Frances B.

Lowering this by two stars because my mailbox has been overflowing with bra and lingerie catalogs since I became a ThirdLove customer. Thanks, guys. It's not only a pain for me (and probably makes the mail carrier smirk) but it's really bad for the environment. It's puzzling because I always opt out of the "share your information with our partners" choice when I set up an account with a merchant. But it must beThirdLove that did this because they are the only new lingerie company I have signed up with in a few years. And the catalogs started coming about a quarter year after my first order. That's generally how often mailing lists are sold. It doesn't make me "love" the company.

Update: had to get my refund through PayPal dispute, escalated to claim.

Current and Elliott used to make really good tee shirts that fit well and lasted for ages. I recently purchased two online, though, and one arrived with a large hole in the collar binding. The hole was front and center on the shirt, and fully visible inside the clear plastic bag the shirt was packaged in. Yet the warehouse sent it out anyway. The company sent me a return label when I reported the problem, and I mailed the defective tee back to them. Most reliable, ethical companies would have either requested a photo of the damaged shirt, and refund me up front, or would have refunded me when the return package was scanned. Not Current and Elliott. After two weeks had elapsed with no word on my refund, I emailed them. They replied with a confirmation that they'd received my returned item, and they stated the standard "allow 7-10 business days for processing your refund." But they had already had either nine or 11 business days to process it, depending on how you count business days days. And the refund was for defective merchandise they sent out. So there is no justification for making me wait so long for my money. These are $90 tees shirts, by the way. It's a good chunk of change they are holding. Do not recommend this company!

Update 12/2019: Ugh. I purchased some European slippers based on the size chart on the brand-specific LL Bean website. They were a size too big. I went to the manufacturer's website and saw that their size chart was different, and indicated that I needed a size smaller. I phoned LLBean and was told I had to pay for another pair (more than $100) to exchange them, and send the others back. When I received the new slippers and contacted LLBean to see where my refund was, I was told it would be up to 4 weeks before I get it. They have the ability to track the package and see that it arrived, but they would not. So I have now changed my opinion of them, after more than 30 years, to "meh." I doubt I will be shopping here again.

Original review: I have been an LL Bean customer since the 1980s. It's true, sadly, that the quality of some LL Bean clothing and shoes has declined in recent years, since the advent of large-scale manufacturing in China. But their customer service is still excellent! I ordered some Wicked Good Moccasins (a truly high quality product, still) that were about a size too big. Since I had followed the size recommendation on the website, I was annoyed that I would have to pay $6.50 for return postage. I did a Chat with a customer service rep and explained the size discrepancy. She arranged for a smaller size to be sent rush delivery (two days), and told me to put my wrong-size slippers in that box for return. No charge, no delay, no mistrust. Just great service.

In the old days Bean would take anything back, at any time. No matter how beat up it was. Because so many horrible people cynically took advantage of that returning tents after vacation and that sort of thing they have changed their policy. But they do still guarantee their goods. Many years ago I phoned LLBean to ask whether they could repair my favorite pair of Bean penny loafers, which were so worn that the sole was coming off on one. They told me to send them in for replacement. They sent me a brand new pair!

I've lowered my rating of Poshmark after having an odd experience on the site. I had removed all of the for-sale items in my "closet" because I was, temporarily, too too busy to follow up on bids and sales. So my closet showed only sold items. But many weeks later I received an offer on an item I had removed. Odd. I think it slipped through because it was a second bid, from someone who had previously submitted a low offer and had been rejected. So that is a flaw in the Poshmark programming, and that is my first complaint. I still had the item so I accepted the offer, and then I got a surprise and this leads to my second complaint. The item was a handbag from a Big Name designer brand, and the purchaser was the manufacturer! The "buyer" was identified as a woman's name, but the address was the office for the brand. So perhaps the manufacturer is buying up their stock on the resale market? What bothers me about this sale is that I found this out only after accepting the bid. It makes me feel that I have been snookered, somehow. It seems wrong that a company can hide behind an essentially anonymous buyer while snapping up their merchandise across the Web. And then the "buyer" did not give me any stars for the sale, so that messes up my average rating of full marks. This got me thinking about the flaws in the Poshmark structure. It's not balanced in favor of the sellers. Sellers are not allowed to rate buyers, even though buyers cause a lot of problems (based on the many complaints I have read). And I have never been comfortable with sending items to stranger with my return address on the package. So I am no longer a fan of this site.

Zazzle did refund me after I chewed them out. But before they did that they told me they couldn't do a refund for a charge under X dollars. They said all they do was a credit toward future purchases. Really? I did not believe that for a minute. I pushed the matter and got my refund, magically. Of course, they had to make it sound like they were doing me a favor. Spare me.

So if this happens to you, stick to your guns and get your money back! It's not right that they trick people into signing up for an auto-renew membership.

The review is for S&L pricing only, as I have never purchased from the site. I do a lot of online shopping, and sometimes I see the same merchandise sold by different vendors, at wildly different prices. This is the case with S&L. A Moroccan pouf that they currently sell for $498 is available on Amazon for $169.95. It is the same item, I know, because I bought it from Amazon and I recently saw the S&L one at a consignment shop (the shop notes the source of their consigned goods on the tags). I've suspected this of S&L before, but have not had proof, before now, that they were selling and marking up the exact same goods as other vendors. Now I know It's true. Buyer beware.

The book I received had been extensively damaged by water — cover warped and rippled, pages swollen — yet the WOB listing said it was in good condition. Their definition of "good" includes this: "a book that has been read but remains in clean condition." My book was not in clean condition.

Dishonest listing. Do not recommend.

If you you send items here to be sold, don't expect to se any money for your efforts. You are just donating goods to a for-profit business. I sent in a large box of high-end clothing and accessories. Thread Up did not process my box for several months. All but one item was accepted, but then it took a couple more months to get the items photographed and listed on the website. Just one or two have sold. My profit on the transactions is just a few dollars. And I have yet to see a check for that pocket change! Total waste of time! I have made a fair amount of money selling on other sites. Thread Up is either very badly managed, or really dishonest. Not sure which of those is true — maybe both. But I am certain this is a business to be avoided.

This site was recommended to me by a friend. Tried it for two days and got mostly very unsuitable matches (too many were way outside my designated geographical area, also many were not professionals or highly educated by any measure). I cancelled my premium membership contract within the three days allowed under law and am currently awaiting reply on my request for refund (they charge the full, several-month contract up front, FYI). The company does not make it easy to find the required links to delete your account, request contract cancellation, and request a refund (three separate steps!). And get this: when you get to the third step, the form asks for a code that is in your profile, which you cannot access because you have cancelled it! It took me several tries to delete my profile, which is worrying. There is no human to talk to for help, as far as I could tell.

I cancelled largely because I did not feel safe on the site. I was besieged by "X might be interested" and "your profile is popular" emails, which began to feel oppressive. One man was obviously married (that's pretty common on dating websites, but this is supposed to be a better-vetted site than most). Furthermore, anyone joining this site can claim to be anything, for all the company cares. None of the information provided is verified. And here is something that completely turned me off. I was looking for men in one of the senior age brackets (I believe it was 58-70). Many of those men answered the "children?" question with "someday maybe" Yuck. There should be a way to filter those guys out.

Avoid this service!

This company's "customer service" department does not answer their phone. Their outgoing message says they are currently "communicating by email," but they don't answer emails either. I received a defective item from Huckberry — priced at $395 plus tax — and I have not been able to speak with anyone about it. They accept returns at no charge, however in the middle of a pandemic surge (and local lockdown) I am not feeling good about having to go into a store to take care of this. It's their mistake, not mine. I won't be buying from Huckberry again.

I ordered a speaker from the Sonos website a month before Christmas. As the weeks passed and no speaker arrived, I heard nothing from the company. So I contacted them and got a vague reply that it would ship soon. The speaker did finally ship, but on the day of delivery the truck driver could not find the parcel in his truck. I contacted Sonos (by email) to notify them that the parcel might be lost. This is an excerpt from their reply:

"As we state on our website, we unfortunately cannot take responsibility for any lost packages, however, if it is lost we can assess if there's a way to help you out."

Really? They ship an item out, it will take no responsibility if it is lost in transit? How is that even legal?

I will never order form this company again. Horrible people.

(update: Decided to phone Customer Service to request a return label a THIRD time. Was placed on hold for 20 minutes, at which point Prana's phone system informed me I was being disconnected. This company is unethical! They seem to have no real return process.)

I purchased two items — a zip jacket and some trousers described as "jeans" — that were not as described online. The jacket did not conform to the Prana size chart. The trousers (definitely not jeans) were more like super-thin pajama bottoms. Not what I believed I was purchasing. I want to return both items (Prana charges $8 for returns), but the Prana return process requires customers to request a return label. I have submitted two requests, over the span of about three weeks. I have not relieved a reply. So I am, at this moment, stuck with unwanted, unusable merchandise worth around $170. Never shopping here again.

(brief update: I disputed this purchase with PayPal — which is a princess similar to a ping pong game, with the back and forth requests from buyer and seller — and now Wayfair is saying that I have to arrange the return of this 115 pound, freight-rate item AT MY OWN EXPENSE. They refused to arrange the return earlier, and now they want to make it look like I am at fault for this thing not being sent back? F*ck them. Do not support his businesses! It is run by people with no ethics. They will screw you over in a heartbeat.)

Wayfair continues to disappoint me. I ordered a concrete birdbath (almost $400), which is an item made to order. It took three months for the item to arrive, and it was the wrong color! Wayfair tried to claim that it was just a matter of the color looking different in the Wayfair listing because of the photo, or that it could be due to my device screen, or whatever. I accepted a partial refund of 20 percent to not return the heavy item (not as genererous a settlement as it sounds, since the price had been reduced substantially since I ordered the thing... oof). But when I fully unpacked the item, I saw that it had a manufacturer's tag on it, with a "finish" code (color code) noted on there. I looked up the manufacturer's website and found the same birdbath that is listed on Wayfair, in the exact finish shown on their page (it is the same photo). I checked the listed finish code and name from the manufacturer's page, and saw that the finish code on my birdbath's tag was different. I contacted the manufacturer and asked for the color name corresponding to my item's product tag. Different color from that in the Wayfair listing! I sent proof of all this to Wayfair, and told them the 20 percent discount is not going to cover this error. I am still trying to work this out with them, and they are jerking me around terribly, for something that is their fault (or really the fault of their vendor). Right now I just want to return it and get a full refund, but it seems that isn't an option. Horrible customer service, not trusting the customer and not owning up to your company's mistakes.

My original review of Wayfair was five stars. Things have really gone downhill since then.

Another annoyance: I was prompted, by a pop-up window on the Wayfair website, to write reviews for two purchases, with the incentive of a $5 credit for each review. After writing each review, I got a confirmation message, in a pop-up window, saying I had earned my $5 credit. The credits never appeared in my Wayfair account, so I contacted customer service. They denied that the offer was on the website, then told me to send them screenshots of the messages. I told them that I could not replicate the process because I had no more items to review. They simply dropped the matter. Stopped responding. Unbelievably unprofessional, dishonest and rude.

Do not give Staples your business.In late July of this year, an immuno-compromised, senior woman was assaulted in a New Jersey Staples store. It was a racially based hate crime, even if it was nominally triggered by an argument over mask wearing. The victim was grabbed and thrown to the ground, with force, by the younger assailant. The victim lay on the ground, in extreme pain from a broken leg, and NO ONE in the store stepped in to help. NO EMPLOYEES came to her aid, for the several minutes that the security camera footage ran. Everyone just stood back and watched this woman writhe in agony. After the attack, the assailant breezes through the store, with no one intervening. She even circles back to the woman she attacked. And appears to kick her. And no one stops her. So cancel Staples. They no longer exist, for me. I would not feel safe in any of their stores.

Hammacher Schlemmer pushes their "Guaranteed for life" mantra, endlessly. It's featured prominently on every item listing page. But the claim is purposely misleading. You have to click through to their "Lifetime Guarantee" page to find out the cost of shipping and a handling is on the customer: "Should any product fail to meet your expectations, we will replace it or refund the cost of the item less shipping and service fees." Shipping and service fees. So if your purchase breaks, is defective from the get-go, or just does not meet expectations, you will have to pay (currently HS's flat-rate return shipping fees are either $11 or $15 depending in weight, but they used to leave it to the customer to pay the full market rate, which could be as much if more than the cost of the item)) to send it back. Hammacher Schlemmer knows this, and they know many buyers won't bother returning items when they have to pay to do so. Furthermore, they do not allow every buyer to write a product review. No wonder most of the product reviews on their website are positive! Deceptive practices.

All of this is particularly galling because if the "honest, old-fashioned American company" image HS promotes. It's a false front. They are as cynical in their business practices as any company out there.

I entered my dimensions, for a single outdoor replacement cushion, into their calculator. The cushion was to be (in inches) 31X28X6, which should be a little pricey because that is fully custom. But the estimate came out to be $1007. 69. For one outdoor cushion. What the heck?

ADDENDUM

Immediately after this review posted, I was sent the following communique, from a "Jim T":

"Subject: Your Bitter B***h

It looks as most of your reviews are bad/negative you POS dirt. Maybe you should stay off the internet you piece of trash. Wow, you are truly an idiot. What goes around comes around b***h."

Related to this review? I think it must be.

Beware! I went to what I thought was a Dyson website (came up as a top search result when I Googled "Dyson warranty"), and went into their customer service Chat feature to ask about a warranty issue. All looked perfectly legit. The "agent" took my information and said they were transferring me to an expert, and that I would be charged $1 US. "Don't worry, you'll be refunded," the "agent" said. I followed instructions, and paid with PayPal. The "matching you with an expert" function on the JustAnswer website kept spinning and spinning. The penny dropped that I had been scammed. I contacted Dyson through another (nearly identical) Google search result, and got the real deal. That (real) Chat agent said they have no affiliation with JustAnswer. I contacted PayPal and got the charge reversed and the JustAnswer subscription which I had unknowingly signed up for canceled.

This company should be prosecuted for fraud. Stay away.

Update: Someone on this site posted a personal threat against me, so I decided to close my account. Surprise! There is no obvious way to delete a Patch profile! That is not an option, anywhere on the site. It does not even appear in the FAQs. You can take yourself off the email list, but I see no way to delete the profile page. I have sent a message to Patch Support, to ask for instructions, but have not heard back yet. It's a huge red flag when a website doesn't let you exit. Fortunately, I don't have much information on the page.

I have been the target of some really hateful troll posts lately, on Patch, and have both flagged the posts and contacted Patch support about this problem. I have copied the URLs to Patch, so they can see for themselves. The flagged posts always stay up. These are posts that clearly violate the terms of use for the site. The only reply I've gotten from Patch support was a boilerplate email telling me how to flag offensive posts. Really?

Original review: This company has not decided what it wants to be. Does it want to rival NextDoor.com? Or does it want to be a regional news compiler (a "hyper-local" news source, in their words) that replaces the hometown newspaper? It tries to be both things, and fails miserably. Patch runs short versions of news stories lifted from other publications and wire services, ostensibly "written by robot." They encourage "neighbors" to post comments, and they allow members to submit posts addressed to their neighborhoods. They do nothing to verify that any member is who they claim to be, or that they live in the region. Therefore, it is fertile ground for the worst kinds of trolls. Each "neighborhood" has a moderator. But all that moderator does is send out snippy emails to anyone who is flagged by any peevish "neighbor" commenter, for any reason. It's like being in sixth grade all over again. So petty. There are even cliques and gangs. But the real reason I am taking the time to post a review here is that I believe there is a political leaning to Patch comment moderation, and I believe that it is pro-Trump. The company is owned by an investment group (Hale Group). Run by an ex-Wall Street guy. The Patch.com CEO is an ex-NYT reporter and author. So who knows whether there really is a political agenda behind Patch. Maybe it's just the loony leanings of my neighborhood's moderator. All I can say is what I have observed in my local Patch comment threads. Trump trolls have free rein to post the most outrageous things there, and if you challenge them you get censored and receive a "be polite" email. It's all rubbish.

(Update: I have tested my theory about Patch's political leanings, by posting some challenges to the right-wingers commenters, especially the pandemic deniers. My comments have all been killed. Patch is definitely a tool of the far right.)

Update: A week after my Chat interaction with customer service, UO had not followed up (no surprise there), so I phoned them. I was told that the "lost package request" had been denied, and the items would not be reshipped because UO would not be reimbursed for the lost package. It doesn't matter that I had never been informed the shipment went out (so I would know to expect it) and had never been provided a tracking number or proof of delivery. It did not matter that I am a longtime customer and that the missing items were a minor part of a larger order. The UO rep dug in her heels and refused to reship or reimburse me. Nice way to do business. And the cost of the missing items? A total of $52 plus tax. They lost a customer and incurred all of this ill will over a lousy $52 (retail) worth of merchandise.

After weeks of waiting for backordered merchandise (I received several of the items in my order shipped one at a time, in that period) I realized that some of my items were still missing. I used Chat to report this, and was told that all of the missing items were shipped together, and that the package was noted as delivered. But, I said, I did not receive it. Too bad, said the agent, there is nothing I can do but report this and request a refund, because it is outside out X day limit for reporting lost packages. I asked whether they could just reship. No. They don't reship "lost packages." I was told to wait three days for a response to the request.

I have no proof that UO ever shipped these items. If I check my order on their website, it shows as delivered or complete, but shipments (multiple, because that is how they manage fulfillment) are not itemized, and no tracking numbers are provided.

So, UO stole from me. I have no confidence that I will get my refund.

Do not order online from this company. Purchase in a bricks and mortar store, if you must. I won't buy anything from them again.

I noticed that six days had passed since my high-value item shipped, and I had neither received it nor gotten any updates from Bloomingdale's. This is not the kind of merchandise that usually goes out on "slow boat" shipping, so I am concerned. I use the link in my "item has shipped" email to go to the Bloomindale's website, to track my purchase, but their system won't let me check my order. So I phone customer service and get an automated response telling me that UPS has not provided updates "in a while," but that it "sometimes takes up to 48 hours" for them to update. That is just not true, FYI. UPS provided real-time tracking. I get an agent, finally, and she provides a projected delivery date: Ten days after shipping, twelve days after order.

Not good enough, Bloomingdales's. I will not be shopping here again.