Hot Topic Reviews 441

💥I THINK I FIGURED OUT THE
Hot Topic PRE-ORDER SCAM💥

HOT TOPIC CANCELS a percentage of OUR pre-orders to stock their own stores to bait customers in to buy more goods.
IT'S A BS MARKETING SCAM to increase their own Point Of Sale Margins... Especially right at the holidays!
They view OUR aggregation as acceptable because they're not charging that % of customers for pre-ordered up front.

Order didn't turn up, agent took 30 minutes to respond to me on the "live" chat, then didn't resolve my issue OR send me the transcript I was promised. Terrible experience.

There is a large pedophilia recognized flag suspended from the ceiling of the store in Countryside mall. Hot Topic promotes pedophilia by displaying this flag.

I've ordered before with no issues but this time their system kept reverting my address to one that doesn't exist. I received one item of order at correct address, the rest was returned. But, when I contacted them, they, as a courtesy, replaced my order. Plus it shipped the next day. I found customer service to be exemplary. Very nice gentleman I talked to with immediate results. Very pleased.

I ordered a pink Floyd hoodie and they took the money then two weeks later it said it shipped. Two weeks go by and it never showed up so I called the company and they informed me it's out of stock and they will have to give me my money back

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews, everything has always gone smooth for me. I always arrange to pick up orders from stores, to ensure the company has accountability for getting it there. No problems after several orders.

I have had an account with hot topic since 2010. I ordered an item and noticed the item i ordered was not the one being sent. Its was a different item. I contacted the company and they told me it was their fault and nothing could be done. They asked if I wanted the order canceled. I said no and that was on November 2, 2025. Today December 7. 2025 I received an email saying the order was canceled without my permission. The company did not give a reason why. Then said it be 2 weeks before I get the refuse. I will not do any more business with this company.

No help with a reservation on my card with my order who didn’t go through. The service support don’t care to help. It was your website who failed and now I will miss that money for a whole month. That is not okay.

Do NOT order anything preorder from this company, you are not guaranteed to get it and they'll lie to you about it. I pre-ordered all three of the special edition Sleep Token albums back in October when they became available for pre-order. Sundowning and TPWBYT were delivered but then I got an email stating that TMBTE had been returned to sender without having ever arrived to begin with. As of the writing of this review, the tracking information still states that the carrier has yet to receive the package.

I contacted Hot Topic about the issue by email. At first I got a virtual assistant that hadn't even understood the issue and just gave me the shipping information I already had. When I asked for a real person, they gave me the exact response with slightly different wording. I pressed the issue by sending a screenshot of the carrier information showing that the package had not even been received by the carrier. Finally, they said they could offer me the "one time courtesy" of re-shipping the item and gave me a number to call. When I did call, they informed me that they could not re-ship the item because it was marked as out of stock and the only thing I could do was to add it to my wishlist and hope it would be restocked. I told them I was under the impression that these were limited edition reprints and asked why they couldn't just send me the same one that was supposedly returned to them, to which they said "we don't have it yet" and issued a refund.

I've reported the issue to the BBB. I've shopped at Hot Topic for the last 25 years but they've lost my business.

Not a good experience at all. If you are expecting support from this company, forget it. The Tron Ares exclusive jacket has never been available online, but yet is there just for show. Now it's marked down for Black Friday; still no sizes available? Go in the store; they don’t even have it in their inventory to search. Talk about false advertisement. I called corporate; no callback, no response, and if you call customer service, you get robotic support from the Philippines. But here is the kicker: the Jackets are not on their website ever, but they are on other sites for $450.00. However, the Black Friday deal is $97.00 on their site, which doesn’t comprise of any; what a joke, Looks like there is some inside theft going on but they don't seem to care. lol.

Can't understand how forever 21 is out of business and they had more concern for there customers and better inventory control. I am sure if the Tron Ares jacket was handled by them they would have had it available for everyone. I am turned off for good from hot topic never again.

Although you choose Hot Topic Canada, they will charge the US price but do not disclose this on the website! Buyers beware…it will cost you a lot more when you see your bank statement! Total scam company!

I've spent a lot of money in store and online from hot topic in the past 20 years. Recently item quality and customer service has gone downhill. I got a defective item in the mail and I had to pay to return it. Customer service said check if I haven't gotten a refund after 5 days returned back to them. After a week they condescendingly replied saying now up to two weeks just to process it

This is the 3rd time this has occurred to me, but they keep canceling my orders with little to no notice. This time I ordered online and chose to pick up at a nearby store that has it in stock and they alerted me that my order went through and is "preparing to be shipped" for some reason. I don't even get an email back, and when I check my order status, it's been canceled, and they no longer have it at my location. The online experience is terrible.

They don't price match and they won't let you cancel orders even the next day. Crap customer service

I had gotten some pants at hot topic and the DAY I wear them the hook for one of the chains broke?? I wasn’t even rough with it AT ALL and it broke not even an hour in of wearing them 💔💔 I had gotten the pants barely 2 days ago too dude

I made an online purchase on June 21, and when the item arrived, the pants were the wrong size. I returned them to a Hot Topic store on July 12, but when I noticed that a refund had not yet been issued, I called the store. They advised me to reach out to your customer service department, which I did on July 17. After discussing the issue, they informed me that the refund had been processed and even sent me an email with the transaction details, stating it would take one to two weeks for the refund to be completed. Today is July 30, and I still haven’t received the refund. It has been over two weeks, so I contacted PayPal after speaking with your customer service department, who reiterated that the refund had been processed. After two hours on the phone with PayPal, I finally reached a supervisor who explained that the issue is not on their end but rather that the funds for the refund have yet to be released by Hot Topic.

Ordered 2 Sleep Token T-shirts on July 5 2025. The t-shirt in question had 2 left in stock. . I received one T-shirt, the other was pending. They took my money, left the order on Processing for 2 weeks. No correspondence whatsoever. It is July 26 and I’m still waiting . Never received a refund or a reason why they took my money for a T-shirt yet failed to deliver! Never will I order from Hot Topic again!

No stars. We have been waiting on the Arcane Jinx graffiti hoodie for 6 months now. The order still says processing. It was originally a normal order then it was switched to a Pre-order. Every time I call or email about the order I get a different answer about when it will ship. No one knows what is going on at Hot Topic. They don't even know their own inventory system which is just sad. How can you claim any kind of customer service when you run things this way.

do not shop here online. recently got a strange email about unauthorized access, and was confused since my current email had never been compromised. Turns out Hot Topic had a data breach last year and 10s of millions of customers data got leaked. did hot topic email me to tell me? no. so not only did they cause harm from not securing customer data, but then they didn't even have the decency to let the customers affected know so they could take preventative steps before getting hacked. but they can send monthly advertisements. 🙄 Currently being sued for it too by multiple lawfirms