First order with Shein - seems like chaos?!

[JustHereForThe]

I've been looking for a particular dress for a long while, the sort of situation where you have in your head what you want but can never find it. I Googled this morning and the sort of dress I'm after came up from Shein. I've never ordered from them before and had only vaguely heard of them, but decided as it was only £15 and free P&P I'd give it a go.

I went to their website and placed the order via a 1 click I guess, as I didn't have an account...I immediately got an order number. I decided I'd open an account and did so, only to find the order not showing up there. I can't seem to get back to the order confirmation page, though I did take note of the order number so I do have it. I have had an email confirmation for the payment from PayPal but nothing from Shein to even confirm the order.

I've searched online and can't find anyone else who seems to have had this 1 click order - I've found chat results which say this is an impossibility, which is bizarre. I found one post on here from last year with a woman who had the same experience - managed to order without an account - she then downloaded the app and found her order in there, but I've tried that to no avail. In fact, when I went to log into the newly downloaded app it insisted I register, which I did, with the same password, and I've just had a second 'Welcome to Shein' email. Surely it should have recognised me and not let me set up a second identical account?

It all seems pretty chaotic. Do I just wait and see if anything turns up?! And if does, and I don't like it/it doesn't fit, just write it off having accepted there's no way to return it? (Chat results just seem to say you can only do this via going into 'My Order' to generate a returns label, but there is nothing there in my account under 'My Orders' to start from.)

Apologies - the other MNetter with the same experience only posted in May this year.

I wouldn't worry as you have the order number and also buyer protection via PayPal.
I'd wait for the dress and if you don't like it just open a customer service chat via the App and they'll be able to send you a QR code. Returns are free and refunds quick so you shouldn't have a problem.

Or if you don't want to wait for the dress just use the live chat option now, see if they have the order. I've just looked at the App and it's open till 10pm Sundays

I’ve seen a couple of things I like from there that have come up in sponsored posts on Instagram. But I need to download an app to buy them and it all just seems far far too cheap. I saw a dress that looked lovely. Thought it would be 80/90 quid. It was £16, which put me off.

Are you sure it was shein you ordered through the one click thing? How did you pay if it's one click? It could be a scam website. I've haven't experienced this option on shein before I signed up, neither did my partner.

Thanks for replying @XiCi

I've tried the Live Chat but it just keeps saying it can't recognise the order number & to check which store I bought it from, which sounds bizarre. I've messaged via the ticket system so hoping I'll get a reply within 24 hours.

According to PayPal it's definitely verified Shein @Stickybackplasticbear

I just rang my credit card company & they can see the payment & confirmed it has gone to Shein. Curiouser & curiouser!

Ok well that's good news then! At least you haven't been scammed. To answer your question though it's not normally this chaotic and actually I've found their delivery quicker than asos at times!

Surely they emailed you to confirm the order

Thanks @Stickybackplasticbear 🙂

No @HappiDaze I received nothing. However I did get a response from them to my ticket enquiry overnight - apparently there has been a problem setting up my account. They've given me instructions to fix it, none of which work, argh! In fairness though they've created a channel of communication through which I can have a conversation & reply, so (thus far at least) it's not one of those situations where you send a message, it disappears into the ether, & when someone gets back to you you have to start from scratch explaining the whole story over again.

Hoping they'll reply with more info. Even if they can't fix this, at least I do have confirmation that it is them & they have my order.

I did a big order with them about a month ago and I found the communication really poor. I also waited for ages for part of my order and discovered that you can send them a kind of hurry up message, which is odd. I also found their app to be clunky but I did get everything I ordered. About 75% of the stuff is decent enough and the rest felt/ looked a bit cheap!

A one click order without signup so no email address provided to the company? Or was it?

Then you signed up as a customer later? Made a full account. Twice?

So your order is not attached to your account. It can't be. It was an entirely separate event.

If this is the sequence of events it sounds very odd. I'm not surprised it feels chaotic.

Did PayPal email you details of your order?
In your shoes, I'd probably have cancelled the order though PayPal and re ordered using my new Shein account so there is at least a trail to follow and tracking on the site. But I admit, I'm baffled by how this could have happened.

It’s cheap because they exploit people in poor countries to make their clothes. The workers get paid about 40 cents a dress apparently, for something that would take at least a couple of hours to make. Awful company - one of the worst.

Do you genuinely think other high Street stores are better?!

They are not better - at all. I doubt there are many people on this site that buy only ethically sourced goods. People are so hypocritical. Retailers have always used production in 3rd world countries, theres very few exceptions. I used to live in SE Asia and visited factories producing Nike and another producing designer luxury brand goods. The conditions were terrible but noone wants to speak about that because rich people buy 3k handbags so its all ok. Shein is considered truly awful because in their view only povvos buy from there and povvos should be happy buying cast offs in a charity shop. It's also trotted out every time that Shein returns go to landfill when this a practice adopted by virtually every online retailer. I don't buy from there often but dd has had a few orders and all have been fine quality wise & customer service good. I'm under no illusions that her buying from h&m, primark, new look or any other high st store would be ethically better.

Shein is worth $100billion. They could pay their workers properly but they and their customers are ok with them not doing that because “look over there at that company”. Fast fashion is killing the planet but shein hauls are fun so I get why it’s a difficult choice

Is it okay to knowingly spend money with a company that exploits people because other stores are doing it too?

A quick update - the dress arrived. It was left hidden outside my house with no note to alert me, & obviously I didn't have any tracking so I don't know how long it had been there. At the outside it was less than 48 hours from order to delivery & if I didn't notice it the day before that would make it next day delivery.

I actually quite like it! It's on the larger side but the XS would have been too small. The quality is fine for the price, it is what it is. I don't expect I'll be ordering again but if I do I'll use the fresh account that does seem operational, & consign this order to history 😀

Thanks to those who replied 🙂