a "makeover" recently, it no longer has a "back in stock" category, almost as if they never intend to restock anything ever again. This is extremely disappointing to me as a customer, I am a student so naturally I am incapable of purchasing everything I want right away as I have to save money for a period of time in order to afford shopping. The fact that they are putting this out there in a way that makes it seem almost as if they are saying "boohoo. You didn't have the money to buy that jacket back then? Guess what? It's gone now! Better try your luck with our physical stores. Oh and by the way, we know you've tried that before and it didn't work out but still, it's the cliche we're going to stick to!" is just terrible. I don't think it's a bad marketing strategy to restock items that ran out quickly, sold a significant number of units and are top rated/ frequently praised, so I can't think of any reason why the site won't put back the "great" stuff instead of putting "not so great new stuff" each and every day, it just hurts... it really does. I get that having more items will definitely increase the site's generated revenue, but not all items are favorable. Plus, more money and customer satisfaction can be garnered by gaining customers' approval through good quality items, rather than just "new" ones which may or may not be good. It just makes it super easy for people with money to get the good stuff and for the not so fortunate to wear the "not so good" stuff (if they're lucky they'll manage to get the stuff they want a size larger than their own before that one runs out of stock too!), which wasn't the purpose behind creating the brand in the 1st place... It's supposed to be affordable fashion for all.