...And about those Banner Ads for Online Clothing Stores
                               ....A Review of SheIn

      I don't know about you folks, but I am about to put on a pair of horse blinders to keep me from clicking on those ads for lovely ladies clothing on the right side of just about every page I open. OK, yeah, I know they show up because I click on them, thus encouraging the ad monitors to ply me with even more. Guilty as charged. At this point, those ads are on every page I click on, following me around, and practically coming to the bathroom with me.

     For this shopping blog then, I'd be remiss if I did not add in my two cents about shopping via these online venues.

    I have always been a little leery of buying clothes from online stores, unless the item is so loose and baggy no one could go not wrong on sizing. And having free returns gives one a sense of security as well. The clothes look great on an anorexic-looking models, but what about people with a couple of muffins or inner-tubes?

    The first site that popped up for me for online shopping was She-In, formerly called SheInside. They proceeded to flash some enticing pics of tunic-type loose blouses, and the loose-fitting cardigan sweaters I had been trying to find for eons. ( I can actually recall the key words I typed into Goggle that probably prompted this.) Up popped some photos of a coffee-colored, loose, soft knee-length sweater. And it was only $20. Could this be for real?

    After a lot of mental maundering, I decided that a $20 loss would be worth the experiment for a test of these online shopping sites. I put in my order.

    The shipping was not fast like Amazon, but the package arrived fairly  soon. The sweater did not have a lot of fancy stitches and was plainly designed and of synthetic fabric, but one does not need anything fancy for a loose cardigan. It was a lovely coffee color, true to the photo, and as soft as any natural weave would have been. It immediately became my favorite sweater with lots of compliments from friends ensuing. For $20, it was a great buy.

    I then ordered a deep rose red sweater, also about $20, and was similarly pleased. Nice color, nice fit. As I browsed through the site, I found another plus and a creative idea- customers could do reviews of the items they bought and also post pictures of them wearing the item they bought.

     So now one could see what the article of clothing actually looks like on a live, real,  non-stick-thin model!  Very helpful. And those that post reviews on that site get Rewards Points towards the next purchases.

     I'd give the SheIn site a thumbs-up and here is the link to it:

http://us.shein.com/?url_from=usadshein003&gclid=CjwKEAjw86e4BRCnzuWGlpjLoUcSJACaHG55LCdKQQQWVB0ohnaPyFcZHo2GPOMbi1Vq13oT3p4AdRoCnTnw_wcB

    After these purchases, other online shopping venues started to show up on my screen. So I will make a comparison here. The next site I ventured to purchase from was "Dress Lily" (DressLily.com). Emboldened by my successful visit to SheIn, I bought a simple loose tunic blouse, said to be "chiffon" material.  Just what I had been looking for. Cost was about $10, what did I have to lose?

    Here's what. The first red flag was that when I made the credit card purchase, it showed up on my credit card statement not as DressLily, but someone's personal name like Fahoud or some such. I have to say that was disturbing and after that I watched my credit card activity closely. However, nothing went awry and no further charges were made.

   Then weeks went by and no package arrived. I did recall that in some of the notes on the site, there was a mention of the package being shipped directly from China as opposed to in the U.S. That would require some time.

    So I waited about five weeks, then wrote to Customer Service which was readily accessible on the site. They promptly sent a nice answer saying that things were slow due to the holiday season and the transport from China, and not to worry, that it had been shipped.

   A week or so later, the package arrived. I was very disappointed in what I received. First, I had ordered a Medium, and this tiny blouse was the size of Extra-Small. (I have since seen on other Reviews/blogs that when ordering from Chinese companies directly, you have to up the size at least by two, as the sizes align with tiny Chinese women apparently).

   Returning it was no option as paying for postage all the way back to China would cost way more than the item. Also, the "chiffon" fabric was like a translucent nylon/plastic netting, with no nap or cloth feel to it at all. It was just plain ugly and did not look at all like the lovely photo in the ad. It looked like someone hurriedly stitched together two pieces of very cheap fabric.

   I did not even feel that it was worthy of donating to Goodwill, as I could not imagine anyone wanting to wear it.

   I chalked that one up to "lesson learned". One other thing that was disturbing as well was that a few weeks later, I received an un-ordered package from China, with Chinese writing. It was not noted as being from Dress Lily. It contained a ghastly looking fake jacket with fake fur trim, again in that nylon/plasticy fabric that did not even resemble cloth. Plainly my customer data had been given out and I watched my credit card with great care for some time after.

    However no charges showed for the jacket, and nothing happened after that. But all in all, I regretted having bought through Dress Lily.

    Now I have sworn off online sites that ship direct from China. It's hard though, as a third site has started popping up ads- "Fashion Mia". Whoever designs their clothes is really  good, and the models look amazing. If someone actually made clothes that really look like this, this company would have it made. Beautiful tunics, dresses with elegant patterns. Frankly it is torture to keep my eyes off them and I admit to clicking on items again and again, thus prolonging the torture.

    I did a Google search on Fashion Mia and a number of very bad reviews popped up, covering inability to get refunds, not being able to return items because they had to go back to China, not being able to reach anyone at all, credit card info misuse, clothes not looking like the ad photo....etc etc.

   I can't review Fashion Mia honestly without  ordering from them myself, but I am afraid to, so will leave it at that. I'll just have to admire their photos from afar (or from my computer, more precisely), and hope that these items might show up  in the local Target store. Wish me luck!

  Shelli's Shopping is a blog for shoppers of all kinds and in particular those looking for a good buy, from starving artists to working poor to those who are on a budget for whatever reason or just want good value for their hard-earned money. Shelli Pruett is a blogger, cartoonist, proofreader, product reviewer, and communications director at a marketing company. She lives in Southern California with her family and four dogs, who provide an ample stream of dog product purchasing experiences.

#ShellisShopping, #shoppingonline, #SheIn,