Christmas Present to Myself

Christmas Present to Myself

Every year I buy myself a few new clothes as a gift to myself. Being a plus size woman, there are not that many options for getting nice clothes and for years, I have been buying from the same online company. However, I am starting to be very disappointed in the quality.

Styles for plus size women have improved. I love the trapeze style as I am bigger on the bottom than on the top. To be able to purchase tops that have wider hemlines gives me more confidence in how I look. However, where style has improved, quality has gone downhill.

I have noticed that material is getting thinner. More items are being imported. In this latest order, the two shirts were “Made in India.” When I took them out of the package and went to iron them, I found them filthy. It seemed like they were dragged across the floor of the sewing room before being put in the bags.  They were covered in loose threads and with some colors that were not in the two shirts. They felt dirty although I did not see actual dirt. Perhaps it was flannel coming off. There was also an imperfection in the back of one of them.

This led me into wondering where the pride in workmanship has gone. I began picturing a sweatshop where low-paid workers are working in assembly line situations with no say in how the work is done; a place where quantity is more important than quality. It dawned on me that the only pride is in how cheap the company can make the product yet bring in the highest dollar.

Returning items used to be easy. Companies want their customers to be pleased. The only easy part now is that a return can be put in the mailbox. However, the last time I returned an item, it cost me almost as much to return it as it did to purchase it. When I wrote a letter to the company, they took off the charge.

But this brings up another subject. Why should customers have to complain to get satisfaction? Companies brag about good customer service, but more and more I am finding that just to be meaningless words, statements just to make the company sound good, just because it’s the thing to say.

It’ll be awhile before I buy any new clothes. I wish I liked to sew. I’d make my own clothes.