I am writing this snoop to confess as a vocal opponent to fast fashion rarely buying new, shopping mostly on recycled secondhand platforms for my wardrobe I too have been lured in by Shein’s amazing marketing and super cheap prices.
I have never shopped Shein before and I hope to never again. I’ve proved to myself never say never.
I didn’t visit the Shein website to browse, I saw a “Musera” bralet (a brand I’d never heard of) I wanted on Vinted but it was the wrong size so I went in search of the item on the wider web and discovered it was a Shein brand.
In my defence I resisted purchasing for a while, unsuccessfully searching for something similar that would do the trick.
When the internet Remarketing retargeting kindly showed me the item again, you know it does that, look at something and your cookies won’t let you escape, SHEIN added pressure by telling me correctly or not it was the very last item in stock and I cracked and bought it.
I have no complaints with the service, the communication post ordering was excellent, free shipping and the item arrived in two days not the expected three.
That was where the excitement ended unfortunately.
The item was the worst fashion garment I have ever tried on. Horrible flimsy material, it said 95% polyester and 5% elastane but there was absolutely no stretch whatsoever so the garment when on didn’t stay up. And the front flopped over to reveal the white material at the top of the bralet inside.
It was totally ill fitting and frankly completely unwearable. I am not the young woman in the image granted but I am a pretty standard size 10-12.
Did I return it. No. Like most customers I am sure because the cost was negligible under £10 and no return instructions are included in the packaging I wrote off my purchase vowing never to shop there again.
No one else can experience the same issues with this garment and I now realise why the person on Vinted was selling theirs. I am sure I will probably be doing the same.
You do get one free return, your first order so I could send this item back without charge but subsequent returns cost £2.50 in the UK which probably cuts down the amount of returns received from SHEIN customers thinking it’s not worth the hassle compared to the cost of the items.
If you have held out thus far resist being tempted by the SHEIN marketing machine.
What you see and what you get are polar opposites. I guess to expect something remotely decent for the price was stupid on my part.
What my Shein experience taught me was to stick to my principles and my gut instinct, but also showed me how powerful desire can be when you are shown beautiful images of something that in the cold light of day on a less than perfect body is just not the reality.
Sticking to quality and laying a bit more in future.