Terry V.

I ordered a hot plate to use in the US with a kettle I'd purchased elsewhere and found that it took almost 30 minutes for the water to boil. Apparently the hot plate required a 220V outlet, even though the plug was compatible and there were no obvious electrical issues. I had ordered from a page specifically geared toward US customers but there was no mention in the description of the power requirement. The seller offered a full refund if I shipped it back but it would have cost $60+ to ship a $74 product back to China. The seller offered to refund $15 if I wanted to just keep it. I wrote a review on the company site warning other US customers but it has not been posted.

Well two of my three items sold, for a total of 92 cents. I have the option to cash out but using either Paypal or a Visa gift card requires at least $1, and using Stripe would only yield 66 cents. The one shirt that did not sell has "expired" as I was not informed that consignments are posted for only 84 days. It will now be destroyed (a. K. a., "recycled") soon unless I request it back - for a shipping fee of $6 which is almost more than the consignment price. I don't want it back but I sent it in to be used, not destroyed. I could have lowered the price if I'd known I had only a limited time to sell it, and my cash out total would have been more than $1.

So in the end, I sent in a box full of quality items (see original post below), most of which were rejected due to issues that were fixable if they were even real (Ever hear of a washing machine? Button replacement?), and even for those things that were accepted I will receive so little that it's barely worth claiming. A box full of clothing with lots of wear left, and nothing to show for it.

I ordered a vest from this company that was on sale, having read their policy that items discounted by more than 30% are not returnable for cash, only store credit. (Who does this, btw? Weird.) The regular price on the vest was $120 while the sale price was $80, so doing some quick math in my head I figured that it had been discounted by 1/3, which was about 30%. When I received the vest I found that it was too small and decided to visit the store in-person to try a larger size. I didn't like how the second vest fit either so I decided to return the first one, which I had been told over the phone that I could do. Lo and behold, the discount was actually 33% by the math, so I could only get store credit. (Sneaky?) The store would not honor what I had been told over the phone, and they didn't have anything else in the store that I wanted (or that wasn't over-priced) so I settled for a store gift card. My money was held hostage for over a year because the retail store is a pain to get to in the middle of town and the website sucks (or did at the time) as it displayed a hodgepodge of leftover items that did not reflect the stores' inventory. I finally found a couple of items that used up my gift card (not a penny more!) and have neither shopped their website nor set foot in any of their stores since.

I like that I have an entire YEAR to decide if I like an item and send it back if it doesn't perform, if it fades, pills, wears out, or I just don't like how it fits. This mostly makes up for the $9 shipping fee - although often they offer free shipping with a minimum order which isn't hard to meet (unless it's just a few dollars' difference and then it's a pill finding something small). I do have to pay return shipping but in a year I can collect multiple items and send them all back together for a flat price. They have cute, well-made (mostly) clothing from a variety of manufacturers - although I wish they would offer more pants (real pants, not leggings) that fit curvy, muscular women. I keep a running wish list and watch for sales!

I haven't shopped DTC in years. I cancelled their catalog and emails because not only had I sent most of my purchases back for being too long, too tight or otherwise ill-cut for my body (which wears a size 4-6 typically) but I was tired of the stunts they would pull with shipping, sales and various coupons. If I had a coupon for free shipping and an item happened to be on sale, I had to choose between the sale price and the coupon. More than once I had JUST ordered an item when it went on sale, and when I asked for a price adjustment I was told that this wasn't their policy. All of this was provided that they actually had an advertised item in stock as they were often out of something by the time I received either their catalog or a sale announcement. Apparently this company works for some people but not for me.