Wedding Dilemma! Can someone please help.....

bunty109

I used to work in this industry and am sorry to say that she won't have much of a leg to stand on even if the dress isn't designer. Sometimes a shop will only sell one of a dress in a certain size and if they have it order this and the buyer cancels the order then the chances of selling it on are not good.

She can forego the deposit or pay the balance. To be honest, I'd lose the deposit as she's highly unlikely to get more than half of the cost of the dress if she sells it on. However, the shop will be entitled to pursue the rest of the money. While the mark up on wedding doses is high, the other costs associated with running the business (mainly staff) mean businesses cannot afford to lose the money from wedding cancellations, which are sadly more commonplace than you might think.

Might be worth checking what she signed when she purchased the dress as the organization I worked for had a extensive contract which would have covered cancellation.

Sorry

moromir

My Saturday job as a teen was working in a bridal store, unfortunately we had this happen to several brides.

The suppliers largely do not accept returns because the dresses are made as and when retailers place an order with them. Collections change with the season and once the fabric is cut off the bolt thats it... it can't really be reused for something else.

Most bridal shops are independent and do not hold dress stock due to the above custom ordering (the average lead time from order to delivery is 12 weeks), and storage/premises size constraints. The samples on the rails are generally it.

The company I worked for took a 50% deposit before the dress would even be ordered and had a terms of business that made it clear the full sum would be persued, and I know they successfully went to court and won a couple of times.

As for the comment about dress markup price, you could not be more wrong. It used to be 2.5 x supplier price, but now its much closer to 1.75 - 2x mostly due to the internet market. For comparison, a very average beauty product in Boots sits on the shelf at least a 3.5x markup.

Probably not what you wanted to hear current season dresses tend to sell quite well on Ebay?

warehouse

Easy one this.

First she needs to pay the shop. They have done nothing wrong and the purchase should be honoured.

Next, advertise it on EBay, as accurately as possible, but with a MASSIVE rant against her ex, and I mean massive, absolutely no holds barred. Let everyone know about it, wait for it to go viral and collect probably the cost of the dress back if not more.

Like I said, easy.

marisco_2

warehouse wrote: »

Next, advertise it on EBay, as accurately as possible, but with a MASSIVE rant against her ex, and I mean massive, absolutely no holds barred.

Would that genuinely help sell it. I'd be completely put off buying a wedding dress if I knew that there was a sad history behind it. Maybe I am too superstitious, but I would feel like I were jinxing things if I purchased it, knowing that it were available because some other poor souls wedding was cancelled.

ValHaller

marisco wrote: »

Would that genuinely help sell it. I'd be completely put off buying a wedding dress if I knew that there was a sad history behind it. Maybe I am too superstitious, but I would feel like I were jinxing things if I purchased it, knowing that it were available because some other poor souls wedding was cancelled.

I would say that for a high % of original cost, you are right. But if it does not sell at a reasonable 2nd hand value and it has to go as a bargain basement deal, a humourous rant 'and now I have to sell this gorgeous dress at a pittance' would do no harm

ValHaller

JustinCredibleGillespie wrote: »

No i understand, the dress hasn't been altered at all. It was to be done 8 weeks before the wedding.

Then I think she would have some justification in not taking the alterations and expecting a discount in respect of this. Probably best to sell on unaltered.

Bella73

When I bought mine the contract was extensive and specifically said it could not be returned due to changing my mind or cancellation of the wedding, plus the insurance we had covered everything but cancellation, not that we needed that though.

I appreciate she is gong through a hard time but to be fair to the shop she signed an agreement.

bestpud

ValHaller wrote: »

Then I think she would have some justification in not taking the alterations and expecting a discount in respect of this. Probably best to sell on unaltered.

I thought she may be able to negotiate a relatively small reduction if the price includes fittings and alterations too.

Or would she have paid extra on top for all that, OP?

somethingcorporate

warehouse wrote: »

Easy one this.

First she needs to pay the shop. They have done nothing wrong and the purchase should be honoured.

Next, advertise it on EBay, as accurately as possible, but with a MASSIVE rant against her ex, and I mean massive, absolutely no holds barred. Let everyone know about it, wait for it to go viral and collect probably the cost of the dress back if not more.

Like I said, easy.

And back in the real world cost the OP well over a grand.

Still, I'd suggest if this has been posted in consumer rights section (and got the view of a few people in the know) then perhaps it would be resolved without people giving their views that because it is written in the T&Cs it is binding. There is a whole raft of legislation (unfair terms in consumer contracts regulations 1999) that is all about rights against unfair terms in contracts so please do not get suckered in by the folks saying just because the contract says something that it is actually legal/binding.

If the shop still had the item to sell then they cannot charge you the full cost (including profit) for the dress for a breach of contract and for the sake of £1,500 I'd suggest it is actually worth pursuing your rights rather than listening to a bunch of guys on the internet saying you have no rights because frankly I disagree and for the sake of such a sum of money it is well worth pursuing.

Still, it's not my money so I couldn't really care either way, I was just trying to help you out for the best resolution (i.e. you keeping as much of your money as you can). I suggest you ALL have a read of the FAQ post in the consumer rights section since there is a lot of ignorance flying around here.

JustinCredibleGillespie

Cheers SC. I will go on now and have a look through all the threads and FAQ's.

Again, thank you all for the replies, they are very much appreciated

JCG

xx