Deal of the Week – L.L. Bean Signature Twill Blazer & Pant – $129.98 (reg. $194)
A personal favorite. It’s relaxed for sure with the patch pockets and slight contrast double stitching, but man does it wear well. The fabric is top notch, and the lightest true khaki color is that right mix of not traditional yet not white. Showed up in our summer essentials feature. In depth review here.
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Most Popular Post – 20 Minor Style Bad Habits
Nobody’s perfect. Most of us (my hand is up) are far from it, and we all have some bad habits we could certainly work harder on kicking.
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Most Discussed Post – Orient Watch 50% Off Code and Explorer Giveaway
Thanks again to Orient for wanting to get together for a year’s worth of watch giveaways. Expect a review and giveaway once a month, around the first. The 50% off code DapperedJune is good clear until July.
I just wanted to say from me and on behalf of probably just about everyone who views this site, I really appreciate the giveaways you do. They’re all pretty great items and who doesn’t love a free lunch.
Thanks garrett, it’s fun to do the giveaways, and it’s great when brands like Orient step up with some serious stuff to throw out there. Working on some other giveaways for the coming weeks/months which should also be solid. Thanks again for the thanks!
You know, after spending some more time at the OrientWatchUSA site, I’m feeling much less confident about getting a watch from them. Their customer service policies are, quite frankly, completely archaic:
They offer a tiny and potentially non-existent time-frame for returns. What the period actually is, is unknown – on the site it says 7 business days after SHIPMENT, not receipt. That is insanely stupid – depending on where you live, it could take the watch that long just to get to you. But on their forum it says 14 business days after receipt… which is slightly less absurd, but not by much. 95% of the online retailers I do business with offer AT LEAST a 30-day return policy, and usually more like 45, 90, year-long or even INFINITE return policies. (Backcountry.com, I’m looking at you!)
They charge a 10% restocking fee for unused, returned items – or maybe they don’t. Once again, the policy on the website conflicts with the policy stated in their forum. One place says restocking fees are standard, another says they are only charged for items not in “like-new” condition. In any case, I don’t even know of any brick and mortar stores that still charge restocking fees. For another, 10% restock fee on something like the $700+ watches they offer? Are you kidding me? It takes seventy dollars’ worth of effort to put a tiny box back in its spot on the shelf? Even a much smaller restocking fee is a clear signal that the business simply wants to discourage product returns, no matter the reason. That’s not the sort of attitude that breeds a lot of customer loyalty.
Anyway, I don’t mean to be a wet blanket, but it sounds as though OrientWatchUSA (as distinct from Orient, period) is not the most customer-friendly of businesses, regardless of the deal they’ve got going on with Dappered at the moment. I’d urge all Dappered folks to use extreme caution when doing business with them.
You’re totally not being a wet blanket. That’s some good detective work, and I hadn’t even thought of their return policy. Here’s what I found.
Looks like they charge the restocking fee if it doesn’t have all the plastic wrapping and box stuff: “Watch must be in new condition, with all the protective wrapping intact,
as it was at delivery. A restocking charge will be added to watches that are not in like-new condition.” (From here: http://orientwatchusa.com/service#returns) I’d use this as defense if they tried to ding you with a restocking fee. Seems to be the first place to find return info.
As far as returns go, I agree, that turnaround time is way short depending on shipping times. It looks like it doesn’t have to get back to them within seven days, but you just have to get an RMA and a postmark on your return within a week of shipment leaving their warehouse. But yeah, say it takes, I don’t know… 5 days for it to get to you. So you’ve got two days to get it to the post office or UPS store? That’s… a pretty small window of time.
But like you said, there’s conflicting policy info, thanks to their “Service Forum” http://www.orientalwatchsite.com/forum/index.php?/topic/7794-new-item-return-policy/?s=51763e51b39bc89dbfb72c76d08e282a
Bottom line: Lemme reach out to these guys and get an answer.
Yeah… like I say, not trying to whine, but weird or inconsistent policies set off a lot of alarm bells in my head. I wouldn’t have even noticed, but I was searching through their service section to see if they had any service/advice/instructions for resizing a metal watch band. It will be good to get some clarification from them.
Just wore the LL Bean suit for the first time, and got a few compliments, too. I got the slightly darker khaki(Moss Khaki, I think) and it looks pretty sharp. The arms are just a hair longer than I’d like, but this is a really well-made jacket.