Any experience with Draculaclothing.com?

[Evelyn Adler]

First, I'm not sure if this is right here or should belong in "Trading"?

Has someone bough at Draculaclothing.com in the past? What were your experiences?

I recently bought their "Steampunk Pricess Underbust Corset" which I had been eying (goggling!) for several months now. I bought it in 24" size, which is the size I usually wear in corsets. But when it arrived, it was too small! Comparisons show, that it's actually about an inch smaller than my other 24" corsets!

So I wrote to them about an exchange for a larger size and they responded, sure, no problem, send it back and we'll exhange it AFTER PAYING THE ORIGINAL SHIPPING COSTS OF 30 EURO!
Blimey! I just wanted to send a corset, not buy the entire airline! 

Also the jewellery I ordered with the same order was sent separately and hasn't arrived so far.

I am not very happy with the service right now and would like to know if anyone has had similar experiences with them.

[Evangeline]

I've only ever had good experiences with them and if there ever has been any problem with my orders their customer service has been excellent.

When I placed my first order of a corset a couple of years ago, it arrived very quickly and I found the sizing to be quite accurate.
About a year ago I ordered some trousers from them and shipping time was calculated at 10-14 days. I got an email from them the next day saying that their factories would be closed for Chinese New Year so there would be a delay, but they sent me a free brooch to make up for it.
The last order I placed I was informed that the size I ordered wasn't stocked anymore but they'd be happy to refund me or send me actual measurements for the next size down if I wanted that instead, which turned out to be a better fit for me anyway.

I have however never had to return anything so can't comment on that.

I have recently noticed that they seem to have undergone some changes - a lot of their stock is now discontinued and they seem to charge more for their shipping (I'm almost certain it was free the first time I ordered something from them). Also they seem to have relocated where the products are actually made from China to Prague, whether that would have any bearing on things I'm not sure.

I'm interested to hear if anyone else has had either excellent or bad service from, particularly more recently.

[Evelyn Adler]

The company is based in Prague, but the corset I received was made and sent from Pakistan. (Had I known that, I probably wouldn't have ordered it in the first place.)

Shipping is free, but as far as I understood, they want me to bear the costs of 1.) sending the item back to them in Prague (which is ok and usual procedure for returns) and 2.) to refund them the cost of the original delivery to me, which, according to them, is 30 Euro.

[Velkan]

Unfortunatly i must say that my experience with dracula clothing was less than perfect my order was late and while they seemed to be helpful they told me that the sizes i sent requested were odd and suggested different sizes to me, although the sizes they suggested fit they were too big considering that i'd ordered a corset.

[Evelyn Adler]

They just changed their website with the return policy!

Before:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Full sized pic at: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7153/6808796631_2ce10073fc_o.jpg

Now they changed the text to

You can return goods, for any reason, within 14 days of receipt for a refund or exchange.
For an exchange, you will have to pay return shipping and shipping for the new product. (30 euros for corsets, 20 euros for clothing and 2 euros for accessories.)
If you want a refund, you will get the item price minus the original shipping we had to pay to get the item sent to you. (30 euros for corsets, 20 euros for clothing and 2 euros for accessories.)
If you need to return an item to us you simply send an email to post@draculaclothing.com providing the following details:

see http://draculaclothing.com/help.php?language=en&currency=EUR

They actually changed the text AFTER emailing me. I am slightly shocked! These are not the conditions I agreed to, when ordering!

[Lady Chrystal]

That seems like an awful lot to post something.

Is there an indication of the postage they had to pay? Like stamps of a payment amount printed on the label?

[Evelyn Adler]

Nothing, the package was sent via DHL service from Pakistan. The weight was about 1 kilo. Yes, it seems an awful lot to pay for postage. Even more since they actually advertise their "free shipping".

It is not ok, to alter the conditions for an order, that has already been delivered. I can think of no country in the world, where that would be legal. I'm quite annoyed at that point, apart from the outrageous amount for shipping, it feels like they're trying to cheat me.

But as you see, I have a screenshot (and a pdf-file) of their original terms and conditions and I informed them in my email, that I intend to return the corset on the original conditions I agreed to, free of any extra charge.

[Stella Gaslight]

How did you pay for your order because sometimes paypal and most credit and debit cards can give you some extra oomph with negligent vendors.

[J. Wilhelm]

For my business I've only handled one return, and right now I'm negotiating another one (breakage upon arrival may be paid by post office insurance to them).  In either case I always offered to re-inburse the shipping costs to the customer via PayPal (nothing stopping me).  It's not too much to ask, and the high shipping costs may be due to tariffs, depending on which country you're talking about.  The only time I refuse to pay for shipping is if they broke Tge item (out of warranty), and they ask me to repair something, which I usually do for free -- for small items! (it's good policy if the customer holds on to your product).

[Evelyn Adler]

How did you pay for your order because sometimes paypal and most credit and debit cards can give you some extra oomph with negligent vendors.

I paid via paypal with my debit card. If they don't agree to refund the full amount for the corset, I see if I can cancel the entire transaction.

[Stella Gaslight]

Your bank should be very helpful with that.  I know mine was when someone stole my card no a few years ago. And they had options for things like this on the forms I filled out.

[Evelyn Adler]

I'm glad I did print the original terms and conditions before they were changed on the site.
It is one thing to have additional fees and such to cover your costs in case of a refund - but you cannot add them after the order has been delivered. That would be changing an existing contract, which is not possible if not both partys agree to it.
(Yes my line of work is international sales and purchasing, how did you guess...?   )

[CaptainMurra]

i love that site. but now i shall be moe careful thanks!
usually they have a sizing link on the site which should be more helpful to those buying a corset. Just because you are are a certain size does not mean that they make corsets acoording to all the other sizes. if they don't well you should probably point that out.

and to send something for 30 euros is absolutely shocking..... shocking. like lightning

[VampirateMace]

30 Euros, yeah... math... yep, ridiculous.
But this is why I avoid buying stuff, particularly clothes/shoes off the net.

[CaptainMurra]

ahhh i see, well i think i should contradict your opinion. buying of the internet is wonderful! great for cheap basic clothes. but i do agree with the shoe factor.... that never works for me!

[VampirateMace]

Well to be fair, it's hard to find clothes that fit me right, and I've bought the same model of tennies for 4 pairs now... They've changed the model name, but they're still making them.

But I was mostly referring to how easy it is to be scammed and taken advantage of on the internet. Of course there are things you can do to avoid it, like shopping only at respected sites with secure payment systems, doing a bit of research. And obviously as Lady Adler did, keep a record of everything.

[CaptainMurra]

yes Lady Adler was smart to do that. i wouldn't!
i'm sure you can buy insurance for online purchases with Paypal or something like that.
anyway. I only trust the big sites like Ebay, Esty and shops in my country that have online sites and clothing etcetc.

[Evelyn Adler]

usually they have a sizing link on the site which should be more helpful to those buying a corset. Just because you are are a certain size does not mean that they make corsets acoording to all the other sizes. if they don't well you should probably point that out.

I compared the sizes on the site to the one where I bought my other corsets and the measures (waist size to corset size) were identical. So of course I presumed, the corset would be the same. And 24" are 24"...

I've never had any kind of problems and I buy a lot of things off the internet. But then again, no one tried to change his terms and conditions after I bought from them...

[CaptainMurra]

yep that's really dodgy! good idea of printing out the T&C....... i wouldn't had thought of that?

[vampyresheep]

sorry to hear you've had such a bad experience with them.  i've bought a few small items before, with no problems and was considering a corset - as i was worried about sizing issues, glad i didn't now!
I wonder what the trading standard laws are in the Czech Republic re such issues - changing T&C's after purchase definately wrong in this country but not sure how that's applies overseas. 
I have to admit that after the stresses endured during a trip to Prague a few years ago - our trip organiser had no end of problems with getting tour guides to honour bookings we'd paid in advance etc - I was somewhat wary about ordering from the Czech Republic anyway.
(sorry, that sounds terribly xenophobic, which is not my intention at all.  I'm happy to purchase goods from all over the world, just previous first hand experience makes me more wary here!)

[Evelyn Adler]

The latest email I received, says, due to a mistake, they had the wrong terms on the German site, all the other sites were up to date. But now they offer me an exchange for free, because they made that mistake.

I have asked for a confirmation, that "exchange for free" really means, I'll send the corset back on my expense and have no further costs than that. I'll keep you posted.

On a side note: I received the offer after mentioning, that I'm going to share my experiences on BG.
Coincidence?

[Hez]

Coincidence?
More likely good tactics on your part.