I have stop writting about online shopping reviews for quite a while and decided to resume it again. The third review is on Bebe.com. I started to shop at Bebe only from Jan 2011 and this is my 4th purchase. I will be adding some pros and cons in the review from now on..

Shipping: Although Bebe offers direct shipping back to Singapore and I found that it is much cheaper to ship via VPOST. It takes about 5 days with Bebe Standard shipping to arrive at my Vpost USA and another 5 to 7 days for Vpost to deliver to me.

Quality of clothing: Overall, Bebe clothing is good in quality. I have ordered some of their signature logo T-shirts and they are sparkling gorgeous. However the white color logo shirts is too sheer to my liking. If the fabric can be made slightly thicker and it will be perfect.

My most recent purchase include a nice black lace top as shown below, the quality of the fabric is pretty good.

I also bought the following Rhinestone Bow Watch Cuff and Snake Clasp Bracelet, they are beautifully sparkling in all angles, especially the Snake Clasp Bracelet, I can see it sparkle in rainbow colors. They look much nicer than in the pictures. I always wanted to buy a snake bracelet from Bebe but it usually sold out pretty fast before I make my move. LOL, finally grasped one!

Here I would like to relate an incident regarding my recent purchase which I am completely satisfied with Bebe customer service. During the checkout process, I encountered difficulty in entering a free shipping code(which I received from Bebe on my 3rd purchase), despite trying to enter the code a few times, the system did not recognized it. I went ahead to place the order and immediately after the order confirmation, I emailed the customer service regarding the issue, at the same time, I requested my items to be packed in the “smallest” possible box.

One day later, the bebe customer service replied that they will refund the shipping fee to me. With regards to the packaging of my order, they have passed my request along to their shipping department.

Pros: Good customer service. Bebe customer service listened to customer’s requests and complaints and addressed them promptly and efficiently, thumbs up!

Cons: Bebe usually pack items in a big box but they take in request to pack into a smaller package and hence this is no longer a con.

Cons: Direct international shipping fee is very expensive. Hope that Bebe can consider lowering their international shipping cost in order to be more competitive. For example, Saks Fifth Avenue has recently offers $19.99 USD Flat Rate Shipping to selected countries(including Singapore) on orders of $99 USD and more, this is indeed a very attracting shipping fee to international customers.

Conclusion: I am a total Bebe loyal customer and will continue to shop at Bebe.com.

Stay tuned for more online shops reviews…

The second review is on Victoria’s Secret. I shopped less frequent at VS but started my first purchase on Aug 2008. The reason is simply they don’t add in new stock frequently as compared to RalphLauren.com.

Shipping: VS provide direct shipping back to Singapore and I find that it is much cheaper to ship direct rather than using a 3rd party shipping like VPOST.
Initially the items took more than 2 weeks to reach me but over the time, the shipping improved and took about 10 days.

Quality of clothing: Sweaters are pretty good in material wise and I really love their styles especially the sweaterdresses. I simply can’t resist my temptation and have recently bought this dress(see picture below) even though I might not be able to wear it now in my humid and warm country.

I love their shirts which are in cotton/spandex and it is very comfortable and fitting. Below are those that I have purchased recently.

Their blouse/bra top are not bad too but my advice is not to choose those very light color like white. I have bought a white polo dress and have never wore it once(guess will not wear it at all) because it give me that kind of “naked” look as the inner wear can be seen through.

Conclusion: I would come back to shop becasue of the generous discount sometimes and for those lovely shirts and sweaters. But I do wish that Victoria’s Secret can frequently update new range of clothing in future which they don’t seem to have improved over these years.

The first one that I am going to review is Ralph Lauren. I have been a regular to this site since 2008. During the 1st year, everything from shipping to the quality of clothes were perfect. Shipping has always be fast and satisfactory. But things started to turn sour since the begining of this year.

I bought a tight skirt on Jan and when I received my item, there was dirt visible on it. So without hesitation, I hand washed it immediately. To my horror the black dye ran like mad under the running tap. The light yellow part of the skirt was stained with the black dye and as you can imagine, the whole skirt was in terrible condition. I didn’t even have a chance to wear it for once. I had taken a few pictures and sent them to the RL customer service. During that time I did receive a prompt and courtesy reply from them. The customer service requested the item to be sent back for inspection. After checking with my local post service provider, I realized the cost of sending back the item to US was expensive, even more expensive than I were to buy another piece of the skirt. I wrote back to explain the whole situation to RL. As a courtesy, a credit for the skirt have been issued back to me.

Well, at that time I just wondered why did such a big and reputable shop has such an under-sight on their part, to not run through a more thorough quality inspection. Nevertheless I continued to have faith in Ralph Lauren and still shop with them regularly after this incident.

So, things went fine for a few more purchases but the horror began on September. Sigh!

There was a sale on September and my best friend wanted to buy a few clothing from RL as well, we combined our order as one and I was the one who make the purchase. When the items finally reached us, all were in good condition except a white shirt which my friend ordered for her hubby. We had not yet opened it from the wrapping plastic bag, the bag itself was already being cut with a big hole as shown in pictures below.

What could I say? Am I always the unlucky one to receive such a bad quality which slipped out from a supposed to be tight quality controlled big shopping giant like Ralph Lauren? Also, we noticed that all the 3 pieces of clothes(those good one) have a “QA inspected” sticker on them(on the plastic wrapper) EXCEPT the defected shirt. Therefore this appears to me that somehow that defected piece got slip out from RL usual QC check and reached the unlucky me! Again, I sent in the photos to file a complaint to the RL customer service. But in this mail, I have indicated that we have no intention to send back the item due to the high shipping cost back and forth and we were deeply disappointed but rendered this to our bad luck.

This time, added to my disappointment, there was a 2-line reply 3 days after I have sent in the mail, like these:

CustomerAssistance@RalphLauren.com 1-888-475-7674
Visit us at www.RalphLauren.com

Can anyone imagine how would I feel at that moment? It was an indeed bad customer service, not only bad but rude! I guess we at least deserve a sincere apology from RL for sending out something which apparently did not pass the quality check. I wrote back and voiced out my disappointment with lines like these: “Although we do not expect anything from RalphLauren.com BUT we do expect an apology from RalphLauren.com to address such a negligence/lack of careful inspection on your side before the purchased items are being sent out to the customer . And may be an assurance of better quality inspection for any future order.
Since this appears to us that it might be some human-made mistake during your packing process, we decided to bite the bullet by not asking for an exchange as it will probably cost us a shipping price that is higher than the shirt itself. However we still sent in the complaint and hope that RalphLauren.com will make some clarification and apologize on this issue. Instead, what we received are just 2 lines of links without a human touch, “cold” and short.”

It was then after the above mail was sent, I received a reply with short apology from RL. These comes rather late to me. I was deeply disappointed.

Well, both my friend and I are not those picky type and we understand the risk of online shopping. Some minor flaws here and there are acceptable as long as the clothes are still wearable. However in both cases above, the skirt and the shirt were absolutely not wearable at all.

Conclusion: I have always be a loyal customer of Ralph Lauren as I truly like the design of their clothing but after these 2 separate incidents which indicate “emerging” poor quality inspection , I indeed lose some faith in RL. It is really a hard decision whether to continue shopping with them and at the same time have worry whenever I make a new purchase. Or am I the only unlucky soul out there? Sigh!

Next will write on Victoria Secret, stay tuned..