Fantastic French Fashion (promod.com)

Member Name: sirg0508

Product:	promod.com
Date:	17/01/07 (2277 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantasic quality items, reasonably priced, good offers

Disadvantages: Dead links, wrong items displayed, links to wrong info

Promod.com is a French fashion site selling female clothing, footwear, accessories and jewellery. I found the site searching through cashback sites and in general they offer between 5% - 10% cashback or as a member of iPoints.co.uk can gain 1 point per £1 spent.

The fashions do vary and while there may be some things I love the look of there are others that I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. I always find the best times to shop are during the January sales or the summer sales as although the items are reasonably priced, similar can be bought much cheaper elsewhere. I’d say they’d suit teens to those in their thirties but some can seem a little old fashioned to me. Sizing ranges anything from 8 to 16 for clothing and footwear from about 3 to 8 depending what’s in stock.

The site is relatively simple to use as it is well laid out. There are categories down the left side so it is simple to find specific items like ‘Dresses’ or ‘Tops’ and when hovering over each title mentions how many items there are under each. When visiting a particular category, the categories remain at the left and usually have subcategories to condense the search further but usually I just stick to the main category which shows 8 items with photos. I prefer to change it so it shows 32 items at a time as well as click the link to “Sort from least to most expensive” so I can stick within my budget. Hovering over the photos of each item again show the sizes available which although is not as handy as actually having all the information shown, is still a benefit to going into the item for more details to then find out it’s not available in the size needed. The advanced search is also quite useful because it allows searching by size, style, product and colours. The only downside of this really is the sizing as it is only for tops, trousers and skirts.

Each photo does make the clothing seem appealing but there are times when it shows a pair of trousers but the product is actually the top which can just be seen at the top of the picture – it means a lot more work clicking to see if there are more pictures than just quickly browsing the items I like the look of. Then when you open up the item for a fuller description, still can contain the wrong information. After opening up the main description of an item and clicking on the picture for a large view, it may say ‘fabric’ etc. at the tabs on the top but this just gives a close up of the fabric rather than mentioning anything about it. There are usually care instruction symbols but there is a key to show what these are.

It’s rather strange actually converting sizing to imperial measurements but personally I don’t know how long my inside leg is in centimetres – in this department I deal in inches but that info is not provided in the description. The information on the sizing chart does not help either so again, means more work making sure the sizing is correct.

I found ordering was very simple as it just involved me finding items I wanted and adding them to my basket. If I wasn’t a member I could easily create an account before going to pay for the items which can be done with debit/credit card (including Electron – no mention of that on the site!) and even after my bank verifying the order through their secure servers, receiving the confirmation very soon after. When returning to order from the site again, all it needs is your surname and confidential code… in Promod-speak this is just your password. Strangely when signing up and reordering it asks which your nearest store is – there are none in the UK so good luck with your geography knowledge to guess this one. There are quite a number in France and there can also be more than one in a certain town but it would have helped at least a little to have a map showing which stores they have in various countries to make a better guess.

Delivery charge is reasonable at £3.95 but delivery time is around 6 days as the items are coming from France. A big plus is that as soon as the items have been dispatched an e-mail is sent with the details and they are available for tracking which can easily be done online by clicking the UPS logo on the e-mail which contains the tracking number. My items have all arrived between 4 to 6 days after ordering but did require someone to be in to take delivery of it. Free delivery can vary – at times I’ve seen the site advertising fee delivery over £20 and over £60 so worth visiting at different times.

The packaging of the products isn’t very special and similar to other online retailers – each item in separate clear bags and then all placed in the outer ‘Promod’ bag which I always have trouble opening as has to be cut open but I always manage to go through the bag and sometimes even through to the clear bag of one of the items – still never managed to cut any clothing up yet. I received one order as a gift which was stated on the order so it was placed in special Promod foil packaging to look more attractive.

The products themselves are fantastic. Each item I’ve received has been of fantastic quality and well worth the money. One bag I received over a year ago is still going strong and just received another which again will no doubt last as it’s also very well made. The clothing as well has been very high quality and as I seem to order items that have sequins on them, actually survives the few hundred washes they’ve no doubt been in although I have seen a couple fall off. Even items from their basic range have lasted. Luckily the sizing is given in UK sizes and I find that if it says a 12 it will be a 12, an 8 is an 8 etc so I’ve never had to send anything back because it didn’t fit. The site is updated with new products on a weekly basis so it is always worthwhile visiting often to see what’s new although none of these items usually have savings but can be some of the latest fashions. It is very worthwhile keeping an eye on what’s under ‘Fab offers’ as I’ve received offers for free delivery on my next order or others over a certain amount which can be very useful.

While there may be trouble finding the correct information for some items, the site should also take notice that when you try and find information at the bottom of the site - that too gives the wrong details or dead links. Click the ‘size guide’ down there and it takes you to ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ and details on the site being secure and confidential. On this note the site is very secure as it encrypts the banking information and does not store it on site so you do need to find your card each time you want to order. Each order is also covered for insurance as well as fraudulent use of your card and having bought a lot recently for Christmas, this is the only site I’ve used this service on. I like the fact that my bank will let me customise the page and I can have a personal message that shows so I know when that is displayed, I know it’s genuine.

I have contacted customer services in the past which can easily be done through the site rather than having to e-mail them and the reply was received in a couple of days which is quicker than other sites – especially during busy periods.

I’ll no doubt be using Promod time and time again as I’ve always been very happy with the service but the site could do with improvement with all the wrong details shown. This can be a big disadvantage. The site doesn’t spam and I only receive the occasional e-mail when they have special offers on. Compared to a similar online retailer like La Redoute, Promod certainly gets my custom. Not only is the clothing of a far superior quality, you don’t end up with all those offers of becoming a ‘gold’ member or getting cheap useless gifts as an incentive to reorder. I would have liked it if the site had a paper catalogue rather than being online but there are new items all the time so it would be outdated quickly.

4/5 – loss of a star for site inaccuracies and dead links.

Summary: Fantastic French fashion at reasonable prices, ordered safely