“I have failed to find a way of complaining about Maison-Vaison, an online company with an address in Portlaoise; a Netherlands address on their the website and an international dispatch address in Australia,” begins a mail from a reader called Pat.
Pat was very disappointed with a puffer jacket she bought from Maison-Vaison, and even more enraged after being given the runaround before being ghosted by the company.
It all started with her attempts to buy an XL olive green puffer jacket from the site, but “what arrived was neither the right size nor olive green”, she says.
“Many emails later, and they are refusing to honour the statement on their website as regards refunds. I contacted the Irish consumer information organisation, but they said since [the] company was not Irish they could do nothing,” her mail continues.
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She says the Netherlands and the EU sites say a full refund should be made, before she poses a question. “What happens when a company will not do this? I have been offered a refund of 45 per cent and told to keep the jacket, even though it does not fit me.”
‘If you prefer to return the item, you may send it to our international warehouse [in Australia]. Please note: return shipping is at your expense and refunds are issued once the item is received and inspected. Please let us know how you would like to proceed’
— Maison-Vaison representative
Pat says she has also been offered 100 per cent store credit, but says she does not “want to have anything else to do with them”.
She sent us an email exchange with a company representative called Anna, and after she had made multiple requests for her money back, Anna concluded the conversation by stating: “We’ve reviewed your case and can offer the following as a final resolution. A 45 per cent returnless refund, allowing you to keep the item, [or] a 100 per cent store credit, which you can use toward a future order; If you prefer to return the item, you may send it to our international warehouse [in Australia]. Please note: return shipping is at your expense and refunds are issued once the item is received and inspected. Please let us know how you would like to proceed.”
In response, Pat sought clarification and said she wanted to be sure Anna was “effectively refusing to give me a FULL refund despite the fact that the puffer jacker I received was the wrong size and the wrong colour?”
She noted that this was “despite the clear statement re refunds within 10 days on the Maison-Vaison website, that ‘You will receive the purchase amount back via the original payment method’”.
She also pointed out in her mail to Anna that the “online seller is identified as in Portlaoise. The website gives an address in the Netherlands – so presumably returns can be made (at less expense) to either address.”
This mail, she says, was ignored.
After her negative experience, she went in search of online reviews and was not happy with what she found – with a lot of reviews of the site echoing her own experience.
Like Pat, we searched for the company online, and – just as she had – quickly landed on the TrustPilot site, where there were 97 different reviews of Maison-Vaison (not to be confused with a lovely looking French villa with a similar name). Of the 97 reviews, 96 per cent were ranked as bad – prompting TrustPilot to give the company given a ranking of 1.2.
There was one five-star review and we might as well start with that. It was posted by Mustafa in the Netherlands.
“I had some trouble choosing the right size because it was a gift, but the support team helped me very quickly and gave me great advice. Their response was fast and very friendly, which made the whole process much easier.
“The order arrived on time and I’m very happy with the quality of the product. It looks exactly as expected and feels well made. Overall, a great experience and excellent customer service. I would definitely recommend this shop!”
Fair play to Mustafa. But as we said, he was the outlier.
Jenny was one of the 96 others who was less pleased. “This is a terrible company. I wouldn’t even give it one star. The dress I bought was poor quality. I returned it wanting a refund, after a number of emails trying to get me not to return it. My postage was £22. The address that they gave me did not exist and the package was returned to me. I have not received any reply to my emails now, or a refund or compensation for the postage cost. I would advise anyone NOT to use Maisonvaison.”
“NEVER BUY FROM THIS COMPANY,” another poster shouted. “The goods are cheap and nasty and look completely different to the website. You cannot get a refund. They offered me partial refunds whilst keeping the item, which was very odd. After many emails they eventually gave me a return address in Australia despite the company address looking like it’s in the Netherlands on the website. It cost me £22 to return it, only for Royal Mail to send it back to me 2 weeks later saying that the address doesn’t exist. Then they ghosted me when I sent subsequent emails.”
A third said: “Do not buy from this company!! They wouldn’t give me a returns address and offered me 15 per cent refund, absolutely disgusting, or 50 per cent off to spend on other items, no thank you.”
Pretty much every other post was in that vein.
We contacted the company via the email address on its website and asked why it appeared to be in clear breach of Irish and European law when it comes to returns. We also wanted to give it the chance to respond to the multiple extremely negative reviews of the website on TrustPilot.
At the time of writing we had heard nothing back.
In terms of what our reader might do, they could try to arrange a chargeback with their bank. That might be complicated by the fact that they did receive a product, albeit one that was neither the right size or colour. It might be worth a shot nonetheless, because it seems clear the product is absolutely not what they paid for.
But Pat’s story does illustrate the importance of doing even a basic search when buying from any website that you might be unfamiliar with. In less than 60 seconds we had found the 96 terrible reviews (and the one glowing review). We’re pretty sure that had Pat done the same in the first instance, she would probably have gone in search of her puffer jacket somewhere else.
