An honest Club L London Canada review… one you might’ve been waiting for! Here is an overall review of the shipping, delivery, custom and duty fees and product/style of their items. This review is NOT sponsored/an ad in any way. A completely honest review down below!
Shopping as a Canadian is always such a big hassle! There are SO MANY amazing websites out there that have such cute designs, but HUGE duty fees once they hit our border. We don’t know about you, but when we place an order, the last thing we want is an additional shipment of surprise charges at our front door.
So, which websites incur duty fees and which don’t? Well, this is actually going to be a new series on the blog! We want to make information readily available so you can prepare yourselves if you choose to place an order. First up on our list: Club L London. A fashion brand based in the UK. They feature a ton of beautiful pieces, ranging from formal/special occasion dresses/gowns to loungewear. Their styles are lavish without the hefty price tag! Keep on reading for our complete review on their brand as a whole.
Club L London Canada Review: Is It Worth It?
Shipping Fees
Shipping to Canada is by DHL and don’t have any complaints on the shipping for this order.
The shipping process itself states that it will take approximately 3-6 business days. We placed our order on a Saturday and the package was sent out on the following Tuesday morning. Please take into account “weekends” when ordering, as this does sometimes affect when a company ships out products and their overall processing times.
Shipping was exceptionally fast! The shipping notification came in on Tuesday and the package was delivered on Wednesday. Shipping in our books (besides the higher fees/surprise fees) was 10/10!
The shipping fee was $22 CAD. Unfortunately, this is the only choice available for shipping. It is a little steeper in price for shipping, especially when you see the other/hidden fee’s tacked on when your package hits the border (keep scrolling for that info), but definitely worth it when it literally arrived next day.
The Dress Itself…
We ordered the Lost For Words Draped Midaxi Dress in Sage. The dress itself looked beautiful online and we did try to do our research before ordering. We watched lots of youtube videos, Tiktok’s and browsed their Instagram tagged photos to try and find some images of the brands clothing itself. We originally wanted to order the “Risk It All” dress, but due to pricing (as it was above $140 CAD) and our uncertainty with sizing.. we didn’t want to purchase a dress that ended up being upwards of $200 dollars and not be able to wear it.
Unfortunately, the dress was not for us. To be completely honest, we are not in awe at the quality and overall design of it. Online, the dress looks like a slinky/jersey type of fabric that’s super buttery smooth with a nice stretch to it. The image shows a dress that would just slip on and mould your body perfectly. In person, that wasn’t exactly the case. The dress itself was double-lined and super thick, with a kind of mesh-like overlay. Which does work for some! But for us, it didn’t. The stretch factor was not as stretchy as we thought and it was extremely hard to get it on without a zipper.
Also, the colour was more of a blue/green than a sage green. Overall, the fabric wasn’t what we thought it to be, the colour was off, and it just didn’t do anything for our body type.
Sizing
For us, the sizing chart indicated the UK size 6 would fit us true to size. However, if you’ve tried on clothes previously from places like Oh Polly, then you know some companies sizing can be WAY off from your typical size. For this order, we used the chart provided on the website to measure ourselves and bought a UK 6, as going to an 8 might’ve been too big and we didn’t want to alter anything.
The Lost for Words Dress was promoted as a “stretchy” dress and the fabrics it’s composed/ photos online led us to believe that were true. Even if we were a bit bigger than the size we chose, the dress would still work. We always suggest if you’re unsure of sizing to purchase a slinky/stretchy dress to give yourself some leeway in case the dress was a bit snug.
Verdict: The dress fit us dead on, but a little on the tighter side, as it was more a maxi dress with no slit and not too much stretch. It was harder to get on as there was no zipper and obviously was tight to squeeze around the bigger parts of our body. If you aren’t a “true size” (like between sizing) we would suggest going up one size than down.
Pricing
At first glance, the dress prices aren’t that bad! When you’re purchasing something for a wedding or special occasion, spending a little bit more for a dress is a given. You want the dress to fit like a dream and sometimes you have to pay for that! Their prices listed are pretty fair and cheaper than some other dresses on the market. However, you HAVE to take into account the other fee’s before purchasing. When you buy a $79 dress, don’t forget to factor in the everything else that will boost the original cost. From shipping to customs/duties and your own countries taxes when shipped…. the price of the dress skyrockets from its original $79 to a whooping $130.
ALWAYS do your due diligence and factor in any additional fees! If you’re from Canada you can typically expect to pay 18% in duties and 13% in taxes (depending upon your province). Just check the CBSA website for an general estimation.
We also purchased one of the cheaper items on the website… They have some gorgeous dresses that are upwards of $189 CAD. Factor in the shipping fees, taxes, duties and import charges… you’re looking at upwards of $300 for a dress.
When you are shopping online on Club L London, make sure to use a promo code! We always search to see if there are any promo codes available or if any brand ambassadors/influencers have any affiliate codes. We did use a 20% off code for our purchase. So the dress was originally $99, but with the code was $79.20 (subtotal).
Duties, Customs, Taxes & Other Charges
Okay, this one is the most sought after topic… will I be charged any additional fees when my package arrives in Canada? Short answer, YES! Long answer… it’s complicated. But let’s get into that. On Club L London’s website they state:
So… from this we understood that there would be no additional charges for any orders UNDER $140 CAD. However, this wasn’t the case for us! We placed an order for 1 dress with a price tag of $79.20 CAD. After shipping fees (which we got into just prior to this section) and taxes, our grand total was $101.20 CAD…. which means we wouldn’t have to pay any additional random fees, correct? Well unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.
When our package was shipped out and in DHL hands, we received an email we weren’t expecting! We owed Duty & Tax Charges on our package, and in order for our package to continue in transit, we had to pay the fees. We did send out an email to Club L London regarding this false advertisement and hopeful mistake, but also paid the fees since we didn’t want our dress to be sent back.
How much were the fees exactly? Well, “Canadian Taxes” were $10.21. Which we didn’t mind at all! This was something we were expecting as we knew there would be Federal Sales Tax & Provincial Sales Tax on top of the price. The other charge was for “Customs Clearance Service Charge” which was $19.21 CAD. This was the charge we were totally caught off guard by.
Our grand total in DUTY AND TAXES FROM CLUB L LONDON at the boarder was: $29.48
Returns
Ok, this might sound controversial. BUT, we knew going into this we wouldn’t be returning this dress. Now hear us out. Not only do you have to pay for your shipping, but you also have to pay duty and tax charges… And this is on the IMPORT side. Now, the shipping is $22 and as we established the duties and taxes were $29.48. This means we paid $51.48 additionally on top of the dress, which is non-refundable. If we were to return the dress, those fees aren’t refundable. That means we paid $51.48 to try on a dress.
On top of the import charges, there are also export charges. You have to pay to return your dress, as there are no free returns available for Canadians (which isn’t uncommon, as a lot of companies don’t offer that as well). So, let’s assume the fee is the same as the shipping into Canada at $22 (which it definitely is not, as companies usually get a lower fee than civilians). There also might be duties to ship back to the UK, which let’s assume are the same as the import at $29.48… you’re then paying another $51.48 to return the dress you never wore.
This means that you’re paying (approximately) $102.96 in additional fees/duties and $44 in shipping (in and out of the country). These are costs that you will never see again, all for a return on a $79 dress… For us that isn’t worth the struggle and sometimes it can be hard to receive a refund from a website all the way across the world. With the way our dress turned out, we will just try to sell it within Canada. We’re going to try and sell it by word of mouth or maybe even try out Poshmark for the first time.
Final Thoughts on Club L London for Canadians
If you want to order something from them for your first time, try to order something that is of lesser value. If you’re hoping to order from them again in the future, try to see if you can buy a tester item for your first time to test out sizing/quality. Obviously we tried to do this with our dress, but the $140 threshold for no duties wasn’t the case as we were charged for them anyways.
In our opinion, our dress isn’t worth the price tag of $130… we just aren’t impressed with the style/piece for our body type. That happens! We should’ve gone for a more subtle dress style we know we love right off the bat. We don’t believe a company should be completely written off based on bad one item, as they could still have some amazing pieces in their collection otherwise. The dress itself didn’t work out for us, but we shouldn’t have bought a dress style we’ve never tried on previously. That’s just the struggle with online shopping in general! Typically walking into an H&M or Aritzia we don’t buy 75% of what we try on. Not every style will look good on your specific body type.
If you want to order from Club L London as a Canadian, just be aware of the additional fee’s that may tack on top. HOWEVER, always try to get a coupon!!! This way it at least somewhat offsets the fees you’ll be hit with at the border.
This Concludes Our Club L London Canada Review
Who should we order from next!?
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