26 July - Update: Customer Service Manager, Claire, to the rescue!! I now know that there is someone at this company who understands how to deal with customer problems. The parcels are now being re-directed, I no longer have to discuss addresses with couriers and my money has been immediately refunded. Well done, Claire.25 July- Update: I am now being asked to write a letter of authorisation to change the address because Self portrait moved. Me?? why am I doing all this??I do not usually write reviews for companies but have done once or twice when the service or product was exceptional. This review is not one of those, but I hope it can expose the sloppiness, lack of care and poor attitude of Self Portrait’s workers and upper management who must be oblivious to the way their company is being run. I am one of the millions of non-royal minions who dared to be influenced by the lovely Catherine, Princess of Wales @KensingtonRoyal and her style. I do not have a stylist and I am a Welsh ex-pat living in Canada. I hope that these credentials do not allow for lack of respect as a customer. This review is in two parts: the delivery story and review of the garment.The ordering of a dress went through and DHL made a quick delivery (three days) by air from London to the west of Canada. Imagine my surprise when the courier delivered THREE large boxes for the order of ONE dress. The ensuing frustrating issues came about because I am an honest person. The first box contained the dress I ordered in the size I wanted, but so did the other two. I contacted Self Portrait by e-mail that day and received a reply telling me to send a photo of the boxes. I did that and they said they would arrange for a return label for me to send the two unwanted dresses back. A few days later I received one label. I could not print out the label twice as the courier needed a different number for each parcel. I requested a new label and once again waited. I eventually took the boxes to a DHL shipper and took a photo of the packing slip and the tracking numbers to send proof of return to Self Portrait. In the meantime, I tracked the packages. Once they arrived in Heathrow I knew delivery would be imminent. How wrong could I be! I received an email from DHL telling me they could not deliver the parcels because the company was not at the stated address and the phone number had changed. At this point, I decided this was a scam company. Why on earth would they send false return labels to ensure the delivery failure of $1200.00 worth of clothing that belonged to them. I was requested by DHL to authorize a return to sender (at my cost), abandon the parcels or provide a proper address. I emailed Self Portrait explaining the situation and contacted DHL by phone. I found a current phone number for Self Portrait and supplied that to DHL. Self Portrait’s customer service then had the absolute cheek to tell me via email that all return deliveries to them were my responsibility and they would not contact DHL to tell them their correct address. The address was then added to my email. I then phoned DHL again, explained the issue and they changed the address on the parcels. I was also told that DHL in London had been trying to track down where Self Portrait’s offices were. With all the frustration and inconvenience I have had with this company not once did I receive an apology for their error. All along it was perceived that I was in the wrong. Perhaps I should have accepted the two extra dresses, just ignored that they did not belong to me and given them as gifts to friends. Now to the dress (blue lace midi) I do not know if the model was a strange shape with extremely narrow shoulders and arms down to her knees or if the dress had been altered to fit her, but I am in no way oddly shaped. The dress actually fitted in the body but the shoulders were far too tight and the sleeves hung three inches below my fingers. What a strange shape I would have to be to fit this dress. I had considered altering it to fit, but because of the way the sleeves were cut from the lace, the lack of extra seam allowance to ease the shoulders and the method of lining the jacket section, it really was not worth the effort. I have now returned the dress and paid $100 for the privilege of trying on a Self Portrait garment. I now have to wait for Canada Post to deliver my (real) return to see if Self Portrait will refund my money – or perhaps they will consider it not worth the effort. What an utter waste of my time, money and energy. I do not usually order online, but this experience has been a warning to me never to do this again.
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