'Cheap quality': Ontario woman says dresses she ordered online look completely different in real life

Buyer beware purchasing items off social media Stephanie Pasceri of Maple, Ont. says the dresses she ordered from a site she found on social media were not worth the $200 she paid.

An Ontario woman wanted to order dresses online for her and her mother to attend her daughter’s baptism.

Stephanie Pasceri of Maple, Ont. said her mother saw the advertisement for dresses on Facebook and told her daughter to check it out.

Pasceri ordered two dresses through Alisastyle.com, but she said when they arrived, they didn’t look anything like the photos from the website.

“The dress for my mother, it's just one long piece of fabric with perhaps a belt and it looks nothing like what was ordered," said Pasceri.

Pasceri also ordered a dress for herself but said when it arrived, “It was the wrong colour, and it was not what I was looking for and it was of cheap quality."

Pasceri said she was disappointed after spending almost $200.

"I paid $93 for this dress and $93 for the other dress. It’s unacceptable because we will not be able to wear them to the baptism,” Pasceri said.

CTV News Toronto reached out to Alisastyle and the company said it would contact Pasceri about her concerns.

Someone from Alisastyle said, “Please accept our profound apologies. The design you received is the most popular item this year. Sorry that the real dress not (sic) meet your expectation.”

“In this case, if you are willing to keep this order, we are happy to provide a 10 per cent discount on your order. We hope this will make you feel better. Please kindly note that the shipping fee to China is more than 50 USD.”

“The refund amount is $5, would you like to keep this order? We also offer a $10 store credit for your next order. “

Pasceri said she was shocked that she was only offered a $5 refund and that each dress would cost more than $50 US to ship back to China.

"That's about the same price for the item so I’m not going to ship it back and waste even more money,” said Pasceri..

“If something smells fishy you might want to pump the brakes," said Kaveh Waddell, deputy editor of Consumer Reports digital Lab.

Waddell said it's important when buying from a website to check their refund and return policies carefully and you may also want to search for independent reviews of a company before placing an order.

"There are a lot of knock-offs, there are a lot of companies that are trying to make something that might look or act like a competitor’s product so you just want to make sure you know what you're buying," said Waddell.

Pasceri and her mother ended up purchasing two other dresses for the baptism in a brick-and-mortar store where they could inspect them first hand and try them on.

Pasceri said she will be more careful ordering clothing online in the future and added, “If you have the opportunity to go in stores then you know what you're buying you able to touch it and feel.”

If you order something online and it's not what you expected to receive or it doesn't arrive you can contact your credit card company as you might be able to dispute the charge and they may allow a charge back and give you a refund.