Chinese Clothing Online - www.chineseclothingonline.com

I recently bought a dress from this company, based in Hong Kong, priced at £73.50 + £26.15 for Express Delivery. Total as near as dam it £100.00

The website is very professional and attractive with excellently presented illustrations, however, although the prices seem competitive in comparison with those in the west, when the Item arrived it was shoddily made with poor quality materials – the zip was so stiff that using it threatened to damage the cloth.

It is my own fault and I am so angry with myself for not thinking it through as the cost of postage to return the item, combined with a 15% handling charge for returns by the company, means that for an outlay of approximately £120 I will recoup just over £60 with nothing to show for it – a dead loss!

The really irritating thing is that for a similar item – beautifully in silk from mainland China, the cost would be around £30 or £40.00 admittedly though, only if you were there in person with a Chinese national to avoid the ‘Wealthy Western Visitor Tax.’

In my opinion ChineseClothingOnline.com is a western style business employing the cheapest manufacturing costs, dressed up in a highly professional online business and screwing every ounce of profit from gullible westerners by finely balancing their prices and terms of business to present the illusion of providing a good deal and making returns virtually pointless.

In future I will avoid HK for larger purchases, although they are still great for small purchases through Ebay, and look to mainland China for items of greater value.

It is a great shame to receive shoddy low tech goods from China as, if China has one thing to offer, it is the high quality of their handiwork. And, should I ever need complicated surgery, I would far rather put myself into the hands of a Chinese surgeon than God knows what sausage fingered incompetent that kills people that you might have the misfortune to be given over to in the UK.