Pakistani fashion is so much in demand. Many women living outside of Pakistan have been feeling frustrated as to how to get good quality Pakistani clothing at affordable prices. Some women are lucky enough to have close relatives living in Pakistan who help them get their outfits, but many do not have this advantage. Even for the ones who have this resource, are not totally satisfied with. First of all the Pakistani economy is so tight, and life is so busy, that to ask and expect a relative to go and shop for them, feels unfair and daunting. Furthermore, although one may describe what it is they want, in terms of color, fabric, and style, women are finding that what they receive is not exactly what they had in mind. Above all the freedom to have the ability to choose for yourself from a collection is the best and most desired situation.
To fill this huge demand many Facebook private sellers have popped up. Many Facebook sellers are offering a great service to women, but some are taking advantage and women are finding it hard as to whether it is safe to do business with these Facebook sellers. Sellers after finding out that a customer lives overseas in the United States of United Kingdom, or Canada, seem to raise their prices. They will post beautiful and appealing pictures of outfits, but when the customers receive their orders, they find that the outfit does not resemble the picture. Cheap material and embroidery will have been used, and since most of these Facebook sellers, take payments up front in the form of cash, the customer is left with an outfit which can not be worn, their money gone and no recourse available.
I am one of those customers living abroad in the US whose only option to purchase Pakistani outfits is to order online. I have been doing so for several years. There is a system I have set up which I use when choosing a Facebook seller to work with, and so far it has proven to be successful.
What i look at before trying a new seller, is to see how many friends/customers they have. If they have over 1000+ customers, then this is a good sign that they are a reputable seller, because in order to have gotten that many group friends, there must have been satisfied customers who had recommended the seller to their friends. Some sellers hide their friends/customers, that to me is not a good sign. Also I check to see if anyone has written reviews
If they take Paypal then that is a big green light, because if they take payment by Paypal the customer has a recourse available to them in case something goes wrong with the order. The payment can be disputed and even refunded. But if they don’t take Paypal, i think a lot for a long time, I follow their business activity, and then if something is really appealing, I will order either by asking them to take half up front and half after. If they do not accept this and I am really in love with an outfit I will order one outfit, and see how it goes.
Why, you may ask that if they do not meet my first couple of criterias would I be still willing to give a chance to the seller. This is because Paypal is not available in Pakistan. The ones who do are accepting Paypal, have a relative who lives outside of Pakistan and has opened a Paypal account for them and are allowing the seller to use that account. Furthermore, there is no doubt that the economyin Pakistan is despairingly awful. Many of these seller are working with tailors, hand embroidery workers, cloth dyers, all of whom are counting on getting paid just to get their families by on a day to day basis. The working conditions are harsh, due to load-shedding, electricity and gas can be cut off for many hours at a time, and most people cannot afford to have back-up generators. And I have found that there are some sincere and honest sellers who despite not accepting payment through Paypal, or who did not accept my proposal of receiving payment in installments, did a very good job on the outfits I ordered.
Loading ...