Review #15: Shirt Punch

I did it again. Ordered something and only then thought to look for reviews, and the reviews on Shirt Punch are all over the place from fantastic to a total flop. But what could I do? It was a Sailor Moon shirt designed by my favourite Australian model, Isabelle Faith. And it came in hoodie form as well. Double dose of winnage. Or, you know, that's how it seemed.

My Shirt Punch experience turned out to be kind of hectic, so here it is all neatly laid out in timeline form.
23rd February. Placed a very excited order. According to their website orders are generally shipped out within a week and can take 3-6 weeks to arrive if it's an international order. So I settled in for a wait.
1st April. It should be here any day now, so I sent an email via the ShirtPunch website just to make sure there were no hiccups.
2nd April. At least they replied quickly, but the reply had quite a copy-paste feeling with no reference to my actual order and I was told shipping could take 5-12 weeks. Ouch. And also, why was that not on your website?
30th April. Am getting rather antsy. Count weeks on calendar. 27th May marks twelve weeks after one weeks production time, if it's not here by then I'm gonna be pissed. Briefly contemplated sending another email, but that would achieve a sum total of nothing.
7th May. A package arrives! The hoodie is inside because apparently your orders get sent to you straight from the manufacturer, or something, and the people who do the hoodies don't do the shirts. Checked the website so I could give an accurate review of how their service rates compared to what they offer and it turns out they've updated the section of their FAQ about postage times so it does now mention it can take up to 12 weeks, which is good.
10th May. Another package comes to my doorstep, the shirts. Only, when I happily rip it open, there's only one shirt inside though the invoice inside clearly says two. Why oh why does this have to happen to me?
13th May. After debating it for a few days I sent a firm email saying that I was disappointed to have not received one of my shirts and requesting [well, kind of demanding, actually] a refund for the shirt and the cost of what one shirt's postage would be according to making up a dummy cart for a single shirt on their website, for a total of $17.14.
14th May. Got an email back saying I can definitely get a refund though they'd prefer it to be store credit, but could I please wait until the end of the week just to make sure it wasn't shipped separately.
15th May. I replied saying I would wait and store credit would be fine. And now we play the waiting game...
21st May. It didn't show up even though I gave it a few extra days so I sent another email asking if I could please have the store credit.
22nd May. Received a reply saying the credit was in my Shirt Punch account and it was. All good.

I sent a thank you after that but that's not too relevant. To be honest, I was really bummed to not get the second shirt, but the fact that they gave me my store credit without haggling is definitely a point in their favour. The person I was emailing was a bit abrupt but that's understandable and like I said, in the end I got my refund so I am satisfied.

However, I just have to rant about the postage for a moment. How does it take a package nine weeks to get from Canada to Australia? Are they being shipped via bicycle boys and sail boats? I don't like paying twenty something dollars for nine week shipping, and the other option would have cost more than my actual products. Now, maybe Canada Post sucks. But to me it seems a bit odd not to offer some middle ground as far as shipping goes. There's no way I'm paying more for shipping than I am for my gear and I'm not likely to buy again if I have to wait over two months, so just because of postage options, not because of bad products or bad customer service, Shirt Punch have lost my repeat custom. I will pipe up and say though that the postage is probably great if you are in Canada or the US, and I know lots of people probably don't mind long shipping times, so this is really just a personal thing and you shouldn't base a judgement of Shirt Punch solely on their postage options.

Now, as for the product themselves, I'm pretty happy. They both came with a bit of a factory smell but that came out with a quick wash. The print is big, clear and looks exactly like the design as displayed on the website, so I'm happy. The hoodie is really big and comfortable, I've been bumming around in it while I've been sick and it's nice to have something nerdy to chillax in. The shirt is a bit on the large side but still nice. Both items feel like they are pretty good quality. There's not too much else to say but both shirt and hoodie definitely hold up to similar things I've bought from sites like Threadless or Think Geek, and are definitely good value for the price.

This is a crummy shot and I've blurred everything but the print in an attempt to somewhat disguise all the clean laundry. Shush

So, in summary, Shirt Punch does pretty decent quality and decently priced shirts and hoodies and by buying their stuff you are supporting independent artists, which is always good. However, postage to Australia at least is pretty slow. The fact that I didn't get one of my shirts was a real bummer but they dealt with it well. If they had argued over giving a refund, this review would be decidedly negative but as it stands it's a neutral. I'll spend my store credit when something catches my eye, but probably in all honesty won't buy from them again, at least until they change up their postage options.