"That's Excessive" — Dance Mom Claims School Charged $100 for Dress They Got for $10 off SHEIN

The online fashion retailer Shein is known for providing cheap clothing items to customers, and there's a good chance that many retailers simply have Shein manufacture their wares and they either chop the label off or re-brand it themselves.

However, there have been a number of controversies associated with the clothing brand — namely that it's one of several companies that allegedly uses forced Chinese labor camps in order to produce some of its goods.

Sure, the products are cheap, but at what cost? Well, one mother on TikTok was irate when she discovered the dance school her daughter was attending ordered dresses for its students through the retailer.

The other impetus for her anger? She says the dance school charged her $100 for clothes they purchased less than $10 a piece from the Chinese website.

Megan (@alwaysembarrassed) addressed her concerns in a now-viral video where she wrote the following:

"My daughter's dance studio charged me $100 for a $10 costume from Shein. Is this normal????"

She narrates her video from within her car as she relays the story of her daughter's dance studio: "OK, I need the dance teachers of TikTok to tell me if I am crazy or if my daughter's dance studio is crazy. So we're in recital season and she just brought home her costumes last week."

While most folks would be happy to get new swag for their kids' activity, there was a problem — the TikToker thought there was a major discrepancy between what she was charged and what the dance studio paid for her daughter's dance costume: "And, I realized they are from Shein."

She continued, "There's a number of problems with this. One: I would never shop from Shein or support Shein in any way. Two: For one costume, they charge me 10 times what they paid. For the other costume they charged me five times what they paid."

She went on to highlight just how big the difference between the charges actually was — "Like one of the costumes they literally paid $9.50 and they charged me $100. I obviously was like what's going on here. So I emailed them and I was like can you please explain this to me, why am I paying $100 for this like flimsy piece of trash that you paid $9 on Shein for?"

Megan broke down their response, but it didn't sound like she was all that excited about the dance company's reply to her query: "And their response was that there are costs associated with measuring the girls, steaming the outfits, picking a costume that matches the vibe of the song, and hangers and garment bags."

"I feel like I am being scammed but please tell me if that perception is wrong and if this is an accurate representation of what's going on or common practice? My daughter's been dancing since she was little, and I have never experienced this."

"Please weigh in 'cause I need to know how nuclear I need to go," she says at the end of the video, asking other TikTokers if she should be as irate as she sounds like she wants to be.

It seems like other people who responded to Megan's video were just as irate about the fact that the dance company ordered the dance costumes from Shein, as one person wrote: "I miss the old school dance costumes when they would come from a catalog and not a sweat shop."

Another person said that Megan should get the other moms together so they could let the school know how they feel about their decision to source dresses from Shein: "Tell the other moms. Get them to sign a letter requesting that costumes come from a reputable source or that you’re given the option to order directly from Shein."

Another dance mom in the comments section remarked that this hasn't been their experience with their own school, however: "Nope! My daughter is in three classes! Each costume is like $175. and ALL are handmade! Down to the exact measurement! Absolutely not. They are the start of the dance costumes going down hill. No no."

Others joked that the math the school was providing to justify the massive upcharge on the Shein products didn't seem to add up at all: "$90 to measure each kid? I’m in the wrong business," they joked.

Someone else replied: "I’d ask for an itemized receipt and if it doesn’t make sense a refund," they penned, while another user on the app thought the clothes could've been purchased from another dealer: "Why is a dance studio ordering costume off Shein instead of Revolution or Weissman?"

Chinese retailers like Shein and Temu have purportedly used slave labor from camps in China, which is why folks are able to get products from these stores for so cheap.

Considering that many would agree that if you buy products from stores that implement slave labor, you are funding the perpetuation of slavery, it's understandable why any parent would be frustrated that their kid's dance school purchases their dresses from Shein, let alone the fact that the school is charging 10 times more than what they paid for the dance dresses.