Boohoo’s Karen Millen skirt had Oasis label covered with marker pen

BOOHOO has come under fire after a Karen Millen skirt reportedly had an Oasis label blacked out with a marker pen.

Customer Joanna Sikora told the BBC “she felt lied to” as she found the altered labels of the brands, which are both owned by Boohoo.

Oasis has reportedly sold this skirt for £30 online, while Karen Mill charged £42Credit: Oasis

The skirts aren’t currently listed on the retailer’s UK websites, but they were previously sold by Oasis for £30 each, according to the shopper.

Meanwhile, the same garment was priced at £42 on Karen Millen’s website – 40% more than at Oasis.

Joanna, 39, from Winchester, told the BBC she started to examine the skirt after thinking it was “quite poor quality” for Karen Millen.

She added: “The labels had been cut and blacked out with marker pen, but I could clearly see that the brand was actually Oasis.”

A Karen Millen shopper says the skirt was actually by Oasis and had the label blacked out with a marker penCredit: Karen Millen

How to compare prices to get the best deal

JUST because something is on offer, or is part of a sale, it doesn’t mean it’s always a good deal.

There are plenty of comparison websites out there that’ll check prices for you – so don’t be left paying more than you have to.

Most of them work by comparing the prices across hundreds of retailers.

Here are some that we recommend:

Google Shopping is a tool that lets users search for and compare prices for products across the web. Simply type in keywords, or a product number, to bring up search results.

Price Spy logs the history of how much something costs from over 3,000 different retailers, including Argos, Amazon, eBay and the supermarkets. Once you select an individual product you can quickly compare which stores have the best price and which have it in stock.

Idealo is another website that lets you compare prices between retailers. All shoppers need to do is search for the item they need and the website will rank them from the cheapest to the most expensive one.

CamelCamelCamel only works on goods being sold on Amazon. To use it, type in the URL of the product you want to check the price of.

After realising this, Joanna sent photos of the labels to Karen Millen and received a refund – but she says she’ll never shop from the brand again.

The report comes after Boohoo launched an investigation last week after the same items were found to be selling at different prices across its brands.

In one case, the BBC found the same coat was originally sold for £89 at Oasis and £65 at Dorothy Perkins – both of which are owned by Boohoo.

It was also claimed that the Dorothy Perkins branding was cut from a care label in the coat sold by Coast.

Boohoo has said it’s investigating how the pricing differences happened and that the “miscommunication was not intentional”.

However, a company insider told the BBC that “it happens all the time”.

The online retailer owns a number of fashion labels after snapping up businesses when their owners collapsed into administration.

The online retailer purchased Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Burton and fitness brand HIIT from failed retail group Arcadia in February this year, in a deal that closed 214 shops forever.

Before this, it acquired Oasis and Warehouse in June 2020 and Coast and Karen Millen in August 2019.

The Sun has contacted Boohoo for comment on the latest claims.

Last week, a spokesperson said some of the clothing at the centre of the price row was purchased and live on brand websites before it bought certain labels.

They said: “All Boohoo group brands work independently, and so this miscommunication was not intentional as teams are not privy to what’s being bought and sold across the other group brands.

“Our internal investigation continues and we will be re-pricing all the crossover stock to be aligned.”

We explain who owns Boohoo.

Earlier this year, the online retailer agreed to buy the Debenhams name and website but not its stores.

Sales in online fashion have surged during lockdown as coronavirus restrictions and the closure of non-essential shops have caused scores of high street brands to struggle.

Retailers including Boohoo.com and PrettyLittleThing that will give you money off if you recycle old clothes and shoes

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk