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HotTopic has a rating of 2.2 stars from 189 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about HotTopic most frequently mention customer service, credit card, and free shipping problems. HotTopic ranks 415th among General Apparel sites.
Good products, customer service is alright, the shipping has been known to be unpredictable. Sometimes super fast, others a little slow. If buying Christmas presents from here, make sure to order months earlier.
I ordered 2 items about an hour ago from HT's website. I get a notification about 30 minutes later saying one item isn't in stock, so I call customer service to tell them to cancel the other item; I just don't want the order. They absolutely REFUSE to cancel the order even though it hasn't shipped. They tell me the only way to get a refund is to wait for them to ship it, then waste my time and money returning it, wait for them to get the return, then finally I'd get a refund. It's absolutely asinine to have a policy like this. They've permanently lost me as a customer and I'm warning everyone else to please don't waste your time and money with this garbage store since they obviously don't care one bit about their customers' time and money.
First off, I have to say that I have been a loyal customer to Hot Topic for YEARS, but that has changed as of today! I am so frustrated right now, because of this awful situation! So I made an online order yesterday, and according to the website, the shirt was in stock. So what happened is that I got an email today (the next day after I placed the order), and I was told that my order had been cancelled! And I wasn't even given a reason as to why! I know my credit card has sufficient funds, because I wouldn't have paid for it if I didn't have the money. So I was very confused and frustrated to say the least. So I had to call customer service and I was told by the representative that apparently the shirt that I ordered was OUT OF STOCK! I was telling him it clearly wasn't saying that on the website, because it showed that there were 3 shirts left in my size AND they had already charged my credit card! The rep. Kept saying that the website is not live, so it is possible that the shirt was already out of stock before I bought it, but that wasn't the case because I even refreshed the website and checked how many shirts are available in my size before checking out and there were still some left! Now Hot Topic HAS MY MONEY and I don't even have my shirt! The rep. Said that I should get my money back in 5-7 business days! I was like WHAT?! Why should I have to wait to get my money back and I am apparently not even getting my shirt! My advice to new or loyal customers would be to NEVER buy your items on the website in order to prevent the same situation. Just buy from your local store if you really want to, but honestly I know that won't do that either! And another thing, one time I order another shirt not long ago and my online order took over 2 weeks to arrive, and I live in the U.S.! This treatment is very unacceptable! Hot Topic I am SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU, and if I could give you guys zero stars I would. Shame on you guys!
They have every concert t-shirt in every size or they will order it!
I used to order from hottopic.com all the time despite the ridiculous shipping to international customers. I would usually just wait until a 50% off international shipping sale so I was only paying slightly more than their competitors for shipping (which is sad).
Despite that they're site used to at least provide me with what I ordered most of the time and ship within a reasonable time.
Then... the site changed. Now they are just awful. I was dealing with them for nearly a month just to get one of my orders shipped from their warehouse. By the time they actually starting packing it half the items were missing and I wasted my special discount code. Their site also never properly reflects the stock in their warehouse.
It took me quite a while before I actually got a hold of a customer service rep that was helpful. The email customer service is terrible and they spout off stock answers and move on. The Facebook message customer service line is hit and miss. I had to call multiple times and leave public messages on their facebook site to finally get some movement on my order. I actually had placed another order a week later and received it a week ago. I am STILL waiting on that first order though I AM told it is shipped now. When I did get someone good on my first problem she was helpful, but it was not easy and luck of the draw when I got her. On Facebook they said that they would get someone to call me between a certain hour. I waited 2 days and contacted them again on Facebook only to find out the agent that was told to contact me just plain didn't so they got another person to call me immediately.
I placed another order later and used five $5 instant rebates on it totaling $25. One of the items I ordered was $15. It wasn't in stock so they refunded me for the item. But what they did was they refunded me for how much the item was on the order after the discounts were applied so instead of the $15 for the item I was given $3.15 back on the order and my $5 rebates were thrown away. I was not refunded the full amount for the item nor given my rebates back and I argued this for 2 days of which I eventually just gave up. After a month of dealing with nothing but problems from this company I just don't even care about what I'm owed anymore. They have lost a regular customer who has spent nearly $1000 there just in approximately the last 2 months. If that's how they treat a customer like that imagine how they will treat the person who only spends $50 here and there.
Seriously, there's much better and cheaper alternatives. Go somewhere else.
Update, Hot Topic did not like that I posted on their Facebook page about a new Rewards problem that came up and deleted it so they are now hiding things from people too.
Hot topic website IS GARBAGE-can't get order to go thru:hot topic website IS GARBAGE-can't get order to go thru
Got a slipknot shirt & I love it.
Love hot topic never had any problems!
I went to Hot Topic yesterday and Mustard Cookie was not there I cannot believe she was slacking off so I give this 1 star grrggrgrgrggrgrgrr
LOVE hot topic's clearance page. Fast shipping- never had a problem
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Hot Topic specializes in music and pop culture inspired fashion including body jewelry, accessories, Rock T-Shirts, Skinny Jeans, Band T-shirts, Music T-shirts, Novelty T-Shirts and more - Hot Topic
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