Linda & Rachel Boutique

This year, Linda & Rachel is celebrating a milestone: 25 years in business as a “little coastal shop in Newport.”

“Our journey hasn’t been without challenges – moments of uncertainty, change and rediscovery. Yet, through it all, this boutique has remained our constant – a place of hope, healing and beauty,” the mother-and-daughter team behind the store write on their website, where they claim to craft pieces inspired by “the warmth of Newport life.”

Photos of mom (Linda) and daughter (Rachel) inside the Newport shop are featured throughout the store’s marketing.

But after receiving a tip from a reader, TINA.org dug into the shop’s purported Newport roots and found a number of red flags, among other marketing issues.

A “local” shop with a global footprint

For starters, there is no business in Rhode Island registered under the name Linda & Rachel and no specific address for the store provided on its website. In lieu of these details, the site vaguely lists the shop’s location as “Newport, RI,” while suspicious-looking Facebook ads depict a physical store that seemingly exists beyond the reach of public records.

Additionally, TINA.org found a surprisingly large global footprint for this “local” boutique including a Facebook page managed from overseas, products that come from China and website URLs that contain foreign languages.

A deceptive money-back guarantee

On its homepage, Linda & Rachel claim its customers can “shop with peace of mind thanks to our 30-day money-back guarantee.” This message is reiterated on product pages where the company claims this guarantee is “no questions asked” and can be used for “any reason.”

However, our reader reported that this advertised perk may be just as elusive as the company’s Newport location.

Our tipster – who attempted to return three sweaters that didn’t fit for a refund – was told by Linda & Rachel that sizing issues aren’t covered by its guarantee. In an email, the company stated:

Your order was fulfilled correctly based on the sizes selected at checkout. Fit issues, while frustrating, fall under personal preference and do not qualify as a fulfillment error.

In order to return the products, our reader would have had to pay the expense of international return shipping, which, the company warned, “is often very costly – sometimes close to or more than the value of the order itself.”

A little digging reveals that Linda & Rachel’s return policy (linked at the very bottom of its website) states that consumers are “always responsible” for return shipping. But the policy doesn’t say how expensive return shipping will be or that the products will have to be shipped internationally. The only mention of a return location is the following mysterious message: “You will receive the return address from us as soon as you have registered your return.”

In the end, our reader was able to get a full refund but only after she escalated the issue beyond the company to her credit card company.

Real people or AI-generated?

Images on Linda & Rachel’s website and Facebook page have some notable issues, including contrasting images used for its purported co-owner Rachel and a cover photo that misspells its own shop name. Of note, misspelled words in images are a sign that AI was used to generate them.

More loose threads

TINA.org found several more eyebrow-raising details in Linda & Rachel’s marketing including:

• Despite claiming to be celebrating its 25th anniversary, the company’s website has only been around for a few months.
• The company’s website uses a countdown timer to advertise when its anniversary sale ends but the clock resets every day.
• The bulk of the company’s claimed 38,000+ five-star reviews are nowhere to be found. A Trustpilot account for Linda & Rachel only lists five reviews and the company doesn’t seem to have a BBB profile at all (though consumers have complained to the BBB about the company). Meanwhile, the 18 customer reviews on its Facebook page are overwhelmingly negative.

Hot-under-the-collar consumers

Speaking of reviews, consumers have reported a multitude of issues with Linda & Rachel with the BBB and on the company’s Facebook page citing products that did not match the quality represented on the website, an onerous return process that requires shipping items to China, and more.

Watch out for clones

Lastly, it’s worth noting that TINA.org discovered a number of “boutiques” that appear eerily similar to Linda & Rachel in terms of website layout, products offered and/or purported ties to Northeast vacation destinations. The Facebook page of one of the alleged shops, Helen’s Boutique Nantucket, even links to Linda & Rachel’s website.

Linda & Rachel did not respond to a request for comment.

The bottom line

Be careful when shopping online and watch out for websites that fail to provide important details like their physical address, return address or where their advertised positive reviews are posted. Always read the full terms and consider what consumers may have to say on a variety of third-party review sites before trusting a company with your money.

Additionally, if you are struggling to obtain a refund from a company like Linda & Rachel, consider documenting your experience and reporting it to your bank or credit card company to potentially reverse the charge.

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