I love online shopping, but I’ve learned some things over the years.
First, Offers, Promos, and Even shopping won’t work if you have Adblock On/Cookies not Enabled.
My experience: When I was shopping on Darphin, they had a black Friday promo: if you spend a certain amount, you get a gift. I spent that amount. However, it wasn’t added to my cart. I thought it would be shown in the confirmation email. It didn’t, and I didn’t get the promo when the items shipped.
I had to deal with Darphin to get an equivalent gift sent to me, which they made so hard to do. They kept going back and forth with me, saying that the gift was out of stock and they didn’t have an identical gift and instead told me to take this discount code in its place. I was amazed; they can certainly send the matching gift in 6 samples. I wasn’t picky at all about what they sent me. I put in that order and met the condition of the promo to get a gift.
They finally sent it to me.
Lesson learnt: If the promo/offer doesn’t show up in your cart or you cannot add items to your cart, try turning off your adblocker or cookies aren’t enabled. If it still doesn’t show up. DON’T GO THROUGH WITH THE ORDER.
You can see below a screenshot of the snippet of my email with their customer service. This won’t be the last time I have to deal with glitches and their customer service.
Second, if the item is on Backorder, err on caution and do not order until it comes back in stock.
My experience: Again, when I was shopping on Darphin, I ordered an item on Backorder. The confirmation email stated that it would be shipped when it became available. This was back in November of 2023. I checked the website in January of 2023 the item was back in stock. However, I receive no shipping email for the item.
Then I sent them a customer email asking why I wasn’t shipped the item when it came back in stock. Two weeks later, they sent me an email, which they didn’t read in my previous email, saying, “The item you wanted is out of stock. You can place an order, and we will update you via email on its status”.
Again, I was amazed! I already placed an order. They shipped out the item, making it go out of stock again before I even got mines. I don’t want to place another order; I want to ship it out when it returns in stock again. I told them to cancel the order because, at this point, I’ve dealt with their customer way too many times due to glitches that were no fault of my own—making it a painful process to get the issue corrected.
Lesson learnt: Don’t order an item on Backorder. Either wait for it to come back online or find another place to order it from. It’s not worth the headache of dealing with customer service.
Third, sometimes promos and codes don’t work together. Check.
My experience: Again, this happened on Darphin. I received a discount code for signing up for their newsletter and wanted to use it to add three samples. I could do that via their website, but there were no samples when the items were shipped. Again, I contacted their customer service, and they informed me that the specific code and promo do not work together but would honour it and send me the samples.
Lesson Learnt: Be aware that promos and codes don’t work together, read the fine print if they have it.
Fourth, Google discount codes to ensure you don’t miss out on saving
My experience: I’m not sure if I can advocate for Honey, but their premise is true. There are plenty of discount codes out there that can help you save a few dollars. I only used it a few times, which doesn’t work for me. However, I usually type the company name and discount code. I find a few codes that save me a couple of bucks, and it doesn’t take too long.
Lesson Learnt: Always check for discount codes online.
Fifth, Check the reviews.
My experience: Although you might skip over the review. I suggest you don’t, especially if there are many and they have demographics attached to them. Find someone similar to you; although it might be you exactly, it is an excellent proxy to determine if the product will work for you, whether it be skincare or clothes.
Lesson Learnt: I scroll down to reviews to get a good picture of the item.
Disclaimer: I love Darphin’s products, it is pricey, but the quality is excellent. The Customer Service team eventually made it right, but it took so many emails (roughly six or more). More emails and conversations than I usually have with customer service to resolve my issue. I had to present until my issue was resolved, and you should do the same.
Their Canadian website, however, is where my gripe is with. Glitches were screwing up my order when it shouldn’t have.
Thank you for reading! Happy shopping!
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