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Olivia Skuce's Top From Pretty Little Thing Is The Epitome Of Online Shopping Fails

Olivia Skuce thought she was getting a cute top at a killer price.

These days, a lot of us turn to online shopping to get our hands on the latest styles at the lowest prices. But, as this girl found out, ordering clothes online isn't always as it seems.

Olivia Skuce, a 21-year-old woman from Northern Ireland, experienced one of the pitfalls of online shopping firsthand when she purchased a mesh top off the website Pretty Little Thing and couldn't get it over her head.

Skuce tweeted about her struggles with the top. "Just wondering why your top won't fit over my head," she wrote.

Others chimed in with their own attempts at getting the exact same item to fit.

This isn't the only item on the website that people have had issues with.

A look at the company's mentions on Twitter showed a distressed black skirt that had been ordered by two people. Both received something completely different.

The company's reviews on TrustPilot and ResellerRatings are also full of complaints about items not matching their photos.

But, the problems people are having with Pretty Little Thing aren't only restricted to that retailer. The internet is riddled with stories about online shopping mishaps and outright scams.

A Buzzfeed investigation in 2016 revealed that many websites advertising gorgeous clothing at incredibly cheap prices, including RomWe, RoseGal and DressLily, are linked to one Chinese e-commerce company that made over $200 million in sales in 2014. These websites often advertise using stolen images from other retailers and consumers receive products that are barely similar to what's shown on the website.

A Facebook group called "Rosewholesale Scam" compiles examples of the retailers failing to deliver on their promises.

The most common problems cited with items bought from these websites include clothes being ridiculously small, made of completely different materials, or in different colours than what they ordered, the Buzzfeed story said. Allegedly, customer service is equally bad.

Alyssa Coscarelli, of Refinery29, tried out dresses from a few of the websites, including SheIn and RomWe. According to her, the clothes themselves aren't too bad, but it's the theft of intellectual property and the false advertising through the stolen photos that bothers her the most.

Who knows how long these websites will be around, but for the time being, make sure to read reviews, keep your measurements handy and look at the size guides on websites. And remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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