Haband

Full review
Haband is an older mail order catalog store that has gone to the internet. Their main items are cheap (as opposed to inexpensive) clothing for men, women, and children at inexpensive prices. They offer a few other things, but they are mainly a clothing supplier. I have had three occasions to deal with them through their web site. The store appealed to me because I hate to spend money on clothes and I have trouble finding sizes that fit. Haband seemed to fill my needs.

The title is “Fool me once… Fool me twice….” It seemed overkill to add the third time that did not charm. But first, let me tell you a little about the web site as it exists today. It is pretty easy to select the type of clothing you want and drill down to some reasonable selections of that apparel. There is even a fairly extensive clearance section. Once you have found an item that interests you, a couple of clicks shows all color and size choices. Once you have selected color and size, a single click adds the item to your shopping cart. If it is out of stock a message appears to alert you. When I checked it to write this review, the first eight selections showed the out of stock warning. When I selected the highest priced garment there was no problem and it added to my cart. I cancelled for reasons I will now go into.

Fool me once…

Four years ago I found Haband through an advertisement in AARP Magazine. I went then to their website only to discover that every size and color of the advertised item was out of stock. That should have been a warning, but I assumed AARP wouldn’t accept advertising from unscrupulous merchants.

I found a pair of similar, but more expensive, jeans I liked and they were, of course, available. I used their shopping cart since they assured me the ones I wanted were in stock and gave them my AmEx card number. Two days later I got a notice they were out of stock in that size and would ship in seventeen to twenty-one days. That same day I checked my AmEx account to find they had charged for it already. That frosted me and I sent an email cancelling the order. No response so next day I sent another email. Finally, after waiting three more days I went to the web site to find a telephone number. Nowhere on the site did they list any telephone numbers. Note: currently, with a very diligent search, you can find telephone numbers on their web site. I finally did an internet search and came up with a number. Of course that number wasn’t the right one, but they did give me another number. When I called that number and informed them that I wanted to cancel the order I was informed I could not as the order was at another location to be filled.

I cancelled the charge on my AmEx and asked for an investigation. A few days later I got an email that the item was shipped. When it arrived I refused delivery. A few days later I got a letter from AmEx that the order had been shipped and the charge was reinstated. I called AmEx and denied the charge again. Again it was put in abeyance and an investigation begun. Three months after the initial order, Haband finally agreed to pull the charge. I have no product quality to report from this experience.

Fool me twice….

Move forward two years. For some reason I decided to try Haband again. This time the experience was much better. Only a third of the items I ordered and was assured were in stock were back ordered. They still charged my credit card, but at least I got some of the merchandise in a couple of weeks. You read that right. Shipment is by the cheapest USPS method available, even though they charge $7.99 shipping, non-refundable. The merchandise was satisfactory for the price paid. In fact I am wearing a pair of those slacks right now. The back ordered merchandise was sent one at a time as it was placed in stock. Emails came regularly and there is an order tracking method available on the site as well. One of the pairs of late arriving slacks were supposed to be just a different color than a pair in the original order. However, when it came there was a note that there had been a substitution for a same or better quality product. It definitely was of significant lesser quality than the other pair. I returned it. It only took two billing cycles for the credit to appear. Of course I was out the return shipping.

Fool me thrice…

Only an idiot would order again after two poor experiences. Six months ago this idiot did. They now say on their web site that they will not charge your credit card until the order is ready for shipping. That is an outright lie. They also say they will not substitute merchandise without your approval – another lie. This time I ordered only things that were said to be in stock and ordered from their more expensive lines since my size or color was mostly unavailable in the cheaper lines.

No one in our house irons clothes. No-iron is a mantra here. I made certain all the items I ordered, four pairs of pants, were no iron in the listing, not little or no ironing, but no-iron. I also paid the extra for shipping via UPS ground since I didn’t get home delivery from USPS, only to a PO Box. I got notice that my order had been received right away and the list matched what I had ordered. The next day my AmEx had been charged. The next day I got a notice that two of the items were out of stock, no shipment date promised. A week later the in-stock items showed up at the post office. So much for priority shipping – another lie I guess. Again, one of the out of stock items was just a different color. When it finally arrived – at the post office – it was nowhere near the same material or quality of its supposed sibling. It was also very wrinkled. So much for no-iron. It was easier to throw them away than try to return them.

If you want to be a fool…..

Another nice thing is that once you order you will receive packets of junk mail from them about every three weeks, apparently forever. I have tried twice to get off their mailing list with no success.

If it isn’t obvious by now, I am not recommending this charlatan of an internet store to anyone for anything. If you want to be a fool, ignore this warning.