I debated for months
whether to publicly air my complaints with Speed Clothes. After chatting
privately with numerous other metal women who have had the same issues, I feel
that I am justified in doing so. After all, you won’t find an even slightly
negative review or legitimate complaint in the online world unless you REALLY
dig. Any comments that the company’s owner doesn’t agree with are almost
instantly deleted from any of the Speed Clothes social media pages. The ones
I’ve managed to see haven’t been out of line, rude or condescending. The
posters have asked legitimate questions and posted queries about why they have
not received any reply to private messages or emails directly to the company
after multiple attempts at contact. Many of these women have also been
addressed very unprofessionally (and often downright rudely) by the owner of
the company.
Keep reading to see what spawned this...
My experience is no
different. Before I even get into that part of the story, I wanted to speak to
the quality of the products themselves. I own two pairs of leggings from Speed
Clothes, both of which I purchased this spring. One was purchased through
another website selling Speed Clothes merchandise and one was purchased through
the official Speed Clothes website. Both are the same size. Supposedly. The
Månegarm leggings I purchased fit much smaller than the Desaster leggings I
purchased. Despite the labels claiming they are the same size. This seems to be
a common issue with the products, based on the other women I’ve spoken to who have
purchased multiple items. (Buyer beware: apparently the bikini bottoms fit
incredibly small). Another issue that I’ve observed is differences in the
quality of the spandex fabric itself. One pair of my leggings is crafted from
extremely lightweight spandex that goes semi-translucent when subjected to the
slightest stretching. The other pair is a better quality spandex, but still not
what I was hoping for considering the price I paid for the leggings. I’m used
to leggings in that price range being of a similar quality as brands such as
Under Armour, so I was slightly disappointed. I own fifteen dollar leggings
that are of a higher quality than first mentioned pair. Needless to say, after
knowing about Speed Clothes for years I was a bit dismayed to discovered the
product quality differences for myself.
Now, to speak to my
biggest complaint: the customer service experience. I’ve never been treated so
discourteously by any company I have bought merchandise from, small or large.
Typically smaller and specialized companies make an effort to communicate with
their customers, but don’t expect Speed Clothes to do this UNLESS you write
something that the owner doesn’t agree with on one of their social media pages.
Then expect an immediate response, likely followed by your comment and the
subsequent replies being deleted lest someone else see them. If it’s not
glowing praise of the company, it will probably disappear. Which I find to be a dishonest business
practice when the comments are initially trying to address a concern that is
ignored through every other method of contact. I wish I had been able to take
screen shots of more of the crude replies that I received from Speed Clothes
but I was unable to do so before they were deleted by the company’s owner. I
didn’t delete any of my comments or replies as I believe in the integrity of
standing behind a publicly made statement.
In the above screenshots, multiple comments made by Speed Clothes have mysteriously disappeared before I could take a screenshot.
My experience begins
with placing a pre-order on February 15th for a pair of leggings
that were supposed to be released within a few days. The pre-order date was
subsequently changed due to production delays. Initially this wasn’t too
upsetting as it can happen. Literally a handful of release date push-backs
later, it became concerning as I’d already paid for merchandise I had yet to
receive. Throughout the process, I made a few attempts to contact Speed Clothes
through email and their messenger service. I received one reply in March and
was completely ignored in the following months. After the first few times, I
began taking screenshots each time the pre-order release date was changed in
case my product was never to be seen. Upon seeing that Speed Clothes had given
away a pair of the same leggings that I had ordered through an Instagram post
where they were received by the contest winner (and observing that the item was
still on pre-order status), I inquired on the Instagram post itself. I was in
informed that the ones given away were misprints, which I don’t believe was
disclosed on the original contest posting. Dishonesty in it’s finest. At this
point I was also told they’d ship later due to trouble with the graphics in one of
the very few private messages that Speed Clothes answered. On May 16th,
I made a post on my Instagram account expressing my hopes for a shipping
notification, as the release date was listed as May 15th at that
time. This was where it started. In a comment by Speed Clothes, which was
quickly removed by whoever posted it, I was scolded and told that Speed Clothes
didn’t “appreciate the unfriendly shout out”. I guess it was unreasonable to be
slightly impatient three months later…
Not the first, or last, time it was suggested my paid-for order be cancelled. After the conversations that occurred, I was unsure if I'd get my money back in a timely manner if I did cancel.
Again, this was after
multiple attempts at respectfully contacting the company hoping for any kind of
reply, timely update or explanation as to what was going on. It was suggested
by the owner (or whoever was making Instagram posts on her behalf) that my
order could be cancelled, or that I should cancel it myself. Unfortunately I
was unable to screenshot the public post where she told me that I obviously don’t
understand what a pre-order means, and that any “true metalhead” would
understand how pre-orders work. Insulting your customers is not the way to go
when running a business. I’ve never had a pre-order item pushed back multiple
times and I’ve made too many band merch pre-orders in the last ten years to
even count. These have been made through distribution companies, record labels,
Amazon, and directly through bands themselves and never have I been treated so
rudely by anyone representing any of those companies or bands. Even after a
comment was publicly posted by Speed Clothes telling me to message them
privately, they continued to ignore any private message.
I’ve chosen to include
the relevant screenshots I was able to capture in order to allow others to see
how I was treated over something that should not have been an issue in the
first place. Personally, I’m not sure I’d even be allowing people to pay for
merchandise before it’s available if I expected any kind of delay. It’s only
frustrating and disappointing for the customer when deadlines aren’t met. But
if dealt with in a respectful manner, further issues can be avoided. I find the
kind of replies I received after finally discovering a way to NOT be ignored
completely childish, downright rude and completely disrespectful, especially when coming
from a business owner and directed at a customer. To delete comments from customers and purposefully erase
every slightly negative comment is greasy. If you want to promote on social
media, allow truthful and honest feedback. While erasing anything perceived as
negative might solve the issue for the time being, I would think it would
ultimately hurt the credibility of Speed Clothes itself. If I was running a
business, this would be concerning, but apparently the appropriate and
respectful treatment of customers is not a priority for Speed Clothes.
The following are from the point where I began to screenshot the changing shipping dates. Keep in mind that the original ship date was mid-February.
