There may be an ad for Dresslily on the page above this blog. They are prolific online advertisers. I found them first on Facebook, where i saw ads for lovely, vintage style, dresses, at impressively low prices. So, I ordered one for my sister’s birthday.
I worried that the dress might be shoddy. I worried that it might not fit. It did not occur to me that the dress wouldn’t be delivered. But that’s what Dresslily does. They advertise clothes, Sometimes they deliver, but the dresses are very different from what was advertised. Mostly, they don’t deliver. Go on Facebook, and you can find a page dedicated to people who have been scammed by the company, offering detailed instructions on how to get your money back by contacting Paypal, or your credit card company. Dresslily doesn’t really respond to complaints.
It would be nice if Facebook stopped taking their ads. Of course they won’t. You can’t contact Facebook, and tell them Dresslily is a bunch of crooks. You can’t contact Facebook and tell them anything.
Dresslily also sells through Amazon. I tried to contact Amazon. You can’t do that either. These days the company is also doing their best to protect their vendors from bad reviews. I learned that when I tried to complain about someone who charged an improbable sum to ship Parcel Post.
I tried contacting the local television news, thinking they would like the story for their Consumer Affairs program. Except they don’t seem to have a consumer affairs program anymore, and you can’t contact them either.
So, Dresslily is going to continue to make money advertising clothes they don’t have, and taking money to not send them.
It’s possible, Daily Kos, will take this down, because they don’t want to offend an advertiser.
The internet is a wonder. You can find almost anything online. Need a car, do you want used or new? electric or fossil fuel? American made or imported? There are a dozen sites.
Look on some of those sites and you will find very good cars for very low prices, all you have to do is send the owner a cashier’s check. Because the owner, doesn’t really own the car. He just took a picture of it, and wrote down the VIN number.
Check on you local Craigslist, you’ll find three or four cars listed like that. Craigslist doesn’t check their advertisers, they expect their buyers to be savvy enough to spot the scammers and flag their ads.
Ebay is a little better, but not much.
Online sales have been a godsend for thousands of mom and pop companies, who offer everything from natural beauty aids to magical candles.
But the anonymity of the internet has also been a great things for crooks and scammers. Some of them, like the infamous 419 Nigerian spam scammers, put a new twist on an old con. Others, like Dresslily, have come up with new and original ways to separate people from their money.
Either way, there doesn’t seem to be a lot we can do about it, except warn our friends.
If Dresslily actually sold they clothes they advertise, they would have plenty of customers, even if they charged two or three times what they asked, because the dresses they show are lovely. But it hasn’t occurred to them that they could earn their money honestly.
So, they will continue to advertise clothes they don’t have, on just about every website there is. While their customers/victims try to put the word out.
I’m no fan of WalMart, but, at least if you shop there, you know what your purchase will look like, and you can carry it out of the store. Shopping online is a calculated risk. Calculate carefully my friends, and don’t order anything from Dresslily!