I love renting clothes online, but I know it’s not for everyone. With that in mind, I decided to try out Stitch Fix, a monthly box service for clothes and accessories. Here’s how it works:

For $20/month, your personal Stitch Fix stylist sends over five itemsa mix of clothes and accessoriesalong with styling suggestions for each piece. If you buy any of the items, your $20 fee will be credited to your purchase. If you buy all five, you get an additional 25% discount off the purchase.

Don’t like what you were sent? You just send it back using the pre-paid shipping label provided.

Sounds simple and lovely, right?

Well first of all, your so-called stylist just picks these items for you at random, without the benefit of your input or opinion. You begin by filling out a style survey, but this is my third box and I’m still wondering why I bothered to fill out the survey as obviously no one has read it.

Yes, you can fill out another survey after you get each box, helping your stylist’s picks improve over time, but for $20 a month, who needs to that.

Also, the clothes are kind of expensive for what they are. In this month’s box, I received a faux leather jacket for $88. Not amazing quality, nothing really special about it…but with a price tag well-over the €˜who cares’ range. I could find better quality clothes, for the same price (or less) scouring the trifecta (Zara/Top Shop/H&M) myself!

Then there’s the whole returns issue. You only get THREE BUSINESS DAYS to ship back the items you don’t want or Stitch Fix charges you for the whole box! On busy weeks it might take me longer than that just to get through my mail pilewhat a turnoff!€¨

Basically, I love the idea of a someone sending me great clothes, but Stitch Fix won’t be filling that hole for me. Back to renting I go! Have you tried any good stylist services? Let us know.