With hopes of adding some color to my swimwear collection this year I cautiously placed an order from Zaful. You can hardly peruse swimwear on Pinterest without something from their large and inexpensive swimwear line popping up. A smoky blue swimsuit caught my eye and I couldn’t get it off my mind.
I did my due diligence reading ALL the reviews and even read their return policy. Hopefully, with this honest review, you can have a little more information than I had to go on!
My Order
I ordered the smoky blue suit I’d had my eye on and also grabbed it in this beautiful bold green color.
To reach the free shipping limit (I know, I’m cheap!) I added this adorable two-piece set to the cart.
My Zaful Review
1. DO NOT order anything time sensitive.
The two bikinis I ordered arrived about two weeks after I placed the order. I know a comparison to Amazon Prime shipping speeds is not entirely fair, but this felt unnecessarily long considering I received an email stating that the item had shipped the same day the order was placed.
The final item I ordered DID NOT EVEN SHIP until over a month after I placed the order. I had hoped to wear the outfit on our beach vacation but it did not arrive in time, so that was disappointing.
2. You get what you pay for.
I scoured the reviews and not one person mentioned the unfinished appearance of the white piping that lined the underwire. It is visible when wearing the suit and should have been done in the same fabric as the suit itself. This was almost a dealbreaker for me, but I’ve got it in my head that I can fix it somehow. Still haven’t come up with a plan though. Haha!
Reviewers did mention that the suit had little support, but I didn’t think much of it as that has never been an issue for me. Also, the structure of the suit didn’t seem like it would possibly be a problem with my smaller chest size. I was wrong! Lol The suit had literally no support and somehow even with the structured underwire, I ended up with a uni-boob situation. I was able to remedy this by making a cut on the inside layer and adding support pads from Amazon but that was an additional cost.
If you look back to the first picture of the bikinis, the blue one was missing the little tie at the top of the right strap. This was a bummer but the suit still looks decent without it after my modifications.
3. Beware of the misleading return policy.
First of all, I am anti any company that makes you call them to initiate a return in 2019. Their use of telephone clipart on their return page for how to contact them led me to believe that that was my only option. Upon further exploration, it looks like you can initiate a ticket on their website once you are logged into your account. This deterred me from contacting them about my suit missing the tie, but I will accept part of the fault.
They DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS ON SWIMWEAR! This was buried in the fine print. I legit missed it the first 3 times I read the policy. I didn’t even know to look for it until I noticed it the 3rd time I read my order confirmation just now. For a company that sells a ton of suits, I feel like it’s pretty deceptive that this isn’t front and center in their return policy, nor is it on any of the swimsuit listings. They do have an exception for receiving the wrong item or a faulty item. This would be up to their discretion. That makes me think something like my issue with the white piping mentioned above might not qualify as their responsibility.
I am not thrilled with their language surrounding the customer’s responsibility and sizing. When ordering from a new company sizing can be so difficult. Sure, customer reviews help but what if you are the first to order an item? Until sizing is universal, I don’t think that a company can put it on the customer that the sizing isn’t right for them when they ordered their normal size. In this instance, the customer is responsible for the cost of shipping the wrong size back to the warehouse and for shipping the correct size to them.
4. Zaful is far from size inclusive.
Most suits appear to only come in 3 sizes small, medium and large which range from a US size 4-8. The clothing items range from small to x-large or US size 2-8. The largest size I saw in the time I spent on the site was a 4th of July themed suit in a 2XL which they consider a US size 12.
This is so sad to me. It does not at all represent the size ranges of the world we walk around in every day. It is discouraging to recognize brands only designing clothing for a small amount of the population. I know this has been the case for far longer than I’ve been aware of it but I am trying to be more conscious of supporting more size inclusive brands.
It is not okay that as a thin woman my size (and it fits snug!) in the two-piece set is the largest size that they carry!
Would I order from them again?
Overall, I’m feeling pretty meh about my experience with Zaful. If I had noted the swimsuit return policy fine print I likely wouldn’t have placed an order to begin with. I’m so obsessed with the colors of the suits that I ordered, which is the only reason I’m keeping them. Unfortunately, the alterations I’m having to make to the tops makes it not really worth recommending.
Do you have any experience with Zaful?
Any other brands that you have been curious about but afraid to order from? We’d love to review these as we can!
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