I am a first and last time buyer of PinupGirlClothing.

Despite warnings from a few friends (I should have listened), I finally caved in and purchased the Jayne dress from their website. I apologize for the length of my review, but this all needs to be said.

Website: The website itself is nothing to write home about. No positive or negative feedback about that. If other factors werent so problematic, then I would be more nitpicky about it, but PUG has way more pressing and egregious issues to address before fine tuning the website.

Pricing: Their pricing is laughably high. I feel like with enough digging someone could easily find replications online from China and spend half the price for literally the same level of quality. There are also MUCH better vintage reproduction websites out there with fair pricing, PUG just happens to be in the forefront for whatever reason (Im assuming they send free stuff to influencers in the right communities to get their name out there). Also, I HATE when websites are stingy with free shipping. I feel like standard pricing for free shipping should be $50 or more, these are not heavy garments, its absurd that I had to pay $7 on top of $82. And keep in mind, I got off easy because my dress was on sale. This bad boy was originally $100+, and even then I would still NOT have gotten free shipping which is hilarious to me. Their free shipping kicks in at $200.so already, not off to a great start.

Shipping: Placed the order on 4/13 (Which was a Friday), got the package on 4/20 (following Friday) via FedEx. Not much to say here, it was probably the only decent part of this transaction.

Quality/Sizing: I only had the dress on for a short period of time, so I cannot confidently speak to the quality, I was more distracted by how off their sizing chart was. Im a short girl, 36-37 hips but a 24.5-25 waist, so I CAREFULLY reviewed the sizing chart they have on their website to make sure the small would fit me accordingly.

Per the website a small fits 26-27 waist and a 37-38 hips (I just checked right now), so I should have been in the clear and looking good. Welp, I didnt. The second I put this on it felt like an XS. It was cartoonishly tight, and hugged me in ALLLL the wrong places. I was at a loss of words at how off the sizing was. While the dress I purchased has minimal stretch, it should have been able to fit me no problem without looking so goddamn ridiculous. And no, Im not in denial about my measurements, I have similar dresses with the same proportions (and no stretch) and I have no problems getting them on and wearing them.

Upon mentioning this to a friend of mine, she said she also knew someone who purchased something where the sizing chart was horribly off, so this doesnt appear to be an isolated issue.

(Where they lost me officially) Returns: Things were already horrible, but this was the worst return experience of my life. I cannot understand for the LIFE of me, why anyone would want to make their customers jump through so many hoops. I'm an online shopping gal, and MANY times in my life has a garment not fit me, but the ease of a return has made me a repeat customer.

As soon as I emailed their Customer Service for my return authorization number and I was sent back a saga length of return instructions, I knew this was going to end in my disappointment and frustration. I had to read each sentence line by line to ensure that there was NO WAY they could deny my return because as so often is the case, the more complicated return instructions are the less likely the company wants to refund you in a desperate attempt to keep your money. Their strategy is probably to deter people from returning, and I can say with this return process it is super effective. If you go on Ebay and Poshmark or any third party selling site, theres a bunch of their stuff on there from the poor souls who got f*@ked over and are trying to recoup any funds they can.

So, after sighing and eye rolling my way through the returns (By the way, you have to pay return shipping, isnt that cute?), I got the item shipped out and even got tracking on it (I knew not to trust them). OH, and of course theres a restocking fee, so you can say goodbye to $8 of your refund on top of the return shipping. You also have 14 days to return a garment for a refund, if your garment is received on day 15 or 30 then youre screwed with store credit. I shipped my garment out on April 27th (a Friday), and it got there on April 28th 29th (Mon/Tues). I immediately sent an email, refusing to let them give me store credit, and asked that they issue a refund ASAP since my 14th day was that Friday.

I was replied to within the day (to my utmost surprise), and someone stated a refund would be issued. I made sure to save that email, and let bygones be bygones. I got a confirmation email that I would be receiving my refund on May 3rd, and let out a sigh of relief. But of COURSE this is not where things ended. After 4-5 days, I was getting worried. Ive done customer service most of my life, Im not the kind of unreasonable individual who would start getting upset over a refund after 1-2 days. By May 10th, I felt it was time to check in, of course I was brushed off and told Have you checked with your financial institution? Ive never had any issues with Paypal withholding money from me, and I also feel like this is the cop out response most companies give to shut people up. I wrote back explaining I checked my Paypal account and theres nothing. They then gave me a transaction ID number to share with Paypal, and I did so. Paypal of course (as I predicted), said that number was not connected to anything. Sigh.

Given the horrible experience with PUG thus far, and my long standing history with Paypal (which has only been positive), I immediately put the blame on them. I followed up yet again on May 11th explaining what Paypal wrote to me, and I did not hear anything back. By then I was out of patience, so I had to submit a case to Paypal yesterday (5/15). Since PUG cant seem to handle a basic refund, I had to bring the adults in to sort it out. I entered the dispute at 11am and had it resolved by 3pm, I was then issued a refund just today. THANK you Paypal.

Oh yes, and then I got an email from PUG today saying You should have received the refund by now. Um, yeah obviously, I had to open up a dispute to get my money back, and had I not done so Im confident I would still not have my refund.

While some of their designs are cute/sexy/interesting (despite the absurd pricing), I will never in this lifetime or any other lifetimes be purchasing from PinUpGirlClothing again. But at this rate, I dont see how they can last much longer with the way they treat their customers. Its not hard to believe that one of their long time designers Micheline Pitt left, she probably decided she didnt want her name tied to this $#*! show any more.

If you want something from their website, troll the internet. As noted above, plenty of people sell their stuff in desperate attempts to get their money back, so if you hold out long enough you can probably find the item you want at a reasonable price too.