I was trying to make a purchase on a sale day with a gift card and the purchase would not go through, so I tried another day and they had taken the balance off the gift card, so i called up and was like hey whats going on and they said that the balance would be returned in 5-6 days and promised me a 30% discount and free shipping and an email that said this information from the "Email Department" so 5-6 days passed and nothing,. And so I called back and this time it was 7 days for sure 7 days, so 11 days later after the first call the balance is returned, so I go online to make my purchase and all the items I wanted to purchase are out of stock... God bless you hot topic and your wonderful service also the first phone call I was on the phone for 42 minutes, so I haven't made a purchase and the gift card my friends bought me for Christmas will stay unused for a while, this was my first online shopping experience with them

The clothes don't fit right. I usually wear a small size shirt but some reason, the shirts here are somehow loose in the chest and tight in the shoulders/top of sleeve and a larger size is just too big. The make-up and body products are the lowest quality and unusable. There are almost no original designs or products- just walls of Disney Princess, Dr. Who, My Little Pony and Nightmare Before Christmas merch with some Star Wars and Youtube flashes in the pan. Did I mention this is all insanely expensive?

Ordred Christmas gifts from Hot Topic. The site stated they l arrive by Dec. 22nd with express delivery. Here it is the 24th no package! Tracking info states its in Nashua NH and was due to be delivered today. Its definitely not coming for Christmas! Thanks for ruining Christmas!

Earlier this year my aunt bought a 50$ gift card as gift for my daughters graduation from the Concord NH store. She went to use it and it was empty! The manager tried to straighten it out and said she fired a guy for selling empty gift cards. They never replaced the money on the card!

Ordered several gifts for Christmas presents on Dec 10th and here it is Dec 22nd and still no package. The tracking info said it was delivered to store but when I went to pick it up they couldn't find it and advised me to call customer service. What a joke. He didn't do anything more than what I had already done, checked th status of package, then called the store and then advised me to wait a few more days for the store to process the order! Are u kidding me? When I said that was unacceptable as I was leaving to go out of town, he informed me that I would have to wait until the order processed thru the store to have it sent back and get a refund! I will never ever do business with this company again!

Ordered a Christmas gift on December 12 and was charged the same day. Website said 4-10 day delivery so I figured my purchase would arrive by Christmas. A whole week went by and I was never sent a tracking code. I sent an email and received a reply 3 days later which read.

"Your order has been canceled – either due to your request (which kinda bums us out), or because we currently have no inventory (in which case we're super sorry.)
Hey! Your account or credit card will not be charged. Yay. Credit card refunds will be based on your bank's policy."

I never cancelled and if they were sold out why the HELL would they sell it to me and why charge me the same day! Now I have no gift and Christmas is less than a week away. What a nightmare.

Don't buy online, instead go to the store. Never Never Never again will I buy online with Hot Topic.

Since hot topic changed their hot cash program and website back in September, their online shopping experience is a joke!

I have been doubled charged for orders, charged for orders that never shipped, and never received items they show delivered.

None of my "vip points" have been added to my account. I have almost $1000 of purchases (that weren't cancelled) and 21 orders since 9/2015. As of today, my account shows 2 orders and 18 points.

Numerous calls and emails and nothing is fixed. I was once a loyal customer, but until they fix these issues, I am a customer no more!

I have never experienced any major problems with hot topic.
In Store: The workers that the store that I go to are kind and informative. They ask if you need help with anything, and most importantly, do their job. I purchased a pocket watch from hot topic in stores. Unfortunately, it broke on the same day while I was wearing it. I brought in the watch and the receipt and it was exchanged.
Online: I have ordered multiple items from hot topic online on multiple occasions. Most items have come in 3-5 business days after I've ordered them. The only problem that I had was with costumer service. I called reagurding a question about coupons and customer service was snappy and overall rude.
If I were you I'd buy directly from the stores. If you can't than ship an item (for free) to a store and save the shipping costs.

I used to order from hottopic.com all the time despite the ridiculous shipping to international customers. I would usually just wait until a 50% off international shipping sale so I was only paying slightly more than their competitors for shipping (which is sad).

Despite that they're site used to at least provide me with what I ordered most of the time and ship within a reasonable time.

Then... the site changed. Now they are just awful. I was dealing with them for nearly a month just to get one of my orders shipped from their warehouse. By the time they actually starting packing it half the items were missing and I wasted my special discount code. Their site also never properly reflects the stock in their warehouse.

It took me quite a while before I actually got a hold of a customer service rep that was helpful. The email customer service is terrible and they spout off stock answers and move on. The Facebook message customer service line is hit and miss. I had to call multiple times and leave public messages on their facebook site to finally get some movement on my order. I actually had placed another order a week later and received it a week ago. I am STILL waiting on that first order though I AM told it is shipped now. When I did get someone good on my first problem she was helpful, but it was not easy and luck of the draw when I got her. On Facebook they said that they would get someone to call me between a certain hour. I waited 2 days and contacted them again on Facebook only to find out the agent that was told to contact me just plain didn't so they got another person to call me immediately.

I placed another order later and used five $5 instant rebates on it totaling $25. One of the items I ordered was $15. It wasn't in stock so they refunded me for the item. But what they did was they refunded me for how much the item was on the order after the discounts were applied so instead of the $15 for the item I was given $3.15 back on the order and my $5 rebates were thrown away. I was not refunded the full amount for the item nor given my rebates back and I argued this for 2 days of which I eventually just gave up. After a month of dealing with nothing but problems from this company I just don't even care about what I'm owed anymore. They have lost a regular customer who has spent nearly $1000 there just in approximately the last 2 months. If that's how they treat a customer like that imagine how they will treat the person who only spends $50 here and there.

Seriously, there's much better and cheaper alternatives. Go somewhere else.

Update, Hot Topic did not like that I posted on their Facebook page about a new Rewards problem that came up and deleted it so they are now hiding things from people too.

WHAT EVER YOU DO, DO NOT ORDER ONLINE! THIS MAN NAMED JOSE I TALKED TO YESTERDAY WHEN I PURCHASED THE ORDER AND HE GAVE ME A HARD TIME AND TODAY I CHECKED ON IT AND HE SAID MY CARD WAS FLAGGED AND THAT THE ORDER NEVER WENT THROUGH. THATS TOTALLY BS. ANDDDD THE CALL DROPPED AND HE ACTED LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED AND THAT IT WASNT HIM ON THE PHONE BEFORE. I REMEBERED HIS NAME ON PURPOSE SO THAT THERE WAS NO FUNNY BUSINESS! THE RATING SHOULD BE NEGATIVE 100!

I ordered some items from Hot Topic online back in mid-September and it is now the end of October and I have not received the order. I called and was told the packed got sent to a completely wrong address in NY, while I live in OH! My credit card was charged but STILL I have not received my order. I'm currently on hold with Customer Service... going on ten minutes now with no response. The online service is inexcusably bad. Do not order from Hot Topic! It will be an absolute nightmare.

I love this store because of the products they carry, and that is the only reason. Bad customer service. If you call it takes 20 minutes to reach someone, and they drop calls randomly. My call was dropped and when I told them about it, they said it does that and they can't fix it. My call got dropped 9 times before I gave up at the end of the day. Also they are super expensive. 25$ for a t shirt. 70$ for a dress. Give me a break considering most of their shoppers are students. Shipping takes a while. But shipping is cheap. Sizes are kinda small for girls. The only thing that keeps me shopping is their merch,

I love, love, looooove Hot Topic! The jewelry, the clothes, the posterz, the décor! I ordered a $18 poster no too long ago online. It was waaay bigger than I expected! I enjoy seeing all the unique stuff they have for all kinds of cultures and people!

Online store has sales for items they do not have. Even though the site showed in stock I got an email notice removing this item from my order and shipping the rest. I did not get a chance to cancel the rest of the order and customer support refused to refund the shipping cost. Not a reputable online seller. Email correspondence was slow, when they responded.

I went to try and exchange an item that was too big for me but it was a sale item. I talked to the manager at the hot topic at Westminster mall and he tried to help by calling another store to see if they had another size. After he found a store that did, I had to drive to another city to exchange my item. Their policy is to not take back any sale items but the manager that called said it was ok and that he woe vouch for me. However, after driving for a half hour in traffic to exchange my item, the people at the Lakewood mall said that they wouldn't let me. I understand not taking back returning sale items, but they should really change their policy for exchanges. I have to tell people to not get me anything from hot topic since their sizes are different for every brand and no one can get my size right. :(

Based on My Online Order Experience:

Order Process Length: 9 days* (From placing order to receiving).

Quality/Size: Exactly as advertised. More information below.**

Customer Service: I have not personally dealt with the staff yet, but I would liked to have been informed my order was actually sent with 2 different tracking numbers. I had to go to the drop-off location twice because they arrived on separate days.

Overall: The order went smoothly, save for the information I mentioned above. I am just upset that the quality was not as great for the price I paid (and that was even with a 20% off sale). I will just have to lower my standards in terms of fabric-related articles from this site. Although it seems super soft, I feel they are focused on style more then durability.