Onine Stores

Tobi is a US-based online fast-fashion retailer. It advertises that it “mix function with style, creating clothes that are cute, sexy, effortlessly cool and comfy”. Sounds like the fashion destination to visit for all your fashion needs. However, the big question is whether this is not just some advert-speak. That is, does Tobi actually provide elegant fashion pieces that are highly functional and stylish?

Having elegant fashion pieces shouldn’t be at the cost of an arm, so another question is whether Tobi is competitively priced. Also, does it offer top services that we’ll expect of the ideal online store (such as easy ordering, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer support service, etc)?

In the first place, is Tobi real, or is it just another sweet-talking scam store that’ll rip off unsuspecting customers?

Is Tobi Legit. It is not a scam because they have been in the industry for a long time and there has not been a problem of cheats or customers not getting their items after payment. But….

This Tobi review will examine Tobi in order to provide the information that’ll help you answer these questions and more.

Tobi review at a glance

• Website: tobi.com
• An LA-based fast-fashion online store started in 2010
• Provides a range of women wear including dresses, Tops, bottoms, swimwear, intimates, footwear, and accessories
• Ships merchandise to 150+ worldwide countries
• Offers free shipping worldwide (with no minimum order requirement)
• Accepts returns if the return package is postmarked within 30 days from the delivery date
• Does not allow product exchange
• Free returns are offered (albeit for only US customers and with a reduced 10 days return window)
• All returns are refunded via store credits
• Customer support is available via email (help@tobi.com)

What is Tobi?

Tobi is a fast-fashion store that was started in 2010. It says that it is inspired by LA – from the beachy coast to the heart of the downtown. Headquartered in LA and absorbing the energy that the city transmits, Tobi commits to ensuring that the right products are always available to fashion-conscious women at the right prices.

Tobi does not have physical retail outlets, which means that it sells products globally exclusively on www.tobi.com. Anyone who is of legal age to form a binding contract can visit the website and buy from Tobi.

Tobi says it designs for the woman – her body, her lifestyle, and where she is going. Thus, you’ll find that it holds a wide range of women wear – clothing, footwear, accessories, etc for every occasion and season.

Is Tobi legit?

It is not news that persons get ripped off on a regular basis on the internet. As such before using any eCommerce platform, it is wise to determine that the platform is legit. Thus, the big question here is whether Tobi is legit. The short answer to that is “YES”.

Our first check of a legit online store is usually legality. This is because online stores that are 100% legal are less likely to be scams. Thankfully, Tobi ticks this box. The website is owned and operated by Tobi.com LLC, which is a private company duly registered in the US. Suffice it to say that a scam store will not go through the trouble of obtaining company registration certificates.

Another check of a legit online store is visibility and industry-wide recognition. This is because the scam stores largely operate in the shadows. Thankfully, Tobi ticks this box. Though Tobi does not have physical retail outlets, it has offices in South San Francisco and Downtown Los Angeles, where it does everything from design to production. Also, Tobi is trusted by millions of fashion shoppers and has over one and a half million followers on Facebook. Suffice it to say that a scam store will neither have physical facilities that give it the capacity to fulfil orders, nor have the trust of millions of shoppers.

Another check of a legit online store is the test of time. This is because the scam stores are usually short-lived. It’s only a matter of time before a scamming platform is called out, especially in this era of fast communication; and with such exposure, the store will see less traffic and die out. Thankfully, Tobi passes this test of time, as it has been operating since 2010. Suffice it to say that scam stores cannot go on ripping off people using the same guise for up to a decade.

However, the ultimate check of a legit online store is fitness for purpose. The purpose of an online store is to give you products you make payment for. That is, it is only in legit stores that buyers will pay for an order and expect to receive delivery of real and functional products. Thankfully, Tobi ticks this box. Customers who visit the store and place orders have always received their orders; and, most often than not, these are functional. You may find some delivery-related complaints/ reviews; with some persons even throwing the scam label on Tobi for that. However, in our opinion, a delivery issue where it occurs is just one of those blips rather than the norm. Thus, Tobi does fulfil orders.

That said, with Tobi operated by a 100% legal company, having industry-wide recognition, and having a decade long record of fulfilling orders with real and functional products, there is no doubt that it is a legit online fashion store.

Is Tobi safe?

Yes, Tobi is safe. All customers details and private data are well taken care of you have nothing to worry about. No third party can have access to any information you submitted on the website.

When using an online store, you’ll have to submit sensitive information which includes personal details and payment instrument data (such as credit card information). With bad elements (fraudsters and identity thieves) parading cyber space, you’ll want your sensitive data well protected. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should not only be legit but also safe in safeguarding users’ data.

In this regards, Tobi says that it has “implemented technology and security features, as well as strict internal guidelines” to safeguard users’ data. For example all information you provide is encrypted with industry-standard Secure Sockets Layers (SSL) technology. SSL create a private channel between buyers’ devices and seller’s servers shielding off unauthorized third parties; and the data is encrypted before being pushed through the channel, ensuring that even if it is intercepted, it’ll remain safe and secure.

With SSL technology amongst other measures taken by Tobi, it is safe to say that it is safe.

You may also read: AliExpress Review – Is Legit or Scam?

Products

Customers gravitate towards the one-stop stores featuring a wide range of products so that they can get their needs in one place. Getting your items in one place is convenient, as you’ll not have to look up multiple stores. One-stop shopping also comes with cost savings; not spreading your purchase in different stores means you’re likely to qualify for large order discounts, and shipping one order from a store will be less expensive than shipping multiple orders from multiple stores.

Tobi does relatively well in this regards. The store focuses on women’s wear, and it provides the full gamut. The product categories you’ll find in the store (as well as the subcategories and the various items in each) are as follows:

Clothing

• Tops – Bodysuits, Crop Tops, Off The Shoulder Tops, Blouses, Shirts, Tank Tops, Halter Tops, Tube Tops, Plaid Shirts, T-Shirts, Tunic Tops
• Sweaters – Sweaters, Hoodies, Cardigans, Oversized Sweaters, Black Sweaters
• Swimsuits – Swimsuits, Bikinis, Monokinis
• Lingerie – Bralettes, Bras, Panties
• Skirts – Skirts, Maxi Skirts, Midi Skirts, Mini Skirts, Skater Skirts, Black Skirts
• Bottoms – Shorts, Pants, Jeans, Leggings, Capri Pants, Palazzo Pants, Trousers, Wide Leg Pants
• Loungewear – Jogger Pants, Sweatpants, Sweatshirts
• Denim – Jeans, Distressed Jeans, Denim Skirts, Denim Shorts, Denim Jackets
• Coats & Jackets – Blazers, Bomber Jackets, Faux Fur Coats, Leather Jackets
• Jumpsuits
• Rompers
• Two-Piece Outfits

Dresses

• Type – Bodycon Dresses, Day Dresses, Maxi Dresses, Midi Dresses, Shift Dresses, Skater Dresses, Wrap Dresses
• Style – Backless Dresses, Boho Dresses, Casual Dresses, Cocktail Dresses, Deep V Dresses, Halter Dresses, Off The Shoulder Dresses, Shift Dresses, Shirt Dresses, Strapless Dresses, Two Piece Dresses
• Pattern – Floral Dresses, Printed Dresses, Striped Dresses
• Occasion – Bridesmaid Dresses, Formal Dresses, Homecoming Dresses, Graduation Dresses, Wedding Guest Dresses

Shoes

• Boots – Black Boots, Brown Boots, Lace-Up Boots, Leather Boots, Thigh High Boots, Suede Boots
• Booties – Leather Booties, Suede Booties, Brown Booties, Black Ankle Boots
• Sandals – Wedges, Gladiator Sandals, Strappy Sandals
• Heels – High Heels, Ankle Strap Heels, Strappy Heel, Platform Heels, Chunky Heels, Pumps, Stilettos, Lace-Up Heels
• Flats – Sneakers, Black Flats, Mules and Slides, Designer Shoes

Accessories

• Jewellery – Body Jewelry, Necklaces, Bracelets, Earrings, Rings, Chokers
• Beauty & Cosmetics
• Sunglasses – Aviator Sunglasses, Quay Sunglasses
• Handbags & Purses – Bags, Purses, Clutches
• Hats
• Belts
• Socks
• Scarves

Buying From Tobi

One of the arguments for online purchases is that it is super easy to buy what you need. Thus, the ideal online store should feature an easy-breezy buying process. Thankfully, Tobi does relatively well in this regards.

The website is mobile-optimized, so when you fire it up with mobile web browser, the web pages resizes to fit the smaller screen of your device. Also, Tobi is one of the online fashion stores that have developed mobile apps (for Android and iOS). So Tobi can give you optimal mobile shopping experience.

One good thing with buying from Tobi is that Guest Checkout is supported. That is, you do not have to register and create an account to make purchases in the platform. This is fine for all hyper-sensitive customers that’ll not want their information stored by online stores.

Also, you can easily find products that you like. You either browse through the product categories or type in a keyword in the search button in the dashboard. After discovering your product, clicking on it will take you to the product description page where you can find every detail of the product. If you want to buy it, you’ll have to select the quantity needed, a colour, and size. Tobi provides detailed size chart (complete with pictures of measurements) to assists you in choosing the right size. You can then add it to your bag.

If you’ve not decided on the item you can click “Add to Likes” to favourite the item. That way, you can easily call it up later without having to search for it all over again.

At any time you can go to your shopping bag by clicking the bag icon on the page. You can then apply any promotional code before clicking to Checkout. The first part of the checkout prompts you to enter your shipping information. This will furnish your available shipping options and applicable shipping fees. You can then choose one, and view the order detail. The next part of checkout is to select your payment method and submit the required information to complete payment.

Many times, after an order is submitted, customers will have a change of heart and will want to modify it or cancel it. Thus, stores that allow order modification or cancellation normally come out attractive. Unfortunately, the policy of Tobi in this regards does not make for good reading. First, orders once placed cannot be modified. Order cancellation is possible but you’ll have to contact the Customer Care Team immediately.

Tobi stresses that once an order reaches a certain stage of processing, cancelling it will no longer be possible. The problem is that Tobi does not mention what that “state of processing” is. For example; some stores will clearly state that orders can only be cancelled within 24 hours of order placement. But with Tobi, no such time is given. So the store can easily hide behind this and deny all cancellation requests, saying that the order is in a state of processing where the cancellation is no longer possible.

Pricing and Related Policies

Pricing

You’ll be hard-pressed to find the shopper that’ll be willing to pay over and above for a fashion piece. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should feature prices that are perceived as competitive. Tobi’s promise in this regards is to ensure that the right products delivered at the right prices.

Tobi does relatively well in this regards. It is not by any means the rock-bottom prices store. Tobi offers top quality items; and as you’ll know, top quality commands top dollars. However, Tobi has products at relatively lower prices than you’ll find comparable quality at other stores.

For example; at the time of writing this review, many of the dresses listed were going for $35 – $69; while many of the Tops were going for $20 – $43. The expensive stores will have these dresses in three figures and the Tops way above $50. Going through other product categories, you’ll also find them relatively priced.

Promotions

Every customer wants a good deal. Promotions tease with deals allowing customers to get items for less than the going rate of the items. Thus, stores that run a lot of promotions are always attractive. Thankfully, Tobi does well in this regards,

On getting to the landing page of the website, we found that it has the makings of a promotion-generous online fashion store.

For example, at the time of writing this review, Tobi was offering a 60% discount site-wide (all items in the site). There was also a welcome bonus that promised 50% off your first order (if you register for the daily email). However, know that the welcome bonus has a lot of restrictions. At the time of writing this review, there were over 110 brands; if your order includes any of the restricted brands, you cannot get the 50% discount. The question many persons ask is: with so many brands restricted, what else can be purchased?

Promotions only run for a specified period of time so you’ll have to regularly check the site to know what promo is running at any time. Alternatively, you can sign up for the daily email, and you’ll get alerts of offers.

Payment Method

When it’s time to pay for your order, you’ll want an easy payment process featuring a range of convenient payment method. Thankfully, Tobi ticks this box. You can pay for your order using Credit Cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express, and Discover), PayPal, Venmo, and Sezzle.

However, this is the range of payment method supported, what will be available to you will depend on your country. For example, Sezzle is available to only US customers, while PayPal is not available to Canadian customers. However, with credit cards being a generic method, you shouldn’t have problems with paying for your order from anywhere.

Also, Tobi differs from many other online fashion stores in that unlike others that charge your account when the order is placed, Tobi charges your account when your order has shipped. The only exception to this is Sezzle.

Shipping

In any online purchase, your order will be shipped from the store’s facility to your shipping address. Thus, shipping is an important consideration. Amongst the things to consider are: whether the store ships merchandise to your location, how long it’ll take the order to arrive, and how much it’ll cost.

Shipping Destination

One of the first things to check about an online you’re considering is whether it ships to your location. If it doesn’t, it may not be possible to place an order; and even if placing an order is possible, it may be unnecessarily difficult to receive delivery of it. In this regards, online stores that ships to worldwide locations come out strong, because that way your location is more likely to be covered.

Tobi does relatively well in this regards. It ships to some 150+ countries. Though its geographical coverage is not the best in the industry, it covers every region of the world – North and South America, Europe, Oceania, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Delivery Times

There is no customer that’ll want to place an order and be made to wait and wait and wait for the order to arrive. Thus, the ideal online store should feature fast delivery. Typically, delivery time is made up of order processing time and order shipment time. The former (processing time) is how long it takes from when the order is placed to when the package ships, while the latter is how long it takes from when the package ships to when it arrives at the customer’s shipping address. For fast delivery, both times should be as low as possible.

In terms of order processing, Tobi does very well. It says that it takes 2 business days (excluding weekends, holidays, and sales days) to process orders and dispatch them for shipping. If you’ve checked reviews of other online stores, you’ll find that the “2-days order processing time” of Tobi is miles ahead of many others. However, the 2 days excludes sales days means that when Tobi runs sales, orders take longer to get processed; and this is quite often.

After an order ships, how long it’ll take to arrive at the shipping address depends on the shipping method selected. Tobi offers two shipping method – Standard Shipping and Expedited Shipping. Depending on the country that the item is shipping to, the Standard Shipping takes 3 – 4 weeks, and the Expedited Shipping takes 1 – 2 weeks. At the time of writing this review, Tobi does not ship to military address or P.O. Boxes.

Shipping Costs

Item cost + shipping cost = Total costs. Thus, if shipping costs are too high, even items that are perceived as acceptably priced can easily have a total cost that is deemed too expensive. Thus, the ideal online store should have shipping costs that are as low as possible.

Tobi does excellently in this regards. The lowest possible shipping cost is $0.00; free shipping. Thankfully, Tobi does not only offer free shipping, but it has one of the best free shipping offers you’ll find in the industry.

First, Tobi’s free shipping is available worldwide – to all countries served. This is good because in many online fashion stores free shipping is limited to their domestic market, while everyone else is required to pay for shipping.

Secondly, Tobi’s free shipping offer comes with no minimum order requirement. This is good because in almost every other online fashion stores, it is required that your order is up to $X.XX to qualify for free shipping. Minimum order requirements (especially when they are not low) put subtle pressure on customers, and they’ll often be pushed to spending more than planned in chase of free shipping. However, in Tobi, there is no such pressure because you’ll get free shipping no matter the total value of your order.

However, the free shipping offer of Tobi applies to only Standard Shipping. Expedited shipping comes at a cost. Unfortunately, it is $30, which is quite on the high side.

Returns

One of the things that regular purchase in brick and mortar stores has over online purchase in the former you can physically assess the item. Since you cannot physically assess the item before buying (in online purchases), there is the risk that when the order arrives the item may not be totally satisfactory.

As a result, online stores that come out strong are those that’ll allow customers to return any item in their order that is not totally satisfactory (and get a replacement or a refund of payment). Thankfully, Tobi allows returns. What follows is an examination of the Tobi return policy.

Return Process

When you receive an order, and you want to return an item, you definitely will not want to face a difficult return process. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should offer a simple return process. Tobi does relatively well in this regards.

If you are not totally satisfied with your order and will want to return it, you have to first contact the Customer Care Team of Tobi. Tobi does not operate a “no questions asked” return policy, so you’ll have to state your reasons for wanting a return. You’ll also have to upload photos showing any claimed defect.

Tobi will review the request, and you’ll get an email response. If approved, you only have to fill your packing slip. Package the item appropriately, including the packing slip in the package; and mail to the return shipping address.

Many times, Tobi orders are delivered in a black resealable poly mailer, and this can be re-used for the return shipping. Also, if the items you’re returning are from different orders, you can combine them in one package and include the packing slips for each order.

Domestic customers are offered Prepaid Return Shipping Labels for making easy returns. The Shipping Label is pre-addressed, so when it is used there’s no need to go hunting for the return shipping address; but if it is not used, you’ll have to write the return shipping address on the outside of the return package.

Return Window

Usually, customers do not have forever to decide on returns. This is because online stores accept only items that are returned to them within a pre-determined period (usually from the original delivery date). That said; you’ll want an extended period so that items you are returning will not be rejected by the store for coming in late.

Thankfully, Tobi does so-so in this regards. First, you only have 5 days from receipt of your order to contact Tobi about and submit a return request. However, the overall return request is relatively found because Tobi offers a 30 days return window.

Tobi’s return window is more generous than the oft-seen 30 days window. The oft-seen 30 days return window requires that the return package is received by store within 30 days from the delivery day. However, the Tobi 30 days return window requires that the return package is postmarked (sent) within 30 days from when it was delivered. Thus, if you have to return an item from your Tobi order, you shouldn’t be pressed with time.

Eligible Returns and Return Conditions

Usually, it is not every item that is bought from a store that is eligible for returns. That said; you won’t want too may return restrictions, so that you won’t have items you’ll rather return but cannot because they are restricted.

Tobi items that cannot be returned include Swimwear, Intimates, Underwear, Socks, Tights, Earrings, Hair Accessories, Bodysuits, and Beauty Products. These products cannot be returned for health/ hygiene reasons. You’ll find them also restricted in virtually all online fashion stores. Tobi also does not allow the return of items that are clearly marked “FINAL SALE”, as well as shoes if the original box is missing or damaged.

However, items that are eligible for returns must be in their original new condition if they are to be accepted by Tobi. This means they must not be worn, washed, damaged or altered; they must also be free of stains or smell (from makeup, deodorant, perfume, smoke, etc).

Cost of Returns

No one wants to be out of pocket. Thus, the cost of returns (if any) should be as low as possible. Return costs usually come in the form of restocking fees and return shipping fees.

Thankfully, Tobi does not charge restocking fees. However, return shipping fee apply. The return shipping fee will vary depending on what the carrier you use charges. However, domestic (US) customers can have free shipping. But this comes with a reduced return window. As a domestic customer, a return shipping label is made available in your Tobi account within 10 days of the delivery date. The return label is prepaid and can be used within 10 days of delivery. If used, nothing is deducted from your refund as cost of return shipping. Thus, US customers get free shipping if they postmark their return package within 10 days of the delivery date (using the prepaid return label).

Return Processing and Refunds

First, it should be said that Tobi does not do product exchanges. So you cannot return an item to Tobi in the hope of getting another as a replacement. You’ll have to return the original item, get refunded, and place a fresh order. This is unfortunate, as product exchanges expedite the process of getting the new order (by eliminating the part of having to wait to be refunded).

That said; you won’t want to be waiting for too long to be refunded. In this regards, unlike other stores, Tobi does not commit itself by putting forth a time period for processing returns and issuing refunds. However, it does say that returns, once received, will be swiftly processed and the refunds issued immediately.

While it is hard to trust promises, this Tobi’s promise of “fast processing of returns and issuing of refunds” is one that can be trusted. This is because all returns are refunded via store credits. Store credits may make for fast refunds, but it is one part of the Tobi’s return policy that is not highly rated.

This is because store credits confine customers to Tobi; they must use the refunded amount for purchases in the store. Customers who’ll rather get back their money so that they can visit other stores for future purchases always frown at store credits; they’ll want their returns refunded as cash transfer to the original payment methods. Unfortunately, Tobi only offers store credits for returns.

Customer Support Service

Customers will come up stuck at some point. It could be just questions that they’ll need answers to, and it could be issued with orders that they’ll need to be resolved. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should have an effective customer support service for answering the questions or resolving the issues that its customers will have.

The online platforms provide customer assistance in varied ways that fall into self-help or contact support. Tobi also supports both.

For self-help, Tobi has a “Help” section which holds a lot of support articles. At the time of writing this review, these are arranged under the following topics: Holiday 2019 Shipping & Return policies, Returns & Exchanges, My Order, Shipping, Product & Stock, Payments & Promos, and More FAQ. In this “Help” section, you can find answers to many of the questions that have.

However, if you still need to, you can directly contact a Customer Support Rep of Tobi. For that, Tobi supports an email service. You can send Tobi an email using the email address: help@tobi.com. However, the support team does not work round the clock. Its response hours is 8:30 am – 5:30 pm (PT), Monday – Fridays.

Tobi promises fast response time for every email support submission. However, it’s still disappointing that Tobi does not support instant feedback Support channels such as live chat or telephone service.

Tobi Complaints

This section is a part of all our reviews. It is not meant to be a “bashing” of the reviewed platform, but to provide valuable insight into how well the platform is. That is, if the place is overrun by complaints, then you may be better served somewhere else; but if complaints are few, then the store may be worthwhile.

That said; for customers’ complaint, we always look at the top independent customers’ reviews platforms such as Trustpilot and Sitejabber. Interestingly, Tobi has relatively good overall ratings in these platforms. For example, at the time of writing this review, in Trustpilot, it has been reviewed by 13,837 customers and it scored 3.2 out of 5; and in Sitejabber, it had been reviewed by 1,369 customers, and it scored 3.9 out of 5.

There was no shortage of positive reviews; many customers expressed satisfaction with delivery time, order quality, pricing, and more. However, that Tobi did not manage a perfect 5 out of 5 rating means that there were some complaints. These included:

Receiving the Wrong Order

One complaint that surprisingly came up is that some customers got another thing than was ordered. For example:

• Vicky Newsome in Trustpilot says “I received the wrong order”
• Shannon Hamilton in Trustpilot says “I received the wrong order”
• Natasha Lopez in Trustpilot says “The wrong shirt shipped” The review continued “I received my order and I received the wrong short. Not even comparable to what I ordered…”

It should be said that this complaint is just a drop in a sea of positive reviews of customers getting exactly what was ordered. However, it was mentioned by 1, 2, 3 persons in a relatively short period gave it some significance.

Also, it must be said that in the instances, Tobi replied the affected customers admitting that it was a fault of theirs and offering a satisfactory resolution. Thus, if you do order and somehow are delivered a different thing, at least you’ll get a satisfactory resolution.

Poor Quality

Another complaint that was found is that some customers were not satisfied with the quality of their orders. For example:

• Christina Sanchez in Trustpilot says “Tobi shipped my order very timely, that is a five star for me. However, in regards to the quality of the material, I must give one star. It’s poorly made and doesn’t look anything like the dress on the model. Will be requesting a refund”
• Meg in Trustpilot says “Paid $70 dollars for a formal dress and the quality was HORRIBLE. The dress felt like it was worth $10 …”

It should be noted that the poor quality complaints are few in the ocean of positive reviews of quality. That said, in our opinion, poor quality comes out as “one of those blips” and not as a problem plaguing Tobi.

Does not run true to size

The complaint about Tobi that’s most popular in the online spaces is that it does not run true to size. That is; many customers received their orders and found that the clothes do not fit – either too small or too big. For example:

• Chels in Trustpilot says “Clothes run small and they only do store credit. I have returned many things and can’t find anything that fits good”
• Donna P McCormick in Trustpilot says “The sizes are smaller than I expected and the lengths of tops are a lot shorter than they look on the models…”

It should be said that sizing dispute is the most mentioned reason for returns in the online fashion industry, so the size difference is not peculiar to Tobi. Also, though sizing issues are many, you’ll find many reviews of customers satisfied with the size of their orders.

Can’t Get Back your Money

One of the most often seen complaints about Tobi is its return policy, especially that you cannot get your money back when you return an item. For example:

• Nikki Pleshe in Trustpilot says “You’re gambling if you buy from Tobi” The review continued “You better hope these clothes work out because if they don’t, you can only return for store credits. They make it seem like they accept returns; no problem, but read the return policy very carefully. Any company that doesn’t give you your money back if you are not satisfied can be replaced by another with better customer service”
• Sarah Smith in Trustpilot says “Do not use Tobi” The review continued “…This is the worst company ever!!! They have terrible customer service and say they offer refunds, but ONLY in the form of store credits. Complete BS Company. Don’t buy from them!!”
• Camille in Trustpilot says “Beyond frustrated and disappointed” The review added “…They changed their return policy without informing customers. Now you can only return for store credit. As a student, I’m really stressed about the amount of money I am out. I contacted Tobi multiple times about allowing me a one-time money-back deal, and have just received generic responses in return. I have to think they are going to lose a huge amount of business by screwing people over like this. I know I’m never ever going to shop with them again”
• Meg in Trustpilot continued “… and I can’t even return it for my money back; only store credits. This place is a scam! DO NOT ORDER FROM HERE!!”

As mentioned earlier, all returns to Tobi are refunded via store credits. It was also said that customers will rather get back their money via the original payment method so that they can choose to walk away and use the funds for future purchases in other stores. However, as a matter of policy, Tobi only gives store credits.

Conclusion

Tobi is one of the online fast fashion stores out there. It promises, to design for women, elegant fashion pieces that feature a mix function with style. True to that, you’ll find a wide range of trendy and stylish women’s wear, including Tops, bottoms, swimwear, intimates, shoes, and accessories.

Tobi also features relatively high quality, and you’ll find these right products at the right prices. Tobi is not the low and affordable rock-bottom prices fashion store, but its products are competitively priced for the quality on offer.

Also, it does well in terms of shipping: you can order Tobi from 150+ countries of the world; shipping is relatively fast, and free shipping is offered with no minimum order requirement.

However, it is not all sailing with Tobi. This is especially if you are not totally satisfied with an item in your order. Tobi accepts returns of items postmarked with 30 days of delivery which is relatively good. However, you cannot get your money back, as returns are refunded via store credits. Also, product exchange is not possible.

Bottom line is; if you do not mind getting store credits as a refund (if you have to return an item to an online fashion store); then with high-quality products at the excellent price point, relatively fast delivery, and more, there’re many reasons to look up Tobi.

ALSO READ: Chewy Review – Is Legit or Scam?

Pros

• Offers a wide range of women wear – dresses. Tops, Bottoms, swimwear, intimates, footwear, and accessories
• Offers competitive prices and tons of large promotions
• Guest checkout is supported
• The optimal mobile shopping experience is provided (with the mobile-optimized website, and mobile apps)
• Ships merchandise to 150+ countries across the globe
• Order processing time (within 2 business days) is relatively fast
• Free Standard Shipping is offered to all countries served
• Free shipping comes with no minimum order requirement
• Returns are accepted if the return package is postmarked within 30 days of the delivery date
• Offers free returns (to US customers and with a reduced return window)
• Customer support is available via email (help@tobi.com)

Cons

• Too many items are restricted (110+ brands) from the 50% welcome bonus
• Expedited shipping cost ($30) is relatively on the high side
• All returns are refunded via store credits
• Does not offer product exchange
• Does not support instant feedback support channels (telephone and Live Chat)

Do you have experience with Tobi? Was the item you purchased from the website of good quality? Kindly, you the review link below to tell prospective buyers your true Tobi review.

TBDress is an online fashion store that promises a quick-and-easy online purchasing process. The big question is whether buying from TBDress is worthwhile.

For example, does TBDress hold a wide range of exquisite and high-quality fashion styles? What about pricing, does TBDress features competitive pricing? As an online store, does TBDress offer top services that we’ll expect of the ideal online store (such as easy ordering, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer support service, etc)? In the first place, is TBDress legit, or is it just another scam store that’ll rip off unsuspecting customers?

Yes, TBDress is legit. It is not a scam because they will never take customers’ money without shipping their items. But do they ship quality items to buyers or fake?

This TBDress review will examine TBDress in other to provide information that’ll help you answer these questions and more.

TBDress review at a glance

• Website: tbdress.com
• Ships merchandise worldwide
• Focuses on dresses (wedding dresses and special occasion dresses)
• Provides a wide range of products including Women Tops, Bottoms, Swimwear, Men’s wear, shoes, bedding, etc
• Offers a 3 level membership program with each higher level offering special benefits (such as discounts)
• Provides very competitive pricing and tons of promotions
• Free standard shipping is offered for items over $99
• Advertises a return window of 30 days from the delivery date
• Customer support is available via email (service@tbdress.com) and telephone (+86 29 68532816)

What is TBDress?

TBDress (www.tbdress.com) is an online fashion store that says it is out to take the hassle out of international trade – from product sourcing, secure payment, and shipping. TBDress was founded around 2010. It is one of the online stores that ships items from China to international buyers. However, it pledges to deliver high-quality items at reasonable price points.

TBDress is one brand that you’re likely to find if you’re searching for online destinations to get wedding dresses and special occasion dress. Its name (TBDress) is revealing that it has a focus on dresses, especially wedding dresses and special occasion dresses. TBDress does not offer only standard-sized clothing; it also offers custom-sized dresses. Customization is to be found in the “Wedding and Events” category. However, as we’ll find, it offers a wide range of products which includes clothing, footwear, simple electronics, and beddings.

Is TBDress legit?

TBDress is not a scam. Like the real world, the online world has both good and bad elements. Cyber fraudsters are aplenty using various guises to rip off unsuspecting customers. So it is wise to determine that an online store is legit before diving into it. The big question is whether TBDress is legit.

In the true definition of the word, TBDress is legit.

Our first check of a legit online store is usually legality. This is because stores that are 100% legal are less likely to be scam. Interestingly, TBDress ticks this box. TBDress is a registered trademark of Beijing Tidebuy Technology Co. Ltd, which is a limited liability company. The Tidebuy entities (Tidebuy LLC and Tidebuy Intl Ltd Polish Branch) are the responsible contracting parties in respect to transactions in the US and other countries respectively. Suffice it to say that scam stores do not have the backing of fully registered companies.

Another check of a legit online store is the test of time. This is because scam stores are generally short-lived. It’s only a matter of time before a scammer is found out; and with such exposure, the scamming platform usually close up. Interestingly, TBDress passes this test of time, as it has been operating since 2010. Suffice it to say that a scam store cannot continue ripping off customers for almost a decade.

However, the ultimate check of a legit online platform is fitness for purpose. This has to do with the fulfillment of orders. When customers place orders in a legit online store, they should expect to receive delivery of real and functional products. Interestingly, TBDress also ticks this box. Place an order, and you’ll most definitely receive delivery of real products.

The complaints section shows that some customers do have issues with the functionality (quality) of their orders; and for this, they throw the scam label at TBDress. However, in our opinion, reported issues with orders do not take from the legality of TBDress. At worst, it shows TBDress as a legit store (albeit one with issues).

That said; with TBDress operated by a 100% legal company, and with almost a decade operating record of fulfilling orders with real and largely functional items, it is safe to say that it is a legit online fashion store.

Is TBDress safe?

TBDress is safe. It is not enough that an online store is legit. It’s also important that it is safe. This is because while a legit store will not rip you off, if it is not safe, the sensitive information that you share with it will leak out, leaving you exposed to all the fraudsters out there.

In this regards, TBDress says that it uses industry-standard physical electronic and administrative procedures to safeguard users’ data. This includes SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology. SSL is definitely the gold standard when it comes to protecting data being transmitted over the internet. The technology creates a private channel between users’ devices and the servers of the platform, and the data is encrypted before it goes through the channel, so that even if it is captured, it cannot be read by the hackers.

With SSL technology used amongst other precautions, it is safe to say that TBDress is a safe online fashion store.

You may also read – Romwe Review

Products

When shopping, many customers like the one-stop stores which feature a wide range of products, as these allow them to fulfil their purchase needs in one place. One-stop stores are attractive for many reasons. First is the convenience of checking out one store as against checking out many stores. Secondly, there could be cost savings; buying from one place instead of spreading your buy-in different stores could qualify you for big order discounts, and shipping one order could be less expensive than shipping multiple orders from multiple stores.

Thankfully, TBDress does relatively well in this regards. The name gives it away as a dresses-focused store, and it provides the full gamut. It holds a Dresses category, where you can shop dresses by style, by category, or by trends. The dress types you’ll find in each subcategory are:

• By style – Vacation Dresses, Sexy Dresses, Party Dresses, Plus Size Dresses, Date Night Dresses
• By Category – Maxi Dresses, Bodycon Dresses, Day Dresses, Long Sleeve Dresses, Sheath Dresses, Lace Dresses, Sweater Dresses, etc
• By Trends – Floral Dresses, Striped Dresses, Boat Neck Dresses, V-Neckline Dresses, Wrap Dresses, Tanpell Dresses, etc

As mentioned earlier, TBDress is one store that shows up if you’re looking for wedding and special occasion wears. Thus, it has a “Wedding & Events” category that is full-featured. In the category, you’ll find:

• Event Shop – Evening Dresses, Prom Dresses, Cocktail Dresses, Homecoming Dresses, Quinceanera Dresses, Formal Dresses, Designer Dresses, Sweet 16, and Ball Gowns
• Wedding Shop – Wedding Dresses, Bridesmaid Dresses, Mother of the Bride Dresses, Flower Girl Dresses, Christening Gowns, Wedding Accessories, Reception & Favors, and Wedding Shoes

However, TBDress has a wide product range and is not just about dresses. As such you’ll also find the following product categories (and specific items in each category)

• Women’s Clothing – Dresses, Tops (Blouses, Sweater, T-Shirts, Shirts, Tanks & Crops, Knitwear), Jumpsuits & Rompers, Outerwear (Overcoats, Jackets, Trench Coats, Blazers, Capes, Sweatshirts & Hoodies), Two Piece Sets (Dress & Skirt Suits, Short Suits, Pants Suits), Skirts, Bottoms (Pants, Leggings, Jeans, Shorts), Swimwear (Bikini, Monokini, Tankini, One-Piece Swimsuits, Swimwear Cover-Ups, Beachwear), Intimates (Sexy Lingerie, Costumes, Bra, Panties, Pajamas), Activewear (Active Tops, Active Bottoms, Active Sets, Sports Accessories)
• Men – Men’s Clothing (Tops, Bottoms, Outerwear, Swimwear, Underwear, Outdoor Clothing), Shoes, Bags, Accessories (Watches, Belts, Hats, Scarves, Bracelets, Necklace)
• Plus Size – Dresses, Tops, Bottoms, Swimwear, Activewear
• Shoes & Accessories – Women shoes (Sandals, Pumps, Boots, Wedding Shoes, Prom Shoes, Canvas & Sneakers, Wedges, Flats), Bags (Crossbody, Tote, Clutches, Shoulder Bags, Straw Bags, Backpacks, Wallets, Outdoor & Sports Bags, Other Bags), Accessories (Jewelry Sets, Necklace, Earrings, Ring. Bracelet & Anklet, Watches, Hats, Scarves, Sunglasses, Hair Accessories, Gloves & Socks, Brooches & Beauty, Lovers’ Accessories), Wigs (Human Hair Wigs, Synthetic Wigs, Hair Extensions), Men’s Shoes, Bedding
• Electronics – Wearable Technology, Home Electronics, Cell Phones & Tablets Accessories
• Bedding – 3D Bedding Sets, Bedding Sets

Buying from TBDress

Signing Up

To make purchases from TBDress, you’ll have to register and create a user’s account. This is a simple process. You’ll find a register button in the website; click on it, and follow the instructions – basically submitting your email address and nominating a password. You can also register with your Facebook, Google, or PayPal account.

Interestingly, TBDress supports Guest Checkouts; that is being able to make purchases in the online store without having to register and create a user account. The advantage of this purchase option is that none of your information will be stored. To use this feature, you’ll find a “Sign in as visitor” button at checkout.

Finding your Item and Ordering

It’s also very easy to discover your favourite item and place the order. You can find items by browsing through the product categories and subcategories. Alternatively, you can enter keywords in the search bar to locate items that you are looking for.

After discovering an item, clicking on it will take you to its description page, where you can view a detailed description of the item. The page also holds order processing time, as well as shipping and return info. If you like what you see, you can then choose the quantity wanted, and select a colour and size. There is a detailed size chart to guide you, which include pictures of measurements. After these selections, you can then click the “Add to Bag” button.

Clicking on the bag icon will take you to your shopping cart to view your items. You can then proceed to pay. First, you’ll need to log in, or provide your shipping information if you want “guest checkout”. The shipping cost will be supplied; you can then view your order total. You can then proceed to select your payment method and pay for the order.

Order Cancellation

For various reasons, customers will find themselves wanting to cancel an order after submitting it. As a result, stores that allow order cancellation come out strong. TBDress does very well in this regard.

Orders for clothes, shoes, and every other product can be cancelled anytime before the item ships, and you will get a full refund. The only exception is wedding dresses and special occasion dresses. With those, the policy is different depending on whether the dress is a custom-sized or a standard size.

• Custom sized wedding dresses or special occasion dresses: orders cancelled within 24 hours of placement will be refunded in full, orders cancelled within 24 – 72 hours of placement will have only 60% of the total amount refunded, orders cancelled after 72 hours of placement (but before item ships) will have only 40% of the total amount refunded.
• Standard size wedding dresses or special occasion dresses: orders cancelled within 24 hours of placement will be refunded in full, orders cancelled within 24 – 72 hours of placement will have only 70% of the total amount refunded, orders cancelled after 72 hours of placement (but before item ships) will have only 50% of the total amount refunded

Membership Levels

One characteristic of TBDress is that it operates different membership levels. This is basically a loyalty program that rewards you for shopping in the store. The more you buy, the more you save.

There are three membership levels – Bronze level, Silver level, and Gold level. Each level enjoys different discounts. Your level is determined by your cumulative amount (shipping excluded).

• Bronze Level: You’ll need a cumulative amount of $0.01 – $300 to get Bronze membership. This means that you’ve started at this membership level when you sign up in TBDress. As a Bronze Member, your benefits include 1% discount off purchases, and a monthly $5 VIP Coupon
• Silver Level: You’ll need a cumulative amount of $300 – $2000 to get silver membership. Your benefits as a silver member include: 3% discount off purchases, and a monthly $10 VIP Coupon
• Gold Level: You’ll need a cumulative amount over $2,000 to get gold membership. Your benefits as a gold member include 6% discount off purchases and a monthly $20 VIP Coupon. Gold members could also get a free upgrade from super-saving to expedited shipping

Pricing and Related Policies

Pricing

Money does not come in easy, so no one will want it to go out easy. Thus, customers gravitate toward stores that are reasonably priced. In this regards, TBDress says that it offers buyers a wide range of products at very low prices.

TBDress does live up to this promise. At the time of writing this review, thousands of gorgeous dresses (special occasion wears) listed were priced at $19.16 – $52.56, while many excellent Tops were listed at $16.05 – $46.59. To put these in perspective, these are products that you can easily find listed in three figures in the expensive stores. This extends to the other product categories, you’ll find that prices in TBDress are relatively low.

Promotions

Customers always want the best deals possible; so the traffic follows online stores that run a lot of promotions. Thankfully, TBDress comes out well in this regards. Like every promotion-generous online store, the landing page of the TBDress’ website announces a lot of promotional offers.

At the time of writing this review; these include:

• New Sign Up bonus, offers rewarding new members with coupons totalling $80.00
• Marry Me deal, offers $10 off orders over $139 for event dresses and Wedding dresses
• Best of the Best deal offers 12% off any order
• Christmas deal offers $10 off all orders over $99 (except shoes, Wedding and Events dresses)
• $2 off for first order using Apps

TBDress also offers 15% student discounts. You can get this by simply registering with Student Beans to verify your student status.

As it is in every other online platform, promotions are time-specific, as they run for only a specified period of time. Thus, you’ll need to regularly check the website to know what promo is being offered at any one time. Alternatively, you can register for the TBDress’ newsletter,. And you’ll get regular alerts of offers.

Payment Methods

When using an eCommerce platform, the hassle-free service that you expect should extend down to making payments. Thus, the ideal online store should offer a range of convenient payment methods. TBDress does relatively well in this regards.

The various options that it supports for paying for your order include PayPal, Credit card, Bank Transfer, iDeal, Sofort, and Webmoney. However, you’ll not find all these options available to you, as some options are country-specific. However, with PayPal and Credit/ Debit cards supported, you’ll not have problems with conveniently paying for your order no matter your location.

 

Shipping

It’s not possible to enter an online store and walk out with your order. Rather, it’ll be shipped to your nominated address. Thus, shipping is an important consideration in online purchases. You’ll need to consider whether the online store ships merchandise directly to your location, how long it’ll take the items to arrive, and how much it’ll cost.

Shipping Destinations

This should be one of the very first things to check. If a store does not ship to your location, it may be impossible to order from it; and even if ordering is possible, receiving delivery of the order will be unnecessarily difficult.

In this regards, stores that ships worldwide come out strong, so that no matter where the customer is on the face of the earth, he/ she can place orders in the store.

TBDress does very well in this regards. It ships items worldwide. Its coverage includes over 240 countries from every region of the world.

Delivery Times

After placing an order, customers will not want to wait too long before it is delivered. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should feature fast delivery. Delivery Times consist of order processing time and shipment time. The former (processing time) is the time that passes from when the order is placed to when the item ships, while the latter (shipping time) is the time that passes from when the item ships to when it arrives at the shipping address. For fast delivery, both order processing time and shipping time should be relatively fast.

In TBDress, the order processing time varies depending on the product. You’ll find the applicable time on the product detailed page. However, you’ll find that many of the listed products have a processing time of 4 – 9 business days. In our opinion, this is relatively long.

The shipping time, TBDress offers three shipping methods; the shipping time for each product also varies, depending on the shipping method selected, and the country the item will ship to. The shipping methods supported (and applicable shipping time) are as follows:

• Super Saving Shipping: 10 – 25 days to the US; 7 – 15 days to the UK; 15 – 30 days to Canada; 6 – 18 days to France; 10 – 25 days to Australia; 9 – 22 days to Germany; 15 – 30 days to the Middle East (including Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus); 10 – 25 days to other countries
• Standard Shipping: 3 – 12 days to the US; 4 – 12 days to the UK; 5 – 16 days to Canada; 4 – 15 days to France; 5 – 18 days to Australia; 3 – 15 days to Germany; 5 – 15 days to the Middle East (including Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus); 5 – 18 days to other countries
• Expedited Shipping: 3 – 8 days to the US; 4 – 10 days to the UK; 5 – 12 days to Canada; 4 – 10 days to France; 4 – 15 days to Australia; 3 – 12 days to Germany; 3 – 12 days to the Middle East (including Egypt, Turkey, Cyprus); 3 – 10 days to other countries

Shipping Cost

Shipping costs plus item price = total costs. Thus, if the shipping cost is too high, even an item that is acceptably priced can easily become too expensive to acquire. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should feature shipping costs that are as low as possible.

In this regards, TBDress does not have flat rates. The shipping cost varies, depending on the weight of the item, the selected shipping method, and the country it is shipping to. That said, you’ll find the applicable shipping cost at checkout after supplying your shipping address.

Interestingly, it is possible to get free shipping in TBDress. For example, at the time of writing this review, there was a free shipping offer to order $99 and get it shipped free of charge. While free shipping offers are good, it was available as a promotional time-sensitive offer, means after the promo period there’ll no longer be free shipping. Also, the minimum order requirement was $99+ which is relatively on the high side.

Returns

It is not news that sometimes when online shoppers receive delivery of their order, they are left disappointed. As a result, shoppers are attracted to online stores that will allow them to return any item that is not totally satisfactory and get a replacement or a refund of payment.

Thankfully, TBDress allows returns for exchange or refund.

Return Process

Allowing returns is not enough, you’ll not want a cumbersome return process that’ll frustrate your return attempts. Thus, the ideal store should have an easy return process. In this regards, TBDress does not offer a “no questions asked” return policy.

To return an item from your TBDress order, you’ll have to contact them and get return authorization. In the return request, you’ll need to state clearly the reasons for wanting to return the item. You’ll also need to show evidences of this; this means you’ll have to take photos and upload. For example, if your claim is that a dress is too big, you’ll have to take photos wearing the dress.

TBDress promises to respond swiftly to return request (within 24 – 48 hours). Your request will be reviewed, and if approved, you’ll get an authorization mail that’ll carry return instructions as well as the return address.

Return Window

However, you don’t have forever to make a decision. Retailers only accept items returned to them within a specified time frame. You’ll want an extended time frame so that you’ll not run the risk of your return package getting to its retailer late and being rejected.

TBDress also does well in this regards. It offers the almost-standard 30 days return window. That is, it will arrange a refund or exchange for you within 30 calendar days of receipt. The only exception is wedding dresses, special occasion dresses and wigs, which have a reduced return window (7 calendar days of receipt).

That said, except your order is a wedding dress, special occasion dress, or wig, you shouldn’t be pressed with time when trying to return it to TBDress.

Eligible Returns and Return Condition

However, just like in every online fashion store is not every item that is purchased from TBDress that can be returned. However, you’ll want the return restrictions to be limited. TBDress does relatively well in this regards. The items that cannot be returned include Swimwear, Intimates, Sexy Lingerie, Jewelry & Beauty, and Customized Wedding Apparel & Special Occasion Dresses. There is nothing out of the ordinary there. The first group of items are what you’ll find restricted in virtually every online fashion store (for health/ hygiene reasons); while the last item on the list is restricted for obvious reasons – customized items are made especially for you. You can only return such customized dresses if a wrong item had been sent to you, or the product is seriously damaged.

Note that while standard wedding dresses and special occasion dresses are not restricted from returns; if you choose the wrong size or colour, TBDress will not accept its return. Where sizing is the issue, TBDress may reimburse you up to 10% of the product price towards repairs with your local tailor

It should be noted that when returning items eligible for returns, online fashion stores require the items be in their “original new condition”. That is; they must be unworn, unwashed, undamaged, and unaltered. Thus, items must be free of stains, and scents; and must have all original tags intact, and be returned in the original packaging. Many online fashion stores will reject items (and not issue refunds), if the items returned are deemed not to be in their “original new condition”.

However, the policy is a little different from TBDress. For items returned in their original new condition, TBDress will issue a full refund. However, if the item is found to have some part missing, damaged, defiled, deformed, with stains or scents, etc, TBDress will issue only a part refund.

On the one hand, it is good that where some other stores will totally refuse you any refund, with TBDress you’ll get some refunds. On the other hand, a company with such a policy can easily use it as a weapon to always issue partial refunds.

Cost of Return

Needless to say, everyone will want costs to be as low as possible. Especially so with the cost of returns, because high costs can easily force you to keep an unwanted item that you’ll rather return to its retailer.  That said, the ideal fashion store should have return costs that are as low as possible.

Return costs often encountered include restocking fees and return shipping fees. Restocking fees apply in TBDress, but thankfully, they only apply when you’re returning more than 2 pieces of the same item or style with multiple colour or sizes from one order. When you’re making such returns, a 50% restocking fee applies. That is, you’ll only be refunded half of the item’s price.

In our opinion, this is to combat the “order many, keep one” practice of some customers. For example, a customer, zeros in on a style, but is not sure of the sizing of the retailer; so he/ she orders different sizes of the style, with the intention of trying them all, selecting the one that fits best, and returning the others.

In our hundreds of reviews of online fashion stores, we’ve seen retailers that do not approve return requests when they suspect that “order many, keep one” is in play. Thus, while we definitely hate restocking fees, it’s somewhat fine that TBDress does not totally deny such return requests. However, where a customer is totally honest (no buy-many-keep-one), and needs to return some items (same item or style but different colours or sizes) for whatever reason, being faced with a 50% restocking fee can be very frustrating.

That said, you may not always face restocking fees. But one return cost that you’ll definitely face when returning items is “return shipping costs”. This is because in TBDress customers bear the cost of shipping back the return package.

Return Processing and Refund

After returning an unwanted item to its retailer, you won’t want to be kept waiting for too long before you receive your refund. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should have fast processing of returns, as well as fast issuance of refunds or sending of replacement.

TBDress advertises that it processes all returns within 2 – 7 working days after receiving the return package. Refunds are usually issued immediately after processing; but it may take a while before the funds reflect in your account. The waiting time depends on your financial institution, but maybe up to 2 weeks.

However, as we’ll find in the complaints section, TBDress is not popular for living up to fast processing of returns and issuing of refunds.

Customer Support Service

It is practically impossible for every journey in online platforms to be all smooth. At some time, you’ll have questions, and at other times, there could be issues with orders or accounts. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should have an effective customer support service for answering the questions that customers ask and handling the issues that customers may have.

Getting help in online platforms usually start from self-help resources in the website and end with directly contacting a customer support rep. It is not different with TBDress. It has a help centre where you’ll find a lot of self-help articles. The articles will answer many of the questions that you’ll have about getting started and using TBDress. To aid navigation, the Help Center is sectionized as follows: New customer Guidance; Payment; Returns, Refunds & Dispute; About tbdress.com; Preferential Policies; Shipping & Delivery; Privacy & Security; and FAQs.

If you’ll rather directly contact a customer support representative, TBDress supports an email service and a telephone service. You can send TBDress a mail via an online contact form using the “Send Message to Us” button found in the “Contact Us” page of the website. Alternatively, you can send an email directly from your inbox using the email address: service@tbdress.com. TBDress promise to respond to all email submissions within 24 hours.

However, if you’ll want instant feedback, the telephone service is there. The number to call is: +86 29 68532816. However, though the phone service is available every day of the week, it is not available round the clock. Service hours for US and Canada customers is: 9am – 6pm (EST); while service hours for international customers is: 9am – 6pm (GMT +08:00).

TBDress Complaints

The “complaints” section is always a part of our reviews, because what other customers of a store have to say gives valuable insight as to whether the store is worthwhile or not. That is; too many complaints could be a red flag, while few complaints could mean that all is well.

For this section, we looked up the top independent customers’ reviews platforms such as Sitejabber and Trustpilot. Interestingly, the rating of TBDress in these platforms is mixed. For example, at the time of writing this review; in sitejabber, TBDress was highly rated scoring 4.4 out of 5 (from 7,040 reviews), but in Trustpilot, it was not highly rated, scoring only 1.6 out of 5 (from 495 reviews).

However, some complaints were common to both platforms; these include: long Processing Time

Long Processing Time

One of the most popular complaints you’ll find about TBDress is late delivery, because the item had taken too long to be processed and shipped. For example:

• John O in Sitejabber says “Deceiving Shipping Policy” the review continued “Stay away. Horrific evil deception, intentionally misleading. Looking to order a gift for Holidays. Holiday highlighted all over the page. Ordered a jacket. The only salient shipping or processing information is in the shipping section 3 – 8 days for expedited. Should work. Click. 5 days later, no notice of process. Check back. Oh buried several clicks back is an additional processing time of 5 – 9 business days. 5 – 9? Just to process? You advertise Christmas specials 8 days prior to Christmas?”
• Stacy L in Sitejabber says “I made the HORRIFIC mistake or order[ing] a pair of shoes off this website for my company’s Christmas party. I paid $22 for expedited shipping, as it indicated the shoes would arrive within 1 week on 12/13/19. My party was the evening of 12/13/19. The party came and went and the shoes never arrived. I contacted the company and the shoes didn’t even SHIP until 12/14/19…”

As mentioned earlier, the processing time of TBDress is relatively long (5 – 9 business days). Most times customers are not aware of this, and they take only the shipping time as the delivery time. When the processing time is not factored in, frustrations boil over when the item does not arrive as expected. This problem is even more evident when customers pay the steep price for expedited shipping. If it takes 5 – 9 days for the item to ship, then the fast delivery that is the essence of paying for expedited shipping is defeated.

Poor Quality

Another complaint that was quite common is that the quality of delivered products is sometimes overwhelmingly unsatisfactory. For example:

• Nelson Bloncourt in Trustpilot says “I purchased two jackets on their site and once received, they look like dish rags. Their product does not look anything like the photographs…”
• Emily Searing in Trustpilot says “Do not order from TBDress. I ordered a ‘mother of the bride’ pantsuit for a formal holiday event. It was horrible workmanship. The garment is not wearable. One pant leg is much more narrow than the other creating a skinny fit on one side and a palazzo loose fit on the other leg. The top has a crease that goes across the breast area due to horrible stitching at the armpit area. Just a very low quality made garment…”
• Samantha Kerr in Trustpilot says “I ordered a bespoke dress. Quality is appalling. It’s not remotely wearable. Do not waste your time and money. If I could give them zero stars I would”
• Kayleigh Stollery in Trustpilot says “Awful dress! Paid £120 for a dress. Turned up was completely the wrong colour and not like anything in the picture”

“Poor quality complaints” is something that rings loud in the Chinese cross-border online fashion stores. Unfortunately, TBDress is not immune. No doubt there are reviews of customers who got their orders and were 100% satisfied with its quality. However, there are just too many complaints of receipt of poor quality orders that “poor quality” comes out as a problem plaguing the store.

The reviews show that sometimes, the item is completely different from what is pictured; and other times, it is made of poor quality materials or poorly made. Another significant issue often mentioned is that the items do not run true to size. Many times, the clothes are found to be too small.

That said; if you decide to buy from TBDress, there is a chance that your item may not feature satisfactory quality.

Difficulty with Returns and Refunds

With so many poor quality and sizing complaints, TBDress does receive a ton of return and refund requests. However, the customers’ reviews show that in TBDress getting return approval and actually getting refunded is very difficult. For example:

• Nelson Blonchort in Trustpilot continued “…I have been trying to get a return slip from them but they have yet to respond after 3 weeks. They are scammers. Don’t do business with them”
• Emily Searing in Trustpilot continued “…I have tried for an entire month to get reimbursed, but they continue to pass along to someone different, with no one taking any steps towards a resolution. The pantsuit cost $146.55 and they shamefully offered to reimburse only $40. I refused their ridiculous offer. I finally called my bank and filed a claim”
• Cheri in Trustpilot says “I received a dress that I ordered and was super excited. When I got it, the zipper didn’t work and the dress did not fit, sleeves did not lay down on shoulders. I requested a refund and got denied because the reason isn’t good enough… So I am stuck with a dress that I can’t wear and I shouldn’t have to pay a seamstress to fix it…”
• Janet Biermann in Trustpilot says “Return not accepted” The review continued “I purchased a coat from this web site. Nowhere close to fitting. They continually rejected my return request. Wanted to give me $12 or $15 of $60.00. Don’t buy from this site”
• Nicholas H in Sitejabber says “I’ve been trying to return my cheaply made suit that is too small for 2 weeks and I keep getting the runaround. Don’t waste your money”

As mentioned earlier, TBDress does not offer a “no questions asked” return policy. The policy of TBDress also suggests that you can return any item you are not totally satisfied with, while a customized item can only be returned if the product is seriously damaged. However, from the customers’ reviews, it appears that the latter is the case for all returns. Most often than not, TBDress does not approve returns. Other times, it will only propose a “ridiculous” partial refund. And even if a full refund is approved, you’ll have to ship the item back to China, which means high return shipping costs. More so, even after receipt of the return package, the refunds do not come as fast as TBDress advertises.

Conclusion

TBDress is a legit online fashion store. It offers a range of products including clothing, footwear, accessories, bedding, and more, but as its name reveals it focuses on dresses, especially wedding and special occasion dresses.

One of the selling points of TBDress is its competitive prices; you’ll find gorgeous fashion styles for far less than you’ll find them at other destinations. It also offers many promotions and a VIP loyalty program, which gives discounts for even better pricing. Ordering is easy as the site is easy to navigate and convenient payment methods are supported.

However, it is not smooth sailing with TBDress. Order processing is relatively long, so even if you pay for expedited shipping don’t expect it in a few days. Also, while TBDress does hold high-quality gorgeous products, the number of complaints of “poor quality” orders is significant. Thus, you just may receive your order and find it wanting. Worse still, if you have an issue with your order, getting a satisfactory resolution may be more difficult than thought. Just too many customers have had issues with getting return approval, or actually getting full refunds.

ALSO READ Rotita review – Is Legit or Scam?

Pros

• Ships worldwide
• Ships merchandise worldwide
• Allows order cancellation (anytime before shipment) for a full refund
• Offers very competitive prices
• Supports convenient payment methods which include PayPal and Credit Cards
• Offers a range of price-slashing promotions
• Offers a 15% student discount
• Offers free shipping (albeit with a not-so-low $99+ minimum order requirement)
• Customer support is available via email and telephone

Cons

• Order processing is relatively long causing delivery time to be relatively long
• 50% restocking fee applies (when, from one order, you’re returning more than 2 items of the same product/ style but of different colour/ size)
• Too many complaints of receipt of poor quality
• Too many complaints of not approving return requests
• It is quite difficult to get a full refund

Have you made a purchase on TBDress before? Was it a good or bad experience? You may use the write your own review link below to give prospective customers your TBDress experience.

Your opinion matters, whether good, bad, or ugly. This is because top brands use consumer insight (opinions) to drive product/ service development or improvement. These brands pay market research sites to help with the collection of the consumer insights, and these (rewards sites) will give a portion of the commission received to members who participate in the site and share their opinion. Thus, you can get paid for your opinion.

Yes, BzzAgent is legit. It is not a scam because you will get paid for every survey you completed. This review will show you more reasons why BzzAgent is not a scam.

BzzAgent says it is “an international community of everyday people who voluntarily share their opinions and experiences on a variety of products and services for leading brands around the world simply to help others make more informed purchases”.

This means that BzzAgent is one of the many market research panels on the internet. The big question that this raises is whether using BzzAgent is worthwhile. That is, does BzzAgent actually reward members for participating in activities in the site? What rewards can you expect to get? You’ll also want to know how BzzAgent differs from other market research panels.

In the first place, is BzzAgent legit, or is it just another scam platform that’ll rip off unsuspecting users or waste their time doing activities without rewards?

This BzzAgent review will examine BzzAgent in order to provide information that will help you answer these questions.

BzzAgent review at a glance

• Website: bzzagent.com
• A market research panel that supports only product testing
• Started in 2002 and based in the US
• Accept membership from persons in the USA, Canada, and the UK (maybe also Brazil)
• Participating brands include L’Oreal, Gillette, Unilever, Nestle, P&G, and more
• After testing, participants are required to share their experience via activities that include writing reviews, complete surveys, and social media posts (to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram)
• Campaigns (product testing + sharing the experience by doing the required activities) typically take 8 weeks
• Members keep the tested products as a reward for participation in any campaign
• Customer support is provided via email (support@bzzagent.com)

What is BzzAgent it?

BzzAgent advertises as “a community of everyday influencers, real everyday people who enjoy sharing their experiences with brands and products”.

One thing is that BzzAgent will find products/ services that you like, and create an opportunity for you to experience these. That is, it is basically a platform where members are required to (i) test products and services, and (ii) share the experience.

It is in (ii) above that BzzAgent differs from virtually every other product testing reward site in the business. In the regular reward sites that feature product testing; after testing the product, participants “share their experience” by writing a review or answering survey questions. However, in BzzAgent, most of the time, participants are required to share their experience by “buzzing online” – starting natural genuine conversations with real friends using blogs and social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Thus, BzzAgent is more than a market research panel that helps their clients (top brands) collect consumer insight; it is also a panel that helps their clients drive brand awareness (by creating exposure for products/ services).

Thus, when you use BzzAgent, as applicable in every other reward site, you’ll be providing consumer insight that will shape product improvement; but more than that, you’ll be an influencer who drives brand awareness to inform purchase decisions. You can visit the BzzAgent website here (www.bzzagent.com).

Is BzzAgent legit?

It’s a no-brainer that you should determine that a rewards site is legit before you commit to using it. This is because with anything but a legit site, you may be ripped off and left out of pocket, or you may waste time in completing activities that you won’t be rewarded for. That said; the big question here is whether BzzAgent is legit. The simple answer to that is “YES”.

Our first check of a legit online platform is usually legality. This is because platforms that are owned by 100% legal companies are less likely to be scams. Thankfully, BzzAgent ticks this box. It is owned and operated by PowerReviews Inc.which is a 100% legal company registered in the US.

Another check of a legit online platform is visibility and industry-wide recognition. This is because scam platforms largely operate in the shadow. Interestingly, BzzAgent also ticks this box. BzzAgent partners with many international companies which includes Proctor & Gamble, Nestle, Gillette, and more. Also, BzzAgent has over one million members. Suffice it to say that a scam store will not be trusted by so many users, and definitely cannot have links with such high-profile companies.

Another check of a legit online platform is the test of time. This is because scam platforms are usually short-lived. It is only a matter of time before they are found out; and with the exposure, they close their virtual doors and disappear. Interestingly, BzzAgent ticks this box, as it started in 2002. Suffice it to say that it is not possible for a scam online platform to continue for upwards of 18 years.

However, the ultimate check of a legit online platform is “fitness for purpose”. The purpose of a reward site is to reward members who participate in prescribed activities. Thankfully, BzzAgent also ticks this box. Most often than not, members are selected to participate in campaigns, and they receive products for free, and they get to keep these after testing.

That said; with BzzAgent operated by a 100% legit company, with it having industry-wide recognition, and with it having a long operating record of rewarding members, there is no doubt that it is a legit rewards site.

Is BzzAgent safe?

Yes, BzzAgent is safe. Your personal details and data are well secured and will never be handed over to the third party.

When using rewards site, you’ll have to submit sensitive information which includes your names, contact detail, interests, and more. You’ll not want this information to fall into the wrong hands. Thus, the ideal online platform should not only be legit but should also be safe.

In this regards, BzzAgent says that it uses appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect the users’ information. These measures include SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology, which is the industry standard for ensuring safe transmission of data over the internet. SSL not only create a private channel for the transmission of data, but the data is encrypted using bank-grade encryption to ensure that even if it is intercepted, it cannot be read by the hackers.

With the use of SSL technology amongst others, it is safe to say that BzzAgent is safe.

Also read: Swagbucks Review

Using BzzAgent

Whatever online platform you use, and for whatever purpose, you’ll want it to be easy to use. In this regards, BzzAgent says the right words. It says that using the platform is simply a matter of apply, get selected, and share your experience.

However, before diving into “Apply, Get Selected, and Share your experience”, you’ll have to sign up and create a users’ account.

Sign Up

Interestingly, this is absolutely free. This is also another feather to the legit cap of BzzAgent because with it being absolutely free to use, there’s no way you’ll get ripped off. There are no payments whatsoever, so if at any time you decide that it is not working for you, you can simply walk away, and you’ll not lose any financial commitment.

Also, signing up is relatively easy. If you click the join now button on the homepage of the BzzAgent website, you’ll immediately be prompted to connect your Facebook or log in with your email. Simply type your email address into the field, and submit. BzzAgent will send you a confirmation email; go to your inbox, click on the confirmation link. You’ll then set a password, and give some personal information (such as name, address, and phone number).

BzzAgent is for persons typically geared at persons who are active online, especially in social media. This is clear in the page that follows while setting up your account. It asks you to connect to your social media accounts. This is an essential step because the connected accounts are what you’ll use to start conversations about the product you’ll test (for your BzzAgent campaign).

Then you’ll be required to choose from 25 topics what you typically post about. This is so that BzzAgent can best match you with campaigns that you’ll be interested in. These topics include Actor, Beauty, Fashion, Food, Home/ Design, Music, Parenting, Travel, etc.

Apply

The first real step of using BzzAgent is “Apply”. However, “Applying” actually involves some processes which start from completing a profile survey and culminate in submitting an application for the chance to participate in a campaign.

The profile surveys will include answering simple questions about your income, highest education level, what your family is like, where you shop at, etc. It’s basically to gather more information about your lifestyle and interests. The premise is that if BzzAgent knows what you are interested in, you’ll get matched with campaigns that’ll interest you so that the experience will be much more fun to you.

After that, you only have to watch your email for invites. When BzzAgent has a campaign that it thinks you’ll be a great fit for, it’ll send you an email invitation linking to an application form, along with other information. You can then proceed to submit your application for the chance to participate.

A BzzCampaign is basically an invitation to test a product or a service and share your experience. Many of the campaigns run for 8 weeks.

Get Selected

If your application is reviewed, and you are selected, you’ll receive a message to confirm your address. This is an important step because it is to this address that the BzzKit will be sent. After confirming your email, if you’ve chosen; you’re in. You’ll receive a final confirmation email letting you know when your BzzKit will arrive.

The BzzKit is basically a package that will be developed to your home holding the product that you’re required to test. The kit will arrive in 10 – 14 days of confirming your mailing address as part of joining a BzzCampaign.

Share Experience

When your BzzKit arrives; you’ll find an amazing product in the package. You can proceed to use the product, form an opinion, and get ready to share the experience.

Then you have to watch your email for the “Posting Instruction” email. Testing a product/ service is just one phase of using BzzAgent; the other phase which is as (or even more) important than the first is sharing your experience by performing some prescribed activities.

The activities are the types of social posts or offline tasks that BzzAgent will ask you to complete during a BzzCampaign. The “posting instruction” email will describe the activities. They typically include:

• Posting to Instagram, Facebook, and other social media
• Writing product reviews
• Completing surveys

After receiving your campaign instructions, you can then proceed to “spread the Bzz”. To complete social media activities, simply post your experience online using the campaign’s specific “hashtags” and “@ mentions”. For other activities, simply follow the links provided in email updates to land at pages to submit your honest review of the tested product, or to answer surveys questions.

It should be said that if you do not complete Activities, you’ll no longer get campaign invites. Also, even if you do not like the product tested, you’ll still have to complete the required activities. Know that BzzAgent, as a market research panel, is primarily out to get honest opinion which will be fed back to brands to drive product improvement or development. So whether you absolutely love a product or you feel it needs more work, they want to hear it.

Other Features

Availability

When planning to use an online platform, before wasting time on other checks, one of the first things to check is whether the platform accepts membership form persons in your location. This is because if it does not accept members from your location, you’ll be unable to sign up and use its services.

In this regards, world-facing sites do come out strong because persons from virtually every part of the world can use them. However, BzzAgent is not one of such world-facing sites. It says in an FAQ article that BzzAgent is currently open only to residents in the USA, Canada, and the UK; then it adds that it will have campaigns for persons in Brazil sometime soon. Also, age restrictions apply. If resident in the eligible countries, you can only join BzzAgent and use its services if you’re at least 18 years of age.

Weirdly, while specifically mentioning that BzzAgent is available only to US, Canada, and UK residents; when signing up, the country field has a drop-down menu that lists a host of countries. This gives the impression that persons from any country on the list can be accepted as members.

Mobile Compatibility

Many persons these days do their internet activities using mobile devices because of the portability of these devices. Thus, any serious online platform should be compatible with mobile devices. BzzAgent comes out as such a “serious” online platform. You can use the website on both desktop and mobile devices. Not only does the BzzAgent website work well on mobile devices, but it is mobile optimized. When opening BzzAgent on mobile devices, the web pages resize to fit the small screens of the devices. Thus, you’ll not have to scroll left or right or zoom in to view pages; making for optimal mobile browsing experience.

BzzKit

You’ll find that a range of products is available for testing. BzzAgent partners with top brands, so most often than not, the products feature high quality. You’ll find amazing products such as body care products, pet products, small appliances, and more. However, some products have made some participants stopped in their tracks – condoms, pills, etc.

Many times the BzzKit you’ll receive will contain more than the full-size sample of the product that you’re to test. It will sometimes contain smaller samples of the products and coupons, which you can gift to friends and family. Thus, you’ll be able to share some love with others.

Earning Potential

The main reason why people join market research panels or rewards site is to earn some extra money online. In fact, a search for “how to make extra money online” will most definitely bring up some rewards site.

Unfortunately, BzzAgent clearly states that “community members are not paid for their reviews”. That’s right! BzzAgent is a reward site where you won’t earn money. However, that does not mean you won’t be rewarded. The rewards you get for active participation in BzzAgent is the products you receive in your BzzKits to tests. You’ll get to keep these products after testing. More participation (trying products and buzzing about them) means more free products for you.

That said; you’ll want to have a lot of campaign invites. This is because more campaigns may translate to more selection to participate, which means more free products for you. Unfortunately, BzzAgent does not guarantee the number of campaigns you’ll get. While it says that serious “online buzzing” when doing the activities for a campaign can make for more campaigns in the future; it also says that “many BzzAgents may only receive a few product experiences from us per year”. So don’t expect that with BzzAgent, you’ll be getting free products every other week.

Customer Support Service

Before deciding on or when using an online platform, you may have questions that you’ll need to be answered. Also, you may have certain issues with your account that you’ll want to be resolved. Thus, the ideal online platform should have an effective customer support service for answering the questions that customers will have.

The online platform usually provides support using a combination of self-help resources and contact-help channels. Thankfully, BzzAgent does likewise.

For self-help, BzzAgent provides some support articles as well as an FAQ in its website. These will answer many of the questions that you’ll have including signing up, campaigns and Invites, Campaign Activities, and more.

Admittedly, the self-help resources of BzzAgent are limited, so you may find them insufficient, and will have to directly contact a customer support rep of BzzAgent. For this, and email service is supported. You can send an email to the company directly from your inbox using the email address: support@bzzagent.com.

BzzAgent Complaints

The “complaints” section is always a part of our reviews. This is because what real customers of a store have to say about it gives valuable insight into how well the platform is. That is, too many complaints could be a warning sign that the platform is not worthwhile, while very few complaints could mean that the site is worthwhile.

For this section, we checked the top independent customers’ reviews platforms such as Trustpilot and Sitejabber. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this review, BzzAgent was not highly rated in these platforms. For example, in Trustpilot it scored a lowly 1.9 out of 5; and in Surveypolice and Sitejabber it was just above average, scoring 2.6 out of 5, and 2.8 out of 5 respectively.

The relatively poor ratings mean that there were many complaints. Some of the ones that came out as significant are as follows:

Social Media Focus

One of the complaints that were found is that BzzAgent is not content with letting members test products and expressing their opinion, but that it also requires a great deal of online buzzing (starting conversations in social media channels around the product). For example:

• Deana F in Sitejabber says “I’m not a social butterfly. I’m not big on posting pics on every social media platform. In fact, I only use one. BzzAgent wants a lot of pics and posts [of] each product they send. The products are great, I’m just not willing to jump through all the social media hoops. If you’re big on blogging and posting… this is the site for you… Not me”
• Amy M in Sitejabber sums this up saying “…they are using people as free advertising…”

As BzzAgent advertises it is a community of influencers. You’ll be sharing the experience of testing the product/ service in social media channels, and this is not just to provide customer insight but also to drive brand awareness. So the social media communication that BzzAgent requires is a matter of its operating model. That said, if you are not an active user of the social media channels and do not plan to, BzzAgent may not be the right product testing platform for you.

Login Issues

Another complaint that we found relates to log in, specifically that members are required to always enter their data when logging in. For example:

• Sandra E in Sitejabber says “Terrible” The review continued “I have been a member for wow 10 years, but now this site really stinks. You cannot even log in let alone get any products anymore. Do not waste your time; such a shame, I used to love these guys!!”
• Lucy in Trustpilot says “Really not worth the time or effort since the relaunch. I used to look forward to content from BzzAgent and the chance to take part in reviewing products. Since the relaunch the website is awful, it doesn’t show any previous information and you have to reenter your details every time. Sort it please BzzAgent”
• Jacqueline Jordan in Trustpilot says “Bzz used to be fantastic but since its relaunch it’s awful. I have to re-submit all my information every time I go on the website. Avoid… not worth it anymore”

The bottom line of this complaint of login issues is that the user experience is not the greatest when logging in to your BzzAgent account.

Not Getting Campaign Invites

It is when you receive email invites that you can proceed to apply for a chance to participate in the campaigns. No email invites means no products to be tested; and since it is the products you test that is your reward for using BzzAgent, no email invites means no reward for time and effort in the site. Unfortunately, many persons complained of not receiving email invites to apply for campaigns. For example:

• Salina s in Sitejabber says “Waste of time since the new company took over” The review continued “I have been a BzzAgent for a few years now but since the new company took over, they never sent anything despite the fact that I have synced all my social media with them and accepted offers from them. Looks like the new company cannot handle this properly. I contacted them and they said once you accept the offer then we decide whom we will send the product, it is not a confirmation that you will get the product. Earlier, if they… the email you [an] offer and you accept it, it meant confirmed, you accepted to do the survey and that they will send you the product”
• Maria P in Sitejabber says “Awful site now” The review continued “Waste of time now. You no longer get any samples or offer, nothing. If you’re not linked to Facebook, which I would never be, they don’t even let you log in to see anything. The worst site now. Used to be great. Too bad”
• A L in Sitejabber says “Used to be a Proud Member” The review continued “I was a member for over 8 years and it used to be fantastic. I received products to try and review fairly regularly. I passed out the coupons and not only told people about the products but also about BzzAgent and how much I enjoyed it. Now though, they changed things and I haven’t received even 1 campaign invitation since. So disappointed. Apparently, loyalty doesn’t count for much. That’s my opinion. Sad”
• Dian A in Sitejabber says “Used to be proud to be a member” The review continued “The update or merger that BzzAgent has gone through has ruined the experience for me. I have been a member for years and have tried everything from perfume to pet products. I was proud to be a member and encouraged others to sign up. I was receiving offers regularly, at least one or two a month, prior to the changes. Now I get nothing. The three offers I was sent were completely not applicable to me… I emailed them and they basically called me a liar, saying I couldn’t have possibly received that many offers before. Thanks, Becky, now I REALLY don’t like BzzAgent”
• Shital g in Sitejabber says “Waste of Time” The review continued “Before the update of the site the company was amazing and I did so many honest reviews for them and then they decided to upgrade and since then I have emailed the support team 3 times and been told that something will come my way when my profile matches with a survey and that was 7 months ago. WASTE OF TIME. The bubble burst people… Such a shame as well…”
• Liz in Trustpilot says “I signed up a number of years ago, and the testing was great. I always got my reviews in on time and did all my activities. Since the people who run it have changed, I’ve not had a SINGLE test request…”
• Annoe Smith in Trustpilot says “Since its relaunch it’s terrible. Prior, I [was] getting regular campaigns… Been a member for years. But since the relaunch… I’ve not had a single email invite from them. It cannot be down to having to re-register using Facebook… and how many friends I have, as I have just short (2 under) 5000 friends on there. What a complete let down”
• Brian in Surveypolice says “I fail to see why this site is rated so high. Since joining it has not sent me a single actual survey although I wasted my time taking all the ‘preliminary’ ones that are supposed to build a profile. These hardly give any reward worth mentioning and I have to actually log into the site to know they are available…”

As the customers’ reviews show, this complaint of “not getting campaign invites” became very pronounced only recently. BzzAgent itself says that actives users will only get a “few” campaign invites per year. While that already does not elevate the moods, the reviews suggest that members now get less than a “few”. That said, when using BzzAgent, don’t expect to get many campaign invites; and when you do receive invites, don’t expect to be selected for all campaigns that you apply to.

Do not publish negative reviews

Another complaint that was significant is that BzzAgent only wants its ear tickled. That is, it will not accept and publish any negative reviews. For example:

• Amy M in Sitejabber says “Not honest” The review continued “After finally getting a sample. I hated it. Couldn’t leave a negative review; it was rejected. The second product, I was not able to obtain as it is not available for me so I could get it. Tried to review and that too was rejected. It is based on WOM which means they are using people as free advertising. But will not take in negative feedback… Customer Service says ‘We don’t expect or assume that you’re going to love every product or service that you try. And, as we mention in the BzzAgent code of conduct, Bzz only works because it’s honestly so discuss any bad with the good. The client wants to hear your completely honest opinions. And remember… just because you do not have a good experience with a product doesn’t mean that someone else won’t love it’ So basically I get that they don’t care about the people that don’t like something because there are others out there that do”
• Hannah T in Sitejabber says “Bzz Off” The review continued “They beg and beg AND beg you to blog, review, etc. And when you finally do, they’ll reject it. They want you to kiss up to them and make them seem like they’re the best company ever!! They will censor you if your review is negative, even though on their code of conduct, they have the nerve to talk about honesty. If you mention it to the customer service, they are either utterly rude or utterly clueless about their job…”
• Mike in Trustpilot says “The pits. I signed up in December. Never heard another thing so politely asked them on their Facebook page if anyone got any campaigns anymore. Well, they removed my post and blocked me from commenting. Obviously something to hide methinks. The pathetic small-minded company”
• Tracey in Surveypolice says “I had been an agent for BzzAgent for a few years. I was good to start with, giving reviews etc. until I tried a product for them, gave my opinion on their site, and they refused my opinion. This went on for a few weeks, they would not accept my review – turned out it was because I did not ‘comment’ and use words they wanted me to, basically tell lies about a product. I don’t bother with them anymore – don’t trust them either”

BzzAgent does speak of honesty, saying that it wants honest opinion when sharing your experience. But as the customers’ reviews suggest, BzzAgent does not like it when participants form negative opinions, and many such reviews submitted are not accepted.

Conclusions

BzzAgent is a legitimate US-based online platform that rewards its members for testing products and sharing the experience.

After signing up, you’ll have to complete a profile survey. Using the profile to know your interests, BzzAgent will invite you to participate in product testing campaigns that’ll be fun. You’ll receive the product to test; after which you’ll receive guidelines on activities to do in sharing your experience. This is typically sending good posts in the social media channels, writing a review, or completing a survey.

BzzAgent does give you the opportunity to test products and provide insight for driving product development and improvement; it also turns you to an influencer and drives brand awareness. Some of the pluses of BzzAgent is that you’ll be able to get high-quality products for free. You’ll also get mini samples of products and coupons which you can gift friends and family.

However, you won’t be earning any money from BzzAgent. The only reward is the product you get to keep after testing. Also, the reviews show that there are not too many campaigns invite these days, so you won’t be getting these products as you’ll want. Then the reviews also suggest that the company only wants favourable reviews, and you may meet a not-so-friendly customer support service if the opinion formed is negative.

That said; BzzAgent is a rewards site where you can get free products. However, this is if you don’t mind being very active in the social media channels. If what you want is a reward site where you can make some extra money online, BzzAgent is not your site.

Also read: Superpayme Review

Pros

• Absolutely free to use
• Opportunity to test the product and use honest opinion to influence top brands
• Opportunity to get free products
• Opportunity to gift persons sample products and coupons
• Social media focus can be fun
• Customer support is available via email (support@bzzagent.com)

Cons

• Only available for persons in the US, Canada, and the UK
• Cannot earn monetary rewards
• Not many campaigns are available
• Will only be worthwhile if you are very active in the use of social media platforms
• Will not accept negative reviews

Have you worked with BzzAgent before? Did you get paid or not? You may use the CREATE YOUR OWN REVIEW link below to tell us your BzzAgent experience.

Zebit advertises as a platform that provides a radically better financial alternative to all customers. Basically Zebit is a “credit provider + merchant” – a platform that gives you access to credit, allowing you to buy now and pay later in its marketplace.

Radically better? Zebit explains that unlike regular credit providers, it does not come with interest and other charges that can easily plunge users into a cycle of debt. The big question is whether these are just advert blurbs, or whether using Zebit for purchases is really worthwhile. For example:

As a credit provider: Can you really get interest-free credit towards making purchases? What penalty charges apply? How is the payment schedule determined?

Yes, Zebit is legit. It is not a scam because there is no rip-off reports or complaints that they do not ship items, as of writing this review. However, our findings below have a lot of hidden facts you must know before trying to purchase from the store.

As a merchant: What products does it support; does the marketplace where you can use the obtained credits hold a wide range of products? What about its pricing; hope competitive pricing is not sacrificed on the altar of interest-free financing? Does it offer top services that we’ll expect of the ideal eCommerce platform (such as easy ordering, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer support service, etc)? In the first place, is Zebit legit to only a set of buyers, or is it just another scam online platform that’ll rip off unsuspecting customers?

This Zebit review will examine Zebit in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.

Zebit review at a glance

• Website: zebit.com
• A US-based “credit provider plus merchant” established in 2010
• Service is available to only persons in the US
• No membership/ application fees
• As a credit provider; it provides interest-free “credits” towards purchase allowing customers to buy items now and pay later
• Credits provided is up to $2,500, and interest-free
• Requires a down payment of 25% of the order cost
• Provide added financing, allowing customers to spread the 25% down payment (into three equal payments) over two weeks
• The remaining 75% is paid over 6 months
• As a merchant; it operates the Zebit Market which is an eCommerce store carrying a wide range of products across many categories (fashion, electronics, furniture, etc)
• Returns and Exchanges are not allowed
• Customer support is available email (help@zebit.com) and telephone (855 449 3248)

What is Zebit?

Zebit is an online store that was founded in 2010 by Marc Schneider (then COO of Zulily) and Michael Thiemann (then CEO of Global Analytics Holdings).

Almost everyone has purchase needs, which means they need access to credit. That is why there are cash loan products. But as the founders of Zebit rightfully observes, many of the leading products in the market are overrun with predatory practices like high-interest rates and penalties, which can easily pitch users into a cycle of debt.

Zebit says it was founded to provide a radically better financial alternative to all customers. Explaining this, Zebit says it believes that everyone deserves access to lifelong, interest-free credit. When setting up Zebit, the goal was to introduce a consumer-friendly version of the lending products so that anyone in need of access to credit can access credit without the predatory high interest, penalties, etc.

However, while Zebit is a credit provider, it is not a cash lender. It provides store credits which can be used to purchase anything in the Zebit Market. Thus, Zebit is a merchant, albeit one that gives non-predatory access to credits, allowing members to buy anything in the marketplace now and pay later without ever paying any interest. Even if you are one that pays in full, with Zebit, you can make large purchases and spread the payment over time. Thus, Zebit is a fusion of a financing platform and a merchant.

How It Works

Just as with every credit provider, you’ll have to register and fill out a short application. If your application is approved, you’ll be given interest-free store credit (called ZebitLine in the platform) up to $2,500, which can be used to finance purchases in the Zebit Market.

However, ZebitLine cannot be used to finance the total cost of your purchase. At checkout, you’ll be required to make a 25% down payment with a credit/debit card, while the remaining 75% is financed by your ZebitLine. Since ZebitLine is basically an interest-free loan, the 75% of the order total financed by ZebitLine will have to be paid back over the next 6 months. The payment will be divided up by the number of pay dates you have in the 6 months period. This means that the number of payment will vary depending on your pay frequency.

Every time you pay with ZebitLine, the store credits approved for you is reduced by the amount financed; and this will be replenished when you have paid off the order.

Is Zebit legit?

Every day we hear reports of persons being ripped off by scam platforms. Thus, when it comes to using online platforms, efforts should go into determining that it is legit.

Our first check of a legit platform is usually legality. This is because an online eCommerce platform that is 100% legal is less likely to be legit. Thankfully, Zebit ticks the legality box. The website is owned and operated by Zebit Inc, which is a 100% legal company registered in the US. Also, it has received investment from top financing institutions as Leapfrog Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Wildcat Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and more. Suffice it to say that scam stores do not get legal company registration certificates, and definitely cannot obtain financing from top institutions.

Another check of a legit online platform is visibility and industry wide recognition. This is because the scam stores largely operate in the shadows. Thankfully, Zebit ticks this visibility box. Owing to its model as a 0% interest provider of credits towards purchases, it is quite popular among online shoppers. Also, Zebit has been nominated for many awards, and has managed to clinch some, including the San Diego Business Journal “Best Places to Work” award, Benzinga Global Fintech awards, San Diego Fastest Growing Private Companies award, and many others. Suffice it to say that a scam platform cannot earn the recognition of so many industry followers and watchers alike.

Another check of a legit online platform is the test of time. This is because the scam stores are usually short-lived. In this era of fast communication; anyone ripped off by a scam platform can easily spread the word. And with such exposure, the platform will see less and less of traffic, and will naturally die. Thankfully, Zebit passes this test of time as it was established in 2010. Suffice it to say that a scam store just cannot continue ripping off people for almost a decade.

However, the ultimate check of a legit online platform is fitness for purpose. Since Zebit functions as a credit provider and a merchant, it’ll be fit for purpose if it actually furnishes members credits towards purchasing items, and members who use this credit in the marketplace will actually get delivery of real and functional items. Thankfully, Zebit ticks this box. It lives up to all its promises; it gives members credits up to $2,500, and when used to finance purchases in the marketplace, members receive delivery of their orders.

With Zebit operated by a 100% legal company, having industry-wide recognition, and having almost a decade long operating record of providing interest-free credits to members (which allows them to buy now and pay later), there is no doubt that it is a legit online platform.

is Zebit safe?

Yes, Zebit is also safe. It is not enough that an online platform is legit. You’ll also want it safe in protecting the sensitive data that you share with it. For example, when using Zebit, you’ll share sensitive data such as contact details, Social Security Number, credit card numbers, and more. Needless to say, you’ll not want such data leaking into the hands of unauthorized third parties.

In this regards, Zebit says that the sensitive information that it collects from you is protected and securely encrypted with the same security standards as financial institutions. This can only be SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology. This technology creates a private channel between your device and the servers of the platform, thereby shielding off unauthorized third parties; and every data transmitted is encrypted using high-level encryption protocols.  Zebit adds that it does not resell any of your contact or personal information to third parties for any purpose

That said; it is safe to say that Zebit is safe.

Also check out – AMAZON.COM

Products

As mentioned before, Zebit is a credit provider plus a merchant in one platform. If you place Zebit with the regular credit providers, it will fall short in that the credit it provides can only be used in the platform.

The only way to soften this blow is for the Zebit Marketplace to hold a wide range of products, so that whatever you wish to purchase, you’ll find it listed. Thankfully, Zebit does relatively well in this regards. The marketplace comes out as a one-stop-shop that holds a wide range of products. The product categories (and the items you’ll find in each category) are as follows:

• Electronics – BluRay & DVD, Camera Accessories, Cameras, Cell Phones & Accessories, Computer accessories, Desktop Computers, Drones, Headphones, Home Security, Home Theater, Laptops, Musical Instruments, Radios, smart Watches, Soundbars, Speakers, Streaming Players, Tablets, Toys, TVs, Video Games
• Home & Décor – Air Conditioners, Air Purifiers, Appliance Accessories, Bedding, Clothes Irons, Décor, Decorative Pillows, Dishwashers, Dryers, Fans, Heaters, Lamps, Luggage, Microwaves, Mirror, Ovens, Pet Supplies, Refrigerators, Rugs, Sewing Machines, Snow Throwers, Storage & Organization, Stoves, Tools, Towels, Vacuums, Washers
• Kitchen & Dining – Bakeware, Bar & Wine, Blenders, Coffee Makers, Cooking Utensils, Cookware, Cutlery, Deep Fryers, Dinnerware, Flatware, Food Choppers, Food Processors, Food Storage, Juicers, Kettles, Kitchen Accessories, Mixers, Rice Cookers, Slow Cookers, Small Appliance, Toasters, Waffle Makers
• Fashion – Clothing (Men and Women Tops and Bottoms), Clothing Accessories, Computer bags, Cuff Links, Footwear, Handbags, Money Clips, Smoking Accessories, Sunglasses & Frames, Wallet
• Jewellery – Jewelry (Rings, Pendants, Necklaces, Bracelets, Charms, Earrings, Studs, Chains, Men’s Rings etc), Watches
• Kids & Baby – Baby Gear, Baby Monitors, Feeding, Powered Kids Vehicle, School Supplies, Scooter, Strollers, Toys
• Furniture – Accent Furniture, Bedroom Furniture, Dining, Electric Fireplace, Kid’s Furniture, Mattresses, Office Furniture, Outdoor Furniture
• Beauty – Fragrances, Hair Appliances, Hair Care, Health Therapy, Makeup, Oral Care, Personal Care, Shavers, Skin Care
• Sports & Recreation – BBQ & Grills, Bicycles, Camping, Coolers, Flashlights & Lanterns, Games, Golf, Outdoor Activities, Skateboard Accessories, Skateboards, Sports (Balls, Water Bottles, etc)
• Health & Fitness – Cardio Equipment, Exercise Equipment, Fitness Monitors, Food Beverage, Gym Accessories, Scales, Vitamins & Supplements
• Auto – Automotive (Remote Start Systems, etc), Car Mats, GPS, Radar Detector, Receiver, Tires
• E-certificates – Restaurants (Red Robin, O’Charley’s, Omaha Steaks, Logan’s Roadhouse, etc), Stores (Macy’s, JC Penny, Under Amour, Spa & Wellness, Adidas, Banana Republic, etc)

Buying from Zebit

Just as you’ll do in any other eCommerce store, simply browse through the product categories to discover an item. Clicking on the item will take you to its description page, where you’ll find a few detail of the product. You’ll also find a “Register Now” button.

If you successfully registered and you were approved, you’ll have your store credits (ZebitLine) in your account. Log in to your account to continue the purchase. You can then click the Per Price payment or In-full price, depending on whether you want the Zebit financing or want to cover the full cost of the purchase.

Using Per Payment, your order detail will show how much down payment you’ll have to pay with your credit/ debit card, and your payment schedule. The payment will be divided up by the number of pay dates you have in the 6 months period. This means that the number of payment will vary depending on your pay frequency. When you complete the order, you’ll receive an email confirmation.

Many times, customers have a change of heart after placing an order, and will want to cancel or modify it. For that, stores that allow order cancellation usually come out attractive. Zebit does not come out strong in this regard, as it does not allow customers to cancel once an order is placed. So before submitting your order, you’ll have think hard about it and be sure that it is what you want.

Special Features

Added financing

Technically, Zebit operates already as a financing option, as it allows you to buy your favourite brands now and pay later at 0% interest. However, in Zebit’s commitment to its mission to “provide a radically better financial alternative for all customers”, it offers added financing via its Deferred Shipping feature.

Using Zebit, customers are allowed to pay only 25% of the order cost at checkout, with the remaining balance to be paid over the following 6 months. Such financing plans exist to help customers that cannot cover the full cost of the order at checkout. However, what if the required down payment is still too steep? That is where the “Deferred Shipping” added financing option of Zebit comes in. The “Deferred Shipping” allows you spread the order’s 25% down payment into three equal payments. The only catch is that the item will not ship until the complete down payment is paid.

If you select deferred shipping at checkout: you’ll have to pay one-third of the down payment; one week later, you’ll have to pay the second one-third; and another week later, you’ll have to pay the last one-third. After this final payment of the order’s down payment, the item is processed and shipped; then you’ll pay the remaining order balance over 6 months according to your pay schedule.

When using “Deferred Shipping”, if a down payment is not collected on its due date, or if the item (that payment is towards purchasing) goes out of stock, the order is cancelled, and all previous payments will be refunded. This Deferred Shipping feature offers even more flexibility, especially where the 25% down payment would have caused financial strain.

Non-predatory fees and charges

Zebit shout it from the rooftops that it is an interest-free credit provider. Saying that the many credit providers in the industry features predatory high interest and penalty fees that can plunge users into a vicious cycle of debt, Zebit comes out as a radically better financial alternative to all customers.

Saying that everyone deserves access to lifelong, interest-free credit, Zebit explains that its goal is to be a consumer-friendly version of the lending products so that anyone in need of access to credit can access credit without predatory high interest, penalties, etc.

Thus, one of the good things about Zebit is that it charges zero interest. When you make purchases in the Zebit marketplace and finance it with ZebitLine, the total amount you’ll pay at the end will equal the price of the item purchased plus shipping charges.

Also, Zebit does not charge late fees. For example, if the Deferred Shipping added financing option is used, any failure to pay on a due date will not lead to a lateness fee being incurred, but a cancellation of the order and a refunding of previous payments. In the first place, to use Zebit, there are no such things as application fees or membership fees. So there are no hidden fees whatsoever.

No Credit Check

Another thing you’ll hear that is a plus of Zebit is that it does not do “credit checks”. Actually, it’s impossible for a credit provider to not do any form of credit check, because some form of check is necessary to determine your creditworthiness.

In fact, Zebit itself does not say there will be no credit checks. Rather it says that no FICO score is needed. Thus, while Zebit will validate your identity and income, it does not pull a credit report from any of the major credit bureaus, and so does not do anything that affect your FICO score. This means that Zebit remains attractive to even persons with limited or checkered credit history.

Two pricing

The focus of Zebit is providing interest-free financing allowing you to buy now and pay later. However, it also supports a regular purchase. So, if you’ll rather pay-in-full when making purchases you can still buy in the Zebit marketplace. For that Zebit features two prices – Per Payment price and the In-full price. To pay your order in-full, simply use the in-full price.

AutoPay

The auto-pay feature is to ensure that you do not miss a payment when repaying your “loan”. As its name suggest, if it is applied, Zebit will automatically charge you anytime your repayment is due as set out in the payment schedule.

You can select auto-pay at checkout. If you’re making manual payments, you can select auto-pay from the “Make Payment” page of your account. However, if you want to opt-out of auto-pay, you’ll have to contact the customer care of Zebit either via email or telephone.

Pricing and Related Policies

Pricing

Make no mistake, when everything is stripped off, Zebit is an online shopping destination. Its selling point is that when you purchase your brand name items in the platform you have the ability to pay overtime at 0% interest. This raises the question of whether the items are competitively priced.

In this regards, Zebit answers that it compares its products’ prices with dozens of online retailers in order to give its customers a fair price. It also explains that on many products, unlike many retailers that markup their prices by 40 – 60%, it set price to get minimum profit and pass the savings to customers.

However, while it’s clear that Zebit is competitively priced in some product categories (like Fragrances) you’ll find that it is not the least cost store is other categories.

Payment Methods

You won’t want to get to checkout and find that you cannot use any of the supported method to pay for your order. Thus, the ideal online shopping destination should support a range of convenient payment methods.

Zebit does relatively well in this regards, as it supports credit cards. When using the Per Payment, you’ll have to pay the down payment with credit cards, while the remaining 75% of the order total is financed by your ZebitLine. When repaying the “loan”, this will also be via your credit card. If you choose the option to pay in full, you can also make the payment using your credit card.

Shipping

When you place an order in an online store, the package will have to be shipped from the platform’s fulfilment centre to your shipping address. Thus, shipping is an important consideration in online purchase; and some of its important elements are shipping destination, delivery times, and shipping costs.

Shipping Destination

Except an online store ships to you location, it’ll be unnecessarily difficult to receive delivery of your orders. Thus, one of the first things to check out for in an online store you are considering using is the country it serves.

In this regards, Zebit says that the website is provided for use only by persons located in the United States. Since everyone everywhere needs access to credits, this is somewhat disappointing.

Delivery Times

Customers typically do not like waiting for long to receive delivery of their orders. Thus, the ideal online shopping destination is one that features fast delivery of orders. Delivery time is usually made up of order processing and shipping time.

Order processing time is how long it takes from when you place the order to when the item ships; while shipping time is how long it takes from when the item ships to when it arrives at your door.

Zebit advertises that it’ll take 7 – 10 business days to receive your order from the time of order placement. Zebit does not have a warehouse. It uses a network of suppliers to ship products directly to customers; and it says that all items ordered typically ships within 72 hours of order placement. If you’ve seen reviews of the regular ecommerce stores, Zebit’s order processing time of 72 hours is relatively fast. Also, this means that shipping time in Zebit is 4 – 7 business days.

However, these times apply to only physical products; electronic products like e-gift cards are processed every day, and are sent to your email address. This is typically within 4 – 8 hours for orders placed before 5pm (Eastern Time), but if the order is placed after 5pm (Eastern Time), Zebit delivers the gift codes to your email inbox following day.

Shipping Cost

Shipping costs usually add to the item price when calculating total cost of an online purchase. Thus, shipping cost when too high can easily make an item that is acceptably priced too expensive to acquire. That said; shipping charges should be as low as possible.

In this regards, Zebit does not so-so. Zebit does not have a central warehouse. So items purchased in the platform ships to the buyer directly from partner suppliers. Thus, shipping charges vary depending on many factors. These include: distance between your shipping address and supplier’s facility, shipping prices set by the supplier, type of material purchased, etc.

However, when buying e-certificates, Zebit charges an 18% handling fee.

Returns

One drawback of online purchases is that sometimes the order is overwhelmingly unsatisfactory when it is received. This is put down to not being able to physically assess the item before completing the purchase. That said; so that they’ll not be stuck with unwanted items, customers gravitate towards online stores that’ll allow them return any item that is not totally satisfactory, and get a replacement or a refund of payment.

Unfortunately, Zebit does not have the best return policy. It says that it cannot accept returns or exchanges on any item it sells within the Zebit Market unless explicitly stated otherwise. As expected when this is the policy, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any item explicitly allowing returns.

However, this does not mean that Zebit will push you damaged items and hide behind its no-return policy. If an item gets to you damaged or with parts missing, you can reach out to Zebit, and it will work with you to resolve the problem. However, you don’t have forever before you can contact Zebit. It will only work with you on a resolution for damaged orders if you contact it within 10 calendar days of receiving your order. “10 days from delivery” to contact Zebit is relatively okay, especially as there are some stores that only offers 3 days.

All e-Certificates sales are final. Furniture products have a somewhat different return policy as you can reject receipt of the products from the delivery agent. However, this is only when you find the furniture damaged or defective when inspecting it before accepting delivery from the delivery agent. If delivery is so rejected, Zebit will refund any amounts paid so far. However, if you miss any damage or defect during the delivery time but find these later, you’re required to contact Zebit immediately. However, in this case, Zebit will only assist with processing a warranty repair under the manufacturer’s warranty.

Customer Support Service

There’ll always be persons with questions, and there’ll always be customers who’ll have issues with their accounts/ orders. Thus, the ideal online platform should have an effective customer support service for answering the questions and resolving the issues that customers will have.

In this regards, online platforms typically provide self-help resources and contact support channels. Zebit does the same. For self-help, it provides a lot of support articles including an FAQ page. The FAQ is detailed as it covers a lot of topics; these include: Financing Options, eCertificates, Credit, Registration, ZebitLine, Account Management, Payment, Zebit Market, Shipping, and Returns. Thus, you’ll find that the FAQ answers many of the questions that you may have.

However, if it does not address your concern, you can directly contact a Customer Support Rep of Zebit via email or telephone. The email address to send your submissions is help@zebit.com. Zebit promises quick response to support emails. However, no matter how fast response comes, it sometimes cannot substitute instant feedback. Thus, it’s a good one that telephone service is available. You can reach out to Zebit on the phone using the number (855) 449-3248. However, the telephone service is not available round the clock. You’ll reach an agent between 9 am – 6pm (EST), 7 days a week.

Zebit Complaints

This section is always a part of our reviews. This is because you can get valuable insight into how well a company operates by hearing what other customers have to say about it. For our complaints section, we usually check the top independent customers’ review platforms such as Trustpilot. Interestingly, Zebit was highly rated in these platforms. For example, at the time of writing this review, Zebit was reviewed by 2,858 customers in Trustpilot, and scored 4.6 out of 5.

Thus, you’ll find a lot of positive reviews. Customers expressed satisfaction with a lot of things including: always finding a good range of product, being approved and getting a good limit (of ZebitLine) even with bad credit, getting quality products, etc.

However, that Zebit did not get a perfect 5/ 5 rating means that there were a few complaints. These included long order processing time, and unfair internal policies.

Long Processing Time

One of the few complaints about Zebit is that it sometimes takes way too long after an order is placed before it ships. For example:

• Rob in Trustpilot says “…I ordered a PC on December 2. A week late it still said preparing shipment. So I contacted them about the order. All they could tell me was that they would try to get an update. A week later and multiple emails, they could only tell me that they were getting an update and they assured me my order would be here by the beginning of this week (the 16th, so two full weeks after the order was placed). They finally emailed me that day and told me they were sorry but the order was cancelled. This is after I asked multiple times over the last week if I should just cancel the order to get a refund so I had time to get another pc for my son since it was a Christmas gift…”
• Amy Keene in Trustpilot says “Disappointed with the shipping. Ordered on the 9th and still have yet to receive the package. Not even showing shipped as of the 17th”

Long processing times almost always cause late delivery. So the few customers with this complain were not happy with the overall delivery time. However, it should be said that in many reviews customers expressed satisfaction with their delivery time. Thus, long processing time came out as a rare blip, and not a troubling norm plaguing Zebit.

House Policies

Now, this is something that is not a rare blip. Some customers complained of having their orders cancelled even when they are model customers with regards paying up. For example:

• Randal Dotson in Trustpilot says “Never ever will [I] use this again. I paid my account off and did not use it in a long time; but since another adult in the household was irresponsible in paying, there’s you faulting me for their account. Legally that’s not possible and I will be seeking charges in the future. What if credit card companies do that, then a lot of people in the same family will suffer. That’s why people have different names, we are individuals”
• Pissed Off in Trustpilot says “Pure Ignorance” The review continued “So my order was cancelled because an ex used my address and now I can’t order anything until they pay what they owe. Here’s a kicker; they can’t tell me what’s owed on my address so now my stuff is cancelled. Their ‘House Policy’ makes no sense”

As the reviews show, the problem is that Zebit has an unfriendly (at least to the affected customers) internal policy which has been dubbed the “house policy”. Zebit explains that its internal policies are established to prevent transactions that may result in a loss. In this case the policy is that where an account holder shares an address with another account holder who is in default, Zebit cannot allow orders to be processed.

This is a classic case of “guilt by association” – if you have a defaulter in your household, it doesn’t matter that you are the model customer, you orders will not be processed.

Relatively High Pricing

This is one of the most popular complaints you’ll find. Some even go as far as saying that Zebit may not be worthwhile, explaining that the total cost of using the interest-free Zebit platform may be more than using an interest-paying financing option because Zebit jacks up its listing prices with huge markups. For example:

• Sree Mohan in Trustpilot says “Zebit needs to be brought up for false advertising where it says that there is no interest and that it offers competitive retail prices… looked up an Apple Watch that has an implied interest rate of 60%… if they have customers buying there they are simply preying on people who haven’t gone to the trouble of translating the markup…”
• Adu Bamboo in Trustpilot says “Check what you’re really paying first Vs cost of 0% interest credit” Competitive retail prices with 0% interest rate with no bait and switch gimmicks mean [about] $500 or more markup. Just check Apple MacBook Pro (13” Display with Touch Bar, Intel Core i5, 8GB Memory, 128GB SSD 2019) with total price of $1662.99. The same retails at Best Buy for $1099.99. How’s that for no interest 0% financing? This is no different from the payday loans sharks. Do your research consumers!”
• Edward Searcy in Trustpilot says “It is easy to purchase a lot of products from, which is why I like it. Also, you have the option to do a kind of layer away; pay it off before purchasing it. I do think the prices are high compared to other companies I have looked and reviewed…”
• W in Trustpilot says “It is a great concept and I understand why it is the way it is. Unfortunately, it’s just that some items are marked up too much to be worth it for the 6 months 0% interest. The Sony Xperia 10 phone is available at other companies for 100S less. I understand you will be paying in full but it’s a high markup. Just my opinion. I’m sure this service will work great for some folks”
• Johanna Rosario in Trustpilot says “this is the most RIDICULOUS Company. They say it’s interest-free but check the price product online and you will see the reality…”
• James Albrecht in Trustpilot says “Payday loan scam gone digital. Expect APR’s of up to 100%. Don’t touch this with a 10-foot pole…”

To this, Zebit usually admits that it is not the lowest-cost provider; and it often mentions that you’ll find this evident in such categories as electronics, especially in Apple and Sony products. However, it promises that in some categories (such as fragrances) it actually offers lower pricing.

That said, in our opinion, a platform has got to make money. If you find the price lower in the regular stores; know that, unlike Zebit, these stores do not give you the opportunity to pay over 6 months.

Also read – Barkeys Review

Conclusion

Zebit is a legit online platform functioning as a credit provider and a merchant. So if you want the ability to buy what you need now and pay later, Zebit is one worth checking. When you apply, you can get up to $2,500 in credit (ZebitLine) which you can use in the Zebit Market for your purchases.

The marketplace holds a wide range of products, so whatever you need, you’re very likely to find it listed. Zebit has many plusses – there are no application fees; though a credit check will be done, this will not affect your FICO score; it does not charge any interest, and there are no penalty fees, and it gives a whopping 6 months to pay up when you finance your purchase with ZebitLine.

However, a down payment of 25% of the order cost must be paid at checkout, as only 75% of the order can be financed by ZebitLine. Interestingly, added financing is offered which allows customers to spread the down payment (into three equal payments) over 2 weeks.

Some of the serious things to consider are that pricing is not always the best. In fact, in some categories, you’ll find listing prices in Zebit to be relatively high. Also, Zebit does not allow returns and exchanges. However, where an item was received damaged or defective, a resolution can be worked out if the company is contacted within 10 days of the delivery date. More so, the service of Zebit is only available to you if you are resident in the US.

Pros

• Operates an eCommerce store that holds a range of items across different categories (fashion, electronics, kitchen, furniture, etc)
• It’s basically an interest-free financing platform allowing customers to buy items now and pay over 6 months
• 100% interest-free; so total payment equals the cost of item plus shipping charges
• Offers an added financing option where the required 25% down payment can be divided into 3 equal payments spread over 2 weeks
• Provides auto-pay feature which ensures that you do not miss a payment
• Resolution is offered for damaged (or missing parts) orders if Zebit is contacted within 10 calendar days of the delivery date
• Furniture products can be rejected during delivery if the inspection reveals that the product is damaged or defective
• Customer support is provided via email (help@zebit.com) and telephone (855 449 3248)

Cons

• Provide services to only persons in the US
• Order cancellation is not possible
• 18% processing fee applies when ordering e-Certificates
• Product exchange is not allowed
• Returns are not allowed

Do you have any good or bad experience with Zebit? Kindly use the WRITE YOUR OWN REVIEW section below to tell prospective customers your Zebit experience.

Mercari advertises as “the selling app”. It adds that it makes it super easy to sell virtually anything. If it is a platform to sell products, then it is also a platform to buy products. Thus, Mercari is an online marketplace; a place where independent sellers can list their products for sale, and where persons looking to buy items online and go to for their purchase.

The big question is whether using Mercari is worth it? As a seller, can you easily list products? Does the platform have the traffic needed to maximize sales? What about the costs of using Mercari, hope Mercari has reasonable charges?

As a buyer, can you easily get needed items in Mercari? Does it give a top buying experience? For example, does it offer a good range of high quality and affordably priced products? Also, does it offer top services like fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer support service, etc?

In the first place, is Mercari legit, or is it just another scam platform out to rip off unsuspecting customers.

Yes, Mercari is legit. It is not a scam because they will never steal your money or refuse to ship the products purchased from its store. But that does not mean they are perfect, continue reading to know what customers are saying about the quality of their services and out findings.

This Mercari review will examine Mercari in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.

Mercari review at a glance

• Website: mercari.com
• An app-focused online marketplace
• Allows selling and buying of virtually everything, including pre-owned and new items
• It is 100% free to list items
• Fees only apply when an item sells, and the applicable 10% sellers’ fee is relatively low
• Has strong buyer protection, ensuring that you’ll receive delivery of orders and that items will be as described
• Ships to only the 50 US States
• Returns are possible for “not as described” and damaged orders if Mercari is contacted within 3 days of the delivery date

What is Mercari?

Mercari is a Latin word that means to trade, and it is the root of the English word mercantile. This tells you that Mercari is all about trading. That said, Mercari was created as a trading app in Japan (in 2013) by Shintaro Yamada. It launched one year later (2014) in the US. Mercari calls itself the selling app. It’s clear that it is an app-focused platform where people can buy and sell virtually anything.

We have things we don’t use, never used, or simply outgrew. Mercari says that if any of that stuff still have value, then you should be turning them to cash by easily listing them for sale in the platform. This means that Mercari is one of the online marketplaces for selling and buying pre-owned items. However, merchants can also use the platform. Thus, Mercari also holds new items.

It should be said that as a marketplace Mercari does not own the items listed in the platform. However, it directly receives payment for orders; and will release funds to the Seller only when the buyer confirms delivery and that the item is as described.

Is Mercari legit?

Using a legit eCommerce platform is a no-brainer. There are just too many stories of unsuspecting customers being ripped off by scam eCommerce platforms. Thus, the big question is whether Mercari is legit. The simple answer to that is “YES”.

Our first check of a legit eCommerce platform is legality. This is because the platforms that are powered by 100% legal companies are less likely to be a scam. Thankfully, Mercari ticks this box. It is owned by 100% legal company (Mercari Inc.). This company has gone through five rounds of funding from top investment institutions such as the Development Bank of Japan, World Innovation Lab and more. Suffice it to say that a scam platform that is not 100% legal cannot get funding from such high profile investment institutions.

Another check of a legit eCommerce platform is visibility and industry-wide recognition. This is because the scam stores operate in the shadows. Thankfully, Mercari ticks this box. With over 45 million downloads in the US, Mercari is an eCommerce platform that has been featured by top publishers and media houses that include Bloomberg Business, teen Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, Huff Post, CNBC, and more. Also, Mercari is a multi-award winning selling app, with such awards as “Best App” and “Forbes Japan’s Startup of the Year”. Suffice it to say that a scam platform cannot earn the recognition of high profile industry watchers.

Another check of a legit eCommerce platform is the test of time. This is because the scam stores are usually short-lived. Thankfully, Mercari also ticks this box. Starting up in 2013 (2014 in the US), it is relatively young, but its circa 5 years of operation is enough time for it to be called out if it were a scam platform.

However, the ultimate check of a legit ecommerce platform is fitness for purpose. The purpose of an ecommerce platform is to provide buying and selling services. That is, Sellers can actually list their products and actually get paid when a sale is made and the product is delivered; and Buyers can actually receive delivery of real and functional products when they place an order and make payment. Thankfully, Mercari ticks this box. Sellers can easily list items for sale; and when buyers place orders, they are delivered real and functional items.

With Mercari operated by a 100% legal company, widely recognized, and with a half-decade operating record of helping Sellers turn their items to cash and delivering real and functional products to Buyers, there is no doubt that it is a legit eCommerce platform.

Is Mercari safe?

Mercari is safe. To use an eCommerce platform, you’ll submit sensitive information like your contact details, and payment instrument data (e.g. credit card details). With many fraudsters out there, you’ll want an eCommerce platform that’ll adequately protect the sensitive data that you share with it.

Thankfully, Mercari ticks this box. It says that it takes “required steps to protect” users’ data. This includes the use of SSL technology, which is the industry standard for protecting data being transmitted over the internet. Mercari also says that it does not share your personal information with third parties, except it is to improve and personalize your Mercari experience.

With the use of SSL amongst other measures, it is safe to say that Mercari is safe.

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Products

The “products” that an eCommerce store supports is an important consideration when planning to use one, whether as a buyer or a seller. As a buyer, you’ll want a one-stop-shop where you can buy all your needs, as that will be more convenient that researching and visiting different stores for your purchase needs. Also, as a Seller, you’ll want a platform that allows you to list a range of products, as that will be more convenient that listing in different niche platforms.

Thankfully, Mercari ticks this box. The categories (and product you can list for sale (or find for buy) in each category) is as follows:

• Women – Dresses, Athletic Apparel, Sweaters, Jeans, Pants, Skirts, Coats & Jackets, Suits & Blazers, Tops & Blouses, Swimwear, Women’s Handbags, Women’s Accessories, Jewelry, Maternity, Shoes, Underwear, Other
• Men – Tops, Blazers & Sports coats, Sweaters, Jeans, Pants, Shorts, Coats & Jackets, Sweats & Hoodies, Suits, Athletic Apparel, Swimwear, Men’s Accessories, Shoes
• Kids
• Home – Kids’ Home Store, Kitchen & Dining, Bedding, Bath, Furniture, Home Décor, Artwork, Seasonal Décor, Home Appliances, Party Supplies, Storage & Organization, Cleaning Supplies
• Vintage & Collectibles – Jewelry, Paper Ephemera, Home Décor, accessories, Housewares, Supplies, Antique, Clothing, Serving, Books, Bags & Purses, Electronics, Furniture, Trading Cards, Others
• Beauty – Bathing and Skin Care, Car Seats & Accessories, Diapering, Gear, Health & Baby Care, Nursery, Potty Training, Safety, Strollers, Others
• Electronics – Cameras & Photography, Virtual Reality, Cell Phones & accessories, TV & Video, Video Games & Consoles, Car Audio (video & GPS), Media, Computers & Laptops, wearables, Smart Home & Security, Speakers & Audio, Headphones & MP3 Players, Tablets & E-readers, Drones, Others
• Sports & Outdoors – Exercise clothing, Footwear, Golf, Outdoor, Fan shop, Others
• Handmade – Housewares, Art, Woodworking, Ceramics & Pottery, Glass, Music, Weddings, Holidays, Needlecraft, Geekery, Paper goods, Candles, Art, Crochet, Furniture, Quilts, Accessories, Pets, Knitting, Bags and Purses, Jewelry, Books and Zines, others
• Other – Pet Supplies, Daily & Travel Items, Office Supplies, Musical Instrument, etc

Mercari – For Sellers

Selling With Mercari

Mercari advertises with the tagline “the selling app”; adding that it makes it easy to sell almost anything. Like any online marketplace, you’ll need to register and create an account as a seller. Mercari advertises that using the platform as a Seller involves three simple steps – sell it, ship it, and get paid.

Sell It

This simply means creating your listing. You’ll want a platform where it is hassle-free to create a listing. Thankfully, Mercari ticks this box, as it is relatively easy to list items in Mercari. As Mercari advertises, listing involves three simple steps – take good photos, describe the item fully, and price fairly.

As we’ll find in the “Mercari for Buyers” section, Mercari supports the “Make an Offer” feature, which allows buyers to negotiate. However, Sellers will take comfort in knowing that Mercari allows an offer price to only be at least 75% of the listing price. So you can be sure that you’ll not get ridiculous time-wasting offers.

Shipping

When a customer places an order for an item you list in an online marketplace, you’ll have to package the item and ship it to the customer. Thus, shipping is an important consideration when using online marketplaces.

Ease of Shipping

In this regards, Mercari does not let your ship the item yourself. It supports two shipping options, and it allows Sellers to choose a preferred shipping option or leave the choice of shipping option to the Buyer. In either case, when your item sells, Mercari will send you a shipping label, which you can print and attach to your package for easy shipping. There’s no doubt that the shipping label makes for relatively easy shipping.

Shipping Costs

However, another important shipping consideration is cost of shipping, as this can affect the profitability of sellers. Yes, shipping costs are most often than not borne by buyers, but if they are too high, they will cause total cost to be high, and it’ll be difficult for your item too high.

Unfortunately, Mercari does not shine in this regards, as its shipping costs are relatively high. Mercari has recently introduced a calculated shipping rate, where shipping cost vary depending on the weight of the item; and this only shot shipping charges upwards.

Getting Paid

If you want to use a marketplace, it’s because you have items that you’ll want to turn to cash. So how and when you’ll get paid is also an important consideration. In this regards, Mercari does not particular shine, as payment options are limited, and the payment is relatively slow in coming.

Payment Options

As mentioned earlier, Mercari receives payment directly from Buyers. So when it’s time for it to release payment to you, you’ll want to find different payment options. Unfortunately, Mercani only pays Sellers via ACH Direct Deposit to their checking accounts.

Speed of Payout

Needless to say, after waiting and waiting to make sales, when you finally do, you’ll want to receive the payment as fast as possible. Unfortunately, the buyer protection of Mercari means that payment may be slow in coming.

Because buyers will not pay you directly for purchases, unlike many online marketplaces, payment for purchase will not hit your account when the order is placed. Also, even after the buyer receives delivery of your item, you still won’t get the payment immediately. This is because Mercari gives buyers three days from receiving delivery of your item to rate you before your payment will be received.

Don’t expect every buyer to rate you immediately after receiving delivery. In fact, many buyers will “forget” to, letting the three days run out. Thankfully, if the buyer does not rate you in the allowed 3 days, Mercari will auto-rate you and release your payment to you.

Fees

Where fees are involved, Sellers almost always want platforms with fees that are as low as possible. Thankfully, this is one area where Mercari shines.

First, it is absolutely free to list items in Mercari. This is one feather on the legit cap of Mercari. Since there are no upfront fees to list items and sell them in Mercari, if it does not work out as expected, you can simply walk away and not lose anything (financially).

However, it is not completely free to use Mercari. Sellers’ fees apply when a sale is made. Interestingly, the fees that Mercari charges are low – only 10% of the items price. This makes the pricing of Mercari one of its strongest points. Not only is it free to list your items and get sales, but the commission you’ll have to pay on completed sales is relatively low.

Fees that you’ll find in marketplaces include payment processing fees. Sellers generally don’t like that they have to pay extra to get paid, especially after paying the marketplace its sales commission. Unfortunately, the payment processing fee applies in Mercari. This fee is $2.00. The good thing is that it applies only when requesting payment less than $10. Thus, you can simply avoid it by earning more than $10 in your Mercari seller’s account.

Selling Complaints

What Sellers in a platform has to say about it gives valuable insight into how well the platform is for Sellers. Thus, the complaints section is an important part of our reviews. For this section, we checked the independent customers’ reviews platforms like Sitejabber and Trustpilot.

Unfortunately, Mercari was not highly rated on these platforms. For example, at the time of writing this review, in Trustpilot, Mercari had an average rating of 1.9 out of 5; and in Sitejabber, it had an average rating of 1.6 out of 5. Many complaints accounted for the relatively poor rating. These complaints as they concern Sellers include: high shipping costs, poor customer service, and poor Seller protection

High Shipping Costs

Another complaint you’ll find among Mercari’s Sellers is that shipping costs are high. For example:

• Tianna in Trustpilot says “Started off Amazing… shipping was simple with few options and the rates were very fair. Then… the convenient ease of shipping took over. I went to list a vest that was 1lb 2oz just to find out it’ll take $10.77 to ship, a lamp that was 5lbs 2oz and it was $25 to ship. I exited the app after that to let it sink in. The shipping options are EXTREMELY minimal with an OUTRAGEOUS expense added to it. They have the audacity to want sellers to include free shipping. In other words, they appear to have 0, zero, ZERO consideration for sellers…”
• Ezra Raith in Trustpilot says “Mercari was my go-to the site to sell until their calculated shipping was introduced. It says 60% cheaper labels but does not allow exact measurements/ weights. To ship a pair of jeans that weighs 1lb 2oz costs almost $11 (USPS) due to this change, whereas I was shipping jeans for $5.25 (USPS) months ago! …It constantly promotes free shipping for the sellers to us, but in using this new calculated shipping method, AND mercari’s 10% tax on sales, sellers will not make anything! I had to list a brand new pair of jeans for $5 because the shipping was $11 for the buyer. [Had] I listed them higher (to cover shipping costs) with free shipping, there’s no way the item will sell. Not when Amazon, eBay, Poshmark and Depop all exist! The calculated shipping is a joke, and is definitely not worth it for sellers…”
• Blkstrmshep in Trustpilot says “What a joke” The review continued “Ya, if you want nothing for the item, Tried to post a rice cooker for $15, and the shipping was around $12, and my cash to make after all said and done was around a dollar”

The high shipping rates of Mercari means that items you list will be difficult to sell. If you leave shipping costs to the buyers, it jacks up the total acquisition costs. If you want to provide free shipping, as Mercari encourages, you’ll have to raise your listing price in order to cover shipping costs; the result is that your items may no longer be competitively priced. Considering the relatively high shipping charges of Mercari, so that the total price of your item to the customer is still competitive, you may have to floor your listing price. While this increases the chances of your item selling, it significantly erodes your profit margin.

No Seller Protection

Another complaint about Mercari amongst the many sellers in the independent customers’ reviews platform is that Mercari is biased to buyers, meaning there is no form of Seller protection. For example:

• Mena Ro is Trustpilot says “Mercari is not just bad it’s worse. I’ve never dealt with anything worse, no customer service, anyone to contact when an issue arises… All you need is a shady person that buys something from you to say that the item is “in their opinion” not accurate or fake. Well, in that case, Mercari closes “without investigating” the seller’s account, leaving the seller without the item and without the money. It’s actually made for people that are smart and want to take advantage of others. There’s a whole community of people that have been scammed this way and Mercari has done NOTHING at all to help; they didn’t even have the decency to call a lawyer back when they were asked to. Worst business ever”
• Emma in Trustpilot says “This app is a joke! I sold an iPhone XR within minutes but then the [buyer] didn’t want it for no good reason; she said she didn’t like the colour. It’s white! All details were in ad. I [shipped] it the same day; paid $30 for shipping bcus I bought extra stuff to make sure it wouldn’t break in the mail; even sent the phone with a brand new case, and Mercari approved the return for that bs reason! Then the buyer sends the phone with no case or headphones. I mean yes headphones aren’t that expensive but I want to sell the phone with them! So now I lost my $30 for shipping, no case, and no headphones, and still have this mink condition phone…”

As we’ll find in the Buyer’s section, Mercari has a strong buyer protection. However, the Sellers reviews suggest that some buyers easily use this to scam Sellers. The complaint here is that after an item is sold and duly shipped, some “dishonest” buyer will contact Mercari that it is “not as described” or damaged, and Mercari without investigating will proceed to refund the buyer.

Some Sellers report being blocked which means they’ll not only get their payment for the item, but they’ll also not get back their item. Other Sellers did get their item back but will lose the money spent on shipping.

Mercari advertises that it has a Seller Protection of shipping insurance to the tune of $200 for every item shipped using its prepaid label. However, when a Buyer claims that the item received is damaged, even if the Seller has evidence that the item when dispatched for shipping was undamaged, Mercari refunds the Buyer, leaving the Seller with no resolution.

Abysmal Customer Support Service

Another complaint loud among the Sellers is that reaching Mercari for support is difficult, and where contact is made, there is hardly any assistance obtained. For example:

• Hillary in Trustpilot says “Don’t love nor hate it” The review continued “I buy and sell on Mercari and I neither love nor hate it. It most definitely has some flaws… customer service is abysmal”
• Christina Calhoun in Trustpilot says “Not the App I thought it was” The review continued “At first I loved this app thinking it was best selling app but I was quickly surprised by the lack of support for the transactions on this site…”

Given the complaint of “buyers trying to scam sellers by claiming receipt of not-as-described or damaged item”, it’s not surprising that Sellers bombard Mercari with support submissions. Unfortunately, the reviews suggest that, most often than not, they (Sellers) do not get expected assistance.

The poor customer support mentioned in complaints includes basic failures such as not responding to submissions, and not investigating Buyer’s claims before proceeding to “punish” sellers.

Selling Pros and Cons

Pros

• Absolutely free to join
• Very easy to list items
• Provides shipping labels to make for easy shipping
• Relatively low commission (charge 10% of item’s price as Seller’s fees)

Cons

• Payment can be slow incoming
• Payment is only via ACH Direct Deposit to checking accounts.
• $2 payment processing fee applies when requesting less than $10
• High shipping costs
• The buyer protection is easily used by dishonest buyers to scam sellers

Mercari – For Buyers

Making a Purchase in Mercari

Yes, you’ll also need to register to make a purchase in Mercari. There are two ways to make a purchase – Buy Now and Make an Offer. The Buy Now button is your regular purchase. The listed items are with a set price, and if you like the item and click the “Buy Now” button, you’ll be charged the set price.

However, the “Make an Offer” option allows you to complete a purchase in your own terms. It brings negotiation into an online purchase. The listed item comes with a set price; if you like the item but not its price, you can then make an offer of a price you’ll want to get the product for. The Seller will have 24 hours to accept, or reject your offer or make a counteroffer. All offers are binding; so if the Seller accepts your offer, you’ll be charged the offer price. However, you can only make an offer if you’re using the Mercari app.

If you like the item you discover but are not ready to “Buy Now” or “Make an Offer”, you can save the item using “Save this search” button. That way, later returning to the item to make the purchase is easy. If you find an item that you like, clicking on it will take you to the item’s description page. There you’ll find every detail of the item. You can “Add to cart”, and then proceed to make payment.

Many times, after placing an order, the buyer will have a change of heart and will want to cancel the order or modify it. It should be remembered that Mercari is a marketplace, and has no right over products being sold. However, for a marketplace, Mercari has a relatively good cancellation policy.

Orders can be cancelled anytime before it ships. However, buyers cannot cancel an order from their end; as a buyer, you’ll have to reach out to the seller to ask that the order is cancelled. Yes, it is up to the Seller to agree or deny the request. If the Seller agrees, Mercani refunds you to the original form of payment. Mercari will also issue the refund if the seller has not shipped the order, and does not respond to the cancellation request within 24 hours.

Pricing and Related Policies

Pricing

You’ll want an eCommerce store that features competitive pricing. Mercari does so-so in this regards. On the one hand, you can find items with great prices; but on the other hand, some items in the platform are not so greatly priced.

Payment

You want a hassle-free buying experience, so you’ll want to find a range of convenient payment methods. Thankfully, Mercani ticks this box. You can pay for orders in the platform using PayPal and all major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover). You also use Apply Pay, as well as Mercani Credits.

With these options you should be able to pay for your Mercani order without any hassle. However, note that Mercani does not accept methods which are issued outside of the US.

Shipping

When making online purchases, the order will have to be moved (at a later time) from the retailers’ facility to the shipping address provided by you (the buyer). Thus, shipping is an important consideration. You’ll want to know: whether the online platform ships to your location, how long it’ll take to receive your order, and how much it’ll cost.

Shipping Destination

If an eCommerce platform does not directly ship merchandise to your location, it’ll be unnecessarily difficult to receive delivery of your items. Thus, world-facing platforms are desired; so that no matter where the customer resides, the location is more likely to be covered.

Unfortunately, Mercari does not make it as a world facing eCommerce store. It only ships to the 50 US States.

Delivery Times

After placing your order, you definitely will not want to be waiting forever to receive delivery of the item(s). Thus, how long it takes an eCommerce platform to deliver is a necessary consideration. Delivery Times is usually an addition of the order processing time and the package shipping time.

Mercari does well in terms of processing time as it requires its Sellers to ship the item within 3 days of order placement.

In terms of shipping time, Mercari has two shipping options – Priority Mail and Home Delivery. However, it should be said that Mercari allows Sellers to choose a preferred shipping carrier (and the carrier determine the shipping option available, because Priority Mail is only available by USPS, while Home Delivery is available via FedEx and UPS). Thus, for some items in Mercari, you’ll find that you do not have a choice of shipping method. However, where the Seller does not have a preferred shipping carrier and gives the Buyer the option to choose, you can choose the shipping option and carrier.

First Class/Priority Mail takes 1 – 3 business days going to the 48 US States, and takes 3 – 5 business going to Hawaii and Alaska; while Home Delivery takes 1 – 5 business days when going to the 48 US States, and takes 3 – 7 business days when going to Hawaii and Alaska.

Returns

When making online purchases there is the fear that when you order is delivered, it may not be 100% satisfactory. Because of this, online shoppers gravitate towards e-commerce platforms that will allow them to return an unsatisfactory item and get a replacement or a refund of payment.

Thankfully, Mercari ticks this box, as it allows you to return an item in your order if it is not 100% satisfactory.

Eligible Items

You should know that eCommerce platforms usually have return restrictions, which means that it is not everything purchased from an eCommerce platform that can be returned. That said, you’ll want the return restrictions to be limited so that you won’t receive delivery of an item that you’ll rather return but can’t.

In this regards, Mercari does not come out flying. Its buyer protection means that buyers are allowed to only request returns and refunds for items that are not as described. This means that you cannot return items purchased through Mercari for “Buyer remorse”. That is, you cannot return an item simply because you have a change of mind, or you happen not to like the item.

Returns are also not allowed for ill-fitting items. This will disappoint many shoppers of fashion items because “sizing” is one of the main reasons for returns of items in the fashion category.

Buyer Protection

In fact, Mercari comes has a strong buyer’s protection. First, when you buy an item, you do not directly send the payment to the seller. Rather, Mercari receives the payment; and it holds the payment. It will only release the payment to the seller when you confirm that you’ve received your order, and it is as described, and then you rate the Seller.

The last part (rating the Seller) is very important, as it completes the transaction for release of payment to the Seller. If you do not submit the Seller’s rating within 3 days of confirmed delivery, Mercari auto rate the Seller so that the Seller can be paid. When payment is released to the Seller, it’s no longer possible to process a return and request refunds.

Return Process

You should know that allowing returns is not enough; the return process should be easy. This is because a difficult return process can easily add to the frustration of receiving delivery of an unwanted item. In this regards, Mercari does so-so. However, it does not have a “no questions asked” return policy.

So when you receive an unwanted item that is eligible for returns, the first step is to contact Mercari’s customer support service by submitting a request form accessible from its website. However, not offering a “no questions asked” return policy means that you’ll have to explain why you are returning the item, and show evidence of your claims. Mercari requires relatively more photo evidence, as it requires not less than four clear detailed pics of the front, back, and sides of the items, as well as pics of the packaging and the other items shipped in the package.

When your return request is approved, Mercari will send you an authorization email which will carry return instructions as well as a prepaid return label. You can then proceed to package the item appropriately, attach the return label to the outside of the box, and send it to USPS for shipping back to the retailer.

That Mercari sends a prepaid Return Label is a big plus of its return process. Prepaid Return Labels makes for easy returns. Being pre-addressed, you won’t have to worry about return addresses and related issues; and being prepaid, at the time of making the return you won’t be out of pocket.

Return Window

However, you don’t have forever to request the return of an unwanted item. Usually, retailers will only accept back items that are returned within a specified period. In this regards, Mercari allows 3 days from receipt of the item to be contacted about a return.

If you fail to contact Mercari within 3 days of receipt, sales become final, and the item cannot be returned any longer. However, if you think 3 days is not enough for your return-decision, it is possible to request an extension. For that, you’ll have to first contact the Seller, before contacting Mercari using its online contact form. However, know that extension is not guaranteed.

If the return request is put through within 3 days (or within the extended period), and it is approved by Mercari, you’ll receive a return label, and you’ll be required to ship back the return package within 3 days of receiving the return label.

This means that the return window of Mercari is relatively smaller than what’s often seen, as many online stores usually offer a return window of “30 days from the delivery date”.

Cost of Return

When you receive an item you’ll like to return to its retailer, you’ll not want prohibitive costs of returns to stand in your way. Thus, the ideal eCommerce platform should offer return costs that are as low as possible. Thankfully, Mercari aces it in this regards.

Cost of returns seen in eCommerce consists of restocking fees and return shipping fees. The former (restocking fees) do not apply anywhere in Mercari. Also, the Return Labels that Mercari provides are not only prepaid but free, meaning that you won’t have to worry about return shipping costs ever, not just at the point of shipping the return package. So when you use the return Label of Mercari, nothing will be subtracted from your refund for the cost of the return label.

Return Processing and Refunds

After following the return process and shipping back an unwanted item, you’ll not want to wait forever to receive the refunds. Thus, the ideal eCommerce platform should feature fast processing of returns and issuance of refunds. Thankfully, this is one area where Mercari shines bright.

Usually, retailers will wait to receive the return package and inspect it before flipping the refund switch. However, the refund policy is quite different from Mercari.

For items that are priced under $100, the refund is issued once you’ve shipped the return package, and the return tracking information updates to “In Transit”. This may take up to 48 hours, as USPS can easily take that much time to update the status in their system. However, for items that are priced over $100, the refund is issued once the item has been delivered to the seller.

This is one of the fastest “returns processing time” you’ll find in the eCommerce world. However, after the refund is issued, it’ll take some waiting time for the funds to reflect in your account. This will usually take up to 5 – 10 business days depending on your financial institution.

Buying Complaints

Just like in the Sellers’ section, what Buyers have to say give a real insight into whether the platform will be worthwhile for you as a Buyer. You’ll find different buyers’ complaints of Mercari in the independent reviews platforms, including small return window, poor customer support service, etc.

Small Return Window

One of the buyer complaints that dominate the spaces is that the 3 days that Mercari allows for it to be contacted about returns is largely inadequate. For example:

• Lisa H in Sitejabber says “Not safe to buy on” the review continued “Gives you only 3 days! Sellers do not respond if you have a problem and you cannot even give them a rating, very unsafe. No option to get a refund or replacement after only 3 days! RUN do not walk away! And it floods your inbox with SPAM”

It should be noted that the full return window is not 3 days. You’ll have 3 days (from delivery date) to contact Mercari, and after getting return approval you’ll have within 3 days of receiving the return label to ship back the unwanted item. However, with online shoppers “spoilt” by 30 days return windows, Mercari’s offer is understandably perceived as short.

Unhelpful Customer Service

Again, buyers also complain about customer support service. For example:

• Armineh S in Sitejabber says “…I have been an online shopper for decades. I have never had so much trouble with any of the sites. Their operators are unable to help, they have no person to person assistance, they will only email you… nonsense. I purchased something and needed to cancel right away… for days tried their customer service, 20 emails back and forth, phone calls…until sure enough, the item showed up at my door…”

The reviews quickly revealed that the “poor customer support” complaint had two arms; first is “not getting a response to support submissions”, and the other is that where the response is obtained, it is largely unhelpful.

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Buying Pros and Cons

Pros

• Buyers can make purchases in their own terms by making an offer
• Offers convenient payment methods (credit cards, PayPal, and ApplePay)
• Offers relatively fast order processing and shipping time, meaning delivery is relatively fast
• Has strong buyer protection – payment is only released to Seller when the buyer confirms delivery and that the item is as described
• Offers a return label for making easy returns
• Offers free returns (no restocking fee and Return Labels are free)
• Offers fast processing of returns and issuance of refunds

Buying Cons

• Ships to only the US
• Returns are for only not as described items (buyer remorse or not-fitting items cannot be returned)
• Return window is relatively small (3 days from delivery to request a return, and 3 days from receiving return label to ship the return package)

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that Mercari is a legit selling app. As a Seller, you can list and sell virtually everything using Mercari, both pre-owned and brand new. Listing is easy breezy. Though there are no upfront fees, sellers’ fees that apply when an item sells is only 10% which is relatively low. Also, Mercari sends a Shipping Label for making easy shipping.

However, Mercari’s shipping charges are relatively high; this has the effect of increasing the total cost for your customers and making your item difficult to sell or making you drop your listing price to have a competitive price but eroding your profit. You can receive payment only via “Direct deposit to checking account”; and because of Mercari’s Buyer Protection, it’ll take relatively long to receive payment.

Then there’s the issue of Mercari being biased to buyers. Many reviews suggest that some dishonest buyers use the “Buyer Protection” to scam Sellers; as Mercari automatically refunds Buyers who say their order was “not as described” or damaged, without any investigation.

As a buyer, you’ll find a range of items in Mercari, and placing an order is relatively easy. Pricing is largely competitive, and there are many payment options for paying for orders. Shipping is relatively fast, and there’s a strong buyer protection that ensures that you’ll receive your order and it will be as described.

However, you can only use Mercari if resident in the US, shipping charges are relatively high. Also though returns are allowed, it is for only “not as described” or damaged items (so you can’t return items that do not fit); and the return window is relatively small.

After taking a closer look at all the popular hiking boots, we have selected 5 best Hiking boots for review in this post. And also show you where to buy the boots at a very cheaper rate.

Hiking boots are of utmost importance to hikers because they provide enough support to not just the ankle but the foot also.

They ensure that your ankle does not twist when you are walking. In addition, they protect your ankle from any blisters and they do not confine your ankles too tightly when you are walking.

A good hiking boot has some support located on its sides which makes sure that your legs stay straight which can be vital if you are carrying a heavy backpack. Hiking boots are created in a good fit with the use of cushion materials that will ensure that your feet remain comfortable. These boots assist in solving the issue of blisters, particularly for hikers that spend a lot of time on the trail.

Every hiking boot possesses common parts which reinforce them. These common parts are as follows:

Linings: This part is capable of protecting your feet properly so that you will feel comfortable whenever you are engaging in different hiking activities. They are made with the use of a foam that keeps your feet warm and absorbs any pressure.

Upper part: This part of the hiking boot protects your entire foot and gives you support when you are walking. It is usually waterproof and it lets your feet smell fresh especially after a lengthy day of hiking.

Soles: These are located at the bottom of a good hiking boot. The soles are deep and are usually made of rubber which ensures proper friction. It stops you from slipping when walking on wet surfaces. They absorb shocks whenever you are hiking on tough trails.

Insoles: These are located inside the boot and they include extra support and balance whenever you are climbing mountains.

Crampons: They are created with the use of spikes to upgrade firm support whenever you are hiking on snow.

Tongues: These flaps stop water, dust and unwanted particles from entering your hiking footwear. They are under the laces and assist in giving more support to your foot.

1. Tecnica Forge

This is actually the first hiking boot from Tecnica since they were previously focused on ski boots. You will like the fact that this good hiking boot is completely customizable. Every single piece of the boot is made to be customized. The upper part is available in nubuck leather as well as synthetic ripstop. This is a solid hiking boot that has a Vibram rubber sole as well as a Gore-Tex liner.

Pros

The usual fit process which involves trying different pairs of boots then walking on a ramp made with fake rock will not apply in this case because this boot feels outstandingly different before and even after molding.

It takes just 20 to 30 minutes for the two heating and molding processes if you want to customize. One for the boot’s insoles and the other for the upper part.

This excellent hiking boot helps you achieve your hiking goals and it is not accompanied with a strenuous break-in period. This ensures that this boot is a great choice for hikers.

This good hiking boot has a Vibram sole which is appropriately rugged. Its wrap-around cuff is supportive and comfy. The upper part is waterproof but still breathable. The producers hit the mark when they created this hiking boot.

Con

Because it is a completely customized boot, the buying choices are limited to stores that provide it and its robot for boot-fitting in stock.

2. Mountain 600 Enduroweave by Danner

This boot’s design combines the producer’s outdoor silhouette with contemporary materials. It is the producer’s city-to-mountain boot for hiking. It is not just comfy, it is lightweight as a result of a leather upper part and a well-cushioned Vibram outsole. The upper part of this good hiking boot was reimagined with a fresh carbon-washed textile which is lighter and extra breathable when compared to leather.

Pros

The good thing about this boot is that just not just lightweight but it is still elegant enough for you to wear about in town but still retains grip and support so you have no problems on trail use as well.

It gives you the best of both worlds. It is an awesome choice for people who do not want different boots for various settings. This boot holds true to high standards and will serve different purposes for hikers.

It can be slightly uncomfortable when you wear it at first, mostly at the spot where its cuff overlaps its tongue, but it will break in on your first hike around town. When that is over, it becomes really comfortable and you will have no problems.

Another trait of this hiking boot is its EnduroWeave fabric. This feature has a cool, techy feel to it and it looks stylish and unique.

Con

If you want to get this hiking boot, either the EnduroWeave or leather version, you should get a new insole. It is also best if you get a half size down your usual size for the ideal fit.

3. Hoka One One Kaha

Like this producer’s plush running shoes, this hiking boot has a lot of cushioning than some boots out there. Its maximalism makes it really comfy wear when you are walking trails. It is great for people who are quite sensitive to impact or rough grounds or people who just like having a well-cushioned platform.

Pros

The producers of this good hiking boot added a rockered bottom which assists in naturally rolling the hiking boot from a step to the next without hitches.

Regardless of the size of its sole and its high cuff, this high boot stays lightweight at just 17.92 ounces. The upper part is made of leather and it gives you a lot of ankle support. It also has an eVent sock liner which is waterproof.

People who fancy extra minimal boots may not like this hiking boot and may prefer trail running shoes. However, if utmost comfort and support is the feature that you want, this boot is perfect for you.

Con

The sole of the boot is quite thick and it can feel a little strange at first but as time goes on, you will get used to it.

4. Keen Targhee Vent Mid

This Targhee hiking boot is one of the producer’s best-selling boots for hiking and it is one of the most affordable and versatile boots available on the market. This boot was upgraded when the producer’s offeree the Vent, which is a non-waterproof boot which has windows of mesh panelling which gives you extra breathability in warm weather.

Pros

The other parts of this boot is made of oiled nubuck leather which is water-resistant. It has a supportive footbed design as well as a grippy rubber outsole that has deep lugs. These are its key points.

This good hiking boot has a slightly wider fit which is mostly in its toe box. It gives you enough room for movement.

The heel hold of this boot is outstanding and very supportive. This is even before you use an aftermarket insole. The cuff of the boot is not too tall which makes it good for everyday use too.

This Vent version accomplishes the objective of giving ample breathability. Which means that your feet will not sweat even once, even when you wear them out in the city.

Con

The version with waterproof linings can be quite hot, which can make your feet sweaty and soggy.

5. Vasque Saga GTX

This boot includes a lightweight plus breathable mesh upper part which was double-engineered. It has a Vibram MegaGrip sole which is made for walking on extra rugged terrain. Protection, as well as support, is amplified. It has a molded TPU toe cap plus heel that features windows of ventilation which means that it will not become too warm the way waterproof boots can.

Pros

The producers made use of strong TPU to make a lace yolk which extends from your ankle towards the boot’s tongue. It gives you midfoot support and assists in keeping your heel locked in.

This is a completely featured hiking boot which was made for long-distance trekking. Some boots with this feature may have a lengthy break-in period, however, this boot does not.

This good hiking boot is remarkably comfy and the tongue is well cushioned which assists in preventing any pressure points from lacing. Its cuff gives you a strong and supportive wrap which is flexible and just becomes better with wear.

If you like extra light hiking boots, you will like this one because regardless of the miles you log in it, it will not weigh down your feet.

Con

If you want extra support or a heftier boot, this one is quite lightweight but you will not be unhappy with it.

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Conclusion

The above hiking boots are made with tough materials that minimize friction on any slippery terrain. They have patches at the bottom which protects you from being affected by rocks or thorns that you might encounter on the hiking trail.