Onine Stores

Superdry is a UK online fashion retailer with a Japanese face. They advertise as “an exciting contemporary brand which focuses on high-quality products”.

Yes, Superdry is a legitimate fashion store online. They deliver any item that is bought from the website. So, it is not a scam.

The go-to fashion shop should definitely provide high-quality fashion products. Does Superdry actually provide high-quality products, or is that just advert-speak? If they do provide the quality we’ll expect of a go-to shop; what about the other important elements of a go-to shop, does Superdry tick those.  For example: do they have a wide product range?

How about their service (browsing listings and ordering, shipping, returns, customer service); is it painless? How about their prices; are they reasonable? Is it safe to shop in the store? In the first place, is the store legit?

This review will examine Superdry in order to provide information that will help you answer those questions.

Superdry review at a glance

• Started in 1985 as Cult Clothing, and first went by the name Superdry in 2004
• Despite the Japanese writings in their logo;  UK public company, headquartered in the UK, and trading in the London Stock Exchange
• Provides all types of men and women clothing; but better known for their hoodies, coats and jackets
• Ships to over 200 countries worldwide, and offer free shipping to 45
• Allows returns within 28 days of delivery; and will issue a refund in the original payment method
• They accept payment using credit/ debit cards and PayPal
• Customer support is available via email (care@superdry.com) and telephone (+44 333 321 2222)

What is Superdry?

Superdry is an online fashion store. The company that is today known as Superdry was started by Ian Hibbs and Julian Dunkerton in Cheltenham in 1985. However, then it was known as Cult Clothing. The company grew and many more stores were established all over the UK. It was in 2004 that the name Superdry was birthed when one of their stores that opened in London went by the name. In 2010, Superdry went public when it was floated in the London Stock Exchange.

Though Superdry is a full-blooded UK brand, they have some Japanese writings on their logo that gives the impression that they are Japanese.

Superdry has a significant presence around the world. There are Superdry branded locations in about 46 countries which includes 139 owned stores, over 200 franchised and licensed stores, and over 160 concessions. Superdry specializes in both men and women fashion products, and they hold all the different fashion styles for both sexes. However, the company is better known for their trackies, hoodies, jackets, and coats.

Is Superdry legit?

Superdry is legit, not a scam. There are too many scam artists on the internet who will stop at nothing to rip people off. One of their prominent tactics is fake stores where unsuspecting customers will pay for the merchandise but never receive the delivery. Therefore, before paying for anything in an online store, it’s important to make sure that the store is legit.

In this regards, there’s no doubt that Superdry is legit. First, the company was established in 1985, which means that they’ve been operating for over 33 years. In that time the company has gone through various stages of evolution but still remains as a fashion destination. Suffice it to say that no fake store can operate for decades. Scamming activities are revealed in a little time; and with such exposure, the fake stores close and disappear.

Also, Superdry is a duly registered company that is even listed in the London Stock Exchange. Suffice it to say that no fake store will seek legal recognition by way of company registration or go as far as going public. Lastly, Superdry has the capacity to fulfil orders. There are over 500 Superdry branded locations worldwide, and these locations hold hundreds of thousands of merchandise. That said, fake stores operate only virtually; they do not have any physical merchandise and so will not deliver when customers place orders and make payment. The capacity of Superdry to fulfil orders conferred to them by their physical existence is further evidence that Superdry is legit.

Is Superdry safe?

Superdry is safe. It is not enough that an online store is legit. The store should also be safe. This is because, while a legit store will not rip you off; if it isn’t safe, it will leave you exposed to fraudsters who will rip you off. This is because when you use an online store you share sensitive information (such as your credit card details), and fraudsters who intercept this information can defraud you. Thus, the legit store should also ensure that customers’ are protected.

In this regard Superdry also comes out strong. They use industry-standard SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology to create a secure link between your device and their servers and to allow for the encryption of any information that you transmit. Superdry explains that SSL technology includes authentication, encryption, and data integrity. This assures that their server is secure, that the data transferred is not altered, and that your data cannot be read even if captured by an unauthorized third party. With the use of this industry standard technology, there’s no doubt that Superdry is safe.

Product Description and Product Images

The ideal fashion online shop should make the online purchase less blind by giving you resources that will help you assess the item properly before making the purchase. These include product descriptions and product images.

In this regard, Superdry takes the lead. Their product description page contains every possible detail that will help you with a thorough assessment of the item. The detailed description includes the number of pockets and their position, the number of logos (and the position of every logo) and more. There’s also a specification section, which shows the material composition of the clothing, and the type of cleaning/ care required. It also comes with a size guide, which shows the dimensions (lengths etc) of the clothing.

The product images in Superdry put the clothing right in front of you. They are high-quality images that show the front, back, other positions of the clothing piece, including close-ups of certain details. For on-model images, you’ll also see the model height (chest size etc). Lastly, Superdry uses video technology on most of its items. This shows a short slow video of a model donning the clothing piece and moving around. This allows you to see the clothing piece in action, as against a still picture.

With the detailed product description, high-quality product images and excellent video viewer that Superdry uses, you’ll be able to properly assess a product, and you are less likely to order an item that will not be to your liking when you receive delivery of it.

Product Range

The ideal fashion shop should hold a wide range of product so that you can shop all your fashion products in one place. This will result in cost savings to the customer. Where shops run bulk purchase discounts, buying all your products in one place can qualify you for such discounts. Also, where shops offer flat shipping rates; buying all your items in one place can save you shipping cost, as you’ll be shipping only one order as against paying the shipping costs of multiple orders from different stores.

Superdry specializes in both men and women wear, and they hold every single clothing type and accessory for men and women.

In the men section, you’ll find:

• Outerwear – Jackets, Windcheaters, Down Jackets, Leather Jackets, Gilets
• Tops – Hoodies, Jumpers, Sweatshirts, T-Shirts, Shirts, Polo Shirts
• Bottoms – Jeans (tapered, straight, slim, skinny, and ripped), Joggers, Trousers, Shorts, Swim Shorts
• Accessories – Bags, Underwear & Socks, Knitted Accessories, Other Accessories
• Footwear – Boots, Trainers, Shoes, Flip Flops, Sliders

In the women section, you’ll find:

• Outerwear – Jackets & Coats, Windcheaters, Down Jackets, Leather Jackets, Gilets
• Tops – Hoodies, Tops/ Sweatshirts, Knitwear, Dresses (Bodycon, skater, maxi, midi etc), T-Shirts, Shirts
• Bottoms – Jeans, Joggers, Trousers, Skirts, Swimwear
• Accessories – Bags, Underwear & Socks, Knitted Accessories, Other Accessories
• Footwear – Boots, Trainers, Shoes

Apart from holding different product types; it’s also important to know if the store holds a large inventory of each product type. A large inventory will give customers a large selection to choose from, and with that, they are more likely to find what to meet their preferences.

The company is better known for their hoodies, jumpers, jackets, and coats; and in these categories, they spoil you with a choice. You’ll find hundreds of different types and colours of these clothing pieces. However, the inventory was not so large in other categories. For example, the men jeans section held only 35 items, women’s shirts section held only 33 items.

Also, it’s not enough that a fashion store holds a wide product range or a large inventory; it’s also important that their products be of good quality. In this regard, Superdry ticks the box. Remember that the company advertises as an exciting contemporary brand which focuses on high-quality products. We found that to be true. Superdry is characterized by quality fabrics, unique detailing, and tailored fits. These combine to earn Superdry a reputation for quality clothing pieces in the industry.

This isn’t just in my opinion. Customer reviews of Superdry are many online; and there seems to be one conclusion, which is that Superdry provides high-quality clothing pieces. Trust Pilot holds over 100,000 customer reviews of Superdry, and the average rating great (4 out of 5). Reviews include such comments as:  “Perfect Puffa Jacket”, “Good quality, great choice”, “very pleased with the purchase”, “Great items”, “premium coat”, and so on. In other reviews platforms, you’ll find comments like “the clothes are amazingly good quality”, “their jackets look great”, and more.

Prices, Promotions and Payment Methods

Prices

Price is the most important thing in any purchase whether online or in brick and mortar stores because customers will not want to pay above what is reasonable for a clothing piece. Therefore, a review of any fashion store must examine their prices to reveal whether they are reasonably priced. In this regard, Superdry ticks the box.

Superdry definitely does not pride themselves on providing low cost and acceptable clothing, but their prices are not over the top either. Superdry expertly finds the balance between providing high quality and keeping the price as respectable as possible. You’ll find: hoodies at $80 – $150; men’s jeans at $120 – $190; men’s jumpers at $80 – $120; women’s dresses at $70 – $110; and women’s sweatshirts at $54 – $100.

That said; while Superdry may not be ideal for those who want to shop cheap. Items in the store are a bit over-priced, but definitely not expensive for the quality that they offer.

Promotions

Every business run promotions to increase sales, and the online fashion retail business is no different. Online fashion retailers run different promos from time to time. A review of the promos of an online store is important because promos allow the customer to get free products, or to get products for less than the full price.

At the time of writing this review, Superdry was offering a price discount of 20% off everything with the code XMAS. While this is good; we are used to seeing online fashion retailers giving bigger price discounts. The only other promo that we saw on their landing page was an offer of guaranteed delivery on Christmas day (25^th December) if you order before 8 PM on 21^st December (at least four days before). If you ask me; that sounds like a promo only if the retailer is plagued by slow deliveries. In an industry where one can get same day delivery, next day delivery, or two days delivery, an offer of 4 days delivery does not come out as a promo. What is more, Superdry is not plagued by slow delivery.

Thus, we cannot say that Superdry is an online fashion retailer that is known for promos. There are other promos and offers that we’ll like to see; and unfortunately, Superdry does not offer any of those. For example, they do not price match. Some fashion retailers price-match by pledging to give you an item in their inventory for a lower price than it is listed if an identical item is being offered at the lower price at another store. Also, Superdry does not give student discount, where there are fashion retailers that give the student as much as 20% off if a valid student ID card is presented.

That said; we’ll like to see more promos from Superdry, including bigger price discounts, student discounts and more.

Payment Method

You don’t want to be given the run around just because you want to make payment for your order. Thus, the ideal online shop should support a variety of convenient payment methods.

Superdry ticks the box in supporting convenient payment methods. They accept payment using the popular credit/ debit cards such as MasterCard, Visa, and American Express; they also accept PayPal payments. Apart from these generic options (credit cards and PayPal), there are other payment options that are supported for particular countries. At checkout, such options will be displayed.

That said, with the payment options that Superdry supports, you should not have a problem with paying for your orders no matter where you may be shopping from.

Shipping

Most customers abandon their shopping carts at checkout because of shipping cost. This shows that shipping cost is an important consideration in any review of online stores. Where shipping costs are too high, the total expenditure on an item that may have been perceived as acceptably priced can easily become unacceptable. Thus, it’s important that the shipping cost be as low as possible. Another important shipping consideration is shipping times because no customer will want to wait forever to receive delivery of his/ her package.  In this regard, the ideal online store will have short shipping times.

First, it should be said that Superdry ships to over 200 counties/ regions. If you’ve seen reviews of online stores, you’ll find that many retailers cover just over 100 countries. With Superdry covering over 200 countries, it means that your location is more likely to be covered, and you can make purchases from the store.

In terms of shipping cost; the lowest possible cost is free shipping. Thankfully, Superdry offers free shipping. Free shipping is available to the following countries: Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. In most of the European countries, it takes 2 – 3 days. In some others and in the US, it takes 3 – 5 days; while in a few others (such as China, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina), it takes 4 – 6 days.

If you’ve checked other reviews of online fashion stores, you’ll find that when many of them offer free shipping, there is a catch. The catch is that they’ll require you to spend up to a particular amount to qualify (For example, free shipping for orders over $100). However, in Superdry, there’s no such catch. Free shipping to the 45 countries it is offered is available on all order vouchers. This means that there is no undue pressure to spend more than intended just because you want to chase free shipping.

Where free shipping is not applicable, Superdry charges flat rates which means that what you pay as shipping cost do not increase with an increase in your order weight. The shipping rate depends on the shipping destinations. However, it is $18 for most countries (New Zealand, Hong Kong, Brazil etc) and $25.00 for a few others (e.g. Nigeria). In terms of delivery times, it also differs with the destination. Some places (like Brazil, New Zealand, Barbados) takes 3 – 5 days; others (like Russia, Fiji, and some Africa Countries) takes 4 – 6 days; while some others can take up to 8 – 10 days (like Cambodia, Nicaragua, Canary Islands etc).

It is one thing to advertise delivery estimated times, but it is another thing to actually delivery in those times. While many online fashion retailers fail to live up to their delivery time estimates, evidence shows that Superdry does. It should also be said that Superdry has a reputation for fast delivery. Customer reviews online from independent review platforms contain comments such as: “Delivery was really fast. I was really surprised”, “on time”, “Speedy delivery”, “arrived safely and quickly”, “best delivery ever” and so much more.

Returns

Online purchase means that you’ll be buying items that you have not physically examined. There’s the risk that the item may not meet your expectations when it gets delivered to you. There are different reasons for this; it could be that the item is damaged in transit. It could also be that the item is delivered intact but that a wrong size was ordered (either too big or too small). Thus, the ideal online fashion store should allow customers to return items that they are not totally satisfied with.

Thankfully, Superdry allows returns. If you are not completely satisfied with any item in your order, you can return the item to the company. They allow a returns window of 28 days, which means that you have 28 days from the time of receiving the order to return any item in it that you are not totally satisfied with. If you’ve checked the return policies of online fashion stores, you’ll find that the longest window you’ll get is 30 days. In this regard, Superdry is not far behind. Their 28 days window gives customers enough time to get the returns to the company and get their refund.

Superdry includes a Returns form in packages, which must be filled and returned with the item if you opt to return it. The return package must also contain any documentation that followed the item.  Apart from returning the items within 28 days, there are other conditions that must be met for the returns to be accepted and a refund processed. The returned items must be in their new original conditions. The items should not be damaged or soiled. They should not be worn or washed. They should not have stains or even scents from make-up, perfume, aftershave or deodorant. Also, the items must be returned in their original packaging.

However, there are certain items that cannot be returned. These include underwear, swimwear and cosmetics, especially if these have the hygienic seal broken.

When it comes to the cost of returns, Superdry allows free returns shipping for UK orders as long as they meet the returns conditions are returned within the returns window. However, customers returning items from outside the UK will bear the cost of returns shipping.

If your items are received by Superdry, it will take them about 7 – 10 days to process it, after which the refund will be issued via your original payment method. If you’ve seen other reviews, you’ll find that many stores take longer to process returns, which will cause customers to wait than necessary to receive their refund. However, with the relatively shorter returns processing time of Superdry, you’re more likely to get your refund on time.

Customer Support Service

You don’t want to wait until you need assistance before you check for the customer support service of an online store. Since having questions or issues are inevitable, the ideal online store should provide different channels for addressing customers’ inquiries/ issues.

Like most online stores, the first step to getting help from Superdry.com is an FAQ section on their site. The section treats some of the questions that you may have. However, the section is not detailed enough, and you might still need to contact the company directly.

Superdry has a support team that they say is always keen to help. The channels they provide for contacting a member of the team include an online contact form, an email service, and a telephone service.

The contact form can be found on their website. All you need do is select a topic (shopping, delivery, returns, account etc), a subtopic, submit your name, email, order number and your message. Superdry will reply your submissions via your email address. Alternatively, you can contact them using the traditional email. You can send your email to care@superdry.com.

Like every email service, you’ll have to wait for some time (which can be more than 24 hours) to get a response from Superdry. If you’ll want instant feedback, you can use the telephone service. Superdry provides two lines; one for online enquiries (+44 333 321 2222), and the other for store enquiries (+44 333 321 2002). The telephone lines are toll-free, so you don’t have to worry about charges when contacting Superdry. However, the telephone service is not available round the clock. It is active only between: 08:00 – 23:00 (GMT) Monday – Friday; 08:00 – 20:00 (GMT) on Saturdays; and 08:00 – 20:00 (GMT) on Sundays. However, we’ll like to see customer support service is made available round the clock.

Reputation

This will examine how Superdry is perceived in the online community. It’s been gathered that on many independent review platforms, Superdry have very good ratings. This has to do with the quality of products, the fast delivery, efficient customer support and overall service. However, there are a few negative reviews. Though these are too few and far in between to be significant, it’s important that in the spirit of an honest review, everything is laid bare.

One reason for poor rating was order cancellation, or more appropriately inability to cancel orders. Some customers who mistakenly place a wrong order found frustratingly that there was no way to immediately cancel the order. It can be argued that it should be possible to cancel an order that the company has not started to process. However, it is plainly stated in a FAQ article on their site that the company is unable to cancel an order once the checkout process has been completed. The only remedy is that the customer has to wait to receive the item and return it. Also, it should be said that this is not something peculiar to Superdry; in almost all online fashion stores, it is impossible to cancel an order once it is placed.

In the customer reviews, one other thing you’ll find that annoyed some customer is the branding. In most of Superdry’s products, you’ll see their logo all over the clothing. Many customers spoke of a liking for the more subtly branded merchandise. Also, another little annoyance that was identified from the reviews is that Superdry is “too common”. Reviews include comments like “everyone else is wearing them”, “Superdry is far too common now”, and more. In my opinion, this is even a plus for the company; it shows that their products are classy and trendy, as well as affordable quality. I camp with one of the reviewers who proclaimed “If you like them, wear them. If you don’t, don’t. Who cares what everyone else is wearing”.

Summary

Superdry is a legit and safe fashion online store. They provide all types of men and women clothing and accessories but are better known for their outerwear (jackets, coats, and hoodies). Don’t let the Americana name or the Japanese graphics on their logo and products fool you, they are a full British brand. However, they draw inspiration from everywhere possible to provide exquisite styles that are reputable for high quality. You’ll also find that their service is top notch – payment is painless, delivery is fast, returns are easy, and customer service is friendly and efficient.

I liked

• Use of video technology for previewing products
• High quality clothing pieces especially the outerwears
• Free shipping is offered to about 45 countries
• Fast delivery
• Returns are allowed (within 28 days of delivery date)

I didn’t like

• Items are a bit over-priced
• The promotions are not impressive (the price discount is conservative, and there is no student discount)
• Customer support service is not 24/ 7

Kay.com is the e-commerce place of Kay Jewelers. Kay Jewelers run with the tagline: “Every kiss begins with Kay”. That will mean that for those special articles that are symbol of your love and appreciation (such as diamonds, engagement rings, wedding bands, jewelry gifts, etc) of that special someone, Kay Jewelers is the place to go.

The big question is whether Kay Jewelers provide high-quality jewellery to qualify as the go-to diamond and jewellery store. If they do have the product, what about their prices; do the prices offered by Kay Jewelers represent good value for money? Also, does the jewellery store offer the service that we’ll want of an ideal jewellery store (such as easy ordering and payment processes, fast delivery, hassle free returns, effective customer service, etc)? In the first place, is Kay Jewelers genuine?

Yes, Kay jewelers is legit. It is not a scam because they will never steal your money or credit card details. And will receive anything you buy from the store without a problem.

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

Kay Jewelers review at a glance

• Website and e-commerce store is www.kay.com
• The brand was established in 1916
• Is currently owned by Sterling Jewelers (which is owned by Signet Jewelers)
• Operates over 900 stores and retail outlets
• The e-commerce store ships merchandise to locations within the US
• Return are allowed: 60 days from purchase for refund; 90 days from purchase for exchange
• Support service is available via postal mail, email, telephone, and live chat

What is Kay Jewelers? – Background

The history of Kay Jewelers can be traced to 1916 when the Edmund and Sol Kaufman opened the first store using one corner of their dad’s furniture store, in Reading Pennsylvania. That first store offered much more than jewellery, as it also sold items like eyeglasses and electric razors. However, over the years Kay Jewelers has evolved to be a jewellery destination, and their product offering includes engagement, non-engagement jewellery and watches.

Kay Jewelers is currently a division of Sterling Jewelers, which itself is owned by Signet Jewelers Inc. This corporation has a lot of top brands in the industry under its wings which include Zales, Jared, The Galleria of Jewelry, Piercing Pagoda, Ernst Jones, Peoples. In fact, Signet Jewelers Inc is the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewellery.

Kay Jewelers has the second largest store network in the jewellery industry (the first being Zales). So by that parameter (brick and mortar stores), Kay Jeweler is the second largest jeweler at least in the US. With their over 900 stores and retail outlet, you’ll find Kay Jewelers in most shopping malls in the country.

Thus, Kay Jewelers is essentially a brick and mortar (offline) jeweler. However, given that it is inconceivable for a modern company not to have an official website, the company launched its website (www.kay.com) which is not only informational but also for e-commerce. However, unlike “true” online retailers that have all or the large part of their business coming from their e-commerce site, only a minute part of Kay’s business comes from their website. Thus, though Kay processes orders placed in its website, the company does not come out as an online jewellery retailer.

Lastly, Kay Jewelers says that you can be confident that any piece you buy from them is conflict free. Why? The company complies with the Kimberly process and also requires its suppliers to provide a warranty that the stones supplied are conflict-free.

Products

Product Range

You want a diamond and jewellery store that’s able to provide a variety of products. That way you’ll be able to shop all your jewellery needs in one place. This offers convenience, as a lot of time and effort goes into getting the right place for such special articles as diamonds and jewellery. Also, there are cost savings that come from getting products in one place. Discounts from large order purchases is one; while another is paying to ship one order instead of paying for shipping of multiple orders from multiple stores. That said, the ideal diamond and jewellery store will offer a wide product range.

Kay Jewelers does just that. Whether in their physical retail stores or in the e-commerce store (Kay.com), you can get engagement rings, wedding, bands, etc. The menu in Kay.com lists the following product categories:

• Ring – Kay Jewelers hold the full gamut. You’ll find engagement rings, wedding and anniversary rings, bridal sets, personalized rings, and even toe rings.

The store provides rings in all the different metals, which include Tungsten (Black, grey, white, and brown), Palladium, Platinum, Rose Gold, Titanium, White Gold, Yellow Gold, sterling silver, stainless steel, and more. Also, Kay Jewelers provides different styles of rings that’ll satisfy the majority of ring shoppers (Bexel, Halo, Pave, Solitaire, Vintage, 2 stones, 3 stones, etc).

For the engagement rings, as it should be with any serious jeweler, you have the option to buy a pre-set engagement ring or to create your own engagement ring. One issue with pre-set rings is that the retailer chooses both the stone and the setting and will not allow any customizations. So you have little or no say in the quality of the diamond. Therefore, it’s good that you can get a unique engagement ring that is all about you by using the “design a ring” feature to choose your own diamond for your engagement ring.

• Necklaces – Styles include Chains, Lockets, Personalized and more. It doesn’t matter in what metal you want your necklace; Kay Jewelers have it all.
• Bracelets – you can shop different styles that include Anklets, Bangles, Cuffs, Chains, Tennis Bracelets, Personalized Bracelets and more. They are also available in the different metals which range from diamond to sterling silver.
• Earrings – A variety of Earrings styles are available which range from climbers, Studs, Hoops, Personalized and more. You can get them in all metals types – diamonds, sterling silver, platinum, etc
• Watches – You can shop top designer watches from Bulova, Alpina, Calvein Klein, Citizen, Edifice, Fossil, G-Shock, Hamilton and more
• Collection – Kay Jewelry also holds some exclusive jewellery collections which include Beautiful Life, Chains, Floral, Love + Be Loved, Signature Heart, Three stone, and more

Inventory Size

The ideal diamond and jewellery store should not only have a variety of products but also have a large inventory of each product type. That is, if you get to a particular product section of a jewellery store, instead of finding only a few items to choose from, you’ll want to find a large collection to choose from. With a large selection, you’re more likely to find a piece that appeals to you and that fits your budget.

In this regards, Kay Jewelers does so-so. Their inventory is sizeable enough to satisfy the selection needs of many a jewellery shopper; but at the same time, it does not compare to what is held by the inventory leaders in the industry (such as James Allen or the Blue Nile).

For example, at the time of writing this review, pre-set engagement rings (diamond mounted) were just over 1,500 in Kay.com. Given the different combination of quality grading, ring styles, metal types that are possible; you’ll find that 1,500 does not even scratch it.

To build your own ring, you’ll need to choose a loose diamond from their collection; so that brings us to the inventory size of the loose diamonds. At the time of writing, there were just over 6,000 loose diamonds listed in Kay.com. This number might seem large, but if you consider that the industry leaders (in terms of inventory) hold about 200,000 loose diamonds, you’ll realize just how limited the selection of Kay Jewelers is.

Product Quality

For articles like diamonds that symbolizes love, one thing you won’t want to compromise is quality. Thus, you’ll want to shop in a diamonds and jewellery store that holds only high-quality articles.

In this regards Kay Jewelers does so-so. Let us start with their pre-set engagement rings. It’s been mentioned earlier that not having a say in the quality of the mounted diamond is a general issue with pre-set rings (no matter the retailer). However, this problem is more profound in Kay.com largely because the majority of the pre-set rings in Kay Jewelers use I1 clarity diamonds, which will feature ugly inclusions (flaws) even to the casual observer. As a result, when shopping pre-set rings from Kay Jewelers, you won’t find too many rings with eye clean diamonds. To get an engagement ring with better quality diamonds, you’ll have to create your own ring; and if you don’t want to go through the process, you’ll simply have to go to another diamond and jewellery store.

Now to their diamond certifications; Kay.com list IGI certified diamonds. While many of the top jewelers in the industry use the better regarded (and standard) GIA or AGS certificates. It is generally held that IGI is loose with their grading; thus, an IGI graded diamond will be found to be bumped up one or two grades than it would have been graded by GIA or AGS. That is, when two equally graded diamonds from the two labs are examined, the GIA diamonds will almost always be found to be of higher quality than the IGI graded diamond. Thus, an S2 diamond from IGI will not compare to an S2 diamond from GIA or AGS. In fact, the S2 graded diamond from IGI will only receive I1 or I2 grading from GIA.

Also, it doesn’t help that Kay Jewelers does not provide exact colour and clarity grading for their rings; it’s always provided as a range (diamond of colour G – H, and clarity of SI2 – I1).

The implication of this is that you do not know exactly what you are getting. For example, for diamond graded as above, will you be getting an H I1 diamond or a G SI2 diamond? Savvy shoppers know that the former does not compare to the latter in quality.

That said; this combination of having “low quality” diamonds on their pre-set rings, using the lowly regarded IGI certification, and not stating the exact quality specs of the diamond, does not make Kay Jewelers come out as a store that provides quality.

Features

In-store Service

Kay Jewelers has a robust store network. While this has some negatives to it (as we’ll find in the pricing section), there are some positives to it; and the Company strongly leverages on these positives.

For example, they offer a lot of in-store services that the purely online jewellers cannot offer. Some of these include:

• Repair – You can simply walk into any Kay Jewelers store to have your piece repaired irrespective of whether it was bought in the store or online. This offers convenience that having to return your piece by mail cannot offer.
• Custom Design – If you need a jewellery piece that is not among what Kay Jewelers provides, you can get it via the “custom design” feature. It allows you to create custom jewellery. You just have to go to Kay’s store with a sketch, snapshot, family heirloom or even a description; and their professionals will produce a replica of the unique design. After that, it’ll be cast, handset, and polished, and you’ll have your unique piece. The only customization that many of the online retailers offer end at engraving and create-you-own engagement ring
• Progressive Leasing – This is a financing plan that allows you to get your diamond jewellery now and pay later. However, unlike another financing plan, you won’t own the jewelry until you have made all the scheduled payments or exercised a buyout option (which allows you to save money and pay off the lease within 90 days). Though you may apply online to get a decision on the lease (how much you can get approved for), you’ll have to go to Kay’s store to get the merchandise
• Kay Jewelers Gold Exchange – you can take your unwanted gold and platinum jewellery to a Kay’s store, and you’ll get a fair price for it

Build Your Ring Feature

The design your ring process in Kay.com was very well laid out and easy to follow. It must be said that we’ve reviewed a lot of diamond and jewellery stores, and Kay’s process is one of the simplest and most straightforward we’ve met so far.

From the “Create your own Engagement Ring” page, click “create now” and the ring customizer page will open a 7 step process.

• Get started – the first page of the 7-step process is where you will choose to either “create your own” from scratch or to “select from popular designs”. To be in control and get a very unique ring, you can click “create your own”, and it’ll open the second step
• Diamond – the 2 step is where you’ll choose your diamond. You’ll start with the diamond shape, then carat weight, and then the quality. The quality grading is: Good, Better, and Best.
• Ring Head – You can choose from a number of styles that include 4 Prongs, Halo, Bezel, Peg Head, 3 stones and more. Where the chosen styles require accent stones, you’ll also select what metal these stones should be in this 3 step.
• Mounting – It’s in this 4th step that you’ll select the mounting style, side setting, mounting type, carving, and engraving (if desired).

Different mounting styles are available that include: single, single with peekaboo (round or princess), Double, Double with Peekaboo (Round or Princess), Triple, Double Twist, Knife Edge and more. Where the selected style requires peekaboo, you’ll also select the Peekaboo stone.

From the mounting style, you’ll proceed to select the side setting. For simplicity you may choose none; if you choose a side setting (styles include Channel Round, Channel Princess, U-Pave, and more), you’ll also select its length (whether half, three-quarter or full), and the stones.

If you choose a carving style (which include plain, leaf, scroll, etc), you’ll also select its length

• Metal – This is where you’ll select your metal type, and colour (ring head colour, and mounting metal colour)
• Band – In this step, you’re given the choice to make it a set by adding a wedding band.
• If you click “yes” to add a band, you’ll proceed to select the band style, side setting, carving, metal, and engraving (if any).
• Review – the final step is where you can review your ring design. You’ll be able to view all your selections from the second stage, and you can go back for any modification. If satisfied with your ring, you can add it to your bag; then continue shopping or proceed to checkout.

Simply put, the attention to detail was very impressive. And the process was super easy; it was simply about knowing what you want and selecting it one step at a time. One bump to report here is that the “ring review” after building the ring sounds more of viewing mockups (what your final design looks like), but it is essentially a list of all your selections. We’ll like to see Kay.com come up with more images of what the final ring will be like. However, the most serious bump is that there was no way to select the clarity and colour of the diamond.

We built a Round cut 1 ct diamond (quality grading good) engagement ring. It is a 10K White Gold classic ring – 4 prongs, single mounting, no side settings, and plain carvings. The ring came at a cost of $6,131.53.

Price, Promotions and Related Policies

Price

Even with high-end articles such as diamonds and jewellery no one will want to pay beyond what’s perceived as reasonable. Thus, the ideal diamond and jewellery store should offer prices that are reasonable. In this industry, the reasonableness of prices is largely measured by comparing prices.

In this regards, Kay does so-so. You won’t even have to search long or hard online before you find that the price of an item in Kay Jewelers will be significantly more than the price of a similar (equal quality) piece in some other stores. Sometimes the price difference could be as much as 50% – 100%.

For example, the diamond engagement ring we created at Kay.com came in at $6,131.53. However, we could get an even better diamond (1ct, Good Cut, I Color, SI2 Clarity) at Blue Nile priced at £3,515. Mount that diamond on a classic setting that matches the one we got from Kay.com, and you’ll have your ring at just $4,115. Thus, you’ll be saving $2,016.53. What is more, you’ll be getting a better diamond.

That said; you’ll find a lot of online reviews where Kay Jewelers is written off as expensive and not providing value for money. Given that one of the promises of the parent company of Kay Jewelers (Signet Jewelers Limited) is “to provide competitively priced jewellery and watches”. You may begin to wonder where the competitiveness in Kay’s pricing is.

Thus, it should be said that Kay Jewelers come out as expensive but only when placed side by side with online retailers. A whole article can be written to explain why the brick and mortar jewellery retailers just cannot offer the prices of their online counterparts. Without going into the details, suffice it to say that holding diamond inventory and maintaining physical retail outlets is expensive, and the brick and mortar pass these costs to their customers via higher prices. The “true” online stores do not have to worry about holding inventory or maintaining stores, and so are able to offer lower prices.

That said, if you compare apples to oranges (traditional brick and mortar retailer to online retailers), Kay Jewelers will comes out as super expensive. However, if you compare apples to apples, the competitiveness in pricing that is promised can then be seen.

Promotions

It’s no secret that customers seek out promotions. With promotions, you can get articles for free or for less than their regular prices. Thus, to many customers, the ideal retailer will have a lot of promotion.

In this regard, Kay advertises that the Company “always has a jewellery sale going on”. We took this with a pinch of salt because while huge cost saving offers are regular sightings amongst apparel retailers, they are rare amongst diamond and jewellery retailers.

Thus, we love the pleasant surprise of finding that Kay Jewelers run a lot of promotions, with many of them really huge. For example, at the time of writing this review, there were a “clearance sales” running that knocked off up to 50% from the regular prices of selected items.

Some of the promos that were running at the time of writing this review are:

• Write a review about Kay for a chance to win $100 Kay gift card
• Get 15% off first purchase if placed on June 1
• Get 20% off select Gold Jewelry
• Get 40% off all open Hearts by Jane Seymour
• Get 25% off all personalized jewellery
• Get 20% on select Rembrandt charms
• Save 10% on your next Jewelry repair of $10 or more

Like all promos run by every store, promotions in Kay Jewelers are time specific, so you’ll have to check from time to time to know what is being offered at any particular time. Alternatively, you may register for text alert and you’ll get exclusive offers.

Financing

With the Kay Jewelers Credit card, you don’t have to worry about not being able to cover the cost of an item, because it allows you to buy a Kay’s jewellery today and pay later. There are two plans that can be accessed:

• 12 months plan – you’ll have to complete payment in 12 months. However, you’re required to make a down payment of 20% of the purchase price; and the purchase has to be at least $500.
• 36 months plan – you’ll have to complete payment in 36 months. Down payments are not required, but the minimum purchase requirement is $3,000.

Other services

Lifetime Diamond and Gemstone Guarantee

The true retailer should stand by its product, and Kay Jewelers does that by offering a lifetime warranty for their diamonds and coloured gemstone. The lifetime guarantee covers:

• Lifetime cleaning and inspection – You can take your item to a Kay’s store for inspection at any time. However, you’ll need to have your stone inspected by the Company at least every 6 months to stay under the warranty. Such inspections ensure the integrity of the item because any problem found will be fixed; interestingly such inspections are free of charge
• Stone replacement – for any stone that is chipped, broken or lost from its setting during normal wear, Kay Jewelers will replace it at no cost to you
• Mounting – if any defect is found in your mounting, Kat Jewelers will repair or replace it; also at no cost to you, but the service has to be within 12 months from the date of your purchase of the item

Diamond Jewelry Upgrades and Trade-Ins

You can bring your diamond jewellery to Kay Jewelers and trade it with another diamond jewellery. This upgrade and trade-in program allows you to get new diamond jewellery without having to pay the full price for it. The old diamond jewellery you submit will be towards getting the new item, and the amount you’ll pay will be the difference in price. The only condition is that the price of the new diamond item you want to get must be at least twice the price of the old item you’ll be submitting.

Interestingly, the upgrade and trade-in program in Kay Jewelers does not apply to only articles bought in the store. No matter where the old diamond jewellery was bought (whether in a Kay’s store, the Kay e-commerce site, or any other jewellery store) you can take it to Kay Jeweler towards the purchase of a new diamond jewellery

Extended Service Plan

This is an optional plan that can be bought when buying your jewellery in Kay. It covers many of the things not covered by the complimentary lifetime diamond and gemstone warranty. Thus, by making this one payment for the Extended Service Plan, you can have all the repair work that the jewellery will require covered by Kay Jewelers. Such repair work includes ring sizing, refinishing and polishing, rhodium plating, resetting diamond and stones, and more. The cost of the service plan is dependent on the cost of the jewellery: $19.99 for jewellery costing $0.01 – $75.99; $29.99 for jewellery costing $76.00 – $100.99; and more.

Shipping

When you place an order online, it will have to be moved to the shipping address (provided by you) where you will receive it. The most important shipping considerations are: shipping destinations, shipping times, and shipping costs

• Shipping Destinations

You can only buy from an online store that ships to your shipping address. Therefore, you’ll want a store that ships to many worldwide locations so that your shipping address is more likely to be covered. Unfortunately, Kay.com is not one of such stores. Kay.com comes out as a store that ships to only locations within the US. Thus, international customers cannot place orders in the e-commerce store of Kay Jewelers.

• Shipping Times

You’ll want a store that offers quick delivery else you may have to wait endlessly to receive delivery of items ordered in Kay.com. First, the e-commerce store offers two delivery options – ship to store, and ship to your door.

For the former, the items will be shipped to a Kay’s store, and you’ll go there for pick up. However, Kay Jewelers does not allow another person (other than you) to pick it up. Delivery to store generally takes 2 business days.

For delivery to door, three shipping options are offered. There’s a “Ground shipping” that takes 3 – 5 business days; there’s a “Second Day shipping” which will take two business days to deliver your order, and there’s an “Overnight Shipping” that’ll take deliver as its name suggest.

However, these estimated times only apply to items that are in-stock; while items that will require some work (customized, items, personalized items, etc) will take longer.

• Shipping Cost

You’ll also want a store that offers shipping costs that are as low as possible. This is because high shipping costs can easily make the items in a store expensive to acquire even if the items themselves were deemed reasonably priced.

In this regard, Kay.com does so-so. They offer free shipping for items shipping to a Kay’s store. For items shipping to your door, you’ll find the applicable shipping costs during the checkout. However, Kay Jewelers run a lot of promotions which include free shipping.

Return

Kay Jewelers says that they are only happy when you (their customer) are happy. Thus, the store allows customers to return items if you are not totally pleased with the order. What follows is a review of their return policy.

• Items that can be returned

Though Kay Jewelers allow returns, not all Kay’s orders can be returned to the store for an exchange or refund. Items that cannot be returned include custom-designed merchandise, special-ordered watches class rings, or personalized (engraved) merchandise. However, this is on par with almost every other jewellery store in the business.

• Return Window

Items that are returned to Kay Jewelers will only be accepted by the store if the items are received within an allowed time frame. You’ll want an extended time frame so that the risk of your items getting to the store late will be reduced.

Thankfully, Kay Jewelers does relatively well in this regards. The store allows up to 60 days from purchase date for returns, and 90 days from purchase date for exchange. Most of the other jewelry stores allow only 30 days. That said; the generous return window of Kay Jewelers means that you’ll not race against time if you have to return an item from your order.

However, the exception to this very generous window is watches that have not been specially ordered. Such items have the standard 30 days from purchase return window.

• Return Process

If you have to return an item to a jewellery retailer, you won’t want to be faced with a difficult return process. Kay Jewelers does relatively well in this regards. They accept returns to their stores and also returns mailed to their warehouse. This is a classic example of Kay Jewelers leveraging their robust store network. In-store returns are very convenient to customers, and this convenience afforded by the return of online purchases to store is something that the pure online jewellers cannot offer.

Also, even when returning items to Kay Jewelers by mail, the process is relatively easy. You’ll have to visit the site and print the return label and return address label. Then, on the packing slip that accompanied your order, you’ll have to indicate the reason for the return. Then you’ll have to package the item appropriately (including all original documents and certificates); attach the return label to the package; then mail the package to the return shipping address.

• Refund Policy

How and when you’ll get your refund is an important consideration when returning any item to a retailer. For returns to Kay Jewelers, you’ll get the refund via the original payment method. This is better than stores that exclusively issue store credits for returns. This is because, unlike store credits that tie you to the issuing store, with refunds as cash to the payment methods you can choose to visit and use the funds in another store for your future purchases.

Most importantly, Kay Jewelers are relatively fast (or at least they say so) in issuing refunds. The store advertises that they issue refunds within three weeks of receiving returned items.

Customer Support Service

You want a store that will effectively answer the questions that customers will have and resolve any issue that customers may have.

Kay Jewelers supports a variety of methods for contacting them, which include:

• Postal mail – send your letters to Sterling Jewelers Inc., 375 Ghent Road, Akron, Ohio 44333
• Email – you may send an email using the contact form from their website
• Telephone – the number to call is:  (800) 527-8029
• Live Chat – Also accessible from the website

The service is available between 9:00 am – 10 pm ET (Mondays – Fridays), between 10:00 am – 10:00 pm ET on Saturdays and between 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm ET on Sundays

Pros:

• Has a very robust in-store operation
• Provides a wide variety of products which includes engagement rings, non-engagement jewellery and watches
• Lifetime diamond warranty is offered
• Diamond jewellery upgrade and trade-in is offered, where you can even trade jewellery not originally purchased from Kay Jewelers 
• Offers different financing plans
• Offers a generous return window of 60 days from purchase date
• In store return of online purchases are possible
• Various ways available for contacting support service and seeking help

Cons:

• Selection is relatively small
• Not many pre-set rings with eye clean diamonds are provided (most have I2 clarity grading)
• Exact clarity and color grading are not provided
• Diamonds are with “less” reputable IGI certification
• Prices are generally higher than you’ll find in most stores (especially the online retailers)
• Support service is not available 24/ 7

Summary

Kay Jewelers is one of the largest brick and mortar jewellery store in the US with over 900 stores across the country. Their operation as a brick and mortar store means that they can neither offer the selection nor the prices that the online jewellers offer. Thus, you’ll find Kay.com having relatively smaller inventory than almost every other online jewellery store. You’ll also find that items in Kay Jewelers are significantly more expensive than similar items in the online jewellery stores.

Also, Kay Jewelers came out as not offering quality. That they use IGI certification instead of the tighter and widely used GIA certification does not help their case. It is compounded by the fact that the company does not provide exact colour and clarity grading, and also largely use poor quality (I2) diamonds for their pre-set engagement rings.

However, if you can somehow ignore the quality concerns, and also do not mind spending almost double what you can get a piece for in another store, you can shop in Kay Jewelers and you’ll have one of the most generous return policy in the industry, as well as a raft of in-store services that the online jewellery stores cannot offer.

Anine Bing is a self-titled women fashion brand from Anine Bing, the former model and current fashion blogger and entrepreneur. The fashion house says its mission is to create clothes that are easy to wear.

Yes, Anine Bing is a legit fashion store. It is not a scam because you will receive what you purchased from the store. And also they will never try to steal your money or credit card detail.

The big question is whether Anine Bing delivers on that and really provides functional essentials that all women will want in their wardrobes. Another question will be whether the emphasis on easy to wear clothing affect the quality of Anine Bing’s products. Also, if Anine Bing does have the promised product (easy clothing + quality clothing), do they also provide the top services that we’ll want from the go-to fashion destination (such as competitive pricing, easy ordering and payment, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer support service, etc)? In the first place, is Anine Bing a genuine platform?

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

Anine Bing review at a glance

• Is a US-based fashion brand that focuses exclusively on women wear
• The brand’s website is www.aninebing.com and www.eu.aninebing.com
• Was founded in 2012 by former model and fashion blogger Anine Bing
• Offers a variety of women wears ranging from tops, bottoms, jackets, and dresses, as well as shoes and accessories
• Better known for providing easy to wear functional pieces
• Ships to worldwide locations
• Offers free shipping and free returns
• Return window is 14 days from the delivery date
• Customer support is available via email

What is Anine Bing?

Anine Bing is a women-focused fashion store headquartered in Los Angeles CA. The store was founded in 2012 by Anine Bing who still actively serves as its Chief Creative Officer. The former model cum fashion blogger cum entrepreneur brings her vast experience into Anine Bing (the brand).

The brand started from the living room of Anine Bing (the person). After gaining a good following from showcasing her outfit on Instagram, the then blogger launched the online site and started providing her clothing to her followers. She started with about 15 items consisting of basic essentials such as women Jackets, Jeans, T-Shirt, and dresses. Not long after, Shoes were added to their selection. According to Anine Bing (the person), the Charlie Boots that started their shoe selection put Anine Bing (the brand) on the map of the fashion industry. Just recently, (2018) Anine Bing added kids’ collection to their product offering. Anine Bing Kids is a unisex line offering clothing and accessories for kids aged between 2 and 10.

After its success, online Anine Bing quickly started opening retail outlets to be closer to its customers. As a result, the fashion house now boasts of retail outlets in many cities of the world which includes Barcelona, Berlin, Los Angeles, London, Madrid, New York, and Paris.

Products

Product Range

You’ll want the fashion store you enter for your purchases to hold a variety of fashion products. Even when the store focuses on a niche, you’ll the store to offer a variety of products within the niche. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should have a wide product range.

Anine Bing does relatively okay in this regards. The store focuses on women fashion; and so offers the whole gamut of women clothing. Getting to the Anine Bing website, the product categories you’ll find in the menu (and the items you’ll find in each category) are as follows:

• Clothing – Jackets, Tops, Sweaters, Bottoms, Denim, Dresses, Lingerie
• Shoes
• Accessories – Jewelry, Bags, Sunglasses, Belts, Savage Rose

There’s also the “Current” category where you can shop new arrivals, back in stocks, special summer collections, and special picks by Team Bing. Lastly, there’s a kids category, where you can shop kids’ clothing, shoes, and accessories.

A look at the product offering shows that Anine Bing lives up to their promise of providing everyday basics. You’ll find all apparel in Anine Bing as functional clothing that is easy to wear, from their casual pieces to their outing pieces.

Inventory Size

It’s not enough that the ideal store holds a variety of products; it’s also important that it holds a large inventory of each product type. With a large inventory, customers will have a large collection to choose from when shopping; and they’ll be more likely to find something that they like.

Anine Bing does well in this regards. In most of the product sections, you’ll find hundreds of items to choose from. This is by no means close to the inventory leaders in the industry, but it is a sizeable enough collection to satisfy the selection needs of most customers.

However, we observe that Anine Bing does the opposite of what many fashion retailers do. Most fashion stores have apparel as their primary product offering and this category usually have the highest numbers in term of inventory while other categories like shoes and accessories have fewer inventory counts that reflect their only secondary status. However, in Anine Bing, while apparel is their primary offering, the shoe category has the largest inventory.

Product Quality

Anine Bing (the person) has been quoted as saying that the fit together with the quality is the two most important factors in a good piece of clothing. Thus, the focus on providing easy to wear clothing does not lead to the relegation of quality.

As a luxury store, you’ll expect items to meet high-quality standards, which include good materials (fabrics), good tailoring, and more. Thankfully, the items of Anine Bing are large of fine quality. Thus, when you pick the functional Anine Bing piece that’ll soothe your body whether when going for an outing or for everyday use, you can be sure that the piece will be durable.

However, it should be said that there are some reviews of Anine Bing where customers have complaints about the quality of their orders. However, these are not prominent as to form a theme; and can be considered as the exception rather than the norm.

Prices, Promotions and Related Policies

Prices

The prices of items in a store are some of the first things buyers look at. Thus, stores should feature items whose prices are deemed reasonable. The only way to determine the reasonableness of prices is to compare what’s being offered with that of the competition.

When that is done, Anine Bing features somewhere in the top half. It’s was all too surprising given that Anine Bing advertises as a luxury store for everyday basics. Luxury stores are not particularly known to be focused on providing the best prices.

For example, at the time of writing this review, on the European online store of Anine Bing, you’ll find graphics Tees starting around €89; a lot of shirts and sweatshirts were easily above the €100 mark; jackets easily crossed €200 and into the high hundreds; while Blazers easily crossed €300 and into the high hundreds. Some items could also be found with prices in four figures.

The prices in Anine Bing were not in the expensive ranges of Chanel or Louis Vuitton; thus, Anine Bing can be considered a fair player amongst luxury shops. However, when the whole market is considered, the prices of Anine Bing can definitely be considered expensive in their own right.

To put these prices in perspective; while you’ll struggle to find anything priced around €50 in Anine Bing, many of the price leaders in the industry (such as H&M, Boohoo, and Topshop) hold hundreds of exquisite articles under €50.

One feature you’ll find in the price friendly stores is price matching, where the store’s commitment to giving you the best price will make them sell their item to you for less than it is listed, if you can prove that a similar item (same spec and of equal quality) is listed somewhere else at a lower price.

That said; Anine is definitely not the place to be looking at if you want an online fashion store to shop affordable clothes. However, you’ll find the store a good destination, if you want relatively fair prices for luxury items.

Promotions

Customers look around for promotions, and the reason is not farfetched. Promotions represent cost-saving offers with which you can get items for free or for less than their full prices. Thus, the ideal store should run plenty of promotions.

The website of Anine Bing does not show the company as one that’s generous with promotions. It does not announce any price slashing discounts or any of the other promotional deals that we’ve come to associated with the websites of the promotion-generous fashion retailers.

We didn’t find popular like student discounts, military discounts, or even the oft-seen newsletter subscription discounts. Also, though Anine Bing offers sales items, we couldn’t find any separate sales section on the website.

Though the Anine Bing website was largely silent, we found the store occasionally run some promotions, albeit not the huge cost saving offers of promotion centric stores. That said; it’s safe to say that Anine Bing is not generous with promotions.

Payment Methods

Included in the smooth service that an online store promise is a hassle-free payment. That starts from finding a banking option supported by the store that you can use to conveniently pay for your order no matter where you are resident.

Anine Bing also does so-so in this regards. You can pay for your Anine Bing order using PayPal or any of the popular credit/ debit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover card. Granted, PayPal and the cards are worldwide options ensuring that you’ll find a means to pay for your order anywhere. However, the supported payment methods come out as limited. You’ll find fashion stores that support PayPal the cards as well as different web wallets, bank transfer options, and even alternative methods like COD (cash on delivery) payments.

Shipping

Shipping is an important consideration in the online purchase because your order has to be moved to where you’ll take delivery of it (the shipping address). The most important things to consider about shipping are: shipping destinations, shipping times, and shipping costs

Shipping Destination

You can’t use an online store if you are resident (and will want your order shipped to) point A, but the store only ships to point B. Thus, you’ll want to consider the locations that the online store ships before any other consideration. In this regard, you’ll want a store that ships to many worldwide locations so that your location is more likely to be served.

Anine Bing does well in this regards. Unlike most stores that serve only their domestic market, Anine Bing ships to many worldwide locations. Anine Bing ships worldwide using two online stores. The US store (www.aninebing.com) serves North America, South America, Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Middle East; while the European store (www.eu.aninebing.com) serves Europe and Israel.

Shipping Times

You’ll want a store with fast delivery else you’ll find yourself waiting endlessly to receive delivery of orders placed online.

Anine Bing does so-so in this regards. First, there is a relatively long order processing time of 3 – 5 business days. That is, after submitting your order, it may take up to five business days before the order will leave the fulfilment centre of Anine Bing and start its journey to your shipping address. Needless to say, this is a long time. Even if shipment time is one day, the long processing time will mean that delivery will take 4 – 6 business days. As a result, you’ll find that Anine Bing does not offer the fast delivery we’ll want.

Shipping Costs

Shipping costs can easily make an item that is reasonably priced expensive to acquire. This is because shipping costs add to purchase price in determining the total acquisition cost of any item purchased online. As a result, you’ll want stores that feature shipping cost that is as low as possible.

Anine Bing does well in this regards because the fashion store offers the lowest possible shipping cost, which is $0 (in order words, free shipping). Interestingly, free shipping is available to all locations served. However, for free shipping to apply, you have to buy from the appropriate website of Anine Bing (that is, the website that serves your market).  For example, if your shipping address is in the US, you have to buy from the “US” site; and if your shipping address is in Europe, you have to buy from the “European site”. Buying from the Anine website that does not serve your market will attract a shipping and handling fee that is up to €100 (according to the “shipping page” of the website).

Where free shipping does not apply, you’ll find the applicable shipping cost published during checkout. It should be said that from the numerous reviews online, it can be gleaned that shipping charges when free shipping does not apply are relatively high.

Returns

There are many factors that may cause you to be unsatisfied with your order when the item is delivered to you. There is the issue of the size difference, where a size that does not fit has been ordered; there’s also the issue of the item delivered not meeting certain quality expectation, and it is even possible that an entirely wrong item is delivered. That said; you’ll want to be able to return the order to the store and get a replacement or refund.

Every serious fashion retailer accepts returns, and it’s not surprising that Anine Bing does. The real question is what’s contained in the return policy.

Return Window

Retailers will only accept the items that are returned to them within an allowed time frame usually from the time of delivery. That said; you’ll want an extended period, which will greatly reduce the risk of your returns getting to the fulfilment centre of the retailer late.

In this regards, Anine Bing only does so-so with a return window of 14 days. That is, any Anine Bing order you must return to the store must get to their fulfilment centre within 14 days of the item being delivered to you. Returns getting to them later than 14 days from delivery date will be rejected and sent back to you (at a cost to you).

If you’ve seen reviews of other online fashion stores, you’ll find that the “14 days from delivery date” return window of Anine Bing is relatively short. In fact, it is less than half the “30 days from delivery date” return window that is oft seen offered by many stores in the industry. That said; if you have to return any item in your Anine Bing order, you’ll have to act fast after receiving the item.

Also, the policy of Anine Bing to reject and send back returns that are received late is stricter than some fashion stores who accept late returns but issue store credits for them instead of cash refunds.

Items that can be returned

However, not all items can be returned to Anine Bing. The headliner here is Sales items. All orders placed on sales items are final, and cannot be returned to Anime Bing. The store’s hard stance on sales items can easily be seen on the “Returns and Exchanges” page of their website; one line reads: “No returns, exchanges, or store credits. No exceptions”.

Because sales items are discounted, and because customers want value for money when shopping, shopping Sales items is the norm rather than the exception. Thus, it puts customer between a rock and a hard place when return policies make Sales Items final sales (non-returnable). Customers will have to choose between two unwanted choices – buying at the usually expensive full prices and being eligible for returns, or buying the usually low-priced sales items and not being eligible for returns. With the Sales Items return policy of Anine Bing, customers will be faced with this conundrum.

In must be said that generally stores put a line on returns of sales items. However, some fashion stores in the industry have more relaxed policies in this regard. For example, there are stores that allow returns of sale items but only for items that were not heavily discounted; while there are others that accept returns of all sales items but with a reduced return window. We’ll like to see Anine Bing adopt one of these.

In addition to Sales Items, Personalized items cannot also be returned or exchanged. However, this is what’s obtainable across the industry; and you’ll expect nothing more give the nature of personalized items.

Items that are not final sale and can be returned to Anine Bing must meet certain conditions to be accepted by the store. Returns must be in the same conditions they were when delivered. Where items are returned for being defective, it’s important to know that material deterioration that occur with use are not considered defect.

Return Process

It frustrating enough that you have to returns an item to a retailer, so you won’t want to meet a cumbersome return process.  Thus, the ideal store should offer easy returns.

Anine Bing does so-so in this regards. First, in-store purchases can only be returned in-store, while online purchases must be returned by mail to the fulfillment center of Anine Bing. Some fashion retailers with physical outlets allow returns of online purchases to their stores, affording customers the convenience that such in-store gives. Given that Anine Bing has some physical outlets and talks of affording “seamless returns”, we’d expected them to permit in-store returns of online purchases. However, it should be said that Anine Bing is not alone in not allowing in-store returns of online purchases. In fact, in the fashion industry, “in-store returns of online purchases” is the exception rather than the norm.

Also, to return merchandise to Anine Bing by mail (all online purchases) you must first contact the customer care department of the store (via email at info@aninebing.com). This is not bad in itself, as it informs the store of your decision, and with exchanges, it facilitate the receipt of the replacement item. However, what’s not good about this process is that, it may take Anine Bing up to 2 business days to get back to you with confirmation. Given that their return window is already a relatively short 14 days, any time waiting to get return authorization further increases the risk of your return getting to their warehouse late and being rejected.

After getting authorization, you may proceed to fill out the Return Form included in your order, package the item appropriately, and include your purchase receipt, and ship then send the return package to the carrier. You may use a carrier of choice; in that case, the return shipping address to mail the package to is: US Warehouse, Pixor c/o ANINE BING RETURNS, 5901 Eastern Ave., Commerce, CA 90040.

Cost of Returns

Also, you don’t want to be dithered from returning an unwanted item because of high cost of returning it. Thus, you’ll want the store you use to have cost of returns that are as low as possible.

In this regards, Anine Bing advertises “free returns and exchanges on all orders”. This should put Anine Bing on top of many stores, because you’ll find many stores where customers bear the cost of return shipping; some stores will even charge you restocking fees when you make a return.

Return Processing and Refund

After returning an item to a store for a refund of your payment, you’ll want to get cash payment to your account instead of store credits. This is because, store credits will tie you to the particular store, and you’ll have to use the funds for future purchases in the store. But with cash refunds, you can choose to go to another store for your future purchases.

Thankfully, unlike stores that issue only store credits, Anine Bing issue refunds as cash payment via the original purchase method.

Also, you won’t want to wait endlessly to receive the said refund. Thus, you’ll want stores that process returns and issue refunds quickly. Anine Bing pulls in at average in this regards. All returns to the store are processed within 2 – 3 weeks, after which the refunds are issued. You’ll have to allow some time for the said refund to be reflected in your account. Thus, overall, you’ll have a waiting time of about 3 – 4 weeks.

Granted, many fashion stores in the industry take about a month to process and issue refunds; but this is not the fast refund processing time we’ll want from a modern customer-focused fashion retailer.

Customer Support Service

The ideal online fashion retailer should have a robust system for assisting customers. Whether it is simple questions or issues with orders, customers will always need assistance. The effective of the support service is measured by how many channels are supported, the response time, as well as the helpfulness of responses.

In most online platforms, the first place to get answers is the self help articles in an FAQ page or Knowledge base in the company’s website.  Anine Bing does have an FAQ page on their website which answers questions on such topics as accepted payment methods, ordering, final sales items and more. However, we found the FAQ to be inadequate. First, it is not as detailed as we’ll want it; and secondly, answers are not grouped by topics to aid navigation.

If the assistance you need require you to directly contact a rep of the company, Anine Bing support email service for that. Interestingly, they provide a couple of email address to direct different types of enquires. This is nice as it automatically sorts enquiries and channels them to particular departments that will handle them. The email addresses are: concierge@aninebing.com – for general customer care issues, as well as styling and fit enquiries; buying@aninebing.com – for enquiries about wholesale purchases; and press@aninebing.com – for the press.

However, it’s disappointing that Anine Bing supports only one direct contact channel. It also doesn’t help that the supported channel is the email service that’ll require customers to wait for some while to get a response to their submission. These days, online platforms support a host of instant feedback channels such as telephone service, live chat, and even video technology such as Skype.

It also does not help that the email service is not available round the clock. Agents only man the service to respond to customers between 8:00am – 5:0pm, Mondays – Saturdays. For a world facing platform, we’ll want to see 24/ 7 customer support so that there’ll be no problem of customers’ uptime being the service’s downtime.

However, it must be said that Anine Bing has received many sticks in the independent customers’ review platforms online for poor customer support. In platforms such as Trust Pilot and its like, you’ll find customers’ review about Anine Bing reporting basic customer service failures such as long response time, not responding at all, etc.

That said, with a less than adequate FAQ page, no instant feedback channel supported, and too many reports of long/ no response or unhelpful service; it’s safe to say that the customer support service of Anine Bing needs fixing.

Is Anine Bing safe and legit?

Anine Bing is a safe and legit fashion store. In the retailing world, the safety of a platform is simply its ability to safeguard the sensitive information that customers share with it; and preventing such information from leaking to unauthorized third parties.

Anine Bing says all the usuals; that is committed to the safety and security of customers’ personal information and transaction data. They back up that statement by employing technical measures such as SSL (secure sockets layer) technology. SSL ensures that data transfer between the buyer’s device and seller’s servers is private. Since SSL also encrypts data using bank-grade encryption protocol, even if it is intercepted, it will be unreadable to the hackers.

With the use of that technical measure as well as other administrative stops, it’s safe to say that Anine Bing is safe.

Summary

As a former model and still fashion blogger, few will know more about functional women clothing than Anine Bing, the owner of the self-titled fashion house Anine Bing. Thus, when Anine Bing (the person) pulls her experience into a mission to provide easy to wear and quality fashion styles for women, you can be sure of what you’ll get.

Anime Bing (the brand) lives up to its promise and provides a range of simple easy to wear women essentials that include tops, bottoms, dresses, lingerie. Shoes and fashion accessories are also available to complete the easy look; while kids’ wears have been added lately.

However, Anime Bing is a luxury store and prices reflect that luxury status. Items are a bit expensively priced, and there are little to no price slashing promotions on offer. Anine Bing tries to help by offering free shipping; and to ensure a happy customer, they also offer free returns. However, apart from being free, you might find nothing more to like about the return policy. The return window is only 14 days, and you’ll have to wait for return authorization that may eat up to 2 days from the return window. You’ll also have to make do with email when contacting customer support service, as instant feedback channels are not supported.

The bottom line is that, Anine Bing is a strong contender for the best provider of simple everyday women wears. If you won’t mind paying a little extra and won’t have to return an item from your order, you’ll find the fashion house to be excellent.

Pros:

• Offers a variety of women wear, especially basics
• Offers a very variety and large inventory of women shoes
• Ships to worldwide locations
• Free shipping is offered
• Free returns are offered for all orders

Cons:

• As a luxury store, prices are in the expensive range
• It takes 3 – 5 days to process orders before being dispatched for shipment; thus fast delivery is not offered
• “14 days from delivery date” return window is relatively small
• Can take up to 2 days to get return confirmation/ authorization after submitting the return request
• The 2 – 3 weeks that returns processing takes is relatively long
• Only e-mail is supported for customer support; telephone and live chat are not supported
• Customer support is not available 24/ 7

Do you have any experience with Anine Bing? Use the review section below to give us a your Anine Bing review.

Tiffany & Co. is a US-based company which is one name that you’re likely to come across when searching for diamond and jewellery retailers. However, unlike the other jewellers, the company also offers a range of non-jewellery products such as home items, personal accessories, fragrances, and more.

Yes, Tiffany & Co. is a legit outlet. It is not a scam store because they will never steal your money or credit card info. And you will receive any Jewellery you purchased from the store.

Does the provision of other non-jewellery products affect them on the diamond and jewellery front? Or does the company offers quality diamonds and beautiful jewellery pieces that we’ll expect of the go-to diamond and jewellery store? What about their service, do they offer top services (such as diamond education and consultation, easy ordering, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer service, and more). In the first place, is Tiffany & Co. genuine?

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

Tiffany & Co. review at a glance

• A New York based jewelry and specialty retailer founded in 1837
• Operates 94 stores in the US, and 279 others around the world
• Offers a wide product range that includes jewelry, watches, fragrances, home items, and more
• Better known for their luxury diamonds and sterling silver jewelry
• Provides arguably the highest quality diamond and settings in the industry
• Their prices are some of the most expensive in the industry
• Cost saving offers are almost non-existent
• Offers fast delivery
• Offers free shipping to all locations
• Offers free returns with a return window of 30 days from delivery date
• Customer service is available via email and telephone

What is Tiffany & Co? – Background

Tiffany & Co is an American jewellery and speciality retailer. The company was started as far back as 1837, by Charles L. Tiffany and John B. Young. However, at the time it was nothing like the company we know today; the company went by the name “Tiffany, Young, and Ellis”, and its primary product offering was stationery items. It wasn’t until 1853 (16 years later), that the emphasis switched to jewellery; and that came after Charles Tiffany took complete control and change its name to “Tiffany & Company”.

The company was incorporated in 1868. Avon Products Inc bought Tiffany in 1978, and later sold it (to an investment Group) in 1984; but in 1987, only three years after, the company went public again, and continues to trade in the New York Stock Exchange.

Though the emphasis is now on jewellery, Tiffany & Co. provides a variety of other products; in fact, Tiffany & Co has a wide product range that trumps that of almost every other jeweller. Apart from diamonds and gemstones, engagement and wedding rings, and other jewellery, Tiffany & Co. also offers watches, fragrances, China, and personal accessories. And yes, they still offer stationery.

Tiffany is arguably the world’s most famous jewellery store, and they have a storied history that some other jewellers can only dream of. For example, in 1862, during the Civil War, Tiffany supplied the Union Army with swords and surgical implements amongst other things. At the Exposition Universelle, which was a World Fair held in Paris in 1867, Tiffany won an award for excellence in silverware; becoming the first US Company to be so recognized.

They followed up that first award with others (Best jewellery exhibitor) in the 1878 Paris Exposition. Also, in 1884 Tiffany & Co. was awarded the contract to revise the Great Seal of the United States, which is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the federal government of the United States. In the early nineties (1919), the United States also contracted Tiffany & Co. to revise the Medal of Honor awarded its Department of Navy; and in 1968, the company was commissioned by the US First Lady at the time (Lady Bird Johnson) to design a china service for the White House. Suffice it to say that no scam store can have such a storied company.

Tiffany & Co. is also the maker of many trophies used in the sports circles. Some of these include: the Vince Lombardi Trophy (which is given the NFL team that wins the super bowl), the Larry O’Brien Trophy (which is given to the winner of the NBA finals), the MLS championship trophy (which is given to the MLS team that wins the post-season championship games), and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ Sprint Cup Trophy.

Is Tiffany & Co safe?

Yes, Tiffany & Co. is a safe and legitimate store. You also want a store that is safe in ensuring that the information that your share with it is well guarded. This is a no-brainer; information such as your personal data and payment data cannot be allowed to leak to unauthorized third parties else you may be ripped off or worse.

Tiffany & Co. also ticks the box in this regards. The company states that they maintain administrative, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect customers’ data from unauthorized loss, alteration or destruction. We’ll like to have the details of some of these measures. Although Tiffany does not provide those details, we can take confidence from the fact that Tiffany & Co has not suffered a data breach. That said; it’s safe to say that Tiffany & Co. is safe.

Jewellry Stores Like Tiffany:

• JamesAllen.com
• BluNile.com

Features

Shopping in Tiffany & Co

Tiffany and Co operate a host of physical stores in location across the US and 42 other countries of the world. Their store network covers North and South America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania; the only regions of the world where a Tiffany & Co store cannot be found in Africa and, of course, Antarctica.  At the time of writing, Tiffany & Co. operated 94 stores in the US alone and 279 others in the various international locations.

However, having physical stores with inventory comes at a cost, which is usually passed on to the buyers. That is why traditional jewellery retailers simply cannot meet the prices of online jewellery retailers. In the same vein, as we’ll see this fact is reflected in the pricing of Tiffany & Co.

For online shopping; Tiffany & Co. has different websites for different markets. The website www.tiffany.com is for the US market, to be used by US shoppers for delivery within the US; the website www.international.tiffany.com is for many international shoppers for delivery to some international locations. However, from anyone Tiffany site, you can navigate to the particular site serving your market, from which you can purchase and ship articles to your location.

That said; Tiffany & Co. is not exclusively an online store with one or two physical outlets serving only as showrooms, neither is the company exclusively a traditional brick and mortar store with a website for only informational purposes. Though Tiffany and Co. have a robust online operation; they also hold inventory, and run an equally robust traditional in-store operation. As a result, you’ll find that Tiffany & Co. is mentioned in lists of both traditional diamond and jewellery retailers, and online diamond and jewellery retailers.

Direct Manufacture

Most jewellers use the “virtual listing” model, which means that most of the items listed in their stores are owned and/ or manufactured by third-party partners. With such business models, it is only when an order is placed in the store that the item will be delivered to the company’s fulfilment centre to be processed.

However, with Tiffany & Co., the business model is the reverse. The company manufactures the majority of its products themselves, and they cut and polish their diamonds in their workshops. That way the Company has direct oversight of the manufacturing/ production of items.

However, there is a catch. Where the stores that use virtual listing is able to provide a large inventory (which includes what is physically in their stores and what is stocked by their partners all over the world), selection in Tiffany & Co. will be limited to what is in their stores.

Consultation

Luxury diamonds and jewellery are special items that you can’t afford to get wrong. So as not to get it wrong, Tiffany & Co. offers the necessary assistance. You can request a consultation with a diamond expert, who’ll give you the necessary assistance in choosing a ring or a special anniversary gift, or in personalizing a wedding band.

You can have such consultations online (via telephone), or you may schedule the appointment in a Tiffany & Co. store.  What is more, the service is at no additional cost.

Conflict Free Diamonds

Tiffany & Co. has a zero-tolerance policy toward conflict diamonds. Thus, to ensure that all diamonds in their inventory are conflict free, they source their diamonds only from countries that are full participants in the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme. However, because the narrow definition that the Kimberly Process gives conflict-free diamonds does not take into consideration a host of unethical issues (such as human right abuse, degradation of the environment, etc), Tiffany &Co. promises going beyond the Kimberly Process by advocating for stronger global standards, especially in the protection of human rights and the environment.

Sustainability

It’s no news that mining has devastating effects; it’s been documented that many mining communities are plagued with environmental degradation and human right abuses. As a result, there have been calls for diamond and jewellery business operations with minimal environmental footprint and responsible labour practices.

In this regard, Tiffany & Co. say they view it as a moral duty and as a business imperative to sustain the natural environment. Thus, they use their voice and actions to protect the planet and positively affect communities, as illustrated by the following:

• Green Packaging

Going “green” is being preached in every circle, and the single most important reason is to create a sustainable earth. Tiffany & Co philosophy to protect the environment is reflected in most aspect of the company including their packaging. The iconic blue boxes and bags that the company uses in packaging articles are made with paper from sustainable sources and recycled materials.

However, the “Little Blue Box” is not all about eco-friendliness. Everything about it speaks of class – from its trademarked blue shade (called the Tiffany Blue) to the stylish white ribbons hugging it. Thus, the blue box itself is an integral part of the whole “Tiffany Experience”.

• Protecting the Environment

Tiffany & Co. is one company that has been known to advocate for the protection of special landscapes in Alaska (such as Yellowstone National Park and Bristol Bay) from the devastating effects of mining.

• Charitable Giving

The Tiffany & Co Foundation was established in 2000; and over the years, it has provided grants to a lot of non-profit organization and civic institutions, especially those involved in the protection of the environment, and improving the welfare of persons in and around mining communities. The company reports that the Tiffany & Co. foundation has awarded over USD $75 million in grants since it was established.

Products

Product Range

You’ll want the ideal online store to have a wide product range so that you can shop your related products in one place. For example, it’ll be more convenient to buy your complete ring in one place, instead of having to purchase your diamond in one store and having to look up another store for the setting.

Tiffany & Co. aces it in terms of the product range. Tiffany & Co. may have started as a “Stationery and special items store”, but they have transitioned into a “Jewelry and speciality store”. Thus, they offer loose diamonds (both white and coloured), a variety of gemstones, settings, jewellery, as well as non-jewellery items such as home items and personal accessories. That said; you’ll be hard pressed to find a jeweller that’ll have a wider product range.

The various product categories you’ll find in the websites of Tiffany & Co. and the items you can shop in each category are as follows:

Jewelry

• Necklaces & Pendants
• Bracelets
• Earrings
• Rings
• Charms

Love and Engagement

• Engagement Rings
• Wedding Band Sets
• Women’s Wedding Bands
• Men’s Wedding Bands
• Couples’ Rings

Watches

• Women’s watches
• Men’s watches

Home & Accessories

• Tableware(Diner plates, Mugs, Pitcher, Tea cups and saucers, etc)
• Bar and Drinkware (Wine glasses, Sterling silver dishes and martini spoons, cocktail picks, etc)
• Coffee and Tea
• Desk Accessories (Book ends, Paper Clips, Magnifying Glasses, Sterling Silver Pencil Sharpeners and Rulers, Letter Openers, Alarm Clocks, etc)
• Décor (Flower Pots, Crystal Vases, Candle Stick, Fish Bowl, etc)
• Games & Novelties (Measuring Tapes, Playing Cards, Harmonica, First Aid Box, etc)
• Baby (Teddy Bear, Piggy Bank, Bubble Blower, Baby Blanket, etc)

Gifts (for…)

• Mother’s Day
• Graduation
• Her
• Him
• The Couple
• Baby
• The Home

Being that diamonds and jewelry is the primary offering of Tiffany & Co; it should be said you’ll have the full gamut when shopping diamonds in the store. They provide the diamonds in all popular shapes which includes Oval, Round, Cushion, Pear, Princess, Emerald, Asscher, Heart, and more. The fancy diamonds are available in a range of color that range from blue, yellow, brown, and more. And for the rings, Tiffany & Co. provides them in a variety of styles – Halo, three stone, Pave and more.

Inventory Size

While having a wide product range is ideal, having a large inventory of each product type is even more important. For instance, when shopping diamonds, instead of having only a few number of a particular grade to choose from, you’ll want to have a large selection to choose from. Needless to say, with a large selection, you’re more likely to find a piece that matches your preference and your budget.

Tiffany & Co. does relatively well in this regards. Although they are by no means near the industry inventory leaders, they provide a sizeable enough inventory that will satisfy all your selection needs. For example, you’ll find tens of thousands of diamonds, and thousands of items in the jewellery sections. Moving to the non-jewellery products, you’ll find hundreds of items in most sections.

Product Quality

With special items like diamonds and jewellery, you don’t want anything but top-quality. This is one area where Tiffany is easily at the top of the pile. It is said in some quarters that Tiffany & Co. is the Lamborghini of jewellers. That says much about the quality of the products sold by the store – there really should be no worries about getting an inferior product from the company.

For example, all diamonds you’ll find in Tiffany & Co. are cut to ideal proportions, which are diamonds with angles, and symmetry that are near-perfect causing them to reflect almost all the light that passes through them to give that brilliance and fire through the table to the crown. You’ll find that a solitaire diamond in Tiffany & Co must be at least “I” in colour and “VS2” in purity (that is, only minor inclusions which are only observable with effort, even under 10x magnification).

The settings you’ll find in Tiffany & Co. are also regarded as some of the best and classiest in the world. For example, you’ll find that their sterling silver is plated with Rhodium to avoid tarnishing.

Also, if you go to the independent customers’ review platform online, you’ll find a lot of satisfactory comments about the quality of articles from Tiffany & Co. That said; there’s no doubt that Tiffany & Co. provides A-quality items.

Prices, Promotions and Related Policies

Prices

No one will want to pay what is perceived as unreasonable for a product, and that goes for even for high-end items like diamonds. Thus, the ideal diamonds and jewellery store should offer prices that are reasonable. However, it should be said “reasonableness” of prices is largely subjective, as there are buyers who will readily pay a premium for some perceived quality that may not be evident to others. Thus, to be objective, we can only compare the prices in one store (in this case Tiffany & Co.) with prices of the competition.

When this is done, Tiffany comes out as arguably the most expensive store in the diamond and jewellery industry. It’s not news that for a ring in Tiffany & Co. you can get as much as $5,000 – $10,000 for buying an identical piece from another store.

For example, for this review, shopping from the Tiffany UK site, we looked at a 1.25 carats G colour 1 VS2 stone with excellent cut mounted on the classic solitaire Tiffany setting. The ring came at a cost of £18,000. Then looking at some of the other big names in the industry (such as the Blue Nile and James Allen), we were able to find identical diamonds for $8,364 – $11,635. The simplicity of the Tiffany setting means it’s even easier to get a similar piece; that came in at $1,200 – $2,155. Thus, for $9564 – $13,790, we could get a piece no different from (or better than if you consider that the most expensive stone considered is from the “Astor Ideal” collection of the Blue Nile which is some of the best-cut diamonds in the market) the £18,000 priced piece in Tiffany & Co.

In fact, it’s no secret that Tiffany & Co. are expensively priced. A stroll through the online platforms and you’ll find questions like “why is Tiffany expensive?” and “is Tiffany expensive because of better quality or just branding?” The latter question is answered by our example of the £18,000 priced Tiffany engagement ring since a ring of equal (or better) quality can be obtained for far less. Thus, like the best of the luxury houses in any circle, the premium you’ll pay isn’t just for the product, but also for the brand.

Promotions

Promotions are simply cost saving opportunities because they allow customers to get items for free or for less than the regular prices of the items. Naturally, customers look out for such cost-saving offers; and will want the ideal online store to run a lot of promotions.

Tiffany & Co. also does not stand among the generous stores in this regards. Just as we’ve come to expect of luxury stores, in Tiffany & Co. cost-saving offers are few and far in between, almost bothering on nonexistent. We did say that the company occasionally floats special sales coupons and that they offered military discounts in the US.

Shipping

Except you’ll be buying from the Tiffany & Co. stores, you order has to be moved from the fulfilment centres to the shipping address provided where you’ll take delivery of the order. Thus, shipping is an important consideration in online purchases. The most important shipping considerations are shipping destinations, shipping cost and shipping times.

Shipping Destinations

Except for a jewellery retailer ships to your territory, receiving delivery of your order will be difficult. Thus, you’ll want the ideal online retailer to ship to many worldwide locations so that your territory is more likely to be covered.

Tiffany & Co. ticks the box in this regards. The store ships to many worldwide locations. However, you’ll have to visit the appropriate Tiffany & Co. site when shipping internationally. For example, www.tiffany.com will ship only to US locations, www.tiffany.co.uk will ship to UK locations, while www.international.tiffany.com will ship to some other international location.

Shipping Times and Shipping Cost

That shopper does not exist who’ll have no issues with waiting everlastingly to receive delivery of orders placed in online stores. Thus, the ideal stores for online shopping should feature fast delivery. Also, shipping costs add to the total spend in purchasing any particular article online; thus, you’ll want the shipping cost to be as low as possible.

Tiffany does well in terms of shipping times and shipping costs. Because of having various outlets in different countries, orders will most likely be shipping from fulfilment centres close to the shipping addresses. Hence, the fast shipping times (and consequently low costs).

What it also means is that how long you’ll have to wait for your order as well as how much you’ll pay for shipping will depend on the website you’re shopping from. For example, for orders from www.tiffany.co.uk (shipping to the UK), there are two shipping options – Express delivery which cost £15.00, and Standard delivery which cost £5.00 (but is free for orders over £500). The Standard delivery usually takes 3 workings days but would take8 working days for standard engraved items, and 13 working days for hand engraved and monogrammed items. For the Express UK deliveries, orders placed by 1:30 Mondays – Thursday are delivered the next working day.

For orders from www.tiffany.it (shipping to Italy), only the Standard shipping is supported. It cost €7.00 but is free for all others over €500, and it will take 5 days for the items to get to your door but will take longer for personalized items.

One important thing is that free shipping is offered to all locations served. Although, it comes with a minimum order requirement of 500 credits (that is, £, €, $).

Returns

For articles that symbolize or communicate love (such as engagement rings and the many other gift items provided by diamond and jewellery retailers), settling for less is not an option. Thus, the purchase should be satisfactory. As a result, you’ll want a store that allows you to return any item that you are not totally satisfied with.

Tiffany & Co. like almost every other brand in the business allow returns of items for refunds or exchange. However, only items eligible as defined by their return policy are accepted. Therefore, what follows is a review of their return policy.

Return Process

You won’t want to have an item you’ll rather return but be put off returning it by a cumbersome return process. Thus, you’ll want a return process that’s smooth sailing.

Tiffany does relatively well in this regards. To return an item, you’ll have to simply visit the appropriate Tiffany & Co. website to print a “Return Label”. Then you can proceed to package the item appropriately, attach the return label to the return package, and take it to the right carrier. The provision of return labels, which are usually pre-paid and pre-addressed, makes for easy returns. 

Return Window

Stores accept returns of unwanted items only when the items are received by them within designated timeframes. Thus, you’ll want an extended period, so that you’ll not run the risk of the item getting to the store late and being rejected.

Tiffany also does well in this regards, as they offer a 30-day return policy which opens on the date of delivery. That is, every item to be returned must be made within 30 days of receipt of the item. 

Items that can be returned

However, not every Tiffany & Co. order is accepted for refunds or exchanges. Engraved items are not accepted by the company. However, Tiffany & Co is not alone in this respect; because of the personalized nature of engraved items, they are not accepted for returns by almost all jewellers in the business. Tiffany & Co. also does not accept returns of fragrances. However, for items to be accepted, they must be returned with all documentation.

Cost of Returns

You’ll not want to be put off returning an order because of prohibitive cost. Thus, the ideal store should offer return costs that are as low as possible.

Tiffany & Co. ticks this box by offering the lowest possible return cost there is, which is zero (that is free returns). The return labels provided are not only prepaid but free; thus, nothing is deducted from your refund.

Return Processing and Refunds

Another important consideration is how and when refunds are issued. You don’t want to wait for too long before receiving your refunds.

The refund processing time is different for different markets. That is, just like the shipping times, the return processing time depends on the Tiffany & Co. site you’re buying from. For example, Tiffany promises to process UK orders (from www.tiffany.co.uk) within 10 days of receiving the returned item in their fulfilment centre. However, Italian offers (from www.tiffany.it) if returned to the store will be processed within 14 days of receipt of the item.

Customer Support Service

Customers will always have questions about a store’s product offerings or service to which getting answers will be necessary. Also, issues with others are common no matter how effectively a store operates. Thus, the ideal online store should provide for handling the questions and complaints of customers. 

Tiffany& Co. ticks the box in this regards. There’s an FAQ section in all their sites which self help hold articles that answers many questions that customers have asked in the past. If that does not solve it for you; they also support an email service and a telephone service.

The e-mail service is powered by an online contact form that can be accessed from the appropriate Tiffany website. For the telephone service, different numbers are provided for different markets.  For example, the phone number to call is 0800 160 1837 for the UK market, 00 800 2000 1122 for the Italy market.

However, it must be said that in most of the independent review platforms one of the reasons for the poor rating of the company is online customer service. For example, in Trust Pilot, Tiffany & Co. has a poor rating of 2.5 out of 10, with many customers’ comments showing basic customer support service failures on the part of the company. Looking at the reviews, it seems like the “Tiffany Experience” did not cross the border from the in-store support to the online support.

Summary

Tiffany & Co. is a luxury shop for jewellery and speciality items. Their product offering includes engagement and wedding rings, gemstones, jewellery, as well as home items, décor, and personal accessories.

The company provides some of the highest quality pieces you’ll find in the market; and in their case, highest quality goes with highest prices. Thus, Tiffany & Co. comes out as very expensive; and worst still, there are no cost saving promotional offers. However, the premium you’ll pay when shopping in Tiffany & Co. is not simply for better quality, as you’ll find items of comparable quality for far cheaper in other store. Therefore, you’re paying for the brand – the Tiffany experience, it is called.

Thus, Tiffany & Co. makes a fine diamond and jewellery store for those who want the high-quality high branded product and are ready to pay top dollar for it. You won’t be disappointed with their service either. There are easy ordering, fast delivery, relatively easy returns; and if you come stuck, there are many channels for reaching their customer support service.

Pros:

• Offers a wide product range that transcends diamonds and jewellery to include fragrance, personal accessories, and more
• Most of their products are manufactured in house which enables direct oversight of production
• They offer arguably the highest quality products in the industry
• They ship worldwide
• Free shipping is offered to all locations (albeit for orders above 500 credits)
• Delivery is relatively fast
• Returns are accepted, the process is easy, and with a generous 30 days window
• Return processing and issuing refunds are relatively fast (10 – 14 days from receipt of returns)

Cons:

• Selection is limited to items in their stores
• Prices are arguably the most expensive in the industry
• There are no cost saving opportunities

Zales advertises as “the diamond store”. Note that Zales is not advertising as “a” diamond store but “the” diamond store. This will mean that Zales is the diamond store that will first come to mind when you think of diamond and jewellery retailers.

Zales is a legit diamond store. It is not a scam store because they will never steal your money or financial details. And you will receive any jewellery you purchase from the store without a problem.

The big question is whether that “the diamond store” tag is simply a marketing line, or whether Zales is actually the first diamond store that comes to the mind of followers of the diamond retailing business. In order words, does Zales offer quality product and quality service to make them stand out in the diamond retailing business? In the first place, is Zales material genuine?

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

Zales review at a glance

• Is an American diamond retailer founded in 1924
• Incorporated as Zale Corporation in 1993, and began doing business online in 1998
• Owned by Signet Jewelers Inc since 2014
• Its main website is www.zales.com
• Provides a wide variety of products that include loose diamonds, gemstones, and jewellery
• Ships merchandise to only locations in the US and the US Territories
• Free shipping is available (albeit for orders over $149)
• Returns are allowed if made within 60 days of the purchase date
• Offers a lifetime diamond Commitment that includes diamond breakage coverage, a diamond upgrade program and more
• Zales pioneered credit plans; and still offers some of the best financing plans in the industry
• Customer support is available via postal mail, online contact form, and telephone

What is Zales?

Zales was established by Morris Zale, William Zale and Ben Lipshy as far back as 1924. Though the company was called Zales Jewelers at the time, their inventory also included cookware, small appliances and cameras. The company started trading in the American Stock Exchange in 1958. In the 1960s, they diversified into shoes, sporting goods, furniture and more; and to reflect this diversity the company rebranded as Zale Corporation.

Zale launched its e-commerce site (www.zales.com) in 1998; and in the years that follow, the Company continued its expansion with the acquisition of the likes of Peoples Jewellers and Piercing Pagoda.

From that one store in 1924, Zale has grown into a corporation with over 700 stores across the 50 US states and Puerto Rico. Their purchase of People’s Jewellers means they also have a presence in Canada. The company strongly pushes the moniker “the jewellery store”, claiming to be one of the largest (and best) fine jewellers in the world.

However, since 2014, the parent Company of Zale Corporation is Signet Jewelers Inc, after the latter purchased Zales. With other brands (such as Kay Jewelers, Jared the Galleria of Jewelers and others) under their umbrella, Signet is arguably the largest speciality retail jeweller in the word.

Signet (Zales’ parent Company) is a founding (and certified) member of the Responsible Jewelry Council whose mission is to promote responsible, ethical, human rights, social and environmental practices throughout the jewellery supply chain. Thus, there’s confidence that diamonds in Zales are conflict-free and responsibly sourced.

Products

Product Range

The ideal jeweller should hold a variety of products so that you can shop all your jewellery needs in one place. For example, it won’t be super convenient to get your diamond in a store and go to another for its mounting/setting.

Zales ticks the box in this regards. Though the Zale Corporation offers items other than diamond and jewellery such as shoes, furniture, and home accessories; this review focuses on Zales, the diamond store. Thus, we’ll look at their diamond and jewellery offering.

On that front, Zales does excellently well also. They hold all product categories you’ll expect of a jeweller. The different product category that the menu in the landing age of their website will open up is as follows:

• Engagement and Wedding

This is where you can shop your loose diamonds, settings, wedding bands, engagement rings, anniversary rings, etc. When it comes to diamonds and bridal jewellery, there is a reason Zales is called “the jewellery store” – they hold an assortment of diamonds and jewellery that range from simple (everyday basics) to extravagant (exquisite). Zales holds all the 10 popular shapes of diamonds (Asscher, Cushion, Emerald, Heart, Marquise, Oval Pear, Princess, Radiant, Round) and even less popular ones like Baguette.

You’ll also find different engagement ring styles, ranging from Halo to three stone, solitaire, eternity rings, vintage inspired, and more. You can also shop from a host of bridal gemstones, as well as bridal sets.

Their exclusive collection holds exquisite pieces from Arctic Brilliance, Celebration Ideal, Enchanted Disney, Ever Us, Vera Wang Love, and more.

• Rings

You can shop rings in different materials, which include diamond, gemstone, pearls, cobalt, gold, platinum, rose gold, silver, stainless steel, titanium, and tungsten. As said, all the popular styles are available; and you can personalize your rings.

There is even a “Price” section which allows you to shop rings by their prices. So you can quickly find bands that match your budget, instead of having to scroll through the whole collection

• Necklaces

Necklaces are provided in the different metals –Diamond, Gemstone, Pearl, Gold, Platinum, Rose Gold, Silver, and Stainless Steel.

You’ll find men and women necklaces in different styles which include Bolo Necklaces, Chains, Choker Necklaces, Cross, Hearts, Infinity, Lockets, Monogram, Personalized, and more

• Earrings

There are men and ladies earrings available in different metals (diamonds, gold, and more) and different styles (Crawlers, Diamond studs, Gemstone studs, Hoops, Drop, Front-Back and Personalized).

• Bracelets

There are men and Ladies bracelets in a variety of styles – Anklets, Bangles and Cuffs, Bolo Bracelets, Charms, tennis bracelets, personalized and more. They come is the different metals – gold, rose gold, diamond, silver, stainless steel, pearl, and more

• Watches

There are men and ladies smartwatches and more from different brands that include Bulova, Caravelle, Citizen, Fossil, Invicta, JBW, Movado, Technomarine, and Wittnauer more.

• Collection

You can shop Zales exclusive collections that include Arctic Brilliance, Celebration Diamond, Elegant Reflections, Endless Brilliance, Ever Us, Love’s Destiny, Vera Wang Love, and others. You can also shop from a host of jewellery brands that include Amore La Vita, Julianna B, Le Vian, Made in Italy, Past Present Future, Stackable Expressions, and others

• Create your Own

This is where you can choose a particular diamond and a setting that you’ll want it mounted. You can start with the diamond or the setting.

• Gift Ideas

In this section, items you can shop are grouped by occasion, recipient, popular gifts, and price

• Clearance

This section holds discounted items

Inventory Size

You want a jeweller to offer not only a variety of product but also a wide inventory of each product type. With a wide inventory, you’ll have a vast collection to choose from when shopping, and you’ll be more likely to find something that you like and that matches your budget.

In this regards, Zales does so-so. At the time of writing this review, the number of loose diamonds in the online store was just over 20,000. This means that Zales does not even hold a candle to the inventory leaders (such as James Allen, and the Blue Nile who are known to hold around 200,000 loose diamonds). We also found only about 200 settings in the Zales when trying to build an engagement ring in Zales. Needless to say, this number also comes out as too small. Necklaces and Earrings were similarly so-so in numbers; for example, necklaces were about 4,000 and earrings were just over 5,400.

That said; Zales definitely does not have the numbers of some of the other big names in the industry. But that is not to say that you’ll find Zales lacking. Their humble numbers will serve the selection needs of many a diamond and jewellery shopper.

Product Quality

You want the ideal store to hold only high-quality products so that whatever you won’t run the risk of buying items that’ll fall short of quality expectations.

When it comes to diamonds, there are international standards used for rating quality. The Diamond Quality Grade Chart range from I1 (Included first degree) to FL (Flawless); where FL Diamonds are the highest quality diamonds, and I1 diamonds have flaws even visible to the casual observer. That said; many quality-focused retailers do not list these Included (I1 and I2) diamonds. However, Zales has a bulk of these lowest quality diamonds.

However, they list these low-quality diamonds does not mean that they do not have stunning high-quality diamonds. You’ll find a lot of them in the store. You only have to scroll to search through their collection to find these stunning pieces that your pocket can command.

Another thing that has caused eyebrows to be raised towards Zales is their diamond certification. Most of the competing stores list diamonds with GIA or AGS certificates. However, most of the diamonds in Zales are with IGI certificates.

GIA is the gold standard, as it is generally held that IGI tends to be looser in its ratings. Thus where an IGI certified diamond has the same ratings as a GIA certified diamond, the GIA diamond is regarded as a better quality diamond. That said; Zales use of the “inferior” IGI certificate makes it come out as a retailer that does not offer quality.

Price, Promotions and Related Policies

Price

I don’t know of many shoppers that’ll want to throw money around recklessly. Shoppers want value for money, and one of the first things they’ll look out in a store is the prices of items in relation to their quality. This is best done by comparing the prices of items listed in Zales with the prices of similar (equal specs) items in the competing stores.

When this is done, Zales only comes out limping; as it is quite expensive. For example, at the time of writing this review, we looked at a 1ct D VS2 Radiant Cut loose diamond which Zales listed at $7,868. Looking at Blue Nile, we found better quality (very good cut) 1.01 D VS2 stones Radiant Diamonds at $3,983 – $5,899. Thus, you’ll be saving $1,696 – $3,885, which is 25% – 49.3%. Also, a classic 1 ct I I2 Oval Diamond Solitaire Engagement Ring in 14K White Gold, was priced at Zales at $4,999. However, moving to Blue Nile, we could easily find better quality (I SI2) 1ct Oval diamonds for about $3,000. Put one of those on any of the classic solitaire settings in the store, and you’ll have your engagement ring coming under $4,000. Thus, you’ll save $1,000+ and have a higher quality ring.

That said; whether you are buying loose diamonds, full rings, or any other jewellery, you’ll find Zales more expensive than many of the big diamond and jewellery brands in the market. And it is not just a slight difference; as our example of the loose diamond shows, the price difference can sometimes come in at over 50%. This poor value for money has been underlined as one of the biggest weakness of Zales.

However, we were not surprised that Zales comes in as expensive when compared to names like Blue Nile or James Allen. It should be said that the business model of Zales is different from these jewellers considered the price leaders in the industry.

With over 700 retail outlets, Zales is essentially a traditional retailer with the bulk of its business coming in through its brick and mortar stores. Holding inventory and maintaining these stores have cost implications, and these are passed to the buyer via relatively higher prices. On the other hand, these price leaders have the bulk of their business from their online stores, with one or two outlets only serving as a showroom.  With the associated costs of maintaining physical stores eliminated, these “real” online retailers can outshine the traditional store-based retailers when it comes to pricing.

Promotions

Promotions allow customers to get items in a store for free or for less than the items regular (full) prices. Thus, they represent cost saving opportunities. Therefore, it’s only natural that buyers seek out stores with a lot of promotional offers.

In this regards, the diamond and jewellery stores are not known to be as generous with promotions as their apparel retailers. However, Zales does very well to challenge that. They offer a raft of price slashing promotional offers rare in the diamond spheres.

At the time of writing this review; on getting to the landing page of the Zales website, a pop-up welcomed us, which promised to knock off 10% off our first purchase. There was also a “Dazzling Deals” promo which promised to knock off 50% of the prices of selected items. At the time of writing, 167 items were found to which the Dazzling Deals apply, they include engagement rings, diamond wedding bands, diamond rings, diamond studs, Earrings, and more. Zales also has a clearance page, where a lot of items can be found, discounted by as much as 10%.

Financing Plan

If you must have a jewellery piece but cannot completely cover its costs at the moment, Zales is one of the jewellery stores that you can go to.

In fact, Zales blossomed in the late 1920s largely because of it’s “a penny down and a dollar a week” credit plan; so what will be surprising is an absence of a financing plan today. However, Zales does not give us this surprise; they have financing plans that allow you to get your jewellery piece now and pay later. These plans are available via:

• The Diamond Credit Card

There are four financing plans available for holders of the diamond credit cards which include: a 6 months plan, a 12 months plan, an 18 months plan, and a 36 months plan.

While minimum purchase and minimum monthly payments are required, Zales credit plans beat many credit plans in the industry for two reasons. First, unlike financing plans in the diamond industry that requires a certain percentage of the purchase price as down payment, Zales financing plans require $0 down payment. Secondly, Zales plans come with 0% APR (only the 36 months plans comes with 9.99% APR). However, $9.95 is charged for every transaction under the 12 months and 18 months plans.

Cardholders also have access to exclusive promos such as $50 off on birthdays, 10% off any repairs done in-store, and free standard shipping.

• Lease Purchase Program

This is a no credit needed alternative that allows you to get your item with a $79 initial payment. However, you won’t own the article until you have made all schedule payments (within 12 months) or exercise a cost saving early 90 days buyout option

Shipping

You’ll have to consider how you’ll get articles ordered online from the Zales website. The most important shipping considerations are shipping destinations, shipping cost and shipping times.

Shipping Destination:

 One of your very first considerations should be the locations that Zales ships to. This is because except an online store ship to where you are resident it will be difficult to receive delivery of your orders. In this regards, you’ll want the ideal store to ship to many worldwide locations so that your territory is very likely to be covered. Zales does not come out as that store, because they ship articles to only locations within the US and US Territories.

Shipping Times

If you order an item online, you won’t want to wait forever to receive delivery of the order. So you’ll want a retailer with fast deliveries.

In this regards, Zales offers two ways of receiving your orders, which are in-store pickup and delivery to your door. Delivery to store will be available for pick up in three working days. For delivery to door, there are three shipping options – 2nd Day Air delivery (orders are delivered within 2 business days), Next Day Air Saver delivery (orders are delivered the next business day following order placement), and Saturday delivery (orders are delivered on a selected Saturday). However, for next day delivery, you’ll have to place the order before 11:00 am; while Saturday delivery can only be placed on Thursday (after 11:00 am) through Friday (before 1:00 pm). Zales also deliver to US P.O. Boxes addresses, as well as to APO/ FPO addresses; but you’ll have to allow additional time for the military addresses.  

However, it must be said that these delivery times only apply to in-stock items; any item that requires personalization or sizing will take extra days for delivery. For ring resizing, you’ll need to allow 2 additional days, while for personalized items may take longer depending on the type of personalization required.

Shipping Costs

Also, the total cost of acquiring any online piece consists of its purchase price and its shipping cost. Therefore, high shipping cost can easily raise the acquisition cost to undesirable levels. As a result, you’ll want a store with shipping costs that are as low as possible.

Zales offers the lowest possible shipping cost, which is free shipping. All Zales items for in-store pick up are shipped to the selected store free of charge. When shipping to your door; the 2nd Day Air delivery cost $6.95, the Next Day Air Saver delivery cost $21.95, Saturday delivery cost $32.95, delivery to P.O. Boxes cost $7.95, while delivery to military addresses cost $18.95.

However, free shipping is still possible for delivery to your door, but there’s a minimum order requirement of $149. If you’ve looked at reviews of other jewelers you’ll find that the minimum order requirement of Zales is one of the lowest in the industry. In many stores, you’ll be required to spend as much as $500 or more to qualify for free shipping. That said; with the Zales $149+ free shipping offer, you won’t have to spend over the board to have your items shipped to your door free of charge.

However, it must be said here that while Zales promises fast deliveries and quotes relatively fast order processing and shipment times, many customers’ reviews in independent online platforms says otherwise. There are just so many reviews of late deliveries that it cannot be chalked off as a one-off glitch.

Returns

The stock of diamonds and related jewellery in Zales are items you use to communicate love and appreciation. Thus, these items should be nothing short of satisfactory. Therefore, you’ll want to be able to return an item that you are not totally satisfied with. Given that almost all online retailers allow returns, it’s not surprising that Zales allow returns.

However, sometimes bobby traps lay in the return policies of online stores; so what follows is a consideration of the return policy of Zales.

Items that can be returned

Items that cannot be returned to Zales for refunds or exchange include personalized orders, special order watches and clearance items. For the items that can be returned to Zales, for them to be accepted, the items must be in their original condition and must be returned with the necessary certificates.

Return Process

You don’t want a cumbersome return process that’ll frustrate your efforts to return an unwanted order; thus, you’ll want a store that features easy returns. Zales ticks the box in this regards.

First, the Company allow returns in-store and by mail. All items purchased in store must be returned to store; however, items purchased online may be returned to store or by mail to their distribution centre. Since, Zales operate hundreds of physical outlets, finding a Zales’ store is easy; thus, in-store returns of online orders make for super convenient returns. This is better (more convenient) than the policy of some stores, that demands return by mail for all online purchases.

Also, the return process is easy. In-store return entails simply taking the items to a Zales store along with the necessary certificates and purchase receipt. For online returns, you’ll have to reach the customer support (via telephone) to state your intention to make the return. Then you can proceed to package the item appropriately; include the required documentation (diamond certificates, packing slip or ship confirmation email, or online purchase receipt); then ship the package to the return address indicated on the packing slip (SJIX Processing, 375 Ghent Road, Akron, OH-44333).

While the return process is relatively easy; it could be better with the provision of pre-paid and pre-addressed return labels.

Return Window

Items returned to a retailer are accepted only if they are received by the retailer within the timeframe allowed for returns. Thus, you’ll want an extended period so that you’ll not run the risk of your returns going in late.

Zales does very well in this regards. They offer a 60 days return policy; where items must get to Zales within 60 days of purchase. If you’ve checked the other stores, you’ll find that the oft-offered is 30 days from the delivery date. While the return window of Zales opens on the purchase date, it’ll start counting even when the item ordered has not been received. But because it will not take the whole of 30 days to receive the delivery, a return window of “60 days from purchase date” is wider than an industry standard window of “30 days from the delivery date”. The only exception to their “60 days” return policy is watched, which has a return window of 30 days from purchase date.

Cost of Returns

You’ll not want to be put off returning an item because of the high cost of doing so. Thus, the ideal store should feature return costs that as low as possible.

Sadly, Zales does not offer free returns, so customers will have to pay for return shipping. The fact that Zales does not provide return labels will mean that customers cannot take advantage of the discounted prices of return labels; thus, you’ll find that the cost of returns relatively higher in Zales.

 Return Processing and Refunds

Zales issues refunds via the original purchase method. However, if the returned item is over $200, refunds will be via checks. It’s good that refunds get to the customers as cash; which allows them to move to another store for a future purchase if they so desire. On the other hand, in stores where refunds are primarily as store credits, the customer will be tied to using the funds for future purchases in the particular store.

However, Zales states in their return policy that where items are returned to them without the purchase receipt, they can only issue store credits. This also comes out fine because most stores will not accept returns of items if a copy of the original invoice does not accompany the returns.

When it comes to when you’ll receive the refund after returning a Zales’ item, you don’t want to be waiting forever. In this regards, it’ll take Zales 30 days from the day they receive the returned item in their distribution centre to issue the refund. While this is similar to the offering of most other jewellers, it is not the fast returns processing time we’ll want.

Other Services

Zales Lifetime Diamond Commitment

Zales is one jeweller that stands by its products. It does this by the “Lifetime Diamond Commitment” which you get with a diamond purchase of $200 or more. The commitment includes:

• Diamond Breakage Cover

Zales will replace your diamond at no charge to you if it chipped, broken or lost (from its original setting)

• Lifetime Cleaning and Inspection

Zales will inspect and clean your diamond free of charge for as long as you own it. However, to maintain the warranty, you must send it for inspection at least every 6 months. All Zales store is capable of cleaning services, and you can take your item (whether purchased online) to any Zales store for inspection and cleaning.

• Lifetime Guaranteed Trade-In Value
• If you want a bigger Zales stone, you can return your former Zales diamond to the store, and they will accept it towards the purchase of the new diamond. However, the purchase price of the new item must be a least twice that of the former stone. This is similar to the diamond upgrade program of other diamond jewellers. However, Zales offer is superior in that while most of the other jewellers limit the offer to lose diamonds, Zales’ offer cover most diamond pieces of jewellery such as diamond bridal sets, solitaire rings, solitaire earrings, and solitaire pendants

Mounting Services

You can get a loose diamond from anywhere and have it set in Zales. You can take the stone to any Zales local store for this service; Zales’ staff will even give you advice in choosing a setting that fits your stone, taste and budget.

Sizing

Rings are sized items, and it’s common to have ordered a size that does not fit; thus, you’ll want a resizing service. Though all jewellers offer to resize, Zales’ resizing service deserves special mention because its availability in their retail stores gives the convenience that most other jewellers cannot give.

Custom Design Service

In most jewelers customization is limited to building an engagement ring; but in Zales, customization options are virtually unlimited. Zales uses an in-store feature (Romantic Creation) to offer this endless custom design service. You can visit any of the Zales stores, and with the help of jewellery consultants and design software, you’ll be able to create not just engagement rings, but also pendants, wedding and anniversary bands.

After approving the design, it’ll be sent to Zales’ jewellers to be produced (cast, handset with the diamond/ gemstone and finished). Thus, with Zales, you’re not limited to specific designs in their online store or physical outlets. You can be creative, and design your own Zales jewellery piece.

Customer Support Service

Customers will always have questions or complaints (especially issues with orders) no matter how effectively an online store runs. Thus, ideal store will have a robust service for handling customers’ questions and complaints.

The first step to getting help in most online platforms is an FAQ page which usually holds answers to questions that customers have asked in the past. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any link to an FAQ page from either the landing page of the Zales website or their customer service page. To be fair to Zales, their “contact us” page meekly tries but fail utterly to function as a traditional FAQ. Given that the self-help articles of the traditional FAQ sometimes provide satisfactory answers to customers’ questions, it’s disappointing that this useful resource is not available.

That said; you’ll find yourself needing to contact Zales (their customer support agents) for almost everything. The contact channels that they support (according to their website) include postal mail, e-mail, telephone, and live chat.

To use postal mail, the address to send all letters is Z-mail Customer Service, 375 Ghent Road, Akron, Ohio 44333. We know the problem with postal mail – long response time; thus, you’ll want to use the other options. For the email service, you can send the company an email by using the contact form in the “contact us” page of the website. You’ll put your email address, and will get a response in your email within 24 hours.

However, if the relatively short response time of the email service is too much to bear, you can use the instant response channels of telephone and live chat. However, while these channels are available 7 days a week, they are not active round the clock. You can only reach an agent between the hours of 10:00 am – 10:00 pm (ET) in the weekdays, and between 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm (ET) in the weekends. For the telephone service, the number to call is 800 311 5393, while the live chat can be accessed from the website. However at the time of writing this review, the live chat feature was unavailable, and it seemed to have been so for quite a while.

Given that long processing times makes postal mail service is unpopular, that the live chat is largely unavailable, and that the e-mail service is merely an online contact form; the available direct contact channels come out as limited. It also does not help that the service is not 24/7.

The disappointment at the customer service will only be heightened when you look up the ratings of the service in the independent customers’ review platforms. Across all the platforms, Zales’ customer support service has very poor ratings; with customers reporting basic customer support failures.

Summary

Zales claims to be “the diamond store”; which to us means the diamond store that’ll readily come to mind to followers of the diamond retailing business. Except it is in the aspect of being very visible with their over 700 retail outlets; Zales actually offers very little to make them the diamond store that readily comes to mind.

A store needs to offer quality products to be “the store”; and Zales is found wanting with their IGI certified diamonds. This is because IGI certified diamonds are generally found to be of poorer quality than a similarly graded diamond from labs like AGS or GIA. Also, Zales lists a lot of I1 and 12 diamonds, which you won’t find listed in the quality-focused store. It also does not help that Zales have a relatively small selection.

Also, a store needs to offer quality service to be “the store”; and Zales is also found wanting. First, their pricing means they do not offer value for money; for any product in Zales, you can get a product of the same (or even higher) quality for far cheaper. Also, Zales does not ship internationally; and even to US locations that are served, customers’ reviews show that quick delivery is the exception rather than the norm.

However, Zales has some strong points. Their in-store services are second to none in the jewellery industry with services like mounting, custom design, sizing, inspection & cleaning, and more; and they even allow the in-store return of online purchases. Also, free shipping is available with the lowest minimum order requirement in the industry; while their “60 days from purchase date” returns window is generous. Also, Zales has some cute promotions which are rare in the diamond industry; but where Zales blows away the competition is their financing plans, which feature $0 down payment and 0% APR.

Pros:

• Hundreds of retail locations across the US providing a variety of top in-store services
• Offers a wide product range that includes loose diamonds, and jewellery of a variety of metal types and styles
• They offer a good number of price slashing promotions
• Offers a lifetime diamond Commitment that includes diamond breakage coverage, lifetime cleaning and inspection, and lifetime upgrade for diamond jewellery
• Free shipping is available
• Qualifying order for free shipping is low ($149+ orders)
• Offers a generous return window of 60 days from purchase date
• Allow in-store returns for online purchases
• Offers a financing plan
• Telephone service is supported

Cons:

• Use the inferior IGI diamond certificates
• Their stock of loose diamonds and settings is relatively small
• Their prices are significantly higher than in most of the other competing stores
• They ship merchandise to locations within the US and Puerto Rico
• Too many reports of late deliveries
• Customer support service is limited (FAQ page is missing, live chat is largely unavailable, and support is not 24/7)

Joules.com is the e-commerce platform of Joules, a British clothing company. They offer country-inspired clothing and accessories for everyone – women, men, boys, girls and babies. The big question is whether you should go to Joules.com to shop for your fashion items. In the first place is Joules genuine?

Yes, Joules is a legitimate fashion store. It is not a scam because you will receive your orders without a problem. And also, all you credit card details are safe on the platform.

But does Joules provide quality material?

This Joules review will put Joules under the spotlight; we’ll examine their policies, products and services in order to provide the information that will help you determine if Joules.com is an online fashion store worth going to.

Joules.com review at a glance

• A UK based fashion Company owned by the Joules Group Plc
• Was established in 1977, and began online operation in 2003
• Offers country-inspired and contemporary clothing and accessories for men, women, boys, girls, and babies
• Offers free shipping for in-store collection and for standard delivery orders above £49
• Allows returns of both full-price items and sales items within 28 days and 14 days of the delivery date respectively
• Customer support is available via telephone and email

What is Joules.com?

Joules is one of the fashion brands of the company Joules Group Plc, which is a registered company in England and Wales. The company was started, as Joule and Sons, as far back as 1977 by Ian Joule; and from 1989, it was operated by his son Tom Joule. In this it’s early years; the company’s modus operandi was selling branded clothing at country shows. The focus was country clothing that was a shift from the traditional British styles.

In 1994, Joule and Sons rebranded, and Joules was born. In 1999, Joules started its own clothing line and started selling own-branded merchandise. In the turn of the new millennium, the company was forced to change its operation, and a mail order catalogue was started in 2002. This was swiftly followed by the launch of the e-commerce platform (joules.com) in 2003.

The success of Joules has led to the establishment of other brands. Little Joule was launched in 2008 to provide clothing for 2 – 12 year olds, Baby Joule was launched in 2009 with a focus on clothing for babies, and a home range was launched in 2013. The Joules Group was listed in the stock exchange in 2016. Joules currently operate over 100 stores in the UK alone.

The website of the store is www.joules.com. The website can be assessed using any modern up-to-date browser. The website is also fully mobilized; thus, you can open the online store with your mobile phones and tablets and shop on the go.

Product Range

The ideal store should be a one-stop shop that allows you to get all your related products in one place. That scenario is not only convenient, it result in significant cost savings. The cost savings comes from high order amount that qualifies for bulk purchase discounts; as well as from paying from one order shipment instead of paying for different shipment of different items from different stores. To be a one-stop fashion shop, the ideal shop should have a wide product range. They should hold merchandise that covers all the fashion products – that is every piece of clothing, shoes, and accessories.

In this regard, Joules.com ticks the box. A large part of its inventory consists of country-inspired clothing, Polo Shirts and Wellington boots which were what the company started with back in the days. In tune with the times, they have also added contemporary clothing. Joules.com comes out as a one-stop shop for everyone. They provide fashion products for men, women, boys, girls and babies. The different items you’ll find in each of the category are as follows:

Women

• Clothing – Right as rain (waterproof jacket, wellies etc), Blazers, Dresses (Tunics), Dressing Gowns, Gilets, Jackets and Coats, Trousers and Jeans, Knitwear, Leggings, Nightwear, Shirts and Blouses, Sweatshirts, Tops, Tunics, Underwear
• Accessories – Hand bags and Purses, Hats, Scarves and Gloves, Phone Cases, Socks, Toiletries, Umbrellas, and Watches
• Footwear – Shoes and Boots, Slippers, Wellies, Chelsea Boots

Men

• Clothing – Dressing Gowns, Gilets, Jackets and Coats, Loungewear, Polo Shirts, Rugby Shirts, Sweatshirts and Jumpers, Trousers and Jeans, T-Shirts and Tops, Underwear, and Right as Rain (Water-proof jackets and Wellies)
• Accessories and Footwear – Hats, Scarves and Gloves, Shoes and Boots, Slippers, Socks, Toiletries, Wellies, and Watches

Girls

• Clothing – Right as Rain, Dresses, Dressing Gowns, Gilets, Jackets and Coats, Jeans and Trousers, Knitwear, Leggings, Nightwear, Skirts, Sweatshirts, T – Shirts and Tops
• Footwear and Accessories – Bags, Hats, Scarves and Gloves, Shoes and Boots, Slippers, Socks and Tights, and Wellies

Boys

• Clothing – Dressing Gowns, Gilets, Jackets and Coats, Nightwear, Polo Shirts, Rugby Shirts, Shirts, Sweatshirts and Jumpers, Trousers and Shorts, T-Shirts and Tops, and Right as Rain (Water-proof jackets and Wellies)
• Accessories and Footwear – Hats, Scarves and Gloves, Shoes and Boots, Slippers, and Wellies

Baby

• Girls Baby and Toddler (Essentials, Body suits, Shoes, sets)
• Boys Baby and Toddler (Essentials, Babygrows, Shoes and Boots, and outfit sets)

It is not enough that a shop holds a wide product range, it is also important that the shop holds a large inventory of each product type. A large inventory allows you to choose from a wide selection, and you’ll be more likely to find something that you like.

In this regard, Joules.com does not have much to be desired. Only a few of their product categories holds a sizeable items count; while the majority of their product types holds only a few items. For example, at the time of writing this review, the Women Tops had about 80 styles which is sizeable enough for selection purposes; but women blazer had only 5 styles, Cardigan had 2 styles, dresses had 29 styles, Trousers and Jeans had 15 styles, Men’s Gilet held only 6 styles, Men’s Dressing Gown held only 2 styles, and Men’s Polo Shirts had only 4 styles. That said, while you can find exquisite contemporary clothing pieces in Joules.com; we’ll like to see more options in many of their categories.

Another important consideration is quality. It won’t matter to you that an online store holds a large inventory if it’s already proven that their quality is down many notches. Thus, the ideal online store should not only have a wide product range and a large inventory of each product type, but should hold good quality merchandise. In this regard, Joules.com also ticks the box. Quality is subjective and means different things to different people, so the best gauge of quality will be to look at customers’ reviews of the items purchased from Joues.com.

On many of the independent customers’ reviews platforms online, the service of Joules.com is highly rated, and so is the quality of their products. For example, in Trust Pilot, Joules.com has an average rating of 9.1 out of 10, with over 81% of respondents rating it excellent and another 11% rating it great. Some of the comments you’ll find in the reviews are: “the quality of Joules clothing is also extremely high”, “the children’s clothes stand up to the rough and tumble of everyday spills and falls”, “Love Joules clothes and accessories”, “quality clothing”, “lovely items”, “great product”, “I love everything about Joules”. That said; it is safe to say that Joules clothing ticks the boxes of quality clothing; good fabric and fine tailoring combine well to produce timeless pieces that wash well.

Prices, Promotions and Payment Method

Price

The prices of items in a store are important when considering making purchases from the store. You’ll want a store with items that are reasonably priced. Thus, while the ideal online fashion store should have high-quality fashion products, it’s also important that the prices of the items are in a range considered reasonable. For this reason, stores that feature low and affordable prices make the go-to stores.

In this regard, Joules.com does not really come out as a store that features low and affordable prices; but at the same time, they cannot be said to be among the expensive stores. For example, at the time of writing this review, you’ll find: Women Blazers priced at £79.95 – £169, cardigan priced at £64.95, dresses priced at £19.95 – £69.95. You’ll find a lot of Tops for £19.95 – £29.95, Trousers and Jeans at £17.95 – £59.95, and Men’s Polo Shirts at £22.95 – £39.95. These prices are definitely not the lowest you’ll find in the market, but they will not put a deep hole in your wallet/ purse either.

That said; if shopping cheap is the primary concern, you’ll find other online stores with similar items that are priced lower. But if getting quality contemporary clothing at okay-prices is the concern, then Joules.com is as good as any other.

Promotions

Customers always look out for promos; and when they are offered promos by stores, they consider the sizes of the promos. The promotional offers are opportunities for customers to get items for free or for less than their full prices; and the bigger (or more frequent) the promotional package, the better for the customer. Thus, the ideal online fashion shop should run regular promotions.

In this regards, Joules ticks the box. They run a lot of promos. However, like all promos, Joules’ promos are only applicable to specified items and are only for a specified period of time. Some of the promos that Joules have offered lately include: Get 3 for 2 on a mix of pants, socks and toiletries; and 20% off autumn favourites. At the time of writing this review, there was a clearance offer that gives 50% off most items in the men, women, kids, and babies categories.

That said; if you want some exciting promos that significantly knock down the prices of listed items, Joules.com might be worth looking at.

Payment Method

You want to be able to make payment for your order conveniently, so the ideal online fashion shop should support a range of payment methods so that finding one to use will not be a problem no matter where you’ll be shopping from.

In this regard, Joules.com accepts payment from PayPal as well as a range of credit and debit cards. Specifically, the cards that you can use in Joules.com are Visa, Master Card, American Express, and Maestro cards.

Since cards and PayPal are generic/ global options that are available in almost every global location, you should not have issues with paying for your orders in Joules.com. However, it remains that they support only limited banking options. For example, you’ll notice that they do not support web wallets, bank transfer options or even cryptocurrencies. However, this is not something that is peculiar to Joules.com; online fashion retailers tend to support only limited payment options.

Shipping

It’s fine that there should be a lot of gorgeous items to choose from; it’s also nice to have an easy process for selecting the items into your shopping cart and paying for orders, but all of that will be useless if the items do not get to you. Thus, shipping is an important element of online shopping. The three shipping considerations are shipping destinations, shipping cost, and shipping/ delivery times.

Shipping Destination

The first shipping consideration should be shipping destination. You’ll want to know if the online shop ships to where you’ll want to take delivery of your package. If the store does not serve that place, then you’ll have to look at another store or be ready to receive delivery of your package in any of the other locations that the particular store serves. Therefore, the ideal online shop should support many locations across the world so that where you are will most likely be covered.

In this regards, Joules comes out strong. They ship to over 210 countries. These countries are as follows: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangledesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bonare (Sint Eustatius and Saba), Bosnia and Herzrgovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Colombia, Comoros Islands, Congo (Democratic Republic of), Congo (Republic of the), Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curacao, Cote D’Ivoire, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabion, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See (Vatican City State), Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia (Federated States of), Moldova (Republic of), Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Nieu, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and The Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sint Maarten, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, UAE, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vietnam, Virgin Islands, Wallis and Futana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

If you’ve checked reviews of online fashion stores, you’ll find that this is one of the widest coverage. Many of the highly regarded stores cover just over 100 countries. Thus, no matter where you are on the planet, you’re more likely to be able to get your package when you shop in Joules.com.

Shipping Cost and Times

After determining that the store ships to your location, you’ll want to know how much and how long it will take for the package to be delivered to you. High shipping costs are undesirable because they increase the total expenditure for the items. Thus, the ideal store will have shipping costs that are as low as possible. In the same vein, long delivery times are undesirable; thus, the ideal store will deliver packages as fast as possible.

Being a UK based company, Joules.com has more delivery options for domestic (UK) orders than it has for international orders. The particular option chosen determines the actual delivery cost as well as delivery times for the order. The available options for UK orders are Click and Collect, CollectPlus, Standard delivery, and Saturday delivery.

The Click and Collect option allows you to purchase an item online and have it delivered to a Joules store where you’ll visit to collect the package. It takes 2 – 4 working days, and is free for all orders. The CollectPlus also ships the package to a CollectPlus store where you’ll visit to collect it; it takes 5 working days and is also free for all orders. Standard delivery ships the package to your home any day from Monday to Friday; it takes 5 working days and cost £3.95. However, Standard shipping is free for all orders over £49. The Saturday Delivery ships the package to your home on a Saturday selected by you; and it cost £6.95.

When shipping to European addresses; it takes 5 – 7 business days and cost £9; the only exception is shipping to Turkey which takes 5 – 7 days but cost £16. When shipping to every other location (Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Islands) it takes 8 – 14 business days and cost £16; the only exception is shipping to Colombia which takes 8 – 14 business days but cost £20.

The shipping cost and times outlined above shows that Joules.com does offer the lowest possible shipping cost, which is free shipping. Their home delivery free shipping offer is also good in that the amount that qualifies an order for free shipping is low – just £49+. Unlike in some stores where the amount that qualifies orders for free shipping is raised to three figures, in Joules.com, you’ll not have to spend too much before you can get free shipping. However, the free shipping offer of Joules.com is not the best we’ll like to see because it only applies to UK orders. We’ll like to see free shipping applying to worldwide orders.

Another glaring miss from the domestic delivery options is the Next Day Delivery. At the time of writing this review, Next Day Delivery was not listed among the domestic (UK) delivery options offered by Joules.com. However, it was an option that Joules has tried before; but it came with more complaints than success stories. The very few negative reviews of Joules that you’ll find in the internet stem from customers who paid for Next Day Delivery but did not get their package as expected. Therefore, it’s understandable that Joules no longer supports the Next Day Delivery. However, there are customers who’ll want to get their package in a whim. If you’re one of those, or you find yourself in a situation where you’ll need your package the very next day, Joules.com may not be the store you should be looking at. There are online stores that do fulfil Next Day Delivery orders, and there are some that even fulfil same Day delivery orders.

Returns Policy

There are many reasons for wanting to return an item to a store after it is delivered to you. While some of the reasons may be due to the customer, such as ordering the wrong size, having a change of mind about the item, etc; others may be due to the seller, such as delivering a wrong product, or the item getting damaged in transit. Whatever the case, you won’t want to be stuck with an item you’ll rather not have; thus, the ideal online store is one that will allow customers return items that they are not satisfied with and be refunded.

Almost all online fashion retailers allow returns for refunds/ exchange, and Joules.com is no different. The returns policy of Joules.com makes for good reading. First, the returns window is 28 days, which means that you have 28 days from the day you receive delivery of the item to return it back to Joules. However, if the item is a sales item, the returns window is 14 days. A return window of 28 days is good enough as it allows enough time to get the item back to Joules.

From a review of many online stores, we find that the industry average returns window is 30 days; thus, the window of Joules is just two days shy of the industry average. The icing on the cake is that Joules allow returns of sales items. Though the window is only 14 days, it is a better offer than you’ll get in most other stores. You’ll hardly see online fashion retailers that allow returns of sales items. Such stores put one in a dilemma where one will have to go for the full-price items (which are mostly expensively priced) to have any chance of making returns if need be.

That said; one of the good things about Joules.com is that sales items are not final sales. However, there are some items that are finals sales (that is, cannot be returned); and understandably so. These include: swimwear, underwear, earrings, and toiletries. These items are “final sales” items if their hygienic seals are broken; understandably that position is due to health and hygiene reasons.

However, for your items to be accepted and a refund issued, the items need to be in their original new conditions. That is, they should be unworn, free from stains or scents, and unwashed; they should also be undamaged and unaltered; and they should have all tags intact.

You can return items in-store by taking it to a Joules store; alternatively, you may return it via post. To return via post, all you need do is package the item appropriately, include the purchase receipts and a covering letter, attach the returns label, and drop it off at a Joules store or at a Post Office. If you ask me, I don’t like the part of including a cover letter. I think an order number should suffice; and from the order number, the company should be able to take whatever detail they want about you and your order.

Another good thing about Joules is that they offer free returns. For domestic UK returns, the returns labels are free; and nothing will be deducted from your refund. However, they say that during sales period, returns may not be free.

The one small thing we didn’t like about the Joules’ return policy is that they do not state how long it will take to process a refund. Most of the other fashion retailers give a time frame that they try to stay true to. However, Joules.com does not make that commitment. This means that no particular timeframe can be quoted within which you’ll expect to get your refund if you opt to return any item to the store. It should also be said that in the customers’ reviews online, there were some complaints (though few) of customers having to wait for too long to get a refund after returning items to Joules.

Customer Support

Before using an online store, you should also make sure that the store has channels for contacting them, and that the channels are effective. This is because it is possible that you’ll have questions about the store and/ or their offerings, or you’ll have some issues with your order; and when the questions or issues crop up, you’ll not want to be left hanging. In this regard, the ideal online store should also provide various channels for effectively addressing the complaints and queries of customers.

In terms of customer support service, Joules.com supports regular channels. The first step in getting help is an FAQ page on their website. The FAQ is well arranged with sections as Delivery and collection, Returns and Refunds, Shopping with Joules, Prices and Payment etc. This will help your navigation, as you look to get answers to some of the questions you have.

Sometimes, there is a need to directly contact a support rep of the company. Joules.com allows such contact via email and telephone. To send them a mail, you’ll have to go to their website and use the contact form. Alternatively, you can send them a mail directly from your regular email address using Joulesteam@joules.com. Whatever case, their response will usually come to you in your inbox in 24 hours.

This is rather fast response time if you consider that some retailers can have you waiting for feedback for more than 48 hours. However, if you’ll rather get an instant response, you can use the telephone support service. The telephone number to call is 0345 250 7160. However, the telephone service is not available round the clock. You can reach an agent: between 8am – 8pm on Mondays – Fridays, and between 9am – 5pm on Saturdays and Sundays. It’s a good thing that telephone service is available at all; but since Joules.com is serving a global market where a region’s downtime is another region’s uptime, we’ll like to see the service go 24/ 7.

It should also be said that Joules.com visit independent customers’ review platforms to seek out customers who may have not been satisfied with what they got in the store. They responded to almost every review in many of such platforms; in every case trying to solve whatever issue was unsolved and to leave the customer satisfied and happy. This commitment to customer satisfaction even beyond their own platform is commendable.

Summary

Online fashion stores cannot be more legit than Joules.com. The company is incorporated, listed in a stock exchange, has been operating for over 4 decades, and has been selling merchandise online for over 15 years. With over 100 stores in the UK, they ship to over 210 countries worldwide. They do fulfil orders; and as a result, they have one of the highest ratings you’ll find for an online fashion retailer in independent customer reviews platforms.

In terms of the product; they provide quality country-inspired clothing and some contemporary styles for men, women, kids and babies. They have a good product range, and you’ll find most clothing type you need. However, they can add a lot more inventory in some of the clothing sections. Prices are also not over the top, but they can be dropped lower.

In terms of service; Joules is applauded. Free shipping is offered; though efforts should be made for the offer to reach some more regions. Also, in an industry where most stores are plagued by late delivery, Joules does admirably well to deliver within expected times. However, the Next Day delivery is seriously missing in their delivery options. Returns are also easy; they offer free returns and even allow returns of sales items. Lastly, when you do need to contact customer support, you won’t be left frustrated. They have different channels to contact an agent, and their responses are prompt and helpful.

I liked

• A one-stop shop for everyone; as they hold men’s wear, women’s wear, kids’ wear, and babies wear
• Covers many regions/ countries
• Offers quality products at okay-prices
• Fast delivery of package
• Offers free shipping (albeit for UK orders)
• Allows returns of Sales items (within 14 days of delivery date)
• Offers free returns

I didn’t like

• Few styles in many of the clothing sections
• No Next Day delivery option
• Free shipping is not available worldwide
• No given time frame for returns/ refund processing
• Telephone support not available 24/7\

Do you have any experience with Joules? If yes, you may use the review section below to give us your brief Joules review.

Brilliant Earth is a diamond and jewellery retailer passionate about providing uniquely beautiful, ethically sourced fine jewellery. “Uniquely beautiful diamonds and jewellery” is what you want from any diamond and jewellery store; but does Brilliant Earth actually offer products meeting that description? Also, almost every jeweller claims to provide ethically sourced jewellery; what makes Brilliant Earth different? In the first place, is Brilliant Earth genuine?

Yes, Brilliant Earth is a legit jewellery store. It is not a scam because they will never steal your money or bank details. And you will receive any jewellery you ordered from the store.

But does Brilliant Earth offer quality jewellery or fake?

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

Brilliant Earth review at a glance

• The website is www.brilliantearth.com
• It is a diamond and jewelry company started in 2015
• Is widely known for their “social responsible” philosophy exhibited in ethical sourcing, giving back to mining communities, and more
• Offers a variety of products that includes engagement rings, wedding rings, diamonds, gemstones and jewelry
• Offers the biggest collection of lab created diamonds in the industry
• Operates 7 showrooms in locations within the US, and ships merchandise all over the world
• Offers fast delivery
• Accept returns of some items, with a return window of 30 days from date of shipment
• Offers free shipping and returns (albeit to US, Canadian, UK, and Australian orders)
• Offers complimentary ring resizing (also to US, Canadian, UK, and Australian orders)
• Customer support is available via live chat, e-mail (support@brilliantearth.com), and telephone (+1 800-691-0952)

What is Brilliant Earth? – Background

Brilliant Earth is a jewellery store that was started in 2005. Like most set-ups, Brilliant Earth was started after a failure to find the desired item. Beth Gerstein could not find an engagement ring that represented her high conflict-free values; in came Eric Grossberg who shared those values, and had even completed research on the subject.

The two teamed up, and Brilliant Earth was birthed, with a mission to not only provide quality diamonds and jewellery, but also to cultivate a more transparent, sustainable, and compassionate jewellery industry.

In other words, there should be no compromise between quality and conscience. In their about 14 years of existence, Brilliant Earth says has championed socially responsible jewellery business operation, that they easily stand out as the leader in ethically sourced fine jewellery.

Brilliant Earth has retail outlets and showrooms in 7 cities in the US – San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Chicago, Washington DC, and Boston. Also, the 7 locations are appointment-only showrooms; that is, you’ll have to book an appointment to visit.  

If you want in-store shopping, you’ll have to be resident close to these outlets or be ready to do some travelling if you’re to buy from Brilliant Earth. Also, unlike some online jewellery retailers, Brilliant Earth does not partner with local jewellers to increase their physical reach. Thus, Brilliant Earth does not come out as the best brand for in-store shopping.

Is Brilliant Earth Legit and Safe?

Brilliant Earth is a legit and also safe jewellery store. You’ll be sharing your personal data as well as transaction (especially credit card) detail when you buy from an online jeweller. Thus, you’ll want a safe store that will safeguard this sensitive data and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.

Brilliant Earth also does very well in this regard. The company uses technical security measures which include SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology. SSL creates a private connection between buyer (your devices) and the seller (Brilliant Earth’s servers) ensuring that whatever information is transmitted is shielded from third parties; the data is also encrypted before being sent through the channels, ensuring that even if captured, it cannot be decoded and read. That said; it’s safe to say that Brilliant Earth is safe.

Stores Like Brilliant Earth:

Below are some of the online stores like Brilliant Earth

• BlueNIle.com
• JamesAllen.com
• Fashionnova.com

Brilliant Earth Philosophy

Ethical Sourcing

Brilliant Earth is the industry leader for ethically earth diamonds. In fact, ethical sourcing is one area where Brilliant Earth stands out. According to the company, whereas the other diamond and jewellery retailers provide “conflict-free” diamonds, Brilliant Earth provides “beyond conflict-free” diamonds.

If you’re wondering what the difference is; they explain that the Kimberly process which most jewellers follow narrowly defines conflict-free diamonds as “diamonds that finance rebel movements against organized movements”.

However, besides financing rebel movements, diamond mining is plagued by a host of other ethical abuses.  Because the definition of “conflict diamond” is too narrow, there are situations where diamonds are technical “conflict free”, but tainted with these ethical abuses such as violence, human right abuses, environmental degradation, and other issues.

That said; the “beyond conflict-free” diamonds take all of these issues into consideration; and the diamonds in this category will have origins that do not involve:

• financing of rebel movements
• degradation of the environment
• violating human rights
• the throwing away of responsible labor practice (fair wages, safe working conditions, etc)

Brilliant Earth is able to provide these “beyond conflict free” diamonds by understanding their supply chain; they carefully select suppliers who demonstrate adherence to their high standards of sourcing, and they create and employ processes to track the origins of their diamonds.

The diamonds available in Brilliant are sourced from Canada, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa; and the mines that these stones come from are committed to the highest possible environmental and human rights standards.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Brilliant Earth being socially responsible goes beyond ethical sourcing; the company also has a strong policy of giving back to diamond mining communities. Brilliant Earth’s giving includes:

• Improving livelihood
• Preventing abuse
• Protecting the environment
• Empowering communities

For example, Brilliant Earth donates 5% of net profits to mining communities, not limited to the communities in which they operate. One of such example of “giving back” is the Brilliant Mobile School initiative – A primary school program that brought primary education to children (aged 7 – 14) in a rural diamond mining community in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who may have otherwise accompanied their parents to the Lungudi mines

Brilliant Earth also support and donate to programs dedicated to improving human rights and environmental practices in the diamond and jewelry industry. For example, the company supported the Center for Research and Development in their efforts to monitor mines, report abuses, and advocate for local communities. The company has also helped in land restoration efforts to make former mining areas suitable for agricultural and other uses. It was to that effect that the company partnered with One Sky (an environmental non-profit organization) as well as the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone. There have also been community empowering efforts which include: building community centers for local mining communities, funding youth leadership training, and providing essential medical aid.

That said; it can be seen that Brilliant Earth appeals to the conscientious or socially responsible diamond shopper.

Features

The Website

The online store can be found at www.brilliantearth.com. The website is available in English Language. It’s a very intuitive site that has everything in the right places. You’ll be able to go to the product categories, select a product into the shopping cart, and complete checkout without hassles.

Also, for each item you select, you’ll have detailed descriptions, which include grading reports and product images. If you need additional images of an item, you can request this. The video technology which has revolutionized product viewing in the diamond industry is also employed by Brilliant Earth. You’ll find almost all the diamonds available with 360⁰ video viewer, in which the stones can be viewed in zoomed slow motion video. You’ll be able to see the stone from every angle, just as when physically examining it in an in-store purchase.

Eco-friendly Diamonds

Because of Brilliant Earth’s passion for ethical sourcing, they offer eco-friendly diamonds such as lab created and recycled diamonds. It’s been documented that mining devastates the environment, so these diamonds are obtained without mining (read: devastating the environment).

Lab Created Diamonds – As their name suggests, these diamonds are grown in the labs. Since they are obtained without mining, there is no devastation of the ecosystem. Thus, they are eco-friendly, and meet even the widest definitions of conflict-free diamonds. However, even very skilled gemologist cannot tell the difference between the natural diamonds and the lab created diamonds. These diamonds have the same physical, chemical, and optical characteristics as the mined natural diamonds; they exhibit the same fire, sparkle and scintillation. What is more, the eco-friendly lab created diamonds are less expensive than their mined natural counterparts.

Recycled Diamonds – As their name suggests, these diamonds are gotten from previous stones that were originally mined. However, they are eco-friendly because no new mining is required for Brilliant Earth to make the stones available. Also, it’s not recycling in the true sense of the word. The recycled diamonds are simply harvested from vintage rings, and from returns (especially those from customers who need a diamond upgrade).

Packaging

You don’t want your symbol of love to come to you in a package that is anything less. Thus, “packaging” has become an important consideration when looking at diamond and jewelry stores.

Protecting the environment is an essential element of the philosophy of Brilliant Earth, so they have adopted a “green” eco-friendly packaging. Their items come in a unique wooden boxes handcrafted in New Zealand. Mind you, these packaging boxes are not green-focused unattractive boxes; rather they are exquisite beautiful boxes. In the wooden brown box which can be snapped open like every other packaging in the industry, you’ll find the ring nestling in white velvet. Thus, the packaging of Brilliant Earth has everything you’ll find in the packaging employed by other jewelers, plus the advantage of being eco-friendly.

Temporary Settings

There’s nothing like a surprise proposal; however, if you want your partner to choose the setting she loves, it’ll let the cat out of the bag and spoil the surprise. Thus, keeping the announcement a surprise, and having your partner make her choice of setting shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.

However, Brilliant Earth solves this conundrum with their “temporary setting” offer. Once you have zeroed in on a diamond, you can have Brilliant Earth mount it on a “classic 18K White Gold 2mm Comfort Fit to form a solitaire engagement ring”. You can then use the ring for your proposal. After the proposal, you can return the temporary setting; and then you and your partner can proceed to pick the desired setting.

You’ll have 60 days (from the day of purchase) to return the temporary setting. This will be enough time to arrange your proposal, and return the temporary setting. Also, the service comes at a cost of $75. Upon purchase of the temporary engagement ring (diamond + temporary setting), a $75 refurbishment fee is deducted from the purchase price of the temporary setting, and the remaining balance will be credited towards the purchase of the new settings.

Free Lifetime Diamond Upgrade

If you have a Brilliant Earth loose diamond but want a bigger stone from the company, you need not cough out the full money for the new stone. With the “Free Lifetime Diamond Upgrade”, you can simply exchange the former (smaller) stone for the bigger one. You’ll get credit equivalent to the original purchase price, and all you’ll need to pay is the price difference.

However, the new stone must be at least 50% greater value. Also, all loose diamonds being upgraded must be accompanied with original certifications; they must also be undamaged, and in saleable conditions, as many of these will form the bulk of recycled diamonds put up for sale.

Lastly, as is suggested by its name, the lifetime diamond upgrade offer is for only diamonds.  It does not apply to gemstones, or jewelry. However, amongst the diamonds only natural diamonds are eligible for upgrade. That is, the offer does not apply to the lab created diamonds.

Free Lifetime Manufacturing Warranty

The ideal retailer will stand by its products. With their free lifetime manufacturing warranty, Brilliant Earth stands by the quality and craftsmanship of their diamonds and jewelry. If at any time during its use, a Brilliant Earth product is deemed to have a manufacturing fault; you may contact the company, and they repair the warrantied damage, or replace the item without charge.

The only items not covered by this warranty are the vintage products; and it is because the warranty is a “manufacturing” warranty, but vintage products are not manufactured by Brilliant Earth. However, since it’s a manufacturing warranty, it excludes coverage for wear and tear, loss of gemstone, or theft. There should be no worries there, as these issues are typically not covered in manufacturing warranties; however, you might worry that the Brilliant Earth manufacturing Warranty also excludes damage due to a failure to obtain repairs necessary to preserve the integrity of the jewelry.

It should be said that manufacturing warranties are usually sources of disputes between customers and retailers. This happens when the customers deem the issue with their item a manufacturing defect and expect the jeweler to effect repairs free of charge, but the retailer claims the issue is not a manufacturing defect (and hence not covered by the warranty), and quotes a price for the repairs.

It is our opinion that this last item (excluding damage due to failure to obtain certain repairs) can give the company room for classing too many issues as not under the warranty. For example, the issue could be a clear manufacturing issue, but it’ll be said that the issue is one that occurred because necessary repairs were not done. That said, while a lifetime manufacturing warranty is wonderful, the warranty is suspect with that clause (excluding damage due to failure to obtain certain “necessary” repair works).

Another thing of note is that you’ll have to have $50 to exercise the warranty. Before the shipment of the defective item to Brilliant Earth, $50 will be taken from your account. However, after evaluation, if the damage is covered by the warranty, the company will: refund you the money, effect all necessary repairs, and ship the item to you free of charge. However, if the damage is deemed not covered by the warranty, the company will quote you a price for the repairs. Upon approval, the deposit will be applied for the repairs, but if not approved the deposit is applied to shipping the item back to you.

Extended Service Plans

This service is for common wear and tear issues, as well as other issues not covered by the complimentary manufacturing warranty. It’s a 3 year service plan where Brilliant Earth will provide complimentary inspection and cleaning of your new jewelry; and if there’s any damage needing repair, with the “extended service plan”, you’ll only have to pay discounted rates. 

Product Offering

Product Range

When it comes to buying jewelry online, you’ll want a one-stop jewelry retailer, where you can get everything you need. This saves you the time and effort of checking multiple store. Even for stores that seriously narrow their product offering to particular niche; you’ll want the store to provide a wide variety of items within that niche.

Brilliant Earth does well in this regards, as they offer a wide variety of products. Their product categories, and the items you’ll find in each category, are as follows:

• Engagement Rings

You can shop different engagement rings in Brilliant Earth. Like most jewelers, their biggest collection is the diamond engagement rings. To build your special ring; you can start by choosing a setting, and then you can select a diamond that you’ll mount on it. You may also start by choosing a diamond, and then you can select a setting that you’ll mount it on. Since, Brilliant Earth also offers lab created diamonds; you can also start building your engagement ring, by first picking a lab created diamond.

In this category, you can also shop Bridal Sets and custom engagement rings. The engagement rings are available in different styles that include Classic, Halo, Solitaire, Accents, Three Stone, and Vintage inspired

• Wedding Rings

You can shop men and women wedding rings, as well as anniversary rings. The women rings are available in different metals which include Platinum, White gold, Rose gold, and Yellow gold; the men’s rings are also available in all of those metals, including Palladium.

• Diamonds:

Natural Diamonds – The first group of products you’ll find in this category are the Natural Diamonds, which are the regular diamonds sourced from selected mine around the world. You’ll find natural diamonds in all the popular shapes: Round, Oval, Cushion, Princess, Pear, Emerald, Marquise, Asscher, Radiant, and Heart.

If you want fancy colored diamonds, Brilliant Earth also holds natural diamonds having a range of colors which includes yellow (orangy yellow, light yellow, greenish yellow, intense yellow), pink (faint pink, orangy pink),  etc.

Super Ideal Diamonds – If you want natural diamonds with excellent cut precision which would give the very best optical performance, Brilliant Earth has thousands of them in their “super ideal diamonds” section

Lab Created Diamonds – You can also shop from the eco-friendly lab-created diamonds section, for some exquisite stones.

Brilliant Earth also has these lab-created colored diamonds, so you can have these stones in different shades of yellow, pink, blue, and some other fancy colors.

• Gemstones:

Apart from the diamonds, Brilliant Earth also provides different gemstones such as Sapphire, Emerald, Ruby, Moissanite, Aquamarine, Morganite, and more

• Jewelry:

Brilliant Earth also offers the different types of jewelry – Rings, Earrings and Studs, Necklaces, and Bracelets. These products are available in natural diamond, lab diamond, and gemstones.

The above shows that Brilliant Earth is a brand that has the product; you can visit the store for your engagement and non-engagement jewelry.

Inventory Size

The ideal retail store will not stop at having a variety of products, but will also have a large inventory of each product. With a large inventory in each product section, your selection needs will be served; and when you have a large selection to choose from, you’ll be more likely to find something that matches your taste and preference.

This is one area where Brilliant Earth does not finish anywhere near the podium places. The company holds its own, but does not have the numbers that some other retailers in the industry can boast of.

For example, at the time of writing this review, Brilliant Earth had just over 60,000 loose natural diamonds. Of these, the Super Ideal collection had over 39,000 stones, while the colored diamonds were just 28. Also, in the lab-created diamonds section, there were just over 9,400 stones; and of these, 296 were fancy colored stones.

If you consider that the industry’s inventory leaders have around 200,000 loose diamonds, you’ll see that Brilliant Earth does not even have half the numbers of these leading (in terms of inventory size) jewelers. However, while Brilliant Earth has a relatively smaller inventory, their thousands of options will still be enough to satisfy many buyers.

Product Quality

The fine jewelry that Brilliant Earth promises is modified by “uniquely beautiful” and “ethically sourced”. Brilliant Earth aces the latter with their “beyond conflict free” philosophy, but what about the former? Does Brilliant Earth provide jewelry pieces that are uniquely beautiful, and most importantly timeless?

Brilliant Earth also does well in this regards. Their collection of Super Ideal Diamonds features cut precision that is on par with those of many jewelers in the industry. These and other diamonds in the store are handcraft by expert jeweler in the business, and these stones come with relevant grading reports, and ASET and Idealscope images.

It should be said that Brilliant Earth has some beautifully made settings, especially their vintage-inspired items. In fact, Brilliant Earth specializes in vintage-inspired designs; as such, their vintage pieces are some of the best settings you’ll find in the industry.

In terms of setting, Brilliant Earth does not offer stand-alone settings. Sometimes, customers have a stone already, or want a stone from another store, and will only be visiting a particular store for a setting. However, this is not possible with Brilliant Earth. The company does not provide stand-alone settings or semi-mounts. They explain that this is because their settings are made-to-order, where each one is handcrafted for a center stone with unique characteristics.

Price, Promotions, and Related Policies

Price

No matter how stunning a jewelry piece is, you won’t want to pay what you perceive as unreasonable for it. Thus, the ideal jewelry store should feature pieces that are reasonably priced.

The reasonableness of the prices of items listed in a store can be determined only by comparing them with prices in competing stores. When this is done, Brilliant Earth comes out as competitive, especially for their bigger stones. However, their smaller stones (especially those below 1 carat) tend to be higher in price than stones of the same specs in some of the leading diamond and jewelry stores.

Thus, if you’ll be getting small stones and want the best possible prices, Brilliant Earth might not be the ideal place. But if you want bigger stones, you’ll find that their prices are no different from those of the best-priced jewelers.

Also, one feature you’ll find in stores that focuses on competitive pricing (providing the best prices) is Price Matching. That is, the store will promise to match any lower price you find in another store, as long as the lower-priced stone (in the other store) has the same specs as the stone you’ll be getting in their store. However, Brilliant Earth does not price match

Promotions

Diamonds and related jewelry are high-end products that will require a significant investment. On the other hand, promotions are cost saving options that allow customers to get products for less than the listed price of the items. Thus, it’ll be good to have diamond and jewelry stores run a raft of promotions so that items can be made available at knocked down prices.

Brilliant Earth does not do well in this regard. During the research for this review, we didn’t find any price slashing coupon to apply; and it didn’t appear that Brilliant Earth ran any cost saving offer at any time.

The only thing like an offer that Brilliant Earth was offering at the time of writing is a complimentary Diamond Bezel bracelet for every purchase over $1,000.

Payment Methods

Paying for your orders should be convenient in the ideal online store; and this starts from having different payment options to choose from.

Brilliant Earth does somewhat okay in this regards. They support PayPal, Bank wire, ApplePay and the popular credit cards such as Visa, Master Card, American Express, and Discover Card. However, Bank Wire can be used for only orders over $500; and except the order is shipping to the US, the UK or Australia, a $35 processing fee is charged. Also, credit card payment is only available to customers shipping to the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Other international customers will have to make do with the other payment methods. This would be disappointing to a lot of customers because credit card payment is very popular owing to the convenience it offers.

Financing

If you’ll want a store where you can buy now and pay later; Brilliant Earth is one as they offer some financing plans.

There’s a 12 months no-interest plan via Wells Fargo Jewelry Advantage credit card. As long as the total payment is made within the 12 months promotional period, there’ll be no interest charges, and the total you’ll pay will be the item’s purchase price; but if the total payment is not completed within the 12 months period, you’ll be charged interest at the APR for purchases which is 28.99%. However, this financing plan is available to only US customers.

Another financing opportunity that Brilliant Earth offers is layaway payment, which allows you, after making an initial deposit, to make monthly payments on the purchase. The layaway plan is available to all orders, but you’ll have to contact customer care to request it.

Shipping

Online purchases will have to be shipped to the shipping address (the buyer’s door or another location selected by the buyer where he/ she will take possession of the package). Thus, shipping is an important consideration in online purchases. The most important shipping elements are: shipping destinations, shipping times, and shipping costs.

Shipping Destination

One of the first checks when considering using an online diamond and jewelry store is whether the retailer ships to your territory. This is important because the store serves your desired location, it’ll be difficult to receive delivery of the order.

In this regards, you’ll want a store that ships to many worldwide locations, so that your shipping location will more likely be served.

Brilliant Earth does very well in terms of shipping destinations. This is because the company ships merchandise all over the world.

Shipping Times

Not one diamond or jewelry shopper will want to wait forever to receive his/ her order. Therefore, the ideal online jewelry retailer should offer fast delivery. Since most items are made-to-order, production time are unique to each item. Shipping times are also determined by the location that the product will be travelling to. Thus, estimated delivery times are only displayed at checkout, when the order and the shipping address have been established.

However, Brilliant Earth promises fast production time and shipping to make sure that you’ll not have to wait for too long after placing an order to receive delivery of the items. For example, most shipping takes 2 – 5 business days; while shipping to very distant addresses may take just over two weeks. If you’ve checked reviews of other online diamond and jewelry retailers, you’ll find that the estimated delivery times of Brilliant Earth are relatively fast.

Shipping Costs

The total cost of acquiring anything online consists of the item purchase cost and its shipping costs. Thus, high shipping costs can add significantly to the total acquisition costs. As a result, the ideal online stores will offer shipping costs that are as low as possible.

Brilliant Earth does very well in this regards. The lowest possible shipping cost is zero (that is free shipping), and the company offers this. However, the free shipping offer applies only to orders shipping to the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. Shipping to every other country will attract a shipping charge of $50.

That said, limiting the free shipping offer to four countries (US, Canada, UK, and Australia) is a little disappointing because: (i) diamonds and other products in the store are high-end products and complimentary shipping is not too much to ask for (ii) many of the competition ships free of charge to every location that is served.

Returns

There are situations where you’ll not be totally satisfied with your order; and instead of holding on to the unwanted item, you’ll want to return it to the retailer. Thus, the return policy of stores is an important consideration when looking at online stores. Brilliant Earth allows returns; and what follows is a review of their return policy.

Items that can be returned

Brilliant Earth orders that can be returned include all rings, loose diamonds, and all loose gemstone orders. This exclude all personalized items such as; made-to-order or custom items, items that have been engraved or resized, and items that have been previously exchanged.

All items to be returned must be in their original unworn conditions, and must be accompanied by all original documentations. A $250 replacement fee will be charged per diamond certificate not included with the returned item.

Return Window

Returned items are only accepted if the items are received by the retailer within a specified time period. Thus, you’ll want an extended time period so that you’ll not be pressed with time, or run the risk of having your unwanted items rejected by the retailer because of the item(s) getting back to their fulfillment center late.

In this regards, Brilliant Earth offers a return 30 days return window. However, it should be said that the 30 days window does not open on the delivery date, but before. For in-store pick up items, the 30 days return window starts counting the day the item was available for pick up in the selected store; and for items moved to shipping addresses, it starts counting the day the item was made available to ship.

That said; the window is relatively shorter than that of most other retailers in the business. While many of these other retail stores equally offer a “30 days” return window, it only starts counting on the day the customer takes possession of the item.

That said; if you must return a Brilliant Earth order, you’ll have to act fast after receiving delivery of the item, because your return window will already be closing.

Resizing

One of the main reasons for returns of rings is not-fitting sizes; since rings are sized products, it’s quite easy to order something that is either too small or too big. Thankfully, Brilliant Earth accepts returns of rings for resizing.

Also, in the case of resizing, the return window is extended to 60 days (which also starts counting the day the item ships). Thus, you’ll have enough time to try out the ring, and determine that you really have to resize it.

As long the request and return of the original item is within the 60 days window; resizing is complimentary (that is, free of charge). Resizing of items received by Brilliant Earth will attract a resizing fee. Also personalized rings (custom, modified or engraved rings) are subject to resizing fees. While, Vintage rings have only one complimentary resizing. However, Eternity rings cannot be resized.

While, the complimentary resizing is a good offer, it only applies to orders shipped to the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. It’s disappointing that Brilliant Earth’s complimentary resizing offer does not apply to international shipping outside those four countries because: (i) sizing issues is a universal problem (ii) many other jewelry retailers offer resizing services to all orders

Cost of Returns

You won’t want to receive items you are not totally pleased with only to be put off returning them because of the high cost of returns. Thus, you’ll want costs of returns to be as low as possible.

Brilliant Earth does relatively okay in this regards. The lowest possible cost is zero; and Brilliant Earth offers that with free return shipping. You’ll not be charged to ship an item back to the store; and if you want a replacement item, the company will also ship you the replacement item free of charge. 

Even for the complimentary resizing, shipping is free both ways (that is, free inward shipping when returning the wrong-sized ring to the company, as well as free outward shipping when the company is sending you the new right-sized ring).

However, just like the complimentary resizing offer, the free return shipping offer only applies to orders moving to the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia.

Return Process

You don’t want to face a cumbersome return process when you have an unwanted item in your hands. The return process of Brilliant Earth is fairly easy. You’ll have to contact customer support to request a “Return Shipping Authorization Code” (RSAC) as well as a free return label (where applicable). After that, you’ll have to package your item appropriately, clearly write the RSAC on the outside of the return package, and then send the package to the recommended carrier or any other carrier of choice.

Return Processing and Refunds

If you return an item to a retailer for a refund, you’ll not want to wait forever before being refunded. Thus, you’ll want a store that processes returns and issues refunds quickly.

Brilliant Earth ticks the box in this regards. All returned items will pass through quality checks, but the processing is over in approximately seven business days from the date of receipt of the item. If you’ve checked other online jewelers, you’ll find that seven days is one of the fastest returns processing time in the industry.

After return processing, refunds are swiftly issued. All refunds are issued via the original payment method; but where the original purchase was by bank wire or any other supported payment method requiring special processing, refunds will be via checks. Also, it’s a good thing that refunds are as cash to the original payment method and not as store credits; that way, customers will not be forced to use the funds for future purchases in Brilliant Earth, but can choose to go to another store.

Customer Support Service

Customers will always have questions or complaints. Thus, the ideal online jeweler should provide for handling customers’ questions or complaints.

Brilliant Earth has an FAQ page in their website that answers most of the questions that you’ll have about the company, and their products and service. The self-help articles of the FAQ are categorized into: the mission of Brilliant Earth, their products, and placing an order. Their mission category covers such topics as Brilliant Earth’s “beyond conflict free” philosophy, and how Brilliant Earth differs from other jewelers who offer conflict free diamonds. Their products category answers different questions relating to the product offering of the company; while the order placement category answers questions relating to prices, financing, payment methods, other charges, and more.

If you’ll want direct contact with a customer support rep of the company, Brilliant Earth supports email, live chat, and telephone. For the email service, the email address to send you submissions is: support@brilliantearth.com. You’ll have some waiting to do to get a response, and this can take up to 24 hours. For instant feedback, you may use the telephone service or live chat; the telephone number to call is +1 800-691-0952, while the live chat can be accessed from their website.

The support service is available everyday of the week; however, it is not available 24/7. You can only reach the company within 6:00 am – 7:00 pm (PT) on weekdays, and within 7:00 am – 7:00 pm (PT) in the weekends.

Pros:

• Pioneers socially responsible diamond and jewelry industry
• Offers a variety of products that includes engagement rings, wedding rings, diamonds, gemstones and jewelry
• Offers a large selection of eco-friendly lab created diamonds
• Ships merchandise all over the world
• Offers relatively fast delivery
• Offers free shipping (albeit for US, Canadian, UK, and Australian orders)
• Allows returns of loose diamonds, gemstones, and jewelry if made within 30 days of shipment
• Offers free returns and free ring resizing (albeit for US, Canadian, UK, and Australian orders)
• Offers a “temporary settings” feature
• Offers a free lifetime diamond upgrade
• Offers a life time manufacturing warranty
• Refunds processing is relatively fast (seven business days)
• A variety of channels for reaching customer support service (live chat, email, and telephone)

Cons:

• Limited retail outlets/ showrooms; thus, not the best brand for in-store shopping
• Does not provide stand-alone settings; so you cannot buy a stone from another store to mount on a setting from Brilliant Earth
• Has a relatively small inventory of loose diamonds
• Prices (especially for stones under one carat) are a little on the high side
• There are no cost saving offers
• Does not price match unlike many other retailers in the industry
• Payment via credit cards are only available for US, Canadian, UK and Australian orders
• Customer support service is not available 24/ 7

Conclusion

Brilliant Earth is a legitimate diamond and jewellery retailer store with a strong focus on ethical sourcing and giving back. In fact, everything about the company smacks of this philosophy, from their initiatives to their eco-friendly diamonds (lab-created and recycled diamonds) right to their eco-friendly packaging (artfully made wooden boxes). Thus, the company will be appealing to all conscientious and socially responsible shoppers.

However, conscience is not at the expense of quality. Brilliant Earth provides some beautiful jewellery, their diamonds are beautiful and have the relevant quality gradings, their Super Ideal Diamonds will rival any in the industry, and you’ll find some of the best designs among their vintage-inspired settings.

When it comes to service, Brilliant Earth also holds their own: delivery is worldwide and relatively fast; free shipping is offered; free returns is offered with a 30 days window; they stand by their product with a lifetime quality warranty; they offer temporary settings that allow your partner to choose her setting while still keeping your proposal a secret; there are financing options.

It’s almost smooth sailing except for some small knacks, such as their stock being limited, their prices being relatively high (especially diamonds under 1 carats), etc. On the whole, there is little reason why you shouldn’t shop your diamonds and other jewellery in Brilliant Earth.

Can Studios is a Stockholm based fashion house which provides a collection of men’s and women’s ready to wear, footwear, accessories and denim. The brand advertises as “juxtaposing design and attention to detail, with an emphasis on tailoring and an eclectic use of materials and custom-developed fabrics”.

Acne Studios is a legit fashion store. We say it is not a scam because they will never steal your money or credit cards info. And also you will receive any other you make from the store.

But does Acne Studios offer quality materials?

This would mean that Acne Studios provides exquisite clothing styles and other fashion products that are well made and made from top quality materials. In other words: Acne Studios = top styles + top quality. The big question is whether this is all self-hype or whether Acne Studios really provide the product (that is, top styles + top quality). If they do provide “the product”, do they provide top service to boot? Do they provide top service (such as easy ordering and payment, fast delivery, easy returns, effective customer service, etc) that we’ll expect of the go-to fashion house? In the first place, is Acne Studios legit?

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

Acne Studios review at a glance

• The website is www.acnestudios.com
• A Stockholm based fashion retailer
• Is a luxury fashion house; thus prices are in the expensive range
• Ships merchandise to all locations within Sweden, and to 64 other international locations
• Free shipping is available in every location, and there are no minimum order requirements
• Returns are accepted if made within 14 days of the delivery date
• Customer support is available via email (customercare@acnestudios.com), live chat and telephone (calls: +46 10 888 73 05 and text messaging: +1 (855) 226-3289)

What is Acne Studios? – Background

Acne Studios is a luxury fashion house based in Stockholm. The fashion house was founded in 1996 by Jonny Johannson. Acne Studios is just a business arm of the Group ACNE (which is now Ambition to Create Novel Expressions). ACNE was formerly an acronym for Associated Computer Nerd Enterprises; thus, their initial (and still other) businesses include graphic designs, film, production, and advertising.

The fashion house was born when Jonny created 100 pairs of unique denim jeans with red stitching. The jeans became quite popular; other denim products followed; and before long, Acne Studios expanded their apparel offering outside of denim.

The year 2006 saw major changes in ACNE. First, an organizational restructuring caused Acne Studios to become a standalone entity, separate from the other ACNE entities (ACNE film, ACNE digital, ACNE advertising). Secondly, Acne Studios went digital with the launch of their e-commerce website (www.acnestudios.com).

The e-commerce website opened up Acne Studios to the global markets; and as popularity and demand for Acne Studio’s products grew in these markets, Acne followed it up by opening up retail stores in some of those places. Thus, Acne Studios currently operates retail stores in some of the major cities of the world such as Paris, Milan, London, Los Angeles, New York, Antwerp, Tokyo, Copenhagen, Munich, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and more.

The background of Jonny (Acne Studio’s founder) in art, photography, and film can be in the offerings of Acne Studio. Their products feature attention to detail both in the sourcing of material and the making of the product. Acne Studios is also a well-respected organizer of fashion exhibitions; as they stage fashion shows to showcase their Fall/ Winter and Spring/ Summer collections twice a year.

Is Acne Studios legit?

Whether an online platform is legit is one of the asked questions in the World Wide Web. Given that there are many online fraudsters ripping people off, buyers want to know if the online store they’ll be using for online purchases is legit or just another scamming store.

Determining a legit store is straight forward if you know what to look out for. One of the first checks of legitimacy is legality. That is, a legit online store will be 100% legal, with full company registrations and licenses. Acne Studios ticks the box in this regards. The company is part of the ACNE Group duly registered in Sweden as Acne Retail AB, with registration number 556642-9683. In the least, this means that Acne Studios is 100% legal.

Another pointer to the legitimacy of Acne Studio is their visibility. Acne Studio has been known to enter partnerships and stage events that bring the cameras. They have collaborated with distinguished names in the creative industries (such as artists, sculptors, manufacturers, publishers, etc) to produce limited collections and published works. Acne Studio regularly features in some of the world’s biggest fashion events such as the Paris Fashion Week. Suffice it to say that the scam stores distant themselves from any activity that will bring scrutiny.

Another test of legitimacy, when it comes to online stores, is fulfillment of orders. That is, while scam stores only collect the payment and disappear, legit stores will process the order placed in the platform, and will ship the merchandise to the customer. Acne ticks the box in this regards for several reasons. It should be understood that scam stores do not fulfill orders simply because they cannot; they are not set up to fulfill orders so they do not have the facilities or even the physical merchandise. However, Acne studios have several retail outlets around the world holding millions of physical merchandise. They also have a fulfillment center which processes online orders as well as the distribution mechanism; all of these shows that Acne Studios have the capacity to fulfill orders. Also, Acne studios being founded in 1996 and launching its e-commerce site in 2006 means that the house has been operating for about 23 years and fulfilling online orders for over 13 years. Suffice it to say that scam stores that do not fulfill orders cannot continue operation for that long.

Lastly, legit stores will not only fulfill orders but will “fulfill orders with functional products”. This is a no-brainer because it will make no sense, and the retailer could as well be scam, if the items it delivers are not fit for purpose. Acne Studios ticks this last box. The fashion house is a luxury store, and its offerings have the quality of a luxury destination. Real customers’ online reviews also show that orders from Acne Studios are largely fit for purpose.

Thus, that Acne Studios is 100% legal, identifies with some of the reputable names in the creative industries, and has a rich history of fulfilling orders with functional products, removes every doubt of the legitimacy of the fashion house.

Is Acne Studios safe?

Acne Studios is a safe fashion store. A safe fashion house is one that will protect the sensitive information that customers’ share with it. If such customers’ information (such as personal data and credit card details) is allowed to leak out to third parties, customers will be exposed to cyber fraudsters; thus, it’s a no-brainer that only safe stores should be used for online purchases.

In this regards, Acne Studios says that “your personal online security is important to [them]”. To back up the statement, they employ the use of SSL (Secure Socket Layers) technology. SSL is the industry standard in creating a private connection for the transference of data between two devices communicating over the internet.  With SSL technology, data transmitted between your device and the servers of Acne Studios are shielded from third parties. The technology also uses high level encryption, which ensures that even if captured, the data cannot be read.

With the use of such technical measure, as well as other administrative and physical measures, it is safe to say that Acne Studios is a safe fashion house.

Products

Product Range

A wide product range is an important element of an online store, so that the store can be a one-stop store for related fashion needs. More than affording convenient, a store with a wide variety of fashion products also offer cost savings. When you buy your different fashion products in one place, the cost savings come from large order discounts, or one order shipping instead of paying differently to ship multiple orders from multiple stores.

Acne Studios separates the different products they offer into four categories – woman, man, Bla Konst,

Woman

The women category is Acne Studio’s collection of women products. There is a section (New) where you can shop new arrivals, and another (collections) section where you can find selected Fall/ Winter and Spring/ Summer collections. The other sections in the category (and the items in each section) are:

• Ready to Wear – Outer wear, Knitwear, Sweatshirts, Blouses, T- Shirts, Suit Jackets, Dresses, Jeans, Trousers, Shorts, Skirts, Swimwear, and Children (Girls’ wears)
• Accessories – Shoes (Sneakers, Sandals, Slides, Boots, Mules), Scarves, Bags, Small Leather Goods (such as Mini bags, Shoulder Purses, Coin Purses), Hats, Eye wear, Jewellery, Others (which includes Tights, Socks, Belts, Key Rings, Keychains, Pouches, Pillow cases), and Gift cards

Man

This is the collection of men’s products. The category also has the “New” and “Collections” sections, as well as the “ready to wear” and Accessories sections. Some products in the sections include:

• Ready to wear – Outer wear, Sweatshirts, Knitwear, T – Shirts, Shirts, Suit Jackets, Jeans, Trousers, Shorts, Swim wear, and Children (boys’ wear)
• Accessories – Shoes (Sneakers), Scarves, Hats, Bags, Small Leather Goods (Coin Purses), Eye wear, Other (Key rings, Key chains, Belts, Pouches, Pillowcases), and Gift cards

Bla Konst Denim

This is the denim collection of Acne Studios. Bla Konst means “Blue Art” in Swedish. In the section, you can shop men and women denim collection, which consist of ready-to-wears, jeans and accessories

• The ready to wears include Outerwear, Tops, Dresses, and Bottoms (skirts, Jeans, Overalls, and Shorts.
• The Jeans include different styles such as Classic Fit, Straight Fit, Slim Tapered Fit, Skinny Fit, and more
• The accessories include tote bags, Fringed Scarves, Bucket Caps, Canvas Sneakers, Denim Belt

Face Collections

This is the category where you can shop eyewear, hats etc.

Inventory Size

You want to find a sizeable inventory in each product section, so that you can choose from a large selection no matter the item you are shopping. With a large selection of each product, you are more likely to find something that matches your taste and budget.

In this regards, Acne Studios can improve on the numbers of items in some product sections. For example, at the time of writing, in the woman category, the Blouses section had only 34 items, the Dresses section had only 30 items, and the Trousers section had 56 items. In the man category, there were about 87 items in the outerwear section, the suit Jacket section had only 8 items, and the Trousers section had about 50 items

Product Quality

You’ll want the ideal fashion house to offer high quality items. Acne Studio ticks the box in this regards. They promise detailed designs with an emphasis on tailoring and custom-developed fabrics; and they deliver on the promise. As a luxury store, their products tick the boxes of quality such as good tailoring, good materials, and durability.

Also, Acne Studio stands behind their products with a 12 months Quality Guarantee. That is, if an Acne Studios product is deemed to have any manufacturing fault within 12 months of its delivery, the company will assume responsibility, and process a replacement or a refund. With this quality guarantee, you are confident that items purchased from the store will not fall apart or fade only after a few use or washes, as that will constitute a manufacturing fault and be grounds for the return of the item.

It should also be said that no many fashion houses stand behind their products with such Quality Guarantee.

Prices, Promotions, and Related Policies

Price

You’ll want the ideal fashion house to feature prices that are low and affordable. In this regards, Acne Studios is described as a luxury shop. They live up to that tag by featuring prices that are relatively high.

For example, at the time of writing this review, in the women category, blouses were priced at $230 – $1150, Dresses were priced at $240 – $1900, Trousers were priced at $300 – $1550, and so on. The men’s category was no different; the Outerwears were priced at $310 – $1800, the Suit Jackets were priced at $550 – $750, and the Trousers were priced at $240 – $1150.

To put these prices in perspective, stores that are considered low and affordable feature a lot of prices in two figures, while it is the stores generally regarded as expensive that feature prices in the high hundreds and in four figures. With the prices of Acne Studios matching the latter, it’s safe to say that Acne Studios is an expensive fashion house.

Promotions

Promotions are cost saving opportunities as they allow customers to get items for free or for less than the items’ full prices. Thus, most customers want the stores that feature a lot of promotional offers.

Fashion houses that are generous with promotions have a lot of price slashing offers in the landing page of their website. Thus, the absence of such price slashing promotional offers was revealing that Acne Studios do not run a lot of promotions. We didn’t find any price slashing coupons in the website, or such offers as student discounts. We didn’t even find the regular sales page, where discounted items can be found. However, our digging revealed that Acne Studios offers some promotions once in a while.

That said; if you’ll be shopping in Acne Studios, you should be ready to part with the bills; and if spending top money will not be a problem, you also shouldn’t be disappointed not to find any cost saving opportunities.

Payment Options

Making payment for your order should be easy and hassle free. Thus, you’ll want a store that supports a wide range of payment options so that you can easily find one to conveniently use for paying for your orders.

Acne Studios does well in this regards by supporting a range of region specific and global payment options. For example, in many locations, you’ll find that you can pay for your Acne Studios’ orders using PayPal and the popular credit cards such as Visa, Master card, and American Express. In other locations, you’ll find that in addition to these options, others are supported, which includes AliPay and cards such as Diners Club, Discover card, Visa Electron, JCB, etc.

With some of the global payment options supported by Acne Studios, paying for your orders in the platform shouldn’t be an issue.

Financing

If you will like to purchase a fashion item now and pay later, Acne Studios is one of the places that you should be visiting. Via Klarna, Acne Studios have a couple of financing plans as follows:

• Pay Later in 4 installments – You’ll have to complete the total cost of the merchandise in four equal installment, with the first installment paid at the time of placing the order. The remaining three installments are automatically collected from your selected card every two weeks. Interestingly, there are no surprise costs; not even interest charges. It is interest free; and the total amount you’ll pay will be the cost of the item only.
• Pay Later in 30 days – Where you can pay for the items for up to 30 days after receiving delivery of it

Shipping

Online purchases will not be possible without shipping services because the order has to be moved to the place where the buyer will take possession of the item(s). Thus, while looking at online stores, shipping is an important consideration. The most important shipping considerations are: shipping destination, shipping times, and shipping costs.

Shipping Destinations:

One of the first checks should be whether an online store ships merchandise to your territory (where you’ll want to receive the package). This is because if the store does not serve your location, receiving delivery of the package will not be as straight forward. In this regards, you’ll want the ideal store to ship to many worldwide locations so that your territory will more likely be covered.

Acne Studios does okay in this regards. Being a Swedish Company; the fashion house ships merchandise to all locations within Sweden. In addition, they also ship to 64 other international locations. These countries are: Aland Islands, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Hong Kong (China), Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau (China), Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan Region, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.

If you’ve seen reviews of other fashion houses, you’ll find that many of the world-facing houses ship merchandise to over 100 countries. Thus, the worldwide coverage (64 international locations) of Acne Studios can be improved upon.

Shipping Times and Shipping Costs

Except you are that very special customer who will not mind waiting forever to receive delivering of the ordered item, you’ll want to consider how long it’ll take the store to deliver the package after an order is placed. In this regards, the ideal online fashion store will be one that offers fast delivery. Also, shipping cost adds to the total cost of acquiring an item, so for an item not to become too expensive you’ll want shipping cost to be as low as possible.

The delivery times and delivery costs of Acne Studio are dependent on the country that the package will be shipping to. First, delivery times consist of order processing times and package shipping time. For fast delivery, the two elements have to be fulfilled. The store has to quickly process and dispatch the order to the carrier; and the carrier has to quickly move the package from the store’s fulfillment center to the shipping address.

Acne Studios process orders quickly. Most of their orders are processed in 1 – 3 business days. Being that Acne Studios is based in Sweden, there are a couple of delivery options available for Swedish orders.

First, there is the in-store delivery; you can choose to have your order shipped to select Acne Studios stores within Sweden, after which you’ll go there to collect it. The order gets delivered to the store within 1 – 3 business days; and all in-store pick up are free. There is the Bumbee delivery service which delivers “Same Day” orders within Stockholm, and delivers “Next day” orders to Malmo and Gothenburg. These are expedited delivery services; so as long as the orders are submitted before 11:00 am on the day of placement, you’ll receive delivery to your door on the same day (if within Stockholm) or the day following order placement (if in Malmo or Gothenburg). Interestingly, the Bumbee delivery service is free. Another delivery option is PostNord MyPack; it delivers orders to all locations within Sweden. Delivery takes 1 – 3 business days; and it is also free of charge. Lastly, for delivery within Sweden, there is the PostNord Foretagspaket. It’s an express service that delivers within 1 – 2 business days; and it cost 80 SEK.

For international orders, there is only one delivery option for US orders; it takes 2 – 3 business days after dispatch, and is free of charge. However, delivery to destinations in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and other rural destinations may take up to 5 – 7 business days after dispatch. It should also be said that Acne Studios do not deliver to US P. O. Boxes and military addresses (APO/ FPO addresses). Collect in Store services is also available in selected Acne Studios US stores. Such pick-up items are usually ready for pickup within the regular US delivery times. You’ll receive a notification email when the items are ready for pick-up; and upon receipt of the notification email, you’ll have 14 days to visit the Acne Studios store and collect the items.

There are two delivery options for orders shipping to most European locations – UPS Standard and UPS Express Saver. Standard orders takes 3 – 4 business days after dispatch and are free; while Express Saver orders takes 2 – 3 business days after dispatch and cost €20. However, UK orders are free; and are delivered within 2 – 3 business days after dispatch.

Most of the orders travelling to Asia are delivered within 1 – 3 business days after dispatch, and are free. Orders to Africa (South Africa) also have the Standard UPS option and the Express Saver option. The Standard orders takes 6 – 10 business days after dispatch and is free; while the Express Saver option takes 4 – 6 business days after dispatch, and cost €40.

Acne Studios ships DDP (Delivery Duty Paid) to some countries. DDP shipping applies to all countries within the EU, Switzerland, Norway, the US, South Korea, China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia. This means that customers in these countries receiving their orders will not have to pay any duties. However, for other international countries, items are shipped DDU (Delivery Duties Unpaid); which means that there will be additional payments upon receipt of the order, which will be determined by the local customs.

A critical look at the above shows that Acne Studios scores highly in terms of shipping times and costs. For most locations, Acne Studios have some of the best (fastest) shipping times you’ll find amongst online fashion retailers. Their shipping costs also makes for good reading. Free shipping is an attraction at any time, and Acne Studios offers free shipping in every location that they ship to. What is more, there are no minimum order requirements. If you’ve seen reviews of other online fashion retailing stores, you’ll find that almost every other store in the business that offer free shipping will require customers to spend up to a particular amount in order to get free shipping. That is, free shipping offers appear thus: free shipping for orders over $xx.xx. However, Acne Studio will ship your order free of charge no matter the amount of the order.

However, it should be said that free shipping is for standard shipping options which is usually slower than the Express options (where available). Thus, where you choose to save time, and not ship your Acne Studio order for free, you’ll be faced with some of the highest shipping rates in the business. For example, dumping the Standard option for the Express option to European locations (where it is available) will save you only about 1 – 2 business days; but it comes at a cost of €20, which is one of the highest you’ll find for shipping within Europe.

Returns

The return policy of an online fashion store is also an important consideration when it comes to making online purchases. This is because, you may not be totally satisfied with the item that is delivered to you, and you’ll rather return it back to the retailer for a refund or replacement, instead of being stuck with an unwanted item. What follows is a consideration of the return policy of Acne Studios.

Return Process

If you must return an order back to its retailer, you won’t want to meet a cumbersome return process. Thus, the ideal store should offer an easy return process. Acne Studios does somewhat okay in this regards.

For some countries, in-store returns are allowed, where you can return items purchased online to Acne Studio stores. Such in-store returns are usually convenient; but not many online fashion stores allow in-store returns of online orders. Thus, this is a plus for Acne Studios.

You can also return online purchases by mail by packaging the item and mailing it back to Acne Studios. However, before proceeding with mailing back the item, you’ll have to visit www.acnestudios.com and complete a return request. It entails selecting the items you’ll want to return, indicating a resolution (whether you want a refund or an exchange), and giving the reasons for the return. After completing the return request, you’ll have to place the pre-paid return label on the box (over the prior delivery information) and send the box to the shipping carrier.

This is not the easiest return process there is because of having to visit the website to make a return request or having to explain yourself (stating the reasons for the return). A no-questions-asked process, where one can simply package the return item, attach a return label, and mail back the package without even having to contact the retailer, will be best. However, the Acne Studio’s process is relatively easy.

While it is advised that customers use the return process of Acne Studios by making use of the return label; you may choose to use any secure transport of choice. In that case, the return shipping address to send the package is:

Acne Studios Online Returns

C/o Bergen Logistics

5903 West Side Avenue

North Bergen, NJ 07047

Return Window

Items that are returned to a retailer can only be accepted if the items are received by the retailer within an allowed time period. Thus, you’ll want an extended period of time so that there’ll be no time pressures, and fears of returns getting to the store late.

In this regards, Acne Studios allow 14 days from the delivery date. That is, returns that are received by the store within 14 days of your receiving the package will be accepted.

If you’ve checked reviews of other online fashion stores, you’ll find that the “14 days from delivery date” offer of Acne Studio is relatively short. The industry average return window is 30 days from delivery date. That said; if you must return an Acne Studios’ order, you’ll have to act quickly after receiving the order, in order to reduce the risk of your order getting to their warehouse late.

Items that can be returned

Items that will be accepted by Acne Studios must be in the exact conditions they were when you received them. That is, they must not show signs of use, wash, or alteration. All tags and seals must also be attached. Also, all products that are delivered in their own box must be returned in the original undamaged box; and where items are received with dust bags, they must be returned with the dust bags.

Interestingly, Acne Studios says that they have the same policy for Sales items as they do with their regular items. This will mean that the sales items can be returned to Acne Studios, and with the same 14 days return window. If you’ve checked reviews of other online fashion stores, you’ll find that in many fashion houses, sales items cannot be returned. Owing to the slashed prices of sales items, customers will mostly be picking up these items, and it will be disappointing that they will be unable to make return. Thus, it’s a big plus that Acne Studios allows returns of even sales items.  

Product Exchanges

Most times, customers return an item in order to get another in its place. Fashion houses that offer product exchanges are attractive because it quickens the process of getting a new item after the unwanted one is returned. This is because, the replacement item is shipped to the customer immediately the returned item is received and processed, eliminating the time of waiting to get a refund before placing an order for the new item.

Thankfully, Acne Studios allow such product exchanges. When returning the merchandise (following the normal return process), you’ll have to indicate that you want a product exchange and not a refund.  The replacement item is shipped free of charge irrespective of whether the shipment of the original item was free or paid for. However, the exchange policy of Acne tightens up after that. Only size exchanges are allowed by Acne Studios. That is, when you return an item online for an exchange, the replacement item you will request must be of the same style and color with the item you are returning; the only difference in the two items must be size. This is somewhat restrictive. Granted, not too many fashion houses in the market allow style exchanges, but there are quite many that allow color exchanges.

However, you may exchange online orders in-store (Acne Studios stores) within the US. That is, you can return items bought from acnestudios.com to Acne studio stores within the US. For such returns, size and color exchanges are permitted.

Cost of Returns

You don’t want to be put off returning an unwanted item because of the cost of doing so. Therefore, the ideal fashion house should feature return cost that are as low as possible. The lowest possible cost is zero (free return shipping). Thankfully, Acne Studios offers free returns.

Refund Processing

It’s also important to consider how and when refunds are received after returning an item to a retailer. In terms of “how”, Acne Studios issues refunds to the original payment method. This is a very good one, as it means you can use the funds for future purchases in another store. We’ve seen stores employing the not-so-popular policy of issuing only store credits which ties the customer to using the funds for future purchases in the particular store.

In terms of “when” refunds are issued, Acne Studios does relatively well. If the return process is followed, and a written return request is submitted to Acne Studios before proceeding to make the returns, the company will issue the refunds at most 14 days of receiving the returned items. However, if no written notice is received by Acne Studios, refunds will be issued within 30 days of receiving the items. That said; that refunds from Acne Studios can be gotten within 14 days means the fashion house has one of the shortest refund processing time in the industry.

Customer Support Service

You’ll want a fashion house that is responsive to customers’ questions and complaints. In this regards, Acne Studios does relatively well. They provide an FAQ page for self-help, which is very detailed. You’ll find answers to a lot of questions on such subjects as: Ordering, Shipping and Delivery, Payment, Pre-orders, Returns and Exchanges, Customer Service, Size and Fit, etc.

For direct contact with a customer support representative, Acne Studios support the trifecta – Email, Live Chat, and Telephone. For the email service, you can direct all enquiries to the email address: customercare@acnestudios.com.

As it is with emails, feedback is not instant; you’ll have to wait for a couple of hours (within 24 hours) for the company to get back to you with the needed assistance. However, if you’ll rather get instant feedback, you may use the live chat or the telephone service. The live chat can be accessed from the website of Acne Studios. For the telephone service, you can either call in or send a text message; the numbers for call support is: +46 10 888 73 05, while that for text support is: +1 (855) 226-3289.

However, the customer support service is not available round the clock. You can reach a support rep of the company only between 6:00 am – 8:00 pm (EST) Mondays to Fridays, and between 6:00 am – 5:00 pm (EST), Saturdays and Sundays. We’ll prefer that a world-facing platform offer a 24/7 support service, so that there will be no problem of persons from a contrasting time zone calling in (at their up time) to find the support service in its downtime.

Summary

Acne Studios is a luxury fashion house based in Stockholm. By striving to provide quality items that feature excellent tailoring and excellent materials, Acne Studios stands out as a go-to fashion destination for those who know their fashion. The fashion house provides a wide range of clothing, accessories, and denim for men and women. If you’re in the market for exquisite quality styles, there’re reasons to visit Acne Studios. They even stand behind their products with a one year quality guarantee. They also offer excellent service that include: easy ordering and payment, free shipping, fast delivery, easy and free returns, and a responsive customer support service.

However, Acne Studios is a luxury shop so you should be ready to part with top dollar, as items are expensively priced and there are little to no cost saving promotional offers. And if you must return any item to the company, you’ll have to act fast in order to beat their relatively short “14 days from delivery date” return window, so that the item(s) will not get to them late and be rejected.

Pros:

• They provide a wide variety of fashion products for both men and women
• Items in Acne Studios are of very high quality, and backed by a 12 months Quality Guarantee
• A wide range of payment options are supported
• Offers fast delivery, with some of the fastest shipping times in the industry
• Free shipping is available to every location that merchandise are shipped to
• There are no minimum order requirement for the free shipping offer
• Offers free returns
• Product exchanges are allowed
• A wide range of channels are supported for contacting customer support service (which includes email, live chat, telephone – calls and text messaging)

Cons:

• The size of their inventory is relatively small in most product sections
• Ships to only 64 international locations
• Prices are in the expensive range
• There are no huge cost saving promotional offers
• Product exchanges are limited to size exchanges; an exchanges for different color or style are not allowed
• Their “14 days from delivery date” return window is relatively short
• The support service is not available 24/ 7

Bench.ca is the Canadian site of the fashion retailing company Bench. They advertise as a brand that presents “a carefully selected range of multipurpose functional clothing suited to the need of 24 hour life”.

This makes Bench.ca sound like the go-to place to get your everyday fashion products. But the big question is whether this is just a marketing blurb or whether Bench.ca really offers multipurpose functional clothing. If the store does have the product, what about the service? Does the store offer the service we’ll expect of a go-to fashion destination (such as fast delivery, easy and cost effective returns, effective customer service etc)? In the first place, is Bench.ca legit?

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

Bench.ca review at a glance

• www.bench.ca is the Canadian website of the fashion brand Bench
• Bench.ca is operated by Freemark Apparel Brands (FAB) Inc
• Provides clothing and accessories for women, men and children, with a focus on street inspired styles and activewears
• Ships merchandise to only locations within Canada
• Free standard shipping is offered for orders above $99
• Returns of unwanted items are accepted if made within 30 days from purchase date (for full price items) or within 14 days of purchase date (for sales items)
• Customer support service is available via post, email (info@bench.ca), and telephone (1-866-240-2808)

What is Bench.ca? – Background

Bench.ca is the Canadian website of the British clothing brand Bench. The brand was founded in 1989, and at the time focused on the t-shirt niche. Over the years Bench quickly evolved into a serious clothing brand, and began to source, design and sell cool active-inspired and street-inspired products for women, men, and kids.

The Montreal based distributor Freemark Apparel Brand (FAB) Inc. brought Bench into Canada, and Bench.ca was born. The website exclusively serves Canadian customers; thus, all prices displayed in the website (and used in this review) are Canadian dollars. If you’ll want to buy from Bench but not resident in Canada, you’ll have to visit the appropriate Bench website. For example: www.benchusa.com for customers from the US, and www.bench.co.uk for customers in the UK.

Bench.ca can be used by persons who are 13 years of age and above. To buy from the site, you’ll have to create an account, which is an easy process that entails simply providing your details in the required fields.

Is Bench.ca legit and Safe?

Yes, Bench.ca is legit and also a safe platform to make purchases online. Your ordered product will be shipped to your destination without a problem. And your credit card details are safe because they use highly secured technoloy and SSL. In addition, there have never been a complaint about Bench stealing customers money or charging their credit cards without the customers consent.

Products

Product Range

The ideal fashion store will hold a variety of fashion products so that you can shop all your fashion needs in one place. First, it saves you the headache of checking and dealing with multiple stores. Secondly, it comes with cost savings; as you may get large order discounts, and you’ll also be able to pay to ship all purchased items as one order instead of paying different shipping charges to ship different items from multiple stores.

Bench.ca does relatively well in this regards. They provide clothing and accessories for men, women and kids. However, they focus on activewears and streetwear; and they provide a variety of apparel types in this niche. The product categories, and the different items you’ll find in each category, are as follows:

Women

• Clothing – Jackets and Coats, Sweats, Knitwear, Tees and Tank Tops, Dresses and Skirts, Leggings and Bottoms, Tops, Denim
• Accessories – Bags and Wallets (Backpacks, Laptop Bags, Pouches, and Shoulder Bag), Hats, Scarves and Gloves, Socks and Underwear, Other accessories

Men

• Clothing – Tees and Tank Tops, Jackets and Coats, Sweats, Knitwear, Bottoms, Tops, Tees
• Accessories – Bags and Wallets, Hats, Scarves and Gloves, Socks and Underwear

Kids

• Girls – Bottoms (leggings, Skirts, Shorts, Pants), Tops (Sweats, Tees, Vest), Dresses, Hoodies, Jackets, and Hats (Beanies)
• Boys – Tops (T- Shirts, Sweats, Knitwear), Hoodies, Jackets, Windbreaker, Joggers, and Hats (Base Ball Caps)

Another product section you’ll find in the men and women category is “Collections”, where you can shop activewears, as well as new arrivals and sales items. That said; if you want street inspired styles and functional 24 hour casual wears, Bench.ca is a strong contender. However, you’ll find Bench.ca lacking if you want a range of formal wears. You’ll also have to visit another store for your beauty products.

Inventory Size

While a variety of products is important, it’ll mean nothing if what is available is only one of the different product types. Thus, the ideal store should hold a sizeable inventory of the different product types they provide. That way, you’ll have a selection to choose from when shopping; and you’ll be more likely to find pieces that you like.

However, Bench.ca does not particularly do well in this regards.  At the time of writing this review, we found the number of items in each product section to be relatively very low. For example, in the women category: the Dresses and Skirt section had only 2 items; the Leggings and Bottoms section had only 13 items; the sweatshirts section had 30 items; and even the Tees and Tank Tops section had only 31 items. The men’s category was no different. Men’s activewear collections had only 2 items; the Coats and Jackets section had only 36 items; while the sweats section had 47 items. In the kids’ category, the entire collection in the girls section consisted of only 42 items; while the entire collection in the boys section was even worse off with only 27 items.

In the fashion retailing business, it is easy to find shops with hundreds or even thousands of different items in particular product sections. That said; the stock of Bench.ca (which is less than 50 in every product section) comes out as small. The consequence is that when shopping in Bench.ca it is very likely that you’ll not find items that you like. For example, none of the two dresses featured might appeal to you.

Prices, Promotions and Related Policies

Prices

The majority of customers will want fashion stores that feature prices that are reasonable. In this regard, we’ll look at the prices in Bench.ca and also how it compares with prices in competing stores.

When that is done, Bench.ca does not come out as a destination for low price merchandise. However, while the store’s prices are a little on the high side, it is not by any means an expensive high price store. 

For example, at the time of writing this review, women’s leggings cost $49 – $129 at full price, but knocked down by promo coupons to $27.99 – $66.75. The dresses listed cost $89.99 – $119 at full price, but knocked down by coupons to $48.99 – $62.99. Women’s sweats cost $79 – $129 at full price; and even Tees and Tank Tops were listed at $35 – $55 at full price, and only brought down to $21.75 – $41.25 by the coupons. The men’s category was similarly priced. Jackets and Coats went for $99 – $229 at full price and discounted to $69.99 – $149.25; while Sweats went for $69 – $129 at full price, and discounted to $45.49 – $89.25.

To put this in perspective, the stores generally regarded as low and affordable will feature a lot of prices below $50, and the expensive stores will have items well above $100, and even in four figures. Thus, Bench.ca falls somewhere in the middle; that is, it is a little overpriced, but still somewhat affordable.

Promotions

Customers are attracted to promotions as ants are to sugar. In fact, promotions are actually the sugar that sweetens any deal; as they allow customers to obtain listed item for less than the full price. Thus, the ideal online fashion store should offer a lot of promotional offers.

Bench.ca does very well in this regard. Like every store that is generous with promotions, you’ll be greeted with different promotional offers as you get to the landing page of their website. One of the first we found was a “wheel of fortune” styled offer. You’ll have to enter your e-mail address and click “spin”; then watch what perk on the wheel the pointer will indicate that you’ll be rewarded with. The wheel had sections with perks such as: Free spinning, $25 off (orders $100), 15% off, Gift with Purchase ($59).

Also, as we went through the website, there were various pop-ups, all with a time-specific 10% off promise. There were also different promotional coupons that significantly slashed prices; some bringing down prices by as much as 52%.

Ordering and Payment

The ideal online fashion store should offer a smooth ordering process. This starts with a functional and intuitive website. The Bench.ca website ticks the box in this regards. Navigating through the site to select an item from the product sections is fairly easy. Alternatively, if you have a particular product in mind, using the search button will bring out products close to your search. Selecting a particular item will take you to the item’s details page; and you can proceed to “Add to Shopping Cart”.  You can click on the cart icon at any time to view your cart, and proceed to checkout.

Interestingly, after an order is placed, Bench.ca is able to effect any desired change or modification if the store is contacted within the same business day. This is a good one considering that sometimes, customers want to modify an order immediately after its placement; and many fashion stores in the market do not allow order changing or modifying an order after it is placed.

When it comes to paying for the item, you’ll want that the store support a wide range of payment options so that finding one to use will not be difficult. In this regards, Bench.ca does not tear down the roof with options, but they do support the popular payment options. You can pay for your Bench.ca orders using Visa, Master Card, PayPal and Visa Debit. With these options, making payment should not be an issue.

Shipping

After placing an order in Bench.ca, the item will be shipped to the location where you’ll take possession of it. Thus, shipping is an important consideration when considering online purchases. The most important shipping considerations are: shipping destinations, shipping times, and shipping costs.

Shipping Destinations

Except a store ships merchandise to your territory, receiving delivery of your orders will be difficult. Thus, one of the first things to check in a store you’re considering is the locations that the store ships to. In this regards, we’ll want a store that ships to many worldwide locations, so that customers from different locations can use it for their purchases.

The American company Bench actually ships merchandise to worldwide locations. However, because Bench.ca is the Canadian website of the fashion company, every item purchased from the Bench.ca store will ship to only locations within Canada.

Shipping Times

You don’t want an online store that will take forever to deliver your orders. Thus, the ideal online fashion store will offer quick delivery. Delivery times consist of order processing time, and package shipping times; and stores with fast delivery will deliver on both counts.

In this regard, Bench.ca offers two different delivery options – Standard delivery and Express delivery. Order processing takes 1 – 3 business days for Standard orders, but it takes 1 business day for Express orders. After the orders are processed, they are dispatched, and shipment times starts counting. Standard orders ships within 3 – 6 business days, while Express orders ships within 1 – 3 business days.

Bench.ca also offers in-store pick up. With this offer, you can choose that your order be delivered to a Bench retail outlet close to you, and you can go there to pick up the package. Shipment to Bench store takes 4 – 9 business days.

A look at the delivery times of Bench.ca shows that the company will not be winning the delivery sprints. For example, you should expect delivery of Bench.ca standard orders in 4 – 9 business days (adding order processing and shipment times). If you’ve seen reviews of other fashion stores, you’ll find that there are stores that deliver standard orders in less time. It also does not help that Bench.ca does not have expedited delivery options such as Same Day delivery or Next Day delivery.

Shipping Costs

The cost of acquiring anything online is more than just the purchase price. This is because the total spend on any item consists of the cost of the item and the cost of moving it to the shipping address. Thus, high shipping costs can easily make the item expensive to acquire. As a result, the ideal online fashion store will feature shipping costs that are as low as possible.

Bench.ca does relatively well in this regard. Their Standard delivery cost $9.95, while their Express delivery cost $24.90. You’ll find that the shipping cost of Bench.ca is a little on the high side (relatively). However, it’s good that flat rates are offered, so what you pay for shipping will not increase with an increase in your order size or weight. Also, the lowest possible shipping cost that customers can get is zero, which is free shipping. Thankfully, Bench.ca also offers free shipping.

The first free shipping offer is the “Ship to Bench Store” service. If you’ll be picking up your online order from a Bench store, Bench.ca will ship the order to the store free of charge.

The second free shipping offer will move your order to your door free of charge. However, the delivery option will be Standard delivery, and it comes with minimum order requirement. To get free Standard delivery, your Bench.ca order must be over $99. It’s typical of fashion retailers to attach minimum order requirements to free shipping offers. However, while the $99+ qualifying mark of Bench.ca is relatively fine, you’ll find stores that will ship free for $50+ orders.

Returns

It’s possible that after receiving delivery of your order, you’ll find that the item delivered is not what you ordered, or is defective. It’s also possible to have ordered the wrong size, and the item happens not to fit. And it’s possible not to like how the item looks in real life. In all cases, you’ll have in your possession an item that you’ll rather return to the retailer.

Thus, the ideal online store should allow customers to return (back to the store) items that they are not totally satisfied with. Like any serious online fashion store, Bench.ca allows returns. What follows is a review of their return policy.

Return Process

You won’t want to have unwanted items in your hand and be deterred from returning them to the retailer because of a cumbersome return process. Thus, the ideal store should feature an easy return process.

The return process of Bench.ca is fairly easy. First, you’ll have to process a return authorization by simply sending Bench.ca an email (via info@bench.ca). In the mail, you’ll state your intention to return the item(s), as well as the reason for returning the particular item(s). If the company approves the return, they will respond by issuing you a Return Authorization Number (RAN). You’ll then proceed to package the items appropriately, write the RAN on the original invoice you received, and include it in the return package. The last step is to simply mail the return package to the return address, which is:

Bench Web Returns,

1035 Hodge

Ville St-Laurent, QC, Canada

H4N 2B4

It should be said that though Bench.ca operate a lot of retail stores, they do not allow the return of online purchases to store. In Bench.ca; online purchases must be returned online, while only in-store purchases can be returned to store. In-store returns are more convenient than online returns, and there are fashion stores that allow in-store returns for online purchases; thus, this policy of Bench.ca was disappointing.

Items that can be returned

Returned items are almost definitely put back for sale. Thus, only items that are in their original condition will be accepted by Bench.ca. Thus, the returned items must be unused, unwashed, or unaltered. Returned items must also have all their original tags and labels in place; and as much as possible, items should be returned in their original packaging. As far as fashion stores go, there is nothing out of the ordinary about all of this.

Bench.ca does not accept returns of underwear and swimwear. For health and hygiene reasons, it’s understandable that returns cannot be processed for these items. However, it should be said that, while Bench.ca puts a blanket no-no on the return of these items, there are many stores in the market who accept returns of these items if the hygiene seals are unbroken.

However, we’ll rate Bench.ca high in this area because, except underwear and swimwear, every other item purchased from Bench.ca can be returned to the store. Whether an item is purchased at full price or at discounted price, it can be returned to Bench.ca. This is a good shift from the unfriendly return policies floated by many stores in the market, where only items bought at full price can be returned, while sales/ discounted items cannot be returned. This puts customers in between a rock and a hard place; where they’re given the choice of buying at the usually high full prices and be eligible for returns or buying at the low discounted prices and be ineligible for returns. It’s no news that most customers buy discounted items from the sales section of stores; and as a result, most often than not, they’ll be ineligible for returns. However, Bench.ca does not put their customers in such positions.

Return Window

The unwanted items you wish to return will only be accepted if they are received by the retailer within a time period. Thus, you’ll want an extended period so that the items will not get to the retailer’s facility late and be rejected.

In this regard, Bench.ca does very well. They allow a return window of 30 days from the date of purchase. However the 30 days return window only applies to items purchased at full prices. For sales items (bought at discounted prices), there is a reduced return window of 14 days from the date of purchase. While the 14 days window may come out as small, as explained in the last section, most stores don’t allow returns of sales items, thus the 14 days that Bench.ca allows for returns of sales items is more than welcomes.

That said, since most customers will be buying discounted items, it’s advisable to act fast if any item must be returned back to Bench.ca.

Cost of Returns

Many online fashion stores have received shots for having high cost of returns. Simply put, customers will not want to have unwanted items in their hands and be put off returning it to the retailer because of the high cost of the process. Thus, the ideal online store should feature returns costs that are as low as possible.

The lowest possible cost is always zero (that is free return shipping). At the time of writing this review, Bench.ca was offering free returns shipping as a promo. However, as typical of promos, the free return shipping offer had only a month remaining on it; after which things will reset to status quo, which is that customers bear the cost of returns shipping. Bench.ca will only bear the cost of returns when the reason necessitating the returns is the company’s fault.

Most of the times, the cost of return shipping is all the cost of returns there is. However, there are some fashion stores that also charge restocking fees and other surcharges. While Bench.ca does not charge a restocking fee, there are situations where they have applied charges that have taken customers by surprise.

For example; if the returned item was originally shipped for free (e.g. where the order was $99+) Bench.ca will deduct the cost of standard shipping from the refunded amount that will be issued. This essentially means that Bench.ca will be reversing their free shipping offer, if you return any item that was shipped to you free of charge. Needless to say, this can be really frustrating for customers, especially since customers will be already bearing return shipping cost. Also, for any item returned without the original tags, Bench.ca will deduct $10 from whatever is refunded or credited.

Refunds and Refunds Processing

First, you’ll be issued a full refund for regular items returned to Bench.ca within the 30 days return window. The refund will be issued via your original payment method, which means that you may decide to use the funds for future purchases in another store. However, for the returns of sales or discounted items, you’ll only be issued store credits. True, store credits will tie you to Bench.ca such that you must use the funds for purchases in the store. However, it’s better than not being able to return the items.

Another import consideration is the refunds processing time; that is how long it’ll take the store to issue the refunds after receiving the returned item(s). Once again, Bench.ca is not particularly fast. Returns are processed and refunds issued within 30 days of receiving the returned item in their warehouse. Needless to say, many customers will not want to wait the full 30 days before receiving their refunds.

Customer Support Service

A time will come when you will have questions or concerns, and you’ll want to reach out to the store for answers. If you won’t like to be left out to dry, you’ll want a store with an effective support department that addresses customers’ needs. Bench.ca advertises as one such fashion store, saying that because their customers are very important to them, their goal is to provide customers with a dynamic shopping experience and excellent customer service.

The first place to getting answers is the FAQ page of the bench.ca website. The page holds articles answering questions relating to account setup, ordering, shipping, returns, and more. If you’ll rather deal directly with a customer support rep of the company, Bench.ca provides a couple of contact channels which includes postal mail, email, and telephone support.

For the postal service, the address to send your letters is: Bench Canada, 5640 Rue Pare, Mont-Royal, QC, Canada, H4P 2M1. Feedback is slow with postal mail; thus, it is not an oft use channel. To use the e-mail service you should send your submissions to info@bench.ca. Though the email service gives faster feedback, it may take up to 24 hours to get the needed response. Thus, the instant feedback channel of the telephone service is welcomed. The phone numbers to call is: 1-866-240-2808.

However, the customer service does not work 7 days a week, but is only available Mondays through Fridays. What is more, on the days you can get through, the service is not available round the clock, but only works between 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (EST). We like customer support services that work 24/7 especially for worldwide facing companies; so that the problem of different time zones will be avoided where certain customers’ uptime will be the downtime of the support service.  However, since Bench.ca is only Canada-facing, such problem will not surface.

Summary

Bench.ca started in the T-Shirt niche and so it’s transformation into active-inspired clothing is not surprising. They advertise as providing “multipurpose functional clothing suited to the need of 24 hour life”, and they live up to that promise by providing a range of carefully selected active-inspired and street-inspired wears. You’ll find a wide variety of exquisite fashion products and accessories for men, women, and kids. One bump on this road is that the number of items in each product section is relatively few.

Though Bench.ca ship to only Canadian locations, and delivery is not the fastest in the market, their overall service is fine. This is because ordering is easy, orders modification is allowed, free shipping is offered, returns are easy (and free at the time of writing), and customer support contact channels are aplenty.

Pros:

• Offers a wide variety of street and lifestyle inspired wears
• Offers a lot of promotions and coupons which bring prices down to really attractive levels
• Unwanted items can be returned for a refund (albeit within  a window of 30 days from purchase date)
• Return of sales items are allowed (albeit with a reduced return window of 14 days from date of purchase)
• A range of channels is provided for contacting customer support (post, email, and telephone)

Cons:

• The size of the inventory in each product section is relatively small
• Prices of their items are a little on the high side
• There is no support for expedited delivery options such as Same Day delivery and Next Day delivery
• Shipping cost are a little on the high side
• Online purchases cannot be returned to store
• Deduct cost of standard shipping from refunded amount for returned items that was originally delivered free of charge
• Customer support service is not available round the clock