I had a bad experience with Secret Sales last Christmas. I ordered some pearls for my Mother. They arrived 3 weeks later than expected (at least just in time for Christmas). The colour was completely different to my order and the pearls were very poor quality. They were either damaged or not properly polished as they had a gritty, dull surface and had hardly any shine. It was so close to Christmas that I felt I had no choice but to keep them and I still feel dreadful that these were given to my Mother as a present.
I had also ordered a watch for my husband. This did not arrive in time for Christmas although the site said it would.in fact it did not arrive until 6 weeks after Christmas. What they sent me was the wrong item - a woman's watch, not the man's watch I ordered. There was no return form in the package and I had to call them to get a returns label so I could exchange the watch (this was their exchange process at the time). After 2 weeks, this had not arrived. I chased them for it... After another 2 weeks, still no label... And so I chased again... And again. 3 months passed and I was still unable to return the item.in the end, I thought it was highly unlikely that they were going to be able to exchange this for the man's watch I had originally ordered and I sold the watch on to my sister as she particularly liked it.
I thought their problems may be the result of one bad supplier and a Christmas supply problem. So I thought I would give them another chance. I recently ordered some pearl earrings and what was supposed to be a quality freshwater pearl necklace. Both items were apparently at around 70% discount, saving me hundreds of pounds. The items arrived today. They were in a plain brown manila envelope with no padding. The 'pearls' are all plastic - poor quality plastic at that The shaft on the earrings was very thin and soft and had completely buckled in the post, making them unwearable. I have seen better quality costume jewellery on sale for just a couple of pounds. I cannot believe that these items were ever originally sold at the ludicrously inflated prices quoted on their website.
The postage on these items was £4.50 - given the weight and the quality of the packaging, they must be creaming a huge profit off this postage charge. They also say that they will only reimburse postage 'at their discretion', so when they send you wrong or faulty items, chances are they still make money on it, at your expense. And of course, I still have to pay to return them.
Having looked on the internet, it seems that this company has also been caught out selling fake items (Balenciaga bags and Ed Hardy items with 3 l's in 'hell'!)
Steer well clear of them.
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