A woman was left horrified after buying £150 worth of bikinis from an expensive brand online, only to find a Shein label on the packaging bag.
The Cardiff-based TikToker, who goes by niamhelonidoyle, shared a video revealing her surprise after discovering a Shein hgyiene sticker among her three Motel Rocks bikinis.
In response, viewers urged Niamh and other shoppers to make sure they do a “reverse image search” on clothes they are interested in to make sure the same item isn’t available in a cheaper brand.
Elsewhere, other brands have been accused of “buying in bulk” from Shein and selling clothes at a much higher price, although Motel Rocks insisted in Niamh’s case that this was a “warehouse error”.
Pictured: A social media user was left horrified after buying £150 worth of clothes from an expensive brand online, only to find a Shein label on the packaging bag.
Niamh was stunned to find a Shein tag in the packaging of her expensive bikini.
Niamh, who had spent £150 on three bikinis, was stunned to discover her expensive purchase had a Shein tag.
In the first part of the video, Niamh is seen with her hand over her mouth, before showing a crumpled Shein-branded hygiene sticker.
“When you spend £150 on Motel Rocks Bikinis and this falls out of the bag…” she wrote in the video.
It comes after other shoppers claimed that the same clothes from Motel Rocks and other more expensive brands can be found at SHEIN.
“The Motel Rocks stuff looks good and is good quality,” one shopper wrote on Reddit. “But I found out that they sell the EXACT same clothes on SHEIN for a fraction of the price, and the quality is no different, so I would assume they use the same manufacturer and wouldn’t say Motel is worth it.”
And in response to Niamh’s video, another TikTok creator posted a reaction clip saying: “Many brands buy in bulk from Shein and sell them as their own.”
‘Shopping on Shein is frowned upon due to fast fashion and child labor. But I will continue to buy from Shein because I can’t justify buying a dress for $100 when they have it on Shein.”
Motel Rocks is a popular online clothing brand that primarily sells women’s clothing to a Generation Z audience.
Shoppers have complained in the past that the clothing sold by the brand is of a quality that does not seem to match the price. There are 32.1 million posts on TikTok related to the question “why is Motel Rocks so expensive?”
On the Motel Rocks website, the average price for a bikini top is £28, while bottoms are around £26, bringing the total price of a set to £53.
Niamh bought three Motel Rocks brand bikinis for around £50 per set, which is much more expensive than the cost of a Shein bikini, which usually costs around £5 per bikini top.
Shein is often used as a cheaper way to “cheat” items that look like more expensive clothing.
However, the fast fashion giant has faced notorious criticism for misconduct within the company, often accused of paying staff extremely low wages so they can continue selling budget items.
However, the Chinese-owned brand has grown exponentially in recent years, attracting collaborations with stars such as Khloe Kardashian, Katy Perry and Rita Ora.
Despite constant criticism, the complaints have not stopped the profits of the economic brand which, in 2023, generated a My dear $32.5 billion (£25.4 billion), an increase of 43% from the $22.7 billion (£17.7 billion) earned in 2022.
In response to Niamh’s video, shoppers shared their advice, urging others to check items on more expensive websites to ensure they don’t receive a duplicate product at a higher price.
Reviewers recommend reverse image search products on Google to see if they appear on other websites so you can compare prices.
One user wrote: “This is why you ALWAYS Google images and compare prices.”
Another agreed, writing: ‘Tip: Capture the photo and always search for the reverse image on Shein. You’ll be surprised.’
A third said: “Before you buy something in your carts, save an image of the clothes and reverse the image and see if you get results for Fashionova or Shein.”
A reverse image search can alert customers to similar items being sold on cheaper websites, which can prevent customers from having to pay top dollar for an item that looks identical.
Viewers of the video shared their tips on how to make sure shoppers don’t overpay for their clothes.
Niamh had spent £150 on three bikinis from the expensive brand online, where she found a label from a budget brand selling items for a fraction of the cost.
The social media user received a response from the brands saying that the confusion was probably due to the two companies sharing the same returns company.
Since uploading the video, Niamh posted a follow-up video explaining Motel Rocks’ response after contacting them about finding the unsuspecting label.
In response to Niamh, they wrote: ‘We work with an external returns team who repackage items for us. They handle returns for multiple brands, so it is possible that this label was placed on a pair of our bikini panties by mistake.
“Rest assured, our products are not other brands and it seems that this was a mistake in the warehouse.”
The content creator was then offered a free return on all three of her purchases and was provided with a possible explanation for the confusion.
However, she was not happy with the result and felt that she had still paid for the services of a high-end brand.
“Even if it is a mistake in the warehouse, this shows that money for a more expensive brand is useless if it is the same place where they package Shein,” he said.
‘Obviously what you are paying for is simply buying the brand, not the quality of the clothing.
‘Take what you will from this because I don’t want to be the reason people stop buying from Motel.
‘Fast fashion, although it can be avoided, is difficult to avoid.
Especially “if you’re on a budget and brands like this have more affordable clothing.”