Hello everyone! Recently i've had an extremely unpleasant experience with a Storenvy store that some of you may have heard of called Caramel Syndrome. I'd like to share with you what happened so you don't have to experience the same thing when shopping online.
I have been shopping online for about three years now and had never experienced anything like this, so i had come to take for granted the honesty + integrity of most independent sellers. For this reason, don't be put off from buying from small sellers on sites such as eBay, Etsy and Storenvy but do be very careful when parting with your hard-earned cash.
The owner of this store, Chloe Micallef, stole a total of $44.40 from me in total. This may not seem like a lot to some people. However, being a student on very small loan and little financial support from my parents, I have to work 20 hours a week alongside my studies just to afford food, rent and buy the things that i review on this blog.
Chloe Micallef
I purchased two velvet bow garters for $44.40 (including $4.50 shipping which seemed very reasonable). Caramel Syndrome had a lot of sales so i assumed that it was a legitimate store. Also when i realised i ordered the wrong size, i e-mailed her my problem and she e-mailed me back very quickly which made me even less doubtful. The FAQ stated that orders outside of the USA would take up to around 8 weeks. I figured this would be fine because a lot of stock on Storenvy is just re-sold from Taobao which is based in China. As you can see the status is still 'Awaiting Shipment'...
I waited 8 weeks and still my items didn't arrive. At this point i was worried so i sent Chloe Micallef two e-mails, neither of which she replied to.
I found out the store had actually closed. Chloe Micallef said she closed it herself, but when i turned to Storenvy for help they stated that they had in fact shut her down because she failed to reply to numerous attempts to contact her.
I did a little bit of investigation and managed to find Chloe Micallef's Tumblr. I sent her numerous messages asking her to give my money back. Most of the messages were ignored and the couple she did reply to she promised my refund. She lied. I still haven't got my money back.
In the last message i sent her, i asked her why she couldn't just refund everyone and issue an apology to her customers. I also said i thought it was disgusting behaviour to steal money. The fact she didn't reply to this message even just to defend herself adds insult to injury and also shows lack of respect to her customers and herself.
Another example of Chloe Micallef's attitude:
I will NEVER be purchasing anything from Chloe Micallef in the future and i urge that no-one else risk their money doing so. I have seen other people have had the same problem as well.
Check out this post for staying safe on Storenvy by bombisbomb.
If you have not received your items from Caramel Syndrome, you can try contacting Chloe Micallef here, but she has probably already spent it on clothes she shows off on YouTube:
Let me know your experiences with this store - was it any good?
Thank you for reading,
ami ♡
WHAT A BITCH
ReplyDeleteSame happened to me with her back in September! Tried ordering a blouse, noticed it was awaiting shipment for over a month and she wouldn't respond to any of my emails. I just barely managed to make a dispute with paypal and get my money back days before she closed the store! >:I I'm so sorry she scammed you </3
ReplyDeleteThe same thing happened to me around the same time as you guys.. I contacted her everyway I could and found out via Instagram that this had happened to many people :( She's opened a New store now and I'm half wanting to report that! I got my money back but I am still disapointed I never got the boots I lusted after.
ReplyDeleteHi Anon, I'm glad you were able to get to get your money back! Sadly I was too trusting and didn't bother to dispute before the cut-off. Can you send me the link to her new store? I will report. Thanks! <3
DeleteHey guys, she did the same thing to me. When I first purchased my Candy Stripper shoes last July, she responded to me very quickly saying that she'd send them off soon, et cet, BS talk, and then she just didn't reply anymore. She took $96 of mine, no reason or explanation of what was happening which pissed me off the most.
ReplyDeleteI have had 80% good experiences with Storenvy but I am going to stick with eBay instead. Too bad because Storenvy sells lots of cute clothes, shoes, accessories but at this point I am wary. The fact she said she is "'lazy" - wtf is that!? Ridiculous. I think it's terrible that she did this to so many people and that the site had to close her down due to complaints. What a freak.
Ami, sorry this happened to you as well. I am glad that somebody like you stood up to this creep. She's shameless.
She posted a WTB on the lolita facebook page "lolita sales in english" so I instantly commented "maybe you should pay back all the girls you scammed first?" she promptly removed both her wtbs in lolita sales in english and sweet lolita sales, I'm so disgusted with her! Forwarded this to the mods to see if she can be banned, she had the nerve to add "Willing to spend up to $150"
ReplyDeleteHi LavenderLolita! I'm so glad someone else is able to stand up to her too, and great response. :) Have you had any progress with getting her banned? I'd really like to give my input but I don't browse the lolita sales often, if you could send any links you find that'd be awesome :) Thanks for posting! <3
DeleteI'll do my best x3 she removed her post before the mods could see anything, but I made sure to link her page to them, along with these comments! So she won't be back to facebook sales anytime soon, not sure if she's active on egl comm sales, but I should probably dig up my old lj just to warn the mods ^^; These scammers are taking over storenvy, sadly D: my boyfriend tried to buy me hair bows from this store and got scammed, just for further warnings
Deletehttp://www.storenvy.com/stores/115563-dancing-with-devils
stay safe! <3