Wish.com Review: Is The Website and App Safe?

Shopping online is fun, but it’s risky if you don’t know where to spend your money. With so many scams out there, it can be really easy to lose money shopping at the wrong store online. That’s probably why you’re going through several Wish.com reviews to know whether the Wish app and website is safe. Well, we have everything you need to know, including the good, the bad and ugly. So, let’s get into it, shall we?

What is Wish?

Wish.com is an app and website that claims to help shoppers find really affordable fashion, electronics, accessories and home improvement items. According to Wikipedia, Peter Szulczewski and Danny Zhang founded Wish.com under parent company ContextLogic Inc in 2010. They’re currently headquartered in San Francisco, California here in the US.

How Does Wish.com Work?

Just like Rakuten.com, Wish.com runs a marketplace where merchants sell their products to customers. You can either use the desktop version or the Wish App that’s available on both Android and iOS to do your shopping.

Wish also claims it personalizes your shopping experience using a computer algorithm that recommends products to you based on what you buy, view, mark as favorite and even ignore.

Wish.com Prices

The first thing you’ll notice when you land on the wish.com website or Wish app is that stuff is really cheap. But let’s take a look at a few examples.

Women’s clothing, handbags, accessories, jewelry and shoes sell for at least $5 down from $100 or so. Men’s clothing, watches, socks, shoes, jackets and accessories also sell for $50 or less.

Electronics and gadgets including laptops, cameras, headphones, smartphones and the like go for $100 on average. I really hope I’m wrong, but most of these gadgets seem to be knockoffs of the real thing. You can also find computer accessories and things like Bluetooth earphones, power banks and flash drives for as little as $1.

How Do I Get Started with Wish?

You can use the desktop version or download the Wish app that’s available on both Android and iOS. Either methods are free to use and download. You’ll need either a Facebook or Google account to get started. Did you know you can get paid to download apps like Wish on SwagBucks.com? Well, now you know.

That said, they’ll then ask you to fill in your age, gender and location. They say that’s what they use to personalize your shopping experience.  Once you’re in and you see something you like you can just click on it to view the description, pictures, shipping details, reviews about the product and so on. You can then buy it or add it to your wishlist.

Wish.com Shipping

Remember you’re buying from independent merchants so shipping options will vary. But it seems most sellers offer free standard shipping that takes three weeks to a month to arrive. But you can pay for express shipping to get your item faster, usually within a week. Sounds too long? You can always shop on Amazon.com and use the FREE Guaranteed Amazon Prime Delivery to get your orders faster. You may also want to consider Rakuten.com which provides fast shipping options as well. 

Wish Refund and Return Policy

According to Wish, you qualify for a full refund if you’re not satisfied with your order for any reason. Most vendors will specify their own refund policy but Wish.com provides a 30 day period from the delivery date to claim a refund. They say they’ll strive to get back to you within 72 hours.

Wish Coupons and Promo Codes

You can get Wish coupons and promo codes on different sources around the web. But an even better a way to get discounts is to use Swagbucks.com which allows you to earn free cash or gift cards for things that you do online. You can then use the cash or gift cards to shop at Wish.com. Or you can shop on Rakuten.com and Amazon.com for similar items at a great price.

Wish.com Complaints

This is the part of the review I know you’re most interested in. So we found a few red flags we thought you should know about before buying anything on either wish.com or the Wish app.

“Where’s my shit?”

Apparently orders get lost all the time, especially when you order several items at once. According to shoppers, shipping can take months, so if you forget to follow up, you may end up losing money. Actually the Better Business Bureau highlighted this, among other complaints you'll read about below. Fortunately you can always shop for quality stuff on Amazon.com and get them fast if you’re a Prime Member with the FREE Guaranteed 1-2 Day Amazon Prime Delivery.

“This is not what I paid for”

If you order something, wish shoppers say chances are the item will either not match the description or be some low quality and useless crap. It seems Wish is not the site to order fashion and expensive electronics. 

“I’m still waiting for my damn refund!”

Wish takes forever to issue refunds. A good number of customers say it took months to get their money back, even after returning the item and paying for shipping both ways. Other shoppers say just because you asked for a refund doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get it. Your money will disappear if you don't follow up keenly.

Wish.com Alternatives

If any of the complaints give you pause, I don't blame you. Fortunately there are other options to consider. Amazon.com is a great option where you can shop for quality merchandise at great prices and peace of mind. Or you can get cashback and coupons on sites like Rakuten.com and SwagBucks.com if you’re all about discounts.

Is Wish.com Legit?

I wouldn’t call Wish.com a scam, but you may not be happy with the quality of the merchandise you pay for. It appears the cheap prices are too good to be true in many cases. That’s actually common with some stores and apps we’ve reviewed before like Romwe, Depop and SammyDress that sell cheap stuff from China. With the Wish app, you’ll either have to pay more to get quality stuff, or pay for faster shipping and hope everything turns out fine. But chances are you won't get both. 

Sounds too risky? If so, you have sites like Swagbucks.com that you can use to buy stuff online from stores that you know and trust. Sites like Rakuten.com will also give you cashback, so it's great way to save and make money while you shop. You can also shop using the Amazon.com app and take advantage of the FREE guaranteed Amazon Prime Free 1-2 Day Delivery. So you have other options as well to consider.

Well that’s my two cents about the Wish app and website. Feel free to chime in your thoughts on the comments section below. If you still have questions, you can read their FAQs page here.

Until next time

Eddy “with a Y”