Review: True&Co - Innovative Bra Shopping that Just Misses the Mark InService
It's a bra and Lingere site that is designed to make bra shopping more custom tailored and successful.
I really liked the concept, but it's customer service is lacking in ways that force me to give this service a 2 out of 5.
The good:
It's super convenient and innovative! You simply take a quiz about all your bra struggles and desires and they automatically pair you with bras designed to fit your needs. For example if you have trouble with bra overhang or overly right straps, they look for bras that solve those specific issues. They even suggest different sizes for each bra based on the fit of that particular bra. You may be a 34 B in Calvin Klein, but a 32 C in Night Out, and they give you those suggestions.
Having a way to customize your bra search to your needs is very comforting.
(Classy box it all comes in)
It's also really convenient because you don't have to go to the store and try on various bras at various places. Instead you can try on a variety of brands in the comfort of your own home.
I noticed they had a variety of brands, styles and colors of bras and Lingere. It definitely seemed like they may fit me better, but the bras were not earth-shatteringly amazing. The bras are all high quality, some better than others, but the real charm to the service is having a tailorized, convenient home-shopping experience.
My bras came relatively quickly and in very nice packaging. They looked nicely displayed, which is important for us visual shoppers. It also came with a return bag and pre-paid label which was nice. The label was not affixed to the bag, but I can let that go.
There were instructions included and all the bras were clearly labeled. However, they did not have the prices on them, which was a little disappointing. This brings us to ...
The bad:
Unreliable site:
The first time I ordered my set of try on bras the order somehow never went through. I got the confirmation page, but no e-mail and no package. A month later I realized it must not have gone through and started the entire process again. I had to look through my credit card statement to make sure that the package wasn't charged in full to my card. Though the package never went through my $15 promotion that I got from Facebook somehow disappeared. It's only valid on your first box. I still have no clue what happened.
A Hassle to Customize:
If you want to change any of your information you have to take the entire quiz again, a bit of a hassle. Let's say you accidentally put 36C and you didn't realize until the end when all your suggested bras were 36 C, well as far as I can tell this means you have to start your quiz over. I could be wrong, but this is what happened to me when I tried to edit my profile. So either there is no way to edit it, or it's too complicated to discover easily as a new user.
The Big Downfall- Unreasonable Fees and Terms Designed To Take More Money from te Customer:
This is so huge that it caused True &Co to lose a full 2 stars from my rating.
First the minor offense of the two, they only give you 5 days to try on the bras. This is just long enough to make your think it's enough, when really it's not. Five days sounds nice, but remember you have to make a decision, repackage and then mail back the other bras.
You can't really mail it from home because it is a huge package and a lot of money to risk being stolen. So you just take that annoying trip to the post office or usps drop off area. It's not that bad, except you have to somehow make that between the 5 days. So if you are busy at all and you want more than 1 day to try your bras on, you better hope your bras arrived well before the weekend.
If you don't return the bras in time they will charge you for all of them, which would be no less than $150 based on the average price of their bras.
Now if you thought that was unreasonable and designed to make you mess up and lose money, check this out. There is a hidden fee.
If you don't fill out their "feedback" form when you return their bras they will charge you a $20 convenience fee. Whose convenience? Theirs to conveniently take more of your money if you don't give them feedback, again within 5 days.
Read it:
This is ridiculous! They are essentially charging you not to review the product, which is supposed to be for your benefit.
I'm sure they have their reasons, but it doesn't matter what they are, this is a ridiculous fee, only presented after the fact in small print.
Let me say that again: they do not explain this fee on their site except in small print. It is clearly designed to fool you into losing another $20.
So since True & Co wants feedback so bad, here it is: you earned a 2.
Despite the 2 rating there is room for improvement. I was dissappointed with the hassle of True & Co's strict terms and fees, but they did have a cool idea. It is very convenient to shop online and be able to try a bra before buying. In fact I bought several bras on Amazon that all had to be returned due to poor fit, so I've learned the hard way: never shop online for a bra. Until now.
If True & Co can indeed get rid of their unnecessary feedback charge and their strict 5 day or pay rule then they may indeed be a service worth using to shop for all your bra and Lingere needs.
For now I am frustrated with a service that only claims to cater toward women.
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