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 ♡
