Hello, my Darklings!

I am sorry for my long absence, but, as they say, life happens. Today I want to talk to you about the amazing customer service that I did NOT encounter while shopping with Dark in Closet and spending quite near to 400€ in their online store.

After a long time of being unemployed, due to health reasons, and struggling with money, my wardrobe needed a good renewal. Therefore I chose to try out Dark in Closet, as they seemed to have a lot of products from more than one brand that I liked. I purchased a skirt by Devil Fashion, a pair of Punk Rave pants, a Punk Rave corset belt and some other items that are not relevant to this discussion.

First of all, it took them over a week to dispatch my parcel and that only after I messaged them, wince I hadn't heard anything about the order since I had placed it. But that was okay, as long as the parcel would get to me safely, I was in no hurry, so I wasn't particularly bothered by this, just found it rather weird.

When the package finally got to me, I of course started going through the items, trying them on, making sure everything is okay. Sadly, I had more than one problem. The Punk Rave items were too small, while the Devil Fashion skirt was a whole clusterfuck on its own. The skirt is being advertised everywhere, in all the pictures and descriptions, as BLACK. However, the skirt is not black by along shot. It is rather a dark, rusty, mud-like colour, like a piece of black fabric that was left in the sun for too long and got discoloured. Now, of course, like every other person in my situation, I go to their website to read about the terms and conditions of returns, so that I can return the skirt and exchange the items that were too small.

On their website there is a box in the upper right corner that says plain and clear "7 DAYS FREE RETURNS & EXCHANGE", so I start writing to them right away, so that I can still send them back without all the hassle and without wasting more money. I get a reply saying that the skirt doesn't have quality problems, that they're all the same, but no info whatsoever about the procedures for returns and exchanges.

At that point I was lucky that I knew my friend Magda Corvinus, who has modeled the skirt for them. I reach out to her to ask if indeed all t he skirts are the same and she said, after comparing pictures, that they are all indeed not black, but that mine was actually more messed up than hers. At that point, I write back to the people at Dark in Closet telling them that I indeed want to return the skirt and exchange the non-fitting Punk Rave items aaaaand radio silence. It was only after Magda called them out on Instagram that they told her I should contact them through IG.

Which I did. They tell me that they have not received my e-mail. I give them my e-mail address from which I originally contacted them, in order to make it easier for them to search for the e-mail. They promise to let me know if they can't find it still, so that I can resend it. Radio silence. I resend the e-mail. Silence. For 3 more days. At this point I take screen shots of the SENT e-mail and send the pictures to them on IG, urging them that I am starting to worry, since the 7 days had already expired. They still don't give me any straight up info to help me return the things, but instead I receive a message from them, asking me to take photos of the items I want to return or exchange. Note that I had sent photos of the skirt 2 times before, via e-mail and IG. I resent them all the same and added photos of the pants and belt, which had nothing wrong with them except that they were too small.

Finally, after all of this, they ask for my e-mail address (although I had already given it to them) so that they can send the terms of return and refund. I receive this via e-mail:

"Dear,
Here is the address:
Name: Qianqian Zhou
Address: Room 809,Block B,New World Center,Zhujiang road 88th,
Xuanwu District,Nanjing City,Jiangsu Province,China
Zip code:210000
Phone: +8613813374534A.
Items received unused (without the smell of perfume), unwashed, not in damaged or worn condition (only when the items which are defective or damaged upon receipt);B. Items received in original packaging.
Notice: 1. Shipping fee is non-refundable,if there is tax fee,need to paid by you.
2. Package was sent back to us without original packaging,we will charge $30 fee.
3. The reshipping fee for exhange clothes should be beard by yourself.
4. If there are tax when shipping back, it also we will refuse to recieve the clothes.
Thanks a lot."

Please note that, first of all I was going to have to pay for everything, return shipping fee, taxes, everything AND if there were going to be taxes when the package would get from me to them, they would "refuse to receive the clothes." At that point I take to Instagram again and replied exactly this:

"Hi! I have received your email. Do you have a preferred method of delivery? I didn't have to pay any taxes when I initially got the package, is there a chance that you might have to? Is there a way to know these details in advance, before I send you the stuff and then have it rejected by you in case there are taxes? It would be great to know, because if you won't receive my package, then there is going to be a huge waste of both money and effort on my side, even if I had already paid almost 400€ in my initial order. If your conditions will not allow the package to get to you, it would be easier and cheaper for me to sell the stuff to other people nad then simply buy from Punk Rave directly the items I needed changed. Please give me all the necessary details, since, as a private person, I cannot possibly know all this."

To which I get this as a reply:

"Pls check it"

Surprisingly, it was only at this point that I really got frustrated with them and how unhelpful they could be. After threatening to write a bad review of their company, they resend the same e-mail from above, with the return conditions, without the point 3 and 4. In the end, even though I had contacted them in a timely manner, they did not reply to me within the 7 days available for free returns and exchange and I cannot help but wonder if it isn't done on purpose, so that then they can still ask you, the buyer to pay for all the shipping fees and taxes and all that. They give no useful information and guidance with the return process, unless you insist to Hell and back and pull the words out them with pliers. In the end, I decided to not send them back because I had lost all my trust in them, due only to their crass unprofessionalism. I am currently having the clothes up for sale and once I get rid of them, I will re-purchase the things I wanted from Punk Rave directly, as they are a company that have never let me down before and have always been not only polite and professional, but also extremely helpful with anything I may have had questions about.

I DO NOT recommend Dark in Closet to anyone, unless you are extremely sure that you won't need to return anything. I know it's probably an unpopular opinion, since this shop is highly popular amongst goth people, from what I can see on social media, but this is a true experience and I have proof and screenshots of the entire experience. Should you be interested to see them, to certify that I am telling 100% the truth, please ask me and I will gladly share them with you. I did not include them in this text because I suck at this sort of stuff and I basically just have no idea how to include them within the text. Once again, if you want to see the pictures, I will be more than glad to show them to you.