You know when you go into a store and you want to like it, but can’t? You give it more chances than a misbehaved puppy, but still nothing. The store has poor customer service, or they never have your size left, and you just can’t like it, no matter how hard you try? This is what happened with me and online shopping.
According to the Financial Post, in 2010 online sales accounted for 3.4 percent of Canada’s $18-billion dollar retail spending. By the year 2016, online shoppers are expected to contribute to 5.3 percent of total retail Canadian spending. Seeing as almost every store has an online shop nowadays, I wanted to give it a chance.
One night, instead of spending my time procrastinating doing homework by looking at cat videos, I decided to give the online store ASOS a chance. After all, I have my graduation ceremony coming up, I had my dress and now all I needed was some cute shoes. So I had a purpose to shop.
I had been drawn to the online store ASOS by some of the blogs I follow shopping there and from a couple of friends who have shopped there. They have the latest trends and even had a number of ASOS boutiques where people sell their handmade clothes online through ASOS.
Before purchasing my shoes I made sure I would get free shipping because ASOS is based in the United Kingdom. I also made sure I would get a full refund if the shoes didn’t fit or the colours weren’t right. The only thing I would have to pay for if I didn’t like the shoes would be the return shipping.
So I was set. I placed the order. Then I waited, and waited. Then I waited some more. The expected delivery date of the shoes came and went. In the meantime I went shopping in Victoria; most of the spring styles had arrived in the stores and it reminded me of how nice touching and trying on shoes was, and let’s not forget the customer service.
I emailed ASOS to tell them my order hadn’t arrived a week after their expected delivery date. They told me to wait another week, so I did and still nothing came. I emailed them again and they acknowledged that my order probably got lost in the mail, even though they didn’t know for sure because they didn’t have a tracking number on my order.
Instead of just brushing me off, they offered to ship my order again. However, they didn’t have my size this time, so they refunded my money and gave me a discount code for my next purchase. If the shoes don’t arrive before April 12, I guess I’ll have to walk across the graduation stage and present my final project barefoot. Wish me luck.
Online shopping tips:
Make sure the shipping is free; if you don’t like the items then you will have to pay for shipping again to send the shoes back.
If you can, shop at online stores in Canada, or stores that have warehouses in Canada. Your order will be processed and sent to you within days and you can track your order.
Look at the sizing guide of the online store. This is really important because every store’s S, M, and L are different. Also, the sizing guide was really useful at ASOS because UK sizing is completely different then Canadian. In Canada I’m a size nine, but in the UK I’m a size seven.
Search for a coupon code, you might get lucky!
I totally agree with you. I do a lot of online shopping because it is convenient but can also be rally frustrating when sth like this happens. We even had this kind of trouble buying things from amazon. so it is really important to make sure they have great customer support.