Italist
reviews and complaints

Hi, placed an order for 4 items. One item arrived a total different item as in the picture. The other was never shipped. The third was too big and I needed to return it. I went on the website to create a return and was horrified to see that in addition to the $40 return fee they are charging $70 for duties. I have never ever paid any duties to return an item to europe. I have dealt with harrods, farfetch, outnet any many more companies. Never have I paid duties to return an item. I was trying to get in touch with them about the wrong item, all I got was automatic email responses even though I was chatting live with a person. I was trying to cancel the item that never shipped as soon as I found out the crazy return prices, but they wont let me. For goodness sake, the item hasn't shipped. As much as I try to have a decent chat all they do as say someone will address your issue. Then that someone sends me an automatic email. I am willing to pay the $40 return but no way am I paying $120 to return each item especially an item they shipped that wasn't as describe. I would have never placed this order had I know the unheard of return policy. I have tried asking them to send me return label but am not getting anywhere.

Do not buy ANYTHING from this website! if there is a zero star I will give it, they have very bad customer service, I bought a bag from here and ask for a return, the customer service said the bag is scratched but I did not make any scratch at all. I let the customer service know, but all they do is telling me they not accept the return. I said the scratch could happen at transporting or anytime, I didn't wear the bag for one minute, I opened the box and didn't like it so I went to return it. Nothing else. However, the rude customer service keep telling me the bag is damaged by me and ask me to pick it up from Italy and didn't give me any detail about how to do the pick up, how to let the pick up guy know which one is my package. They are just rude and won't listen to the customer's voice. They are the worst customer service and has no sympathy for their customers at all. I recommend all customers to not buy from this site.

On June 10th, 2020, I purchased Adidas Originals '032c Salvation' Shoes from Italist.com for a total of $137.44. There was very little information about the shoes on their website, so I had to do my own research in figuring out the correct sizing for women. When I received the package on June 12th, the shoes were too large. I emailed Italist customer support asking if they "could you please help me figure out the proper size to order so that I can exchange them?" They responded with a canned response about how I can return the item since they do not offer exchanges. They also told me I should do my own research if I want to figure out the correct sizing or try them on at a luxury boutique in the midst of a pandemic. I went to their website and once I requested the return, I found out that they would only reimburse me $87 from the original $137.44. This means that I would be paying approximately $50 to return a pair of shoes that don't fit due to a lack of information on their website. That's a little over 36% in fees from the total cost. I wrote to them by email only to receive similar canned responses. Not to mention, I had scheduled a DHL pickup for the return on Monday, June 15, 2020 and no one showed up. Italist's website states in their return policy is "Once the return is processed and verified, you will receive a refund for the price of the order, excluding the total of shipping costs, customs duties, and/or courier charges incurred. Please note, customs duties are nonrefundable through Italist. You may be able to recover customs duties by contacting the local customs bureau directly." There is no way to calculate the fees of customs, duties and shipping. There is a complete lack of transparency on Italist's website, and many other customers would agree with me on https://www.complaintsboard.com/ and on https://www.trustpilot.com/ that the company has hidden fees left and right. Due to the deceitful nature of the website and the misinformation offered to their customers, I demand a full refund of $137.44 once the shoes are returned.

Beware! These people are crooks, they kept my hard earned money. On 4/9/2020 I purchased a Balmain Blazer. The Blazer arrived Faulty, wrinkled, with lint on on the fabric and a noticeable stain on the collar. The blazer did not seemed new. I immediately requested a return label from Italist and shipped the blazer back as directed and requested a full refund. To my surprise Italist only refunded part of my money. Sent several email to customer service, some I received a reply from Lorenzo who did not specify how much my refund would be only advised it was goin to be refunded within 48 hrs, Lorenzo never replied to my last email requesting the full refund paid for a new blazer totaling $1084.57. Italist refunded the amount of $ 933.69 keeping $150.88 off my money. This is a ripped off they have the blazer which they will resale and kept money that is not theirs, they claim the money is to pay for return shipping costs and for duties and courier fees which I as a customer should not have to pay for a defective item. These charges are also weird when they are located in Los Angeles. Please DO NOT BUY FROM THIS PEOPLE, UNLESS YOU ARE READY TO LOOSE YOUR MONEY!

I placed the mentioned above order on 01/12/20. I requested return, because the material description was incorrect.
I ordered Prada pants, the price was $491.78; VAT - USD 0.00, Customs Duties - USD 0.00, Sale Tax - $43.64 and shipping - $0.00. So the total is $535.42.
When I tried to request return the total refund is $303. They deducted VAT $191.96 and shipping $40. I agree to pay shipping cost, but VAT $191.96 I do not want to pay. VAT must show when placing the order, but it does not.
This company id doing the business is not right way. Customer must to know how mush is VAT before placing the order.
EIN Company [protected].

Thank you
Liliya Yevlentyeva

I ordered many times various products and all was well until i placed an order for a BV belt.
FIrst, the dimensions were never mentioned in the description (width in particular) and the pictures were misleading, too, the belt looked like a proper jeans size one, 4 straps of famous Bottega Veneta intrecciato pattern, which i quickly visualized (i have plenty of BV items to figure that out roughly) and it was ok for the intended purpose - jeans, but it was NOT mentioned anywhere that it was MICRO intrecciato, and when the belt arrived, it was all disappointment and no joy! it's so thin and flimsy, it cannot be worn with ANY pants, let alone the jeans!
i wanted to return it, and upon application for that the refund amount was shown is 161 euro! i paid 312 euro!
almost a half! SERIOUSLY?
and the CS is repeating like a broken record - import duties to Italy, blah blah blah...
also they recommended to HIRE A BROKER TO RECOVER MY IMPORT DUTIES FROM THE LOCAL AGENCY!
REALLY?
Hire a broker to recover something like 37-40 euro?
and still DHL fee for shipping both ways and import duty to Italy is supposed to be covered by me!
A load of rubbish, that's what their so called 'return policy' is!
Never again! They lost me as a customer, and i was a damn good one!
I will spend my money in the places that don't rip me off!
very disappointed!

Awful customer service and no real time inventory. I ordered a dress for a wedding after cancelling my order from a more reputable store. Big mistake! It was Friday when I placed order with Italist and days went by without them confirming item was in stock. It is now Thursday and no confirmation from their Italian partner. They always send me the same canned response. It's been three full days with me messaging daily for updates and nothing from their customer service team besides the same canned cut and paste response. Now I noticed the dress is sold out on their site and the pending charge on my card dropped... So I guess they don't have it. Sad that I'm finding out this way versus an actual person. Please use 24 Sevres, Farfetch, Matchesfashion, or netaporter and learn from their amazing CS. Yes, prices may be higher but you will be able to return hassle free. Now I can't reorder from a different store as dress is sold out due to them not being able to confirm that the item was in stock. Thanks Italist. You lost a prospective customer and all you had to do was communicate honestly. Update: Finally received an email that dress is sold out and my order was cancelled 5 days after I placed it. Wow. Now it's sold out everywhere. If you really want something don't buy it at Italist. Awful company...they claim they will "get back to me" but I doubt it.

This is the absolute only company that charges both shipping to you as well as return shipping and VAT tax. It takes days for them to respond and when I made an error when ordering size 8 sneakers I emailed them to change to size 7 but by the time they responded the sneakers were shipped out. They charged me $40 shipping and $35 VAT per pair of sneakers ! Not one European company, farfetch, Garmetory, etc charges shipping fees let alone return shipping and VAT! Never again ! Do not send me a link to your model, I don't care ! You are scammers

In August 2019 I ordered a backpack for $97, order number [protected]. It arrived in good condition but was too small.

I returned it with tags and original packaging in unused condition. I received a refund of $28. They charged $69 for return shipping/processing. That is over 70% of the cost of the item. Had I known that up front, I would have kept the bag and consigned it such that I could recoup my investment.

I requested $40 of the fees be refunded. They ignored my request.

Please stay away from this website. It rips you off if you ever try to return merchandise.
They impose you to pay for twice the international shipping fee of DHL, no other service, and you've got to pay for them.

Why I need to pay your duty 2 times for return? this is totally illegal and they just try to get your money as much as they can).

I chat with customer support. They said, they will email back with question to return. I ask them about reference number or case number. They didn't replied at all...

I keep all print screens for evidences of their worst customer support!
I also dispute this charge with Credit Card company, since I have evidences of not response to the chat, after I asked about return policy

I bought a Balenciaga shirt for 356 in June 2019 from Italist.com. They are deducting 180 dollars from my refund to return it claiming to charge for return custom duties and fees, which do not even exist. There are no duties on returns. This is theft, plain and simple. Return shipping ($40) is bad enough, but they are fabricating charges. They also do not respond to email and send the same automated non-response over and over again. It is impossible to get through to a human. Do not shop here.

I bought sneakers for 370€ on this site.
I am located in Europe in Slovenia.
When I recieved the shoes nothing seemed wrong and I wore them in the house for 1-2 hours.
After getting them off I noticed that they had a crack in the leather.
After one wear, thats unacceptable, they are advertised as handmade and premium quality and also the price reflects that.
I contacted them and after they told me they wont accept my return because item was worn, I showed them EU consumer law that states:
EU law also stipulates that you must give the consumer a minimum 2-year guarantee (legal guarantee) as a protection against faulty goods, or goods that don't look or work as advertised.

If the product you sold turns out to be faulty — or doesn't look or work as advertised — within the timeframe of the legal guarantee, you are responsible for this.

After that they did not reply to me anymore, they just sent me automated messages that said:
Dear amadej,

We would like to inform you that we have provided you with all the information available to us.
If you are still unsure, we invite you to view the video that explains our unique model here and read the FAQ.

This is just insulting and unprofessional, I was suppose to recieve shoes that would last for years, instead I got totally diffrent quality faulty shoe that cracked after a single wear.
I demand that they accept my return and refund me the mony as they are not above the law.
They cannot sell wrongly advertised, low quality and faulty products without being responsible.

I also filled a complaint in the europe for their shell company Itaserv BV that accept payments in europe.
Refrence number of the complaint 2019/124695.

Urgent missing parcel
MK

maria kornilaki
Wed 4/3/2019 4:49 AM
Sent Items
To:
customercare@italist.com;
My order no.is [protected].
My parcel was to be delivered on Monday but is DHL has told me that probably is still in Italy and no one knows where.
Since last Thursday they made security inspection in the parcel because probably the sender had put something inside my parcel other than the bag that I have ordered .From then they can't track it.
DHL have sent email to the sender in Italy on the 1st of April to ask what exactly was inside the parcel but they haven't received any answer!

They told me that since I paid you you should contact the sender and dhl in italy and inform me further what's happening with my parcel!
Waiting to hear urgently from you. I am really worried and feeling very stressed since you don't reply to my messages for 4 days now and I am really worried since I have paid a lot of money for this bag.
Looking forward to hear from you!

I found a bag (Saint Laurent Uptown Tote) on their website in a color that is not otherwise widely available currently so despite never ordering from this company before, I placed the order. The listing said the bag was "black" but the product code said "dk notte" (dark blue) and the pictures were dark blue but I contacted them about the discrepancy and was told to "watch this video to learn our model" which of course has nothing to do with an error in their listing and then I was told "this is the information we were provided" again not addressing the simple fact their was an error in their listing (at this point they still have not fixed the listing).

This should have been fair warning but I ordered the bag anyways as again this color was not available anywhere else right now. When the bag arrived, it was in fact dark blue as expected, again proving the listing was wrong and was very nicely packaged and beautiful. Also the bag arrived relatively quickly. All was perfect except there was no shoulder strap. Now my girlfriend has this bag already in creme and does not like or use the strap as it isn't very functional (too short) however after paying so much money for a bag, we obviously want the strap so I contact them telling them there was no strap after after 3 days of waiting, I get a message back saying give them the order number, description of problem (both of which I did in original email) and pictures of the defect...how do I take a picture of something that isn't there? However I reply, take pictures of bag without strap and send back and then wait 2 days for reply that they have contacted the boutique and then wait another day for reply that boutique says strap is inside bag in paper and to please verify. Hmmmmmmm, so now nearly a week and the solution is look again because it is obviously there. I patronize them (obviously I looked extensively on receipt because I was certain the strap would be there) and look again, through every piece of stuffing paper and nope, no strap so I reply and now after another day, I am told "return the bag". It took over 1 week to get to that solution. I have read the horror stories over returns with this company (which was also a reason I almost DID NOT order to begin with but knew I would never be returning this bag because wanted it so bad) and that doesn't really seem to be a satisfactory solution because this color is otherwise not available anywhere else. They did say in fact they would pay the return shipping and taxes, which is better than other reviews, but this is not the solution I wanted. I just wanted them to send me the strap. They have the bag still available on their site so I know this is a possibility unless the other bags they have don't have straps either. As the boutique deals with Saint Laurent, I assume they could contact them about the strap but instead I am simply told "send the bag back" and it took over a week to come to that solution. They would prefer me to send the bag back and reorder, so send me another (there is absolutely nothing wrong with the bag except missing strap) and then I would have to assume the other would now have the strap. To me makes no sense.

Avoid this company. They obviously have no idea what exactly they are selling as listings are inaccurate and they refuse to address when someone politely brings it up to them and have no idea what is actually being sold and shipped. Their customer service is atrocious and completely unacceptable.

At the end of the day they advertise "items up to 30% off" and this statement was true. The bag is authentic and it was well packaged and quickly shipped, also true. The bag is beautiful and after seeing, there is no way my girlfriend will accept not being able to have this bag so I guess we will just keep without strap. To me just seems like a simple solution to send me the strap, much more simple than repackaging, shipping back, them paying the costs and repaying the taxes and them shipping me another totally different bag or just accepting refund, which according to some reviews never happens anyways. And all this, the grand decision to just "return the bag" took over 1 week to come to and back and forth emails because they don't offer and customer service number to call, again a red flag. What company doesn't at least offer a number to call to remedy problems? C'est la vie, a learning lesson and that lesson is AVOID THIS COMPANY.

I purchased a pair of Alexander Wang boots from Italist. They were faulty and refused to refund me. I contacted all consumer watch dogs in America and home (Australia) it was not until I threatened legal action that they refunded me a portion of the cost. I also contact Alexander Wang who attested that it was Italist responsibility to refund. I got so desperate that I Linkden the CEO.

Shopper to shopper - don't use this site, it's just not worth the hassle... if there was a -100 I would rate the experience that, not the 1 star.

I initiated a return of a pair of shoes that did not fit well within the 14-day return period. Each time I tried to schedule a DHL pick-up online, however, in order to complete the process, I received an Error notice, in red ink written above the return procedure box. I tried repeatedly over 10 days to complete the return and each time received the Error notice. I then tried "chatting" online and emailing requests for help. All the responses I received were automated replies, and then the statement that returns had to be completed within 14 days so that I was too late. Since then my continued attempts to get through to a live customer service rep have been completely ignored.

I've try several times to get in contact with this company. I request a retuning label and they keep me send the same response . To go true to the site . I try to explain several time that I was able to print . Have a error all the time that I try and they seams to no care.
I purchase a shoes that don't fit me and I do not know how I can send them back.
No phone number or someone that to help or do anything to help with that .

Hi All,

First I ordered one pair of shoes from italist, I had no problems pushing the order and they were delivered super fast, I appreciated this, I opened the box, the shoes were authentic but with no security tags attached compared to other similar sites where I ordered from. When I tried the shoes I realized they were a bit small so I ordered the right number and returned this ones.

In a few days I received the new box of shoes, all good here, still no security tags attached but since the product was ok I was happy with it.

After one month since I returned the initial pair I got NO feedback from italist regarding the returned product and obviously no money refund so I decided to write them to ask about the status, so this way I got a quick reply saying that the product was not returned accordingly to their policy, more exactly that the security tags were missing and that the product was used. Which are totally wrong assumptions since there were NO SECURITY TAGS and the shoes were returned as I received them since I wanted the money back because I ordered same pair but larger number.

I insisted to contact customer support to ask for some pictures that prove the issues they were claiming but I got no answer back, just a short message saying that if I want the product back I should arrange transportation for this.

My feeling is that their policy is actually to never return the money for returned products by claiming fake and nonexistent issues and if you ask for clarifications you just get NOTHING.

Very bad experience even the products were ok.

Please stay away from this website. It rips you off if you ever try to return merchandise.
Their return policy is the worst ever in the world, they impose you to pay for twice the international shipping fee of DHL, no other service, and you've got to pay for them (for example, from Italy-NYC, and NYC-Italy, you pay for 46 Euro), second, they impose you to pay for duty fee when you return your merchandise back in Italy, (for example, the bag costs me 290 euro, they deduct 40 euro as duty fee by saying the return to Italy equals import merchandise to italy, you will have to pay the duty, i don't have the bag? Hello, why i need to pay your duty? this is totally illegal and they just try to eat your money by putting money in their pocket)
In the end, I purchased the bag at 315 Euro, they only refund me 213 euro. They owe me 102 euro refund.
There are so many amazing e-commerce website in the world, such as net-a-porter, i never experienced anything imposed duty like this, the shipping and return services are free, why do we need the scam website like Italist.com?
please stay away from italist.com.

I had made some research about Italist before ordering and was aware that there were quite some negative feedbacks. Well, I will ads one!
I ordered a pair of Stella Mc Cartney shoes in my usual Stella size. When they arrived (very quickly, only positive point), I was extremely surprised to discover that they were sizing erry very big. Like I should have ordered a 35.5 instead of a 37.5! Why don't they mention this kind of things on their website in then first place?
Then I had to organize the return. They don't give you any other option than shipping back via UPS. Which is obviously ridiculously expensive and forces you to take a day of to wait for them. Not convenient at all. And UPS did not show up during the arranged slot... so I had to re-arrange another one!
It took quite some time to receive the reimbursement and this is when it gets really bad. They only reimbursed me part of what they should have. They still owe me almost 150 euros. And they don't answer my emails anymore. Of course. And you cannot reach them via phone. Of course...
So my advice: do not order from them! The products are cheaper, but in case they don't fit you loose a lot.
I lost over 100 euros shipping and taxes and I am still waiting for the reimbursement of almost 150 euros... so that's a 250 euros loss right now...