Wardrobing - What Is It and How Does It Affect Your Ability To Try On and Return Apparel?

You may or may not have heard of the term "wardrobing". Let me explain and perhaps this will give you some insight as to why we and other retailers have had to implement a No Refunds Policy. As usual with everything in life, it takes the dishonest people to ruin a good thing for everyone else.

Wardrobing is the sadly rising trend of buying apparel online, wearing it long enough to take pictures for social media such as Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or wherever else someone wants to be seen. They purposely buy something, knowing they plan to return it as soon as they use it long enough to take these pictures then send it back expecting to get a full refund.

This dishonesty comes at a huge cost for online merchants and brick and mortar stores, as well as YOU, the honest customer, as this results in higher prices for goods sold and results in the No Refunds policy. Due to these people who commit wardrobing crimes, it can push a small business owner out of business quickly. The honest merchant like us, a small business, just trying to eek out a living but selfish, self-absorbed people who think of no one and nothing but themselves and how they appear on social media, can quickly cause the demise of a small business.

These wardrobing people care nothing about how their actions affect others. They must think that every online business is another Amazon, when truthfully, most online businesses are small businesses with 2-3 employees or even less. Every time one of these wardrobing criminals just wants to try on the merchandise that they know they are going to return and takes pictures of themselves, it costs a business lost revenue. We had to pay for the product they received, we had to pay shipping and handling, we had to pay the transactions fees of the credit card processor, the webhosting of the online store, electricity, insurance, etc. etc. 

It's one thing if someone orders the wrong size and wants to do an honest size exchange, but if you purposely order something and your plan is to wear it to take pictures of yourself and then return it, that's the cause of strict return policies and terms and conditions.

We have also been the victim of wardrobing. People want to show others themselves wearing one of our beautiful leather vests or chaps or jackets, but they don't want to keep it, they just want to photograph themselves wearing it, then use a lame excuse saying it did not fit or they did not like it or whatever. Has happened way too many times, so we now will not issue any refunds. Returns that are authorized will be given a Store Credit to buy something else with minus shipping and handling fees. 

Let it be known that Wardrobing is FRAUD, plain and simple. If you want to deal with attorneys contacting you, then just try doing that here. We will not tolerate being defrauded of our hard earned money. You can check out another blog at this link that tells you about the law and how you are violating it with #wardrobing here: https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2017/02/shoppin...

So, if you are coming to my store to buy something just to wear it for some pictures and want to return it, please do not waste your or my time. When you check out, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions Return Policies, so be sure you understand them.

Thank you for "listening" and I hope this helps you to understand why we have the Return Policies we have.