Are online fashion deals too good to be true?

ByDiane Wilson and Tonya Simpson WTVD logo
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Online shopping problem?
Are online fashion deals too good to be true?

UNC-Chapel Hill student Madison Goers thought she had found the perfect dress, on sale, to wear to a formal event.

The dress originally cost $180 and was on sale for $79 with a $10 shipping fee.

Goers' excitement turned to frustration shortly after the dress arrived. "I was expecting a very light colored pink dress. It was supposed to be backless," Goers said.

Instead of getting a backless pink gown, she got an orange dress with mesh across the back.

"It was supposed to have a nice bow tied in the back, but it wasn't attached. The ends are not the same length at all. It's not hemmed or tailored. It's not pretty," she said.

You've probably seen the type of advertisement that convinced Goers to buy the dress.

Trendy clothes at rock bottom prices from companies with glowing reviews. What you won't see on social media are the hundreds of complaints filed against some of those same companies.

DressLily has 10 million likes on Facebook, RoseGal has 11 million.

Neither company had reviews listed on Facebook, but the Better Business Bureau lists 373 complaints filed against DressLily and 343 against RoseGal.

The complaints against both companies included product quality, delivery fulfillment, and poor customer service.

The ABC11 Troubleshooter team wanted to see what would happen if we ordered from these sites. It took several weeks for all three orders to arrive and when they did, there were mixed reviews.

The picture of the item ordered from DressLily appeared to be a dress with a cardigan and belt for $34 plus shipping.

When it arrived, instead of a dress and cardigan it was all one piece and the color was not as expected. "I know yellow is a bright color and I was expecting bright, but this is more like neon," our I-Team producer said. "I also don't like this extra material sticking up on the shoulders, this isn't what it looked like in the picture. I wouldn't wear this."

Up next was a dress we ordered from RoseWe for $37. Tisha Powell's first reaction was about the material of the dress, "It's kind of thin," she said. Although the quality was lower than expected, the color matched the online photo.

Finally, we paid $42.50 for a shirt and distressed skinny jeans from RoseGal. Kim Deaner was initially happy with the items. "The fabric for the shirt is actually nice quality. The jeans are stretchy and very comfortable."

The one problem, "There is a big huge ink stain on the shirt," said Deanor.

We reached out to RoseGal and DressLily about the BBB complaints. Customer Service Manager Jessica Chan, responded on behalf of both companies saying, "Please note that the BBB represents a very small minority of our customers. We are currently in talks with the BBB on how to improve our sites ratings. If you check our BBB profile for Dresslily you will now see that we are currently Not Rated (NR) with only 20 unresolved complaints. This is due to our ongoing efforts with the BBB to improve our customers satisfaction.We are still currently in talks with the BBB with regards to resolving our customers complaints. This process may take some time, but please rest assured we are addressing this issue.

The majority of BBB complaints were filed in 2015 and since then our complaint ratio has dropped dramatically on the BBB to complaints being only 0.0001% of our total order amount across our site. We respond to all BBB complaints that are sent to us via the organization and offer the customers a satisfactory solution.

Kindly note that the number of stated complaints against our site is extremely small when compared with the number of happy customers we have."

In response to the ink stain on the shirt, RoseGal said all of its items undergo a strict quality control process before shipping and that a refund would be issued. A representative encouraged any customer who has encountered issues with products to contact their support center directly.

The bottom line here, it's always a good idea to do your research about a company before making a purchase.

In addition to reading reviews on the company sites, perform a Google search and see what others are saying about their experience.