Lilly Pulitzer Sale
The Good, the bad, and the ugly of the Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale
The Good:
Back in 2015, my husband and I were planning a tropical getaway. A few weeks before our trip I spent some time online hopelessly searching for “resort wear.” Almost everywhere I looked, Lilly Pulitzer kept coming up. At the time I thought some of the patterns were a little too busy, too bright, and…just not my style.
Search after search some of those pieces started to “grow” on me (or maybe I was getting a little desperate to get something in time for our trip). Finally, I decided to go ahead and buy a few Lilly outfits. To my surprise, they were well made, looked fun, and fit pretty well. To most women, Lilly Pulitzer clothing is synonymous with fun summer times, vacations, and happiness.
Like thousands of women, I became hooked. Sugartown Wordwide LLC knows how to capitalize on women’s emotional connection to the clothes we wear during the happiest of times. Brilliant on their part! Sorry, bank account.
If you have ever purchased anything from Lilly Pulitzer, you know they do not have a “sale” section on their website. However, twice a year they have what’s called the “Lilly Pulitzer After Party Sale.” It takes place in August(or September) and January. And let me tell you, it’s pure madness in store and online!
The Bad:
Due to overwhelming online traffic on the first day of the big sale, you are placed in a “virtual waiting line,” which begins promptly at 8am. On August 28th, 2017, I was ready to shop the LP After Party Sale online. Luckily, it was on my day off! I sat down with my computer and my phone in hand around 7:50am. At exactly 8am, I went to their website and was automatically placed in their virtual wait line with approximately 14,000 people ahead of me! Seriously? At 8:04am I was 13,137th in line with an estimated 28min wait time. That’s not bad considering the LP mobile app had an estimated 1-hour wait for me at 8:01am. Later, I learned some people waited over 4 hours in the digital queue. Crazy!!
The Ugly:
Was taking part in the after party sale worth it? Well, there were a few (ugly) hiccups along the way. My total splurge that day was about $350 (for three separate orders), somehow Lilly Pulitzer managed to pre-authorize $750+ on my credit card. Their customer service was subpar, to say the least. Don’t bother emailing or leaving a voice message. You will not get a call back. I emailed them to reverse the duplicate charge. They responded with a generic message, in which none of my questions were answered. When I called customer service and actually got someone on the phone, people declined to tell me their name (perhaps a tactic to avoid accountability for their subpar performance??).
Someone in “accounting” tried to reverse one of the duplicate charges and canceled one of my orders!! What a cluster! Now, the one thing I wanted the most from this sale was cancelled, but the charges still remained on my credit card. SMH. It took about three weeks for Lilly Pulitzer to clean up their mess.
Even though the LP after sale process didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped, I can’t resist a good sale and will probably shop the sale again in January. ?
Xoxo, Ania
