Hey there, ladies! What’s up? How are you doing? Are you getting excited for the summertime to *officially* get here? I know I am. I can’t wait for the warm days with the sun high in the sky. I’m itching for it!
Today’s post is going to be different than what I usually share here on Coffee With Summer. I usually don’t share my experiences with certain stores, but after this experience, I felt that I should.
A little over a month ago, I decided to give Shein a try. Shein is an affordable online clothing site. They have some really neat, unique styles and finds at insanely low and reasonable prices. When you first learn about it and scour their site, it seems like it’s too good to be true. My first impression after learning about them was that they were similar to Forever 21, but online only.
After seeing how much some of my fashion blogger friends raved about them, I figured I’d give them a shot. Today, I’ll be sharing about my entire experience with Shein, from browsing their site to the quality of their products.
SHOPPING ON THEIR SITE:
Shein’s site is easy to browse and navigate. They have everything organized quite well, like almost every other online clothing site. The photos of their products are great, but there’s one thing that really bother me about their product photos.
While some of their photos actually had models wearing the product, the large majority of the product photos were not worn by models. This made it really hard to tell how the tops would fit. Were they more of a tunic fit? Were they a crop top fit? You really couldn’t tell sometimes. Some of the descriptions weren’t all that helpful either. So, I found this slightly frustrating, especially when a top I was extremely interested in didn’t have much detail about it.
Ironically, I ended up ordering 3 tops that weren’t modeled on their site. This top wasn’t modeled on their site, but it looked like a simple top that had a cute bow on the hip. Well, when it arrived and I tried it on, it was a crop top. That wasn’t indicated on their site at all.
PLACING AN ORDER & SHIPPING:
Placing my order was quite simple, like most online clothing sites. Just add your items to your cart and then, check out. It was like your normal checkout process.
What was extremely different was their shipping process. Shein has a few different distributors of where they ship out from, but their largest one is in China. This is something I already knew. I expected shipping to take about a week longer than usual, which is what others told me to expect, as well.
Well, it took 3 whole weeks to arrive. But, that wasn’t the worst of it, believe it or not…
TRACKING MY PACKAGE:
Tracking my package was the most frustrating thing ever. I do quite a lot of online shopping, but this has been by far the worst shipping and tracking experience that I have ever had.
Aside from receiving my package way later than I thought I would, I couldn’t actually track my package for 2 weeks of that time! 2 WEEKS!
Beyond the fact that it was frustrating, it was also a bit nerve-wracking. I took to Twitter to express my situation, and the amount of other people who tweeted back saying they had similar experiences shocked me. Some of the girls who’ve ordered from Shein NEVER even got their packages. So, I was nervous the same would happen to me. Luckily, that didn’t happen to me.
THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE:
Ten days after placing my order, I decided to put in a help ticket on their site, as my tracking told me my package had not even been shipped yet. Ten days, and it wasn’t even shipped.
I didn’t get a response from them the day I put in my ticket, but I got one the day after. The lady that responded was very sweet and reassured me that once the package reached the USA, that the information would be updated. Even though this was frustrating to me, I was glad to have gotten a helpful answer.
A few days ago, I reached out on social media to all of you to ask me questions about Shein! Since I already filled you in on my shipping experience, it’s time to answer everything you’ve asked me. Let’s dig in.
HOW’S THE QUALITY OF THEIR ITEMS?
Before digging into this answer, I just want to point out the obvious. Shein offers extremely low and affordable prices on their products, which means you can’t expect some designer level of quality.
I ordered 3 tops, a sun hat, a pair of sunglasses, and a crossbody purse.
Between the 3 tops that I ordered, the quality definitely varied from poor to pretty good. Ironically, the top that cost the most out of the 3 (for $13) was the most poorly made top of them all. A few hours after wearing it, the threading started to become undone in one of the armpits. It was such a bummer! I can still get some wear out of it, but it probably won’t last through the summertime. The other two tops, including the one I’m wearing in these photos, were pretty well made for being so cheap. But being realistic, even with the greatest of care, they probably won’t hold up for more than a year.
The sun hat I ordered is made from a weird material and it’s extremely stiff. I was really bummed about this, but hey, it’s now a decoration on my wall until I can figure out if I can ever wear it. The pair of sunglasses I ordered are actually really great! But being honest, they’re nothing special. The crossbody purse that I ordered is probably my favorite item that I ordered. It’s super great quality and a deal.
Overall: You can’t expect amazing quality at such low prices. That should simply be common sense. Sometimes you’ll get a steal of a deal, and other times, you’ll get nothing special.
HOW’S THE SIZING? ARE THEY TRUE TO SIZE?
I’m usually not someone who orders clothing online too much, simply because I’m petite and sizing is incredibly hard to figure out sometimes.
Shein’s sizing is a little sketchy. The top I’m wearing in the photos and one other one I ordered from them were “one size”. You can imagine how apprehensive I was to actually purchase something that was supposedly one size fits all. When I first received the top in these photos, I knew immediately that I had to wash/dry it to shrink it to get it to fit. It was far too large. After wash/drying it, it fit great. But the other shirt that was “one size” fit pretty well from the start. Weird.
The other top that I ordered was true to size. Though, that’s the one that ended up being a crop top, which was not in the description at all.
I didn’t order any bottoms from them, because I just have a gut feeling that it’d be a waste of money if I did, haha.
If you’re wanting to check out everything that was in my order, check out my VENNDY story above. Click-through to learn more (not affiliate). Be sure to join VENNDY today to create your own stories! Learn more: HERE.
MY OVERALL EXPERIENCE:
So, what are my final thoughts on Shein? I am 99% sure I’ll never order from them again. I definitely don’t recommend them. Forever 21 has better quality items than Shein. Instead of waiting 3 weeks, a month, or never to get your super low-priced items, just go to your local mall and grab a few things there. Shein is simply not worth the headache or the risk.
Have you ever ordered from Shein? What was your honest, honest opinion? If you haven’t, are you going to re-think it now? Let’s chat!
Let’s connect! >> Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Snapchat