So this is the rant/warning I was talking about. I might do a full explanation on a video or this post would be a mile longer than it already is.
Let it be known, I am not pointing fingers, this is just my experience with this situation and is not the same with everyone else involved. I do not have all the information from the person in question as to why this happened, I am just relaying what I know.
The parcel I got today is a cat dress. I bought this dress on the 27th of August 2012 from Black Cat Boutique (BCB) on storenvy, Sufinkusu on Tumblr, Kirsten Amanda, or Kirsten Amanda Brown on other social networking sites, paid for it and all. It is now the 15th of March 2013 and I finally got it. It was initially promised to take 3-4 weeks to arrive, instead it has taken 7 months.
After a month I had not heard anything so I contacted her, I was assured they were on the way from the supplier to her. Another month passed I expressed concern again and was reassured again with the same thing and that there was not anything she could do at this point, despite being suggested to contact her supplier. Unfortunately I left it too late and could not file a paypal claim so I could not resort to paypal to get the money back.
A few weeks passed and on the facebook page for BCB more complaints and questions about peoples orders started to come up. People, including me became suspicious of a scam.
So I looked for the dress elsewhere. I went to Brave on storenvy and explained to her my situation. She was extremely helpful, gave me advice on filing claims on paypal and when I asked for the dress she said she could get me one in a few days, so I bought it. It arrived in just 4 days.
BCB posted that she would give refunds as she realised people were being made to wait too long. However no one got a refund because people had filed too many claims and she had been reported too much so paypal locked her account. She could not access the money. We suggested finding other funds she told us it wasn't possible. Our items finally arrived to her but again she could not post them to us because of the financial difficulty. However she did post pictures of the items to prove she at least had them.
She disappeared for a while too, closing down the store and she did not reply to emails or comments on the facebook page. Everyone was very worried that it had all been a scam at that point. She returned sparingly now and then, finally giving the excuse that she did not have a working computer, again when she went on holiday. Let's just say there were lots of excuses for delays.
Someone finally suggested doing pay on delivery to domestic customers. So we would have to pay extra postage to get our items at the post office once they were sent. This was suggested a while before the seller actually went with this option. She always seemed very reluctant to actually tell us what she was doing to resolve the situation. When asked her usual answer was a vague "I'm doing the best I can".
All in all the communication was the worst. People getting angry didn't help because the seller got frustrated and replied with an equally irritated response. I never sent any aggressive comments however, as frustrating as it was, I actually defended her on occasion. When she was being accused of being a scammer I did point out if it was a scam she would have packed up and left by now with no communication at all.
Her disappearances made it hard, and from her excuses and the time it took it felt like getting this issue resolved was barely a priority to her.
However, I did receive my dress. What I paid for. She has promised to refund the postage money when her paypal is working again, but who knows how long that will be. She was never snappy at me, but I guess that's because I was not snappy to her, so I was usually received with politeness. I also now have two of the same dress, I will probably sell one.
If she was to open her store again I might consider buying from her but only if I knew there were other satisfied customers for that product. Just keep an eye out and be wary of this seller, I think people have a right to know this is the history of this seller but as always it is your judgement whether to buy from her...
UPDATE: She has removed all past comments on her facebook page making this post even more important for people to read so they are aware of the issue.
UPDATE#2: I did end up getting my postage back but it took 3 months more so this. So the whole ordeal took 10 months to sort out completely. Since then she has opened her store again and closed it. Her facebook page is still there for you to see the comments and complaints, it is the same thing all over again. It seems she has not learned her lesson like she assured us. I'm doubtful the people who made orders on the second opening of the store will get what they paid for or a refund this time. It's 2014 now and these issues have still not been resolved since 2012.
:c
