Hot Topic, Inc Reviews 84

Great when you're visiting the store in person, ordering online however is a whole other story!

Sadly a less-than-positive first shopping experience. I placed an order at the start of December and it sat unmoving and 'in process' for over 6 weeks. Upon contacting Box Lunch several times over that period I was informed on each occasion that my order was in 'the final stages of shipment' and would be dispatched within 48 hours. Needless to say that never happened.

I was refused a refund on 2 occasions (told I would have to send the items back at my own expense to get a refund, even though the order hadn't even been dispatched yet) and eventually I had to state I would be seeking a refund through my credit card company before they agreed to cancel my order (which still says 'in process' on my account page, so who knows...).

Edited to add: a few weeks after writing this and being told my order was cancelled, they charged my card. Items were never sent and I had to threaten legal action to get my money back. Appalling company.

Wanted to buy the Harry Potter bag but it just wouldn't let me. Gave me errors after errors. Finally decided to reach out to their customer service but its equally incompetent. Still couldn't place the order even after 30 minutes because the "order is stuck due to a system error". Completely useless. Waste of time and energy. Don't bother, just got somewhere else.

So I make an order. Shirt size too big so customer service said an exchange would be free. No prob. So I sent it back. A month later I contact them wondering what’s up. They say they refunded me $17.66. Of a $30.20 order and it’s not coming. So I’m being short changed $12.54 and no shirt to be had. I contact them, show they are messing up, they send over another $6. So now I am short $6.54. For no reason. Order summery changes from $30.20 to $24.20 after. To make my order look like it was less. I have screen shots of before and after and the bank doesn’t lie that I am still being short changed. I loved BL/HT but now I’m so bitter from being strung along. I literally paid them to lie to me in the end. The loss of a few dollars is nothing. What got me was having my emotions and patience strung along for a month by customer service and exchange update emails. This was supposed to be an important sentimental item for an event even if they thought it was silly. I would have rather kept the oversized shirt then go through this and still be at a loss. Never again. Guess they won out on me. They kept the shirt and got a free $6.54. To think I loved and trusted this company. The in store mall people are nice but their online presence and practices are so rude and scammy.

Ordered an item that was in stock at the time of order back in MARCH! A few weeks go by with no delivery, so I sign in and check on the status which now says back ordered and expected in May. Ok, that sucked but it is what it is. Fast forward to the beginning of June. No package. I check and it’s not back ordered until July. Ok……I check again in July and back ordered until October…..it’s not October and I check and it was canceled.

What pisses me off the most and is extremely unacceptable to me, is the lack of communication. There were no emails to explain or give an update. Not once.

I bought the pineapple stitch backpack and wallet which came to almost 200 dollars.. I was very happy customer until I wore my new backpack three times and the straps are started to come apart. I’m very upset and I will never purchase another bag from them again. They are way to expensive for this to happen, I can understand if I had this bag on all the time but that isn’t the case here. Save your money and the disappointment!!

Although I seldom shop at Box Lunch, my experiences there were pleasant. The prices are a bit too high for me, but I'll look around if I want to treat myself to something nice. There are plenty of different fandom related products, such as disney, television shows, etc. Always neat things to look at here.
The employees in my area are friendly. They asked if I needed help and it didn't feel too forced, which isn't a problem, but its kind of awkward. ._.
I have also used to online store once and it went well. Products came as described, and in good shape. I sent an email to ask a question and they replied to me in a clear manner.
Its sister store, Hot Topic is fine, other than repeated art theft for product designs.

I created an account today because I wanted to earn rewards for my purchases. Unfortunately, immediately after creating the account and attempting to login the website told me there was no such or the information was wrong. I had google save the password after creating it so how could it be wrong? I contacted customer service and asked what was happening, if I am supposed to receive a confirmation email and all they said was the information was not there. And they didn't really have an answer for me or offer me any assistance. All I got was "Steven" telling me my information wasn't there, that there was no such account. How can I even think about purchasing something from a company and can't even store INFORMATION properly. No thanks. After reading other reviews, I'm actually glad I had a poor experience before I bought anything. I'll just get what I want in store if I really want it and absolutely cannot by any other means obtain it anywhere else.

I purchased multiple items from Box Lunch that had a total of over $149 they never sent the items and claimed they were lost. Their estimated delivery date is always off and their customer service emails never offer any explanations.

So I ordered two LoTRs pins that were on sale on January 3. For two weeks it sat in pre-shipping. I contacted Boxlunch through the email I had received to keep track of my package and they never got back to me. So I went and contacted customer service through their website and DID hear back from someone. I was told that I could be refunded or resent the items if they were in stock. I asked that the items be resent because I really wanted them.

I did not hear anything back or receive any further information on the matter. It's January 26 and I went back to the website to contact their customer service AGAIN explaining everything. We'll see if anything gets done about it, but seeing all these reviews, I doubt it. It's sad because I never had a problem with Hot Topic but the Boxlunch branch is horrible. Save your money and buy from a different website.

They ripped me off and never delivered my order. They claim that it was lost in between them and the shipping company. translation their employe stole my purchased goods that were limited time item. Worthless company

I preordered a pop 11/6 for shipping 11/28-12/9. On 12/16, I contacted customer service to make sure it shipped (it is a gift, but shipping by the 9th would have been sufficient time to get it before Christmas). It hasn’t and won’t ship to get here in time. Per their website “ It is possible that an item may not be available by the initial expected ship-by date that was stated when the order was placed. If you do not want to wait you may cancel your order by calling our toll free Customer Service”. When I requested they cancel since it didn’t ship by the quoted time, they said they can’t change orders. When I pointed out their website says they do in these instances, she said she didn’t care. Horrible customer service. Don’t publish policies you don’t honor!

I am surprised to see so many bad reviews for Hot Topic/ Box lunch.
I have shopped at Hot Topic for years, more so online the last 7 and Box Lunch I am a newer customer.
Every purchase I have made with Hot Topic has gone smoothly except for one minor incident. A phone case I purchased was described as compatible for a certain iphone but it did not fit mine it was meant for a different size iphone. The issue was resolved fast. All my purchases have arrived in good time, no damage no missing items.
Box Lunch no issues.

Terrible phone service was trying to get a refund on a order that was messed up by the store end and having to be on hold over 40 min is beyond ridiculous. Definitely not worth it never ordering from their online store again

I ordered a couple figures off of box lunch. 3 manga dimensions and one regular. I had ordered 3 for 2 of my friends as they’ve been looking all over. I got them 30% off. I stayed up till midnight to wait for the newest releases and deals and those are what caught my eyes first. Come a week later, I get my order but it’s the opposite of what I ordered! I got 3 regular and 1 manga dimension! I called and they said they were sold out. I don’t understand why they didn’t just email me and cancel my order and refund me instead of having me call then go to the nearest box lunch to do a return. Why don’t they have a block on the amount of items they have available. I’m one of the people who bought the items very early and I thought I’d get my items correct but I guess not. So dumb and unprofessional on their part. Don’t sell what you can’t give out.

Although the website states that BoxLunch ships to APO in support of the U.S. military, they do not. Everything ships directly to UPS and then it is up to the UPS worker to identify the APO address and switch the method of shipment over to USPS. I have recently placed several orders in anticipation of the holidays. Of my orders, only 1 successfully arrived. 2 other orders were on backorder. And 2 others were returned to shipper. Of the last 2 items, it fell on us to identify the problem and contact customer service to correct this. To date (over 8 weeks now). I have yet to receive these last 4 orders which are completely paid for. Very poor customer experience all the way around.

Called customer service 3 times, holding for 30+ minutes each.
Tried chatting with customer service. 30+ minutes after waiting, just directed to the customer service phone number... where no one ever answers.
They do not have a customer service department. It is a scam. How can a company operate like this in America in 2020? weird.

A bag I ordered in May said it would be shipping in August. Although that's a pretty long time to wait, I decided to do it anyway. At the beginning of August I tracked the order and saw that it was moved to September without the company notifying me. A pain in the butt but it's only another few weeks than what I originally planned to wait, so I continued to wait. On the first of October I hadn't received a shipping notification so I tracked the order again - it had changed to beginning of Nov. At this point I tried to call Customer Service but after 2-3 attempts over a few days of waiting 30+ minutes and never getting anyone on the phone I gave up and thought "it's just another few weeks". I tracked today and it says end of November. Keep in mind that none of these delays were communicated to me. Clearly they have no earthly clue when this item will be available but want to keep customers on the line for it when it does. At this point, customers won't remember they even purchased it and they'll just be hit with an unexpected charge from Box Lunch for this item.

*today I've been on the phone waiting for an agent for over 30 mins and waiting on their chat for just as long. I don't believe they actually have a customer service department and just string customers along until they give up. This is a complete scam of a company

Bull$&& a box came in al damage and cant do anything they dont know anything about collecting. And dont care about theyre customers. Never ever buying from them again.

I ordered some items back in July. It is now almost October and I have yet to receive the items nor receive a refund. I have called customer service now 4 times with no resolve. In fact, I have gotten a different story each time. Some reps say the items were refunded, one said they shipped, and the last one said the order is still in process and we have to go through a whole process to cancel it, which should have already happened three weeks ago. I will never do business with this company again. Apparently I’m just out of money and time dealing with this incompetent company.