Buying online and getting what you expected

Request a photo of the actual item that will be shipped to you

Unless the listing is for a specific item, tell the seller what variation you want, e.g length, colour and texture. Ask the seller to take a photo of the item and send it to you before you pay. If the seller refuses to do this, proceed with caution. The first thing to bear in mind is that the vast majority of photos you see online particularly for wigs are ‘stock photos’ taken from various websites. They may have no connection to the seller or factory that will supply your order. There are a couple of concerning reasons for a seller to decline such a reasonable request:

1. The seller is a dropshipper who takes orders and then pays a factory to supply (this is a very common reason). The seller can’t take a photo because they don’t have possession of the hair and perhaps at the point you order, they have not even decided where they will source the hair. The item could be in stock at a factory or made to order. This is a problem because the factory will almost certainly refuse to provide the seller with a photo. Why you ask? Because the factory wants to sell and is not concerned about the quality and does not want you to inspect the quality until it arrives with the end user and for a number of reasons has a low chance of being rejected at that point and if it is rejected it is the seller’s problem not the factory.

2. The seller has the item and knows that it does nor match the description and hopes that by the time you receive the item you will not have the time or energy to create a fuss or return the item.

If none of these factors apply, ask yourself why would would the seller potentially lose a sale than whip out their phone and take a couple of photos? If enough consumers request this, sellers will have to get with the program or stop doing business.

Consider review contents with caution

Sellers are known to bribe consumers to leave positive reviews. This applies to the largest online marketplaces in USA and Europe and China. Look for the tell-take signs that reviews may not be genuine or accurate, e.g almost all 5 star reviews, lots of reviews submitted within a short period of time and lack of reviews with photos. Useful information to look for in reviews is how the hair holds up not just what it looks like out of the bag.

Understand how ‘factories’ operate

Many of what purpose to be factories are actually middle agents in China who buy from various factories to meet orders but present themselves as a factory and provide photos etc of factory workers to support their assertion. Even when dealing with an actual factory, like other business court customers. Many sellers in Europe in the USA do not visit China to select suppliers. Factories provide photos of products that they claim to have produced to convince sellers to use them as a supplier. In some cases the photos will be genuine and the factory reliable. Unfortunately, often they will not be. Usually to begin with a factory will send products of a higher quality in order to establish the relationship with the seller. As time progressing quality will often slip. If an agent is involved, quality could be more hit an miss as they may use a number of factories depending on levels of stock and price. This is one of the reasons there is such a high churn of sellers on the large marketplaces. The achieve high reviews when they initially dispatch high quality hair products until they start creating angry customers who have received hair that is not as described. You will find that even the best sellers unless they really do make their wigs and wefts themselves (many claim to but do not) will still have quality blips as there will always be wig makers in factories that know hair better than others and hair being a natural product can vary in quality regardless of processing.

Spot review gaming

Where a seller has reviews you consider satisfactory in number and content, check what the reviews are for. Particularly in relation to eBAY and Etsy where sellers reviews are more prominent than product reviews, you will find that a seller of £400 wigs has numerous positive reviews however, the reviews relate to £2 accessories that also sell in their shop that are probably sold as low risk, low if any profit products that generate value through low risk sales and positive reviews. This is a genuine strategy. If 30 people say the seller’s hairbands are great, that should not reassure you that their wigs will be great also. If you purchase you will be a guinea pig.