Thursday 29 May 2014

Misc. OOTDs

After a hefty post last time, let's take it easy. I have a few outfit of the days for you that I've had on my phone and never posted!

The Work Party Outfit

Dress: Ringnor (YesStyle)
Ring: New Look
Shoes: New Look

The House Party Outfit

Dress: Vivienne Westwood
Bag: Vivienne Westwood
Jewellery: Miss Selfridge (I'd already removed it all by this point!)

The Summer Is Coming Outfit

Dress: Tokyo Fashion (YesStyle)
Jacket: New Look
Shoes: Melissa
Bag: Asos
Necklace (unseen): Chocomint
Socks: eBay
Flower Crown: New Look

The 'I-Feel-Like-A-Soccer-Mom' Outfit

Dress: Tokyo Fashion (YesStyle)
Shoes: New Look
Necklace: Chocomint

That's all for today. Now that summer is starting to arrive I want to see everyone's summer co-ords. Show me them in the comment section!

Stay sweet! ♥

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Thursday 22 May 2014

How Not to Treat Customers: A Negative Lockshop Review

After lusting after their wigs for absolutely months I finally bit the bullet and purchased a wig from Lockshop as mentioned in a GETS post from late last month. I had a few e-mails from you lovely blogders asking me to review the wig once it came which I have been eagerly awaiting to do.

Unfortunately, my review of Lockshop is less than glowing and I won't be able to use the lashings of compliments I was saving for their wigs. I've always heard about how good quality they are, how quickly items arrive and how nice the customer service team is which is why I chose to purchase from Lockshop instead of one of my usual wig providers.

However, I honestly can say I don't recommend Lockshop as a wig provider as I'm thoroughly disappointed by the treatment I've received from them.

I purchased the wig well in advance as I required this by today, 22nd May, and had an absolutely smooth payment run. All transactions were completed via PayPal.


Shortly after I made the grave error of clearing out my inbox, clearing out the e-mails I had received from Lockshop in the process. I really regret doing that as it had my tracking number in. The site Lockshop had sent me for tracking was deutschepost.de and I had successfully tracked the wig a few times before I lost all e-mails received between 17th April - 23rd April which was when these emails were sent.

I have tried restoring them from my Deleted folder but nothing will bring them up.

On 14th May I began to get concerned that no parcel had arrived. The YesAsia order I ordered the same day and was dispatched well after the Lockshop order had already arrived. As Lockshop is based within the EU I began to wonder if there had been a problem with my parcel and if there was anything that I could do resolve it if that was the case.


Using the information that was available to me on their Paypal, Tumblr, etc. I sent Lockshop an e-mail hoping to get some help from them in trying to locate my missing parcel. In the e-mail I included my full name which is what I had ordered under as well as the Paypal ID which they would have been able to look up and associate an order number with.


I awaited a response to my e-mail and checked my Spam folder every day. However, I didn't receive a response from them. Beginning to become frustrated I began venting on social media platforms such as Twitter hoping I would get a response as I could see that they had been updating their Instagram, Twitter, etc. and I was feeling ignored.

During this time period Lockshop, who have never ever associated with me before, began 'liking' pictures on my Instagram which was frustrating.

Lockshop's Twitter representative was nothing but helpful with me which was something I greatly appreciated! They advised I send another e-mail and also use the Contact Us form on Lockshop's website.

This is when alarm bells first started going off in my head as I found it slightly alarming that they had overlooked an e-mail that was sent to an e-mail address that Lockshop have been actively promoting on their Tumblr, Facebook, etc. as seen below:


I sent another e-mail and have received no response.

Beginning to become angry and frustrated at Lockshop I used the contact form on the website. I vented my frustrations and mentioned that I felt as though I could no longer recommend Lockshop to my blog readers and friends due to the poor service I had received from them so far. I also mentioned that if I didn't get a response (bearing in mind this was the third time I had attempted to contact them) I would be opening a Paypal dispute as I have not received the goods I paid for.


Due to becoming annoyed I was less polite in this message to them as I had been in previous messages.

I was surprised to receive a message back from Lockshop shortly after as by this point in time I had spent over a week trying to garner some sort of response from their customer service team. When filling in their Contact Us form it asks for order details (Order ID, etc.)


I was surprised when they asked for details I had already provided them with as well as insinuating that asking for my money back due to non-receipt of goods and poor service was threatening. Informing my blog readers of exactly how I've been treated by Lockshop with truthfully as I can with evidence is not threatening. It is simply telling the truth. Even if I had received my goods I would be doing a review mentioning at how poor I find Lockshop's Customer Services team.

It also feels as though Lockshop's Customer Service is unwilling to help me and is only begrudgingly doing so as it is their job,

Their response also confirmed one of my fears: Lockshop aren't actively checking an email address they are promoting for their store. Overlooking one e-mail I can understand, especially when they are in a busy period of moving warehouses. Two, not so much, especially when this e-mail address was the same one linked to their Paypal.

Adding insult to injury I woke up this morning to Lockshop liking Instagram photos of mine after being rude to me so I'm even less impressed with them. I'm being unbelievably petty but it feels like it's been in bad taste.


Would I recommend Lockshop to my readers?

No, I would not.

Would I purchase from Lockshop again?

I'm not particularly fond of throwing my money away for nothing. I had considered purchasing their Starlet wig or a Lucky Pack if they were still in stock if my wig ever showed up but that's out of the question.

I am honestly disappointed with my experience from what I thought was a reputable company. I will be continuing to purchase wigs from my current providers, one of those being Coscraft who tend to get my wigs to me the day after ordering.

Thank you for reading!

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Monday 19 May 2014

Kitacon V

Back in March I attended my favourite UK convention, Kitacon! Held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole I've been attending this convention for three years as it's one of my favourites. It was quite infamous this year as it sold out within a matter of days which meant a lot of people who had attended every single one were unable to make it.

Even so it was a great event!

Thursday

The Thursday was pretty uneventful. I just travelled down, changed hairstyle through the journey and met up with some friends.

I do have an outfit shot for the day however, courtesy of Dan Hardwick.


After getting food we all went to stand in a queue to pick up our badges. I suck and didn't take a photo but my badge name was Viola. As you can see, we're all very happy to be collecting our badges (as seen by the looks on all of our faces!).


After that I went to bed as I was tired from travelling all day. Hey, old age is certainly starting to get the best of me!

Friday

Friday was the first convention day! I wore Christa Renz from Shingeki no Kyojin with a group of friends. I actually forgot some parts of my costume at home so I felt really bad about it. I don't have any of the shots back so have some out takes and selfies with other people.






On the evening I just attended the party and went back to bed again. I'm not built for partying, I'm a girl who loves her sleep (despite constantly not getting enough of it). I'm also pretty sure I heard Space Jam coming from the party during the evening. Excellent.

Saturday

Despite feeling worse for wear I woke up and persevered. I wore Asami Sato from Avatar: The Legend of Korra. It's a really different look for me and some people didn't recognise me.


I actually showed my hair stylist one of the photos and she won't believe it's me.

It's 100% me.

I worked with Izzy from Solarillusion Photography for these shots and oh my goodness she is wonderful! She made me look so gorgeous!


I didn't meet too many other Korra fans sadly. I did run into a Tenzin and Korra at one point and I was really happy as I'm a huge Avatar fan! I cosplayed Ty Lee in the past.

Once again evening came around for the party. I forgot to take an outfit shot again but I eventually left worse for wear.


Sunday

Oh deary me. I slept in as my phone alarm hadn't gone off and I felt too queasy to get up so I didn't end up wearing Mirai Kuriyama. With the recent weather in the UK it's been too warm to wear her, sadly.

I ordered food. It was like, £20. Never again.

Afterwards I changed into my Luka Megurine from Sandplay Singing of the Dragon cosplay, made by the amazingly talented Felixize. I mean wtf look at this dress, it's so big. So big that I eventually ended up with bruises and welts on my hips and had to be rescued out of it by friends as I was struggling to walk and was generally in a lot of pain after 6 hours or so.


Once again I worked with Solarillusion Photography for photos.


I'm actually really pleased even if I didn't have my headpiece on for the first half of the day (oops!). At the ball I couldn't really dance because my dress was too big and I was starting to feel sore. I couldn't even get to the bar; my friends had to go for me as I couldn't get my dress through there!

Overall Kitacon was great as usual! I met lots of new people and despite wanting to drop out for personal reasons I'm so glad I went. I'm definitely looking forward to the next one!

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Tuesday 13 May 2014

London Adventures

Over the Easter weekend I decided to pay a visit to London to see some friends. I've only ever been to London in the past for Expos etc. so it's the first time I was really able to look around! I acted like such a tourist! I come from the North of the UK and London sometimes feels like a different country all together because the way things are done there are so different from how they are where I'm from.

It took four hours to get there by train because it was a Bank Holiday so I spent most of the time taking sefies and sleeping!



Full Outfit (unseen)
Dress: Lipsy
Shoes: New Look
Headband: New Look
Necklace: Chocomint
Ring: Chocomint

Actually one of my friends saw me on the train and didn't recognise me. They thought it was just someone who resembled me, oopsie daisy!

My ring actually broke. The crown fell off as I was walking around London and being amazed by how big everything was.

We actually went to an American Diner for food! It was really delicious but super duper packed full of people. We were lucky to get a seat when we did to be honest!

We also passed by Trafalgar Square.


Big Ben as seen from Trafalgar Square.


A big, blue chicken that was there for some reason!

The next day we decided to go to Japanese karaoke with friends.

Obligatory make-up selfie!


I forgot to take pictures because I was super excited about singing. I sang some Ayumi Hamasaki songs and also sang Utada Hikaru, LiSA and some others. One of my favourite memories was everyone singing along to My Soul, Your Beats!




The frog was from the Rainforest Cafe near Trocadero in London. The food there was so expensive! It was like £16 for a salad.

Because we were all too cheap to eat there we decided to go to Nandos instead. I haven't been there since I was 18 due to an illness I had and I was able to actually eat it again!


It's one of my friends and I whilst waiting for food. Aaah we cannot resist being camwhores!!

I left London the day after (Easter Sunday) because I wanted to go home and eat all of my chocolate eggs. Aaah not really but I felt bad intruding on my friends.

Overall I had fun and I already want to go to London again! It's so much fun there! There's so many stores to get so many new things and it honestly feels like a different country from the rest of the UK!

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