Great fashion deals or scams?

Header image for Interrobang article CREDIT: AS SEEN ON ROMWE.COM (LEFT), COURTESY OF TAYLOR KING (RIGHT)

The Interrobang editor and I were doing some online shopping when a Facebook ad caught her eye. A simple strappy-back black dress was retailing for $17.99, a bargain most people could not pass up.

As she was likely fantasizing about all the places she would wear her new dress, my skeptical instinct kicked in. I've seen the same advertisements on social media websites advertising deals on clothing that couldn't possibly be true, and I had just found my opportunity to figure out if these deals were actually too good to be true.

A quick Google reverse image search gave me my answer right away. The dress that was on sale for $17.99 on Romwe was originally sold by luxury brand REVOLVE for $245.36.

You may be asking yourself, how is it even possible for a designer dress to end up on a website based out of China for less than 10 per cent of the original cost?

Well, my naïve little friend, the system is simple: websites gather trendy and fashionable Instagram-worthy images and post them on their site. When a customer makes an order based on the picture the item in question is replicated and the counterfeit is delivered as opposed to the product the consumer was expecting.

These counterfeit products are sold at extremely low prices because they are often made with low quality materials and with poor craftsmanship out of China.

There are many of these websites floating around the Internet selling all manner of products. Interrobang is only looking at low-cost fashion websites because the ads are almost impossible to resist for cash-strapped students.

Interrobang looked into three fashion retailers: Dresslily, Rosegal and Romwe. A quick Google search of these three retailers will bring up a torrent of five-star or one-star reviews, so we asked some Fanshawe students about their experiences with the websites.

Dresslily

Dresslily opens its company information section with a “Legal Window”. Rife with spelling and grammatical errors, the Notice and Takedown Policy of Dresslily does not outright say they are taking images from other retailers, but it definitely dances around the issue.

Dresslily asks for your help in identifying potential Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infringements, or stealing other company's images and profiting from their work. While admitting that “Dresslily does not claim to hold legal expertise on IPR matters”, the website also mentions that it is the responsibility of the intellectual property (IP) owners to protect their own IP.

Cassie Humber, a pre-health student at Fanshawe, ordered a bathing suit that took over five weeks to arrive. When it finally got here Humber said the suit was extremely small, smelled like paint and was low quality; she said the underwire came out within a few days.

“It did not fit the way it did on the model,” Humber said.

Still, Humber said she would shop at Dresslily again.

“I potentially would if there was something I really, really liked and didn't need it in a rush, but I definitely wouldn't regularly order from them,” Humber said.

Kaileigh Gibson, a student in the Early Childhood Education program, had a positive experience with Dresslily. She ordered a few shirts and a dress and was pleased with what she got.

“They were what I expected, they looked exactly like the pictures,” Gibson said. “The only issue was the size of the shirts [which] were a bit smaller than a normal size here.”

On the review website SiteJabber, Dresslily has over 2,100 one-star reviews listed and a 20 per cent approval rating. On TrustPilot, 47.1 per cent of all reviews are one-star.

Interrobang reached out to Dresslily for a comment but they did not reply in time for print.

Rosegal

Rosegal also has an IPR disclaimer; it is actually almost identical to the Dresslily Legal Window.

Fanshawe student Cheyenne Allen said she ordered from Rosegal twice and was displeased with both her orders. She said the first order was for some bathing suits that were so small they fit her five-year-old sister, and even though she gave Rosegal a second chance because she thought the first time must have been a fluke, she was just as unimpressed the second time around.

“I decided one more try couldn't hurt so I ordered two simple shirtsï [I thought], how could they mess this up, right?”

Allen said it was the same problem as before. On top of that, when she tried to return the clothing and get her money back they battled her for a while before finally caving.

Allen said she would only recommend people shop at Rosegal if “they have money to throw away or children that can wear the clothes, if and when they show up.”

Emily Catalano, a student in the Early Childhood Education program, had a positive experience with Rosegal. She paid $15 for two one-size-fits-all dresses and other than some strings hanging off one of them (which were easily removed) she said she was extremely happy with her purchases and that she actually recommends students shop there.

Jasmine Long, a student in the Social Service Worker program, ordered a dress from Rosegal, and though it didn't meet all her expectations she was still happy with it.

“It wasn't the material I was expecting but I still liked it,” Long said. “I would definitely recommend Rosegal.”

Amanda Murray, a general science student, also shopped at Rosegal. She bought a dress from the website and only found out after she made the purchase that the store has received so many negative reviews. Though she was eventually pleased with her purchase she would not recommend students shop there due to shipping times.

“I wouldn't recommend it unless they're willing to wait over a month for their items to be delivered,” Murray said.

Rosegal has a lower approval rating than Dresslily on SiteJabber, only scoring at 13 per cent with over 2,800 onestar reviews. It has a 3.3 out of 10 rating on TrustPilot with 57.5 per cent of all reviews at one-star.

Interrobang reached out to Rosegal for a comment and they said, “Firstly, at Rosegal our top priority is always customer satisfaction. Each time one of our customer experiences an issue, we will do our best to solve it. That said, if we have made any mistake, we will be happy to fix it.”

Romwe

Of the three, Romwe was the website with consistent positive reviews from Fanshawe students. But that is not to say that the website does not face complaints.

Romwe rates considerably higher than the other two websites, boasting a 64 per cent approval rating on SiteJabber and has under 250 one-star reviews. On TrustPilot a notification announced the website suspects the page hosts fake reviews, which makes the higher approval rating suspicious.

Something appears to be “lost in translation” in Romwe's About Me section; it just seems to be a little off, but that did not stop some Fanshawe students from finding great deals.

Taylor King, an Interior Design and Decorating student, appears to be a Romwe queen. She has purchased from the website multiple times with great success. She has been disappointed by the quality of some of the articles of clothing but overall said she recommends students shop there.

“I usually shop when they have free shipping deals and then I also shop sales so I get an originally $30-40 item for under $10,” King said.

Interrobang reached out to Romwe, and when Romwe was questioned about its practices and business model they replied, “Romwe [are] running normally, safe and secureï We choose the best e-commerce service and also guarantee secure payment processing in this industry. Some customers have some misunderstanding about our company as to different reason [sic], but we are not a scam.”

But wait, there's more

Dresslily, Rosegal and Romwe are just three of the multiple websites following a similar model. Sammydress, a subsidiary of Rosegal, did not impress one Fanshawe student.

Victoria Arsenault, a Broadcast Journalism student, said her experience with Sammydress was so bad that she just threw out the shirt she ordered when it arrived.

“The material was cheap and it didn't fit at all. The size wasn't wrong or anything but it was literally made so poorly that it just didn't even fit like a normal piece of clothing. I didn't even wear it once, I literally threw it in the garbage,” Arsenault said.

Thankfully she didn't invest much money in the experiment.

“I'm pretty good at spotting online scams so I just ordered one shirt for $13 to test it out,” Arsenault said. “I read a lot of bad reviews on their comment section on Facebook.”

She wouldn't recommend students shop at Sammydress or ever any website that follows the same model.

“I know every so often someone gets something half decent from them but it's so hit or miss that it's just not worth the risk.”

Shop smart

Though there seems to be more customers online who have had negative shopping experiences with these websites there are definitely some happy shoppers. The important thing to keep in mind when ordering from websites that follow this model is to do your research and shop smart. Some websites are more trustworthy than others, and some items of clothing may not be the best to shop online for based on your body type due to international differences in sizing.

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.