Why I am Never Shopping at Miss Rebel Again....

The first I heard about online clothing boutique Miss Rebel was when I entered a competition on fellow blogger Rachel's blog for the chance to win any item from their website. I was so excited when I won and went straight online to find the item I would like. I had a tough choice as there were so many lovely things to choose from. I picked a hot pink one shoulder cocktail dress and excitedly waited to hear back from the company...

I waited a few days and hadn't heard anything from anyone so got in touch with Rachel who got in touch with them... they said they were trying to send me emails and they weren't going through so suggested I emailed them, which I did right away and I got an email back (so not sure why they had so many 'problems' contacting me beforehand). They asked which item I would like and to state my size and my address. I gave them these and about a week later I finally received my dress (I think a week to deliver a prize when they offer standard delivery as 3-5 days is a little unfair!).

I loved the dress and hurried to try it on and.... it didn't fit... despite me ordering the same size I always am in dresses... I thought, fair enough, it's an online shop so obviously sizes aren't always going to be perfect, and emailed the company straight away to ask what I should do. The email I received back was really informal and really unhelpful. I could return the dress but would have to pay to return it (this isn't so unusual as I know a lot of online shops require you to do this, still not ideal but ok), but that I would also have to enclose a postal order cheque for £4 for them to send me a different size of the dress. I thought this was ridiculous as I had won a prize from them, to ask for me to pay for delivery on the dress twice was really annoying as it wasn't my fault my size of dress didn't fit!

Nonetheless, a dress that didn't fit me was of no use to me and I loved the style and colour so I went to the post office and paid the £2.50 to send it back (so how they justified £4 to send it back to me I don't know!) and the postal cheque of £4. £6.50 down on a 'free' dress and with no dress in hand at present, I returned home pretty unhappy. Another 5 days later I finally had the correct sized dress with me and on the actual dress I cannot fault them as it is simply stunning.

Which is why, a couple of months down the line, when I came across the same dress but in bright red, I knew I had to have it. I was gutted to see it was not in stock in my size, but later that night when I was explaining this to my mum and showing her it on their webpage, I noticed that my size was now in stock! Excited and not wanting to miss my chance at owning the gorgeous red dress I quickly filled in all the information and added the dress to my basket, paid for it and sat back truly pleased with my purchase (which doesn't often happen!).

A few days later I mentioned to my mum I was upset it hadn't arrived yet, but she said it had only been 3 days and she was sure it would be here soon. After 5 days (the latest it should have arrived with the delivery I paid), I decided to write on MissRebel's facebook wall stating my annoyance at not having received the dress yet. It was after writing this comment that I suddenly had a thought, that maybe the payment hadn't gone through or something. I logged onto my internet banking to find that the payment had gone through fine, they had taken it out of my account....and then 2 days later, paid it back in! The dress must have been out of stock after all and instead of notifying me so I wasn't sat around waiting for a dress that would never appear, they just refunded me with no email or anything. I wrote a second comment on their Facebook wall, by this point, quite angry with their 'customer service'.

I received no response, and instead, this morning I was blocked from commenting on their Facebook wall, clearly so I can no longer bad mouth them on their wall. I am writing this blog post about my experiences because I DO have a voice, no matter how much they wish to silence it, and I know I am not alone in my negative experience shopping with them (as a conversation on More Magazine's Facebook page uncovered earlier!), and I want to warn others who might shop from them, saving them from the kind of shoddy customer service I experienced twice from a company that quite frankly, does not deserve my business...

From now on I am sticking with actual shops, or at least the online versions of actual shops, brand names I can trust and not these online 'boutiques' who are quite happy to take your money from you, but not so keen to put the customer first....