BEWARE "IMPRESSIONS BOUTIQUE" and Kim Xuan

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Beware "IMPRESSIONS BOUTIQUE" tailor shop. You may be buying a reasonable quality product but you will be paying over the odds for it. Please trust us. We have been totally ripped off by them. I stupidly paid them for a selection of clothes that I later found out would only cost less than half the price in other shops in town.
I cant believe how stupid I was and feel totally saddened by the whole experience, but it was the first place we went to and we were sucked in sadly.

I am writing this to WARN all travellers who are scared about getting clothes made in Hoi An. I wish that someone had been there to tell us the truth about "Impressions Boutique."

It is run by a lady called Kim Xuan, a hard woman who really does mean business, but in a very unpleasant way. The address is 102 Hai Ba Trung, Hoi An. Near the Peace Hotel where we are staying and where they recommended this pricey place to us, although we asked for a place that offered good clothes at a fair price.

Like all good sales people in Vietnam the "Impressions Boutique" staff are welcoming and lovely, but once inside the shop, they will charge you double the amount of money that other tailors in the town will and the service will suddenly be non existent ( for example my boyfriend ordered 2 suits and some other casual and business shirts. He was initially served by the Boss, Kim, however on his first fitting he was pretty much given all his clothes to try on, in another location. The shirts were good first time, however the jackets left a bit to be desired, not really tailored, just simple blocks. To be expected for a first fitting you might say, however there was little input from the new tailor/salesperson other than to say it looked perfect, which was quite untrue. He couldn’t really see exactly what was wrong with them but if "Impressions" really offered the personal service that they claim, you would have expected the tailor/salesperson to show a bit more interest and offer at least some constructive criticism and help. In short he had to push to get the jackets altered!)
On top of all that their product seems no better than the cheaper shops. In fact we have had other clothes and even shoes and boots made elsewhere that were perfect first time and cost a fraction of the price.

Like all travellers we were a little wary of using a tailor in Hoi An as we were unsure of the results. Having previously had amazing suits made in Thailand, we really wanted to simply go back there but we ran out of time to return to Bangkok.

We arrived in Hoi An after a particularly horrid overnight bus journey from Na Trang, tired and with little time to shop around we went to the place the hotel had recommended "Impressions Boutique." Had we shopped around we would have found the same quality of product or very similar, sometimes better for less than half the price they were charging.

"Impressions Boutique" are very clever, they tell you what you want to hear at first and then once they have your money, you become a number, a nothing. It is not at all the special 'tailor' experience you imagine it to be. True enough they offer reasonable quality fabrics and a reasonable quality finished item, 90%!o(MISSING)f the time.....but at what cost?

Why pay over the odds for something you could really steal a bargain on if you walked over the road?

Trust us - look around the corner, walk down the road and the nearby streets and go to the smaller family run shops. Get recommendations from other travellers and don’t pay upfront in one go to avoid extra card charges, its not worth it. The service is unimaginable, the products perfect and the people lovely. We tried many other places, and had lots of friends who also went to other places and all the fabrics and finished products were the same as our very expensive items from "Impressions Boutique". I can see no reason why "Impressions Boutique" say they can charge twice as much. They have nothing on any of their competitors, although now at least I hope some of you will be wary of them. Be careful, be warned!

Don’t let this scare you from using tailor shops in Hoi An, "Impressions Boutique" are the only place where I have heard other bad experiences from and where we experienced first hand their money grabbing and their greed for making money out of tourists sadly.

We had some amazing things made elsewhere and because of this met many lovely Vietnamese people. Kim Xuan is NOT amongst them!

For the best service imaginable I recommend you head to "Diem Diem" further in town. The family are delightful, caring and great tailors. The fabrics are lovely and they also have a fantastic shoe and boot shop called "Footprints." I had boots made that are fantastic, cheap and still going strong 6 months later. I love them. I just wish we had found them first. You live and learn!

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