Do not buy from 'Made By Jessica'!

[AgentPidge]

I bought two dresses online (£39 each) from what I thought was a UK-based boutique after a recommendation on a thread on MN. The website shows a pregnant woman, and says that 'Jessica' is closing her boutique due to the imminent arrival of her baby and is selling off stock at half price. The OP said about how much she loved the shop, etc.
Alarm bells should have rung when they ask for £4.99 insurance (to send a parcel from Surrey?). Also because there was no description of the fabric content given, only that it was a 'light and airy summer fabric'. They took a long time to arrive (direct from China?) and came today. The material is almost plastic, and they are a heavy weight, huge, shoddily made, with no labels (fabric content, washing instructions, brand) apart from 'Medium'.
Looking at Trustpilot, lots of people have the same story. They are Hong Kong based. There does not seem to be a UK store. 'Made by Jessica' my arse. They promise easy returns and refunds, but I don't hold out much hope, and it will cost a fortune to send them back to China. But will update.

I bought what I thought was a pair of linen trousers from a seller on Etsy who had good reviews for her scarves - didn’t think it would be an issue. Got the most nasty of polyester trousers back that looked like it was sewn by monkeys, wonky seams and wouldn’t fit an 8 year old. I should have left an immediate review but I contacted the seller to get a refund. It was so obviously drop shipped from Shein - even the packaging was identical - had my refund but seller cancelled my order so I couldn’t warn others. Gutted.

You can definitely get funds back through chargeback…
I did similar for about 7 items
terrible quality
complained and they said how much returns would cost me… offered discounts
i refused all. Credit card Co gave me exact wording to use, wait x days etc. when company still didn’t refund I got the refund from the credit card Co. Still need to send clothes to charity shop or wherever….
so annoying yes but you’ll get the £ back and won’t do it again

Me too, recently, with some dresses that were supposedly a British firm.
Arrived and was overpriced polyester crap. From China.
Shit, I'm usually quite good at spotting them.
Return postage astronomical, even if they were by some remote chance ready to refund.
Straight into the charity shop bag.
I fervently wish a plague of boils on them.

Your guess is right, Hong Kong based and orders ship from HK, hence why it took so long. Says so on the homepage if you scroll to the bottom

© 2026 Made by Jessica is operated by HK Empire Trade Solutions Limited (Hong Kong). Orders ship from Hong Kong to UK addresses.

(BTW not trying to say you should have seen this on website, I never look at the small print!)

When buying online you absolutely need to look at the small print if it's somewhere you haven't bought from before or a well-known respected retailer.

I'm actually surprised people don't do that. Amongst the terms and conditions or shipping info will be something that says where they're based. Even if it's covered in Union Jacks and has UK in its name does not mean it's UK based.

I would also never buy anything to wear that did not clearly state the fabric composition either( although of course they can lie).

Raise a dispute with whomever you paid with.

But yes, selling due to having to close is almost definitely a scam. If they have a countdown clock then it definitely is.

i have also started to copy the site url and ask Chat GPT “is this legit” and they come back with a nice summary of pros and cons. Mostly cons! I did it recently where an online shop was selling jellycats at a reduced price. The spidey senses were already tingling but a quick double check on ChatGPT confirmed it was not legit.

it’s a shame we have to do so much due diligence but that’s sadly where we are now. I’m the same with my teens when they send me links to stuff…..8/10 it’s a no.

I've come across the same only on facebook. Shoddy goods.

Checking the returns policy on the website is often revealing. These scam sites often say things like you have to contact them to get details of how to return things, returns are at buyers own cost, don’t return things to the address they came from etc.

I second contacting your credit card if you paid with one and initiating a charge back on the grounds that the clothes were falsely advertised.
My husband bought some Japanese style pyjamas and they were nothing like the ones advertised, and although it took some time to get his money back, he did receive a full refund.

I have been caught before. Even the better ones like Daisy Silk still say that you have to use a particular company and pay for the return. You then find out that it will cost £30.
I always look to see if there is a phone number or proper email address for the company on the website. If not, I don't order.
Trust pilot is also your friend!

I’ve been caught once or twice for Instagram Chinese junk but I always pay on PayPal (then to a credit card) and they have refunded me no problem if I’ve made an effort to contact the seller about the product and not had an acceptable response. A credit card does the same, but I find the process is much more slick if PayPal is involved. Just raise a dispute.

It does actually say at the bottom of the website, when you scroll down it says
“© 2026 Made by Jessica is operated by HK Empire Trade Solutions Limited (Hong Kong). Orders ship from Hong Kong to UK addresses. Address: Suite C, Level 7, World Trust Tower, 50 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong (no return address) Business address: Kruisstraat 142-B5612 CK Eindhoven, Netherlands Warehouse address: 1907, 19/F, Tower 2Lippo Centre, 89 QueenswayAdmiralty, Hong Kong”

It’s not falsely advertised as I’ve just had a quick look at the website & it says the following right at the bottom of the page ;

© 2026 Made by Jessica is operated by HK Empire Trade Solutions Limited (Hong Kong). Orders ship from Hong Kong to UK addresses. Address: Suite C, Level 7, World Trust Tower, 50 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong (no return address) Business address: Kruisstraat 142-B5612 CK Eindhoven, Netherlands Warehouse address: 1907, 19/F, Tower 2Lippo Centre, 89 QueenswayAdmiralty, Hong Kong

The false advertising is that the item you receive looks nothing like the picture and the materials, sizing etc is not in keeping with the description.

It also says 'Established in London 2009' at the top of the home page and shows a photograph of the woman we are supposed to believe is a heavily pregnant Jessica standing in the boutique that is about to close, surrounded by well made, stylish clothes with a shop front that looks out onto a London street. That shop will either not exist in the implied form.

Yes, people need to be more savvy, but there's no argument that this is not a scam that mispresents what is on offer.

TBH it’s pretty obvious as soon as you look at the website that it’s not legitimate. The style of photos, the way the website loads clothes as you browse and the pricing (huge discounts and not round numbers) all scream Shein to me.

I was drawn into Halara and nearly ordered but after the website was similar, I looked into it and realised it’s yet another Chinese, etc company.

The issue is when you see it recommended on a site like MN, you do tend to take it more seriously as you assume another genuine buyer has had success with it.

I have seen multiple ads with the ‘I’m closing my shop’ sales. It is a big red flag. A lot of stuff on Amazon now is coming from China and I don’t know how to filter it out easily so I just avoid anything with long delivery dates

If you used a credit card you can do a charge back. But you need evidence that you’ve sent them an email saying the goods do not look like as advertised and you want to return them for a refund. If this email had been ignored for 7 days then you can file it. Takes around a month for the refund to come through.

Hobibear are scammers too. Wish I'd checked the trustpilot reviews before ordering. The website looks UK based and promises easy returns (they take weeks to arrive from China and are impossible to return).

Oddly enough the shoes are fine but you need to order from amazon to have any chance of customer service.

Some of these scam sites will also sell on your personal data - your payment card details, address etc. They are absolutely not to be trusted.

I got caught by buying a birthday present a friend wanted from a random company. I assumed (wrongly) she’d checked them out and it was ok. The item sent was dreadful and didn’t even match the image pictures on the advert. I paid through PayPal thankfully who refunded all the money after they investigated it. I tried with the company first but they wanted me to pay to send it back and were offering store credit for half the value…

I’ve got caught out a few times with clothing - very disappointing! And it wasn’t exactly a scam but I paid over £50 for those lipsticks that adjust the colour to suit you ( PH balance or something) only to discover that loads of companies do the same thing for a lot less.

To be (slightly) fair to Halara you do receive the products and it is relatively easy to return and get a refund. I bought some stretchy wide leg or straight leg trousers after the bloody Insta ads and they were too short. Sent back and got my refund.

Completely agree about the other types of ‘shops’. I Enable a lot on Style and Beauty and I never link to those sites - which is hard as they’re the first search results that come up. Really frustrates me when I see other posters give those links.

Chat CPT and I had a chat with on online company my DD bought from who said they were based in Amsterdam but we're in China.

After a lot of back and to, I eventually claimed, and got, the money back from her bank.

This happened to me too recently. It was a brand called Ainsley Blake, claims to be handmade in the Yorkshire Dales but I received polyester tat from China.
I contacted their customer services, which was just automated replies, but I kept replying to them and saying I would report to Trading Standards and they did actually refund me. Had they not, I would've tried charge bank through my bank.

Do report them to Trading Standards though, and Action Fraud UK. I didn't think it would go anywhere but Action Fraud followed up with a very nice phone call. They said they get reports of 100s of these sites every day as these scam sites are very common nowadays but they can have them closed down.

Hope you get your money back!