The Outnet

[Shopgirl1]

Has anyone bought anything from this store recently?
They have a pair of boots I like, but I’m slightly concerned at all the recent promotions they are doing - I’m wondering might they be in trouble and if they don’t fit could I be stuck with expensive boots I can’t wear...

Yes - last week. Goods arrived in the normal way and no problem.
Why do you think they might be in trouble? It has always been a heavily discounted site - that's the point of it.

I've had trouble with them before - this is years ago - when I had bought something that "failed" - ie. was not fit for purpose - not this but eg. handbag that you have used a handful of times and the strap broke.

In my view, they were completely unreasonable because the product failed outside their arbitrary 6 month window so refused to countenance refund or comparable replacement. They were wrong as a point of consumer law because the product shouldn't have failed after such minimal use but I couldn't be bothered to expend further time and energy with them arguing about it after wasting hours on correspondence anyway.

It really put me off them though in terms of their customer service which I found appalling and I didn't buy from them for well over 3 years because I was so pissed off with their attitude and customer service. I spend a lot of money on luxury designer wear (and it increased markedly during that period as my income increased) so they lost a lot of custom. I now only buy from them very occassionally because of that. It's not a brand that I feel warm towards in any way.

It's funny really because it would have been so simple to sort out.

I shopped with them a lot in the past too, but also had a bad experience when I ordered shoes and they sent me the wrong ones- each time they went to correct it they sent the wrong ones again - 3 times in total before I gave up and got a refund.
I gave up on them then for years.
They have always been discount designer, but recently they are doing more discounts - 25% at the moment. I’ve never seen that before and it’s worrying as there was a similar pattern at Mywardrobe before they went bust.

I doubt they are going bust as it is part of the netaporter group.

Before ordering check that they don’t still charge a restocking fee. In the past that put me off.

I think the more frequent discounts are part of a new business model since NAP got taken over by Yoox. I have been wondering if they have been keeping back the "best" Outnet stock to put on Yoox, and only sending less nice things to the Outnet, hence the discounts as they try and get rid of things quicker. (Just my opinion as someone who used to religiously check the new in pages, and now never bothers as there's never anything I like anymore!)

They recently moved from the UK to Italy so there's no more next day delivery and it takes longer to sort out problems (of which there have been a lot more of since they moved to Italy). Its a shame, they used to be wonderful. Their twitter profile was an endless stream of complaints last month - they seemed to get everything wrong!

Think I might skip the boots, sounds like too much hassle if they are too small and I think they might be.

It's a pain to have to return things. I have just made an order from there and need to print off return forms, arrange a DHL pick up. They don't make it easy! that said, the clothes were nice (and I seem to be keeping far more than I intended....)

I do agree they have gone down hill since the takeover, but returns are still easy peasy. You shouldn’t have to print anything out. You just click return on your orders, stick the returns sticker (which comes with your order) over the old sticker and call dhl to pick up whenever and wherever. They will usually do same day pick up if you want.