Hot Topic
reviews and complaints

Made 2 separate purchases for daughter clothing-wise. First order had to return a few items. Returns state you can take to store location. Upon returning to Northpoint Mall location, the manager did everything but yell at us for returning to the store instead of via mail. I stood my ground and she reluctantly returned but kept up the guilt trip. Second order needed to return 5 items (of an order of 10). Decided to return to Gwinnett Mall location. Much more receptive to return but I had ordered 3 sizes of 1 item (since 1st order sizing was way out of whack!). I was told that I could not return them for credit, only could get store credit because they were now clearance. Still do not see them listed on site as clearance. Got home and have so far made 4 attempts to contact customer service via their "customer service" number. Each time I have been hung up on. Will NEVER buy again from company and would give them and F- for rating!

I like the chain a lot but I was very uncomfortable at this location and won't be going back. Good customer service is one thing but the Assistant Manager takes it to a whole new, creepy level. He is married and so am I but he really laid it on thick, constantly flirted with me, and somehow always found reasons to be near me (looking through items at the same places I was looking through them, rearranging stock at another location where I was, etc.) and talk to me. A friend was with me and she can corroborate this.

He used a ladder near my dressing room while I was trying on bathing suits, so he could easily have seen over the door. He also invited me into the back room, which he calls the "inner sanctum". The icing on the cake, though (yes, I'm being sarcastic) was when he sent me selfies that were taken in the Hot Topic bathroom. In the pictures he was wearing underwear and a smile, if you catch my drift.

I went to another store to have my personal information taken out of the computer system so he had no way to contact me. That store's Manager had his District Manager get in touch with me. I told her what happened, but when she spoke to him he lied and denied everything.

I also blocked him on all social media (or so I thought). On 5/26/16 I got a threatening message on Yelp from the person I mentioned in this review, and his wife made a new Facebook profile just to harass and threaten me (I have blocked those profiles and reported him to Yelp). He's trying to shut me up because he doesn't want people (especially his wife) to hear the truth about him.

I have gone to the police and filed a harassment report. I also had my lawyer send them a cease-and-desist letter, demanding that they leave me alone. If either of them gets in touch with me again, I will be pressing formal harassment charges.

I'm a grown woman who can easily handle unwanted attention, but I can't help but worry about the underage female workers and customers who may easily be intimidated by him, especially if he is their superior.

I received a defective product and wanted to return it, but these guys didn't allow me to do that! After receiving the product I contacted HotTopic and told them that I want my money back. They said that they need some time to discuss that and promised to contact me back later. For about two weeks they ignored me and when they finally called me they said that it was not possible to get a refund since over two weeks already passed! Are kidding me? I contacted them immediately after I got my package and they made this on purpose! This is terrible! People, please, stay away from this company!

Filed a complaint with PayPal and still no sign of my money! I returned the defective product and was supposed to get a refund months ago! These guys from HotTopic were ignoring me the whole time and it seems like they decided to keep my money! They are real scammers and they are not afraid of anything. I threatened them with my bank and police, but they really do not care! Avoid at all costs!

Placed an order for three items on 21 / 10 / 15, order is still "in process" on 17 / 12 / 15. Yesterday i finally received a message from them stating that two items i ordered are not in stock anymore. They said they cancelled my entire order. It took them two months to reply, and now they say that my order is cancelled. This was a christmas present for my children and now i have to think of something else. Their customer service is extremely slow and they ruined my plans! I should have suspected something earlier. But i am an optimist and all this time i believed in them. Thanks to my credit card company i returned the money. I will never buy another item from hot topic!

I used to order from hottopic.com all the time despite the ridiculous shipping to international customers. I would usually just wait until a 50% off international shipping sale so I was only paying slightly more than their competitors for shipping (which is sad). Despite that they're site used to at least provide me with what I ordered most of the time and ship within a reasonable time. Then... the site changed. Now they are just awful. I was dealing with them for nearly a month just to get one of my orders shipped from their warehouse. By the time they actually starting packing it half the items were missing and I wasted my special discount code. Their site also never properly reflects the stock in their warehouse. It took me quite a while before I actually got a hold of a customer service rep that was helpful. The email customer service is terrible and they spout off stock answers and move on. The Facebook message customer service line is hit and miss. I had to call multiple times and leave public messages on their facebook site to finally get some movement on my order. I actually had placed another order a week later and received it a week ago. I am STILL waiting on that first order though I AM told it is shipped now. When I did get someone good on my first problem she was helpful, but it was not easy and luck of the draw when I got her. On Facebook they said that they would get someone to call me between a certain hour. I waited 2 days and contacted them again on Facebook only to find out the agent that was told to contact me just plain didn't so they got another person to call me immediately. I placed another order later and used five $5 instant rebates on it totaling $25. One of the items I ordered was $15. It wasn't in stock so they refunded me for the item. But what they did was they refunded me for how much the item was on the order after the discounts were applied so instead of the $15 for the item I was given $3.15 back on the order and my $5 rebates were thrown away, essentially waving a carrot in front of my face to quiet me about a previous issue only to swipe it back. I was not refunded the full amount for the item nor given my rebates back and I argued this for 2 days of which I eventually just gave up. After a month of dealing with nothing but problems from this company I just don't even care about what I'm owed anymore. They have lost a regular customer who has spent nearly $1000 there just in approximately the last 2 months. If that's how they treat a customer like that imagine how they will treat the person who only spends $50 here and there. Seriously, there's much better and cheaper alternatives. Go somewhere else.

I used to order from hottopic.com all the time despite the ridiculous shipping to international customers. I would usually just wait until a 50% off international shipping sale so I was only paying slightly more than their competitors for shipping (which is sad). Despite that they're site used to at least provide me with what I ordered most of the time and ship within a reasonable time. I was Ok with that. They were at least a 3 star site at one point. Then... the site changed. Now they are just awful. I was dealing with them for nearly a month just to get one of my orders shipped from their warehouse. By the time they actually starting packing it half the items were missing and I wasted my special discount code. Their site also never properly reflects the stock in their warehouse. It took me quite a while before I actually got a hold of a customer service rep that was helpful. The email customer service is terrible and they spout off stock answers and move on. The Facebook message customer service line is hit and miss. Some phone people are OK, others are just awful. I did praise the helpful ones to the customer service supervisor just so they know they were actually good amongst a pool of unhelpful employees. I had to call multiple times and leave public messages on their facebook site to finally get some movement on my order. I actually had placed another order a week later and received it a week ago. I am STILL waiting on that first order though I AM told it is shipped now. When I did get someone good on my first problem she was helpful, but it was not easy and luck of the draw when I got her. On Facebook they said that they would get someone to call me between a certain hour. I waited 2 days and contacted them again on Facebook only to find out the agent that was told to contact me just plain didn't so they got another person to call me immediately. I placed another order later and used five $5 instant rebates on it totaling $25. One of the items I ordered was $15. It wasn't in stock so they refunded me for the item. But what they did was they refunded me for how much the item was on the order after the discounts were applied so instead of the $15 for the item I was given $3.15 back on the order and my $5 rebated were thrown away. I was not refunded the full amount for the item nor given my rebates back and I argued this for 2 days of which I eventually just gave up. After a month of dealing with nothing but problems from this company I just don't even care about what I'm owed anymore. They have lost a regular customer who has spent nearly $1000 there just in approximately the last 2 months. If that's how they treat a customer like that imagine how they will treat the person who only spends $50 here and there. Seriously, there's much better and cheaper alternatives. Go somewhere else.

I placed an online order with Hot Topic last month, the shipping messed up so the order went back to Hot Topic, I emailed HT as the order was enroute back to them to ask why the order was heading back, I did not hear from them so emailed AGAIN within the week...still did not hear, finally called Customer Service only to be told that my order had been put back into stock and I had been reimbursed...except that I REALLY wanted the item and by that point it was Out of Stock! Customer Service on the FB page told me that HT had emailed me, but when I asked for a copy of the emails I never heard anything. (And I have NO record of emails from them but I do have copies of my emails TO them) So to add salt to my wound I get this email from HT...just made me so frustrated!

"Thank you for shopping with us! We hope you'll write about your Disney Cinderella Corset Ball Gown while it's still fresh on your mind.

$100 gift card? Hell yeah!
Write a product review on hottopic.com to be entered for a chance to win a $100 Hot Topic gift card. There’s a new winner every month - log in now and write one already.

Good luck!"

My review is that Hot Topic has TERRIBLE customer service and TERRIBLE policies regarding how to deal with customer issues.

I bought three funko items from them, 1st one arrived- not as described. TOTALLY DIFFERENT BUT THE SAME AS MY DAUGHTERS EXISTING COLLECTION. 2nd and third have NEVER SHOWED UP? Im in australia- there seems to be NO WAY FOR INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS TO CONTACT THEM! RIPPED OFF $100 AUD! Will be contacting my c/c merchant and requesting chargeback! WILL NOT DECLARE THE FIRST ITEM HAS ARRIVED...WHY THE HELL SHOULD I RETURN AT MY COST FOR THEIR MISTAKE? IM OUT OF POCKET MYSELF...FOR THIER STUPID F*CKUP AND THEN NO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF MY COMPLIANT 100% IGNORED! NEVER, EVER DEAL WITH THIS ROTTEN COMPANY! OUT OFF 10 YEARS BUYING ONLINE ALL THE TIME, IVE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT...INTERNATIONAL BUYERS DONT GET CONNED BY CHEAP PRICES, JUST BUY EBAY OR ELSEWHERE AND PAY EXTRA IF YOU WANT YOUR GOODS!

I bought shoes and accessories from the company www.hottopic.com. It was total rip off, ‘coz after these ### got my payment, they provided me only fake tracking number and nothing else. I tried to check it, but it showed error. After that I wanted to contact the online chat agent, but all agents were unavailable. They are liars and scammers, and I want to find other deceived customers, who lost money. Please we need to stop this company and return our money. Post your comments.

Was in their store on 12/15 and found Doctor Who items that my daughter absolutely loves. Since they didn't have her size in the 50th anniversary raglan pullover, the guy said that he would get shipment in and hold my items until 12/17 and that they would be open until 10:30. i arrived at the store at 10:00 pm and reminded the same guy that he was holding items for me under my name. He did not have my items which means my daughter doesn't get the 50th anniversary raglan pullover that she'd love. All I got was a pathetic sorry and something to the effect that someone removed them from the backroom where he had them for me in a bag. This Wheaton Plaza Hot Topic store was our favorite, but since they have employed other folk, their customer service has gone way done.

I will never order from hot topic online or at the store again. I ordered some items from hot topic on 12/10/2013, then received an email stating that those items would be received by 12/13/2013. Then get an email on 12/12/2013 stating that I have to conform my online order. When I called to conform the order they asked a few questions then transfer me over; which took ten minutes. Then I had to redo the whole process of my online purchase; which made no sense. The whole purpose of making my order was to send my daughter some gifts for Christmas; now I am not sure if it will make it on time due to this big inconvenience. I will not recommend this store to anyone!

Ordered a pair of Hello Kitty toe socks for a gag gift. Received a Striped Horn Snood hat instead. Followed Hot Topics procedures to request a return and replacement via email. No response from customer service. They have a nifty feature on their website - "Talk to the President." The President and CEO of Hot Topics is named Lisa Harper. Apparently Ms. Harper trained the Customer Service group since she doesn't respond either. Hot Topics is popular with the teenage crowd with numerous retail mall locations across the country, but I certainly wouldn't recommend online purchases from Hot Topics since they don't stand by their service or fix their mistakes.

I just received an online order from Hot Topic .com. My daughter tried on her new earrings and within 3 hours they broke. (she's 18)I immediately e-mailed and then called HT to ask about an exchange and was told repeatedly that if the package was opened they could not offer an exchange. They broke in under 3 hours for God's sake. I just want a new pair. No talking to customer service. just like conversing with a robot.

I just recieved an order from HotTopic.com. My daughter had her earrings no more than 3 hours when they broke. I contacted HT and was told repeatedly that I couldn't return them for an exchange because she wore them. I could see if I was trying to return it because she didn't like them. But they were BROKEN. She just wants a new pair.