The Wish App

There are a hundred and one different shopping applications that are available on our phones and tablets, and a lot of them are all the same. They sell a bunch of factory rejects or overstocks at bargain prices and then it takes them forever to get to your house. It’s either than situation, or that they’re hocking a bunch of junk that’s being shipped at very low cost, directly from China and Japan. They suck people in with their “FREE” banners across the item listings and they’re convinced that they’re getting a superb deal with a simple shipping charge.

The biggest of these applications is the Wish app. With listings for everything under the sun, Wish uses Chinese and Japanese suppliers to sell everything from false eyelashes to cheap crafting supplies. While some of their items are priced low enough to entice people to buy something they wouldn’t normally, their claim to fame is the free items. Application users are able to pick up trendy, crafty, or cute items with little to no cost. It’s all well and good if they’re actually selling people what they’re expecting, but are people really just paying to ship junk?

All Signs Point to Yes

If you’re trying to buy jewelry from a bargain app then you probably shouldn’t be expecting the best quality in the world. No, you’re not going to get an incredible nine carat genuine sapphire set in white gold for three dollars shipping, but they’ll make you think you. Whomever is responsible for the items descriptions on the Wish app may be a genius, as the taglines certainly make you feel as though you’re getting Tiffany & Co. instead of Claire’s. They take great photos of their items and are sure to capture the glint of the natural light on the stones and the illegible stamp on the band of a ring. What this all amounts to is largely a great advertising technique. They do a great job of making their stuff look like it is something you absolutely need, and they throw around words like “silver” and “gold” without using the word “plated” to depict the item’s actual description. A lot of displeased customers end up with green earlobes when they were expecting sterling silver earrings.

So how do they get away with it? They use a lot of other words that people in the know would understand to mean gold-plated so a layman doesn’t know the difference. However, the customers are made to feel safe as the listings are all padded with hundreds of fantastic reviews claiming that it was the best purchase ever. When you add up the banner claiming the item is free, the one to three dollar shipping, and great reviews, a lot of customers think they’re getting an incredible deal. Sometimes they are, that’s a fact.

There are sometimes that the silver is real sterling and the item is being sold at an incredibly low rate, but more often than not, it’s not real. While an argument could be made for not supporting the United States economy and funneling money through an app into China, the main problem is that a lot of people are paying their hard earned three dollars to ship a bunch of junk that doesn’t match the description of the item they paid for. It’s a shame that the makers of the app think it’s okay to fleece their customers, but everyone’s all about making a quick buck, right?