Friday 13 March 2015

Orchard Corsets - whittle your confidence, not your waistline

I bought a corset with a few aims in mind.  The obvious one being to try and get a better shape – but also I was interested in waist training to achieve a permanently smaller waist, in improving my posture and in the alleged side effect of reducing appetite.  All these aims had one thing in common: to boost my self esteem and make me feel a bit better about myself.

Those aims engendered enough hope that I put aside qualms about ordering from the US.  I’d researched carefully online and Orchard Corsets seemed to be the best – there was loads of help online for instance.  Recognising that I knew next to nothing about corsets, I opted for what seemed like an excellent service and submitted all my measurements for them to recommend a style and advise on size. 

I got it surprisingly quickly – 3 weeks – which was good as I wanted to wear it in sufficiently that I could wear it to this party (next weekend) and the wedding (weekend after). 

When I had the great try-on of 27 dresses, I thought I’d put it on to get the full effect.  I watched the youtube clip carefully and tried to follow the instructions but I could not fasten the clips down the front (or only the top or top and bottom), even with the laces almost fully apart.  I emailed them, getting the lady who’d advised on fitting in the first place. 

Now, given that this was about trying to boost my self-esteem, can you imagine the damage she caused when she advised me to “lose a few inches”?  Or sell on ebay and buy a bigger one.  The latter is crass and grasping but the first piece of official advice has just made me want to shrink further into my shell and made me quite literally scarlet with embarrassment and humiliation. 

So much for US customer service being better than that in the UK.


4 comments:

Love Cat said...

What a thoughtless cow. That kind of attitude is totally inappropriate.

Forget it, shake it off - someone like that is not worth paying any heed to.

Re the actual corset, it sounds like there is a bit of a knack to getting it on. Could you ask P to help you with it at all?

xxxx

amy said...

Wow, that is unbelievable and unacceptable. I would absolutely get in contact with a "higher up," and explain the situation. I cannot imagine that they would not rectify the situation immediately.

Seren said...

What a ....insert appropriate rude word here. There is simply no need for that sort of attitude.

If you took advice and submitted the measurements that you were told to submit then the problem lies with the supplier. I would definitely follow up with an email to say that they have not fulfilled their end of the contract to your satisfaction, and include copies of any previous correspondence.

Then go and kick a cushion. But be angry - not shameful.

Grrrr (that's the eye of the tiger.)

Sx

Lisa said...

Def take this further - they have social media channels, tweet them about it, tell people what was said, facebook them - basically go to town on social media - 1 to let others know what terrible service it is and 2 - you'll hopefully get a refund or replacement - they wont like their poor service displayed where all can see it! x