Dress return.

macca9

Hi all,

My fiancee in an effort to reduce wedding costs went with an import company with regards her bridesmaids dresses. All went well to start with, they were very helpful, so we decided to take a trial with the company to provide one dress. The cost was approximately £70.
We measured my sister, passed on the information, and paid for the dress.
When the dress arrived, it no where near fitted my sister, to which they replied they give an extra inch of material for adjustments. The workmanship was shoddy, a professional seamstress has told us she would refuse to work on it in case it "fell apart".
After asking for a refund, we have returned the dress.
The agent has not been replying our emails, but today my fiancee received the following...

First,
I think you already knew that. We are based in china.
Our UK agent is here to help UK customer for alteration.
If you are going to visit them.You may be turned away which may cause offense.

Second,
You need follow our T&C if you would like to return any item.
We have clearly advised our customer to send dress back in 3 days.
Please understand it doesn't mean to arrive in 3 days.


Third,
In fact, Your dress is made special request by you. you won't be able to return by UK law.
[.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2000/2334/regulation/13/made[/url]

(c)for the supply of goods made to the consumer’s specifications or clearly personalised or which by reason of their nature cannot be returned or are liable to deteriorate or expire rapidly;



If we accept return. It will have a 45% restocking fee applied from the full purchase price of the gown.
Let me know if you agree that otherwise our agent won't accept parcel. And parcel will be returned to you.

Best Regards


Any ideas of where we go from here?

Should we accept their offer? Or fight for a full refund?

Thanks in advance

InsideInsurance

Did you buy from the UK based company or the China one?

The link given is the DSR which would have restrictions if the dress was made to your measurements.

That said, SoGA would still cover you if the goods are actually faulty or not as described irrespective of if they are made to measure or not.

Need to double check both who you contracted with to see if SoGA applies and secondly what exactly the promise was to see if the goods could be described as faulty/not as described

a.kav26

Hello, i am the fiance that bought the dress.

I purchased it through a Chinese company but they have UK seller. So i believed i was in touch with the UK seller about the sale of the dress.

The dress was not personalised at all, it was a copy of one on their website. However, it was "made to measure" in that we sent the measurements for it to be made so does this make it a "special request"?? The fact is the dress came absolutely HUGE, it wasnt just an inch or so larger for compensation, it was massive. As in she could do it complete up and then take it off up over her head! The one shoulder strap completely fell off and easily had 2inches too much material on. The bust of the dress was easily 2/3 cups too big.

The dress has arrived completely faulty. there are holes and bits of stictching that havents even been complete. there are parts of material hanging out. and a professional seamstress informed me if anyone tried to touch or alter the dress, it would fall to bits.
I sent photos to the company and detailed what was wrong with it.

They honoured a refund if the mistakes were all theirs( which they were) and they honoured to refund postage once the dress was received. I did not send the dress back straight away as i considered taking more pictures and videos just in case. Their t&c state you should return the dress within 3 days of them giving you the postal adress. I didnt do this however i cleraly know within law that that is just their discretion and in law i have up to 6 months to return the item and 6 years to claim a full refund!!!

the item was completely faulty and not fit for purpose/not as described. A new dress made for you should not have holes in it , stitching missing and be 2-3 sizes too big so that is clearly not as desribed is it if its going to be "made to measure".

Inside Insurance, does this info help? do you know what we are best to do? i havent replied to her last email that my fiance has posted above as dont no what to do next. I fully believe i have a case, i went through this with my own bridal dress last year but the link was broken between seller and who had our money so the credit card company couldnt help. we are taking that to a small claims court also as she will not honour a refund now.

let me know what you think, its much appreciated!

bod1467

http://sogahub.tradingstandards.gov.uk/sogaexplained

That explains SOGA. Unfortunately you bought from China and so your SOGA rights are minimal to non-existent.

I think you'll probably just have to chalk this one down to experience and try to recover as much as you can.

InsideInsurance

Did you buy it from a website? In which case what is its website address?

I am not an expert by any means but assuming you've given more than one measurement/size for the dress then it is "personalised" (or at least thats the idea) and thus would be excluded from the DSR. That said, if its faulty and its a UK seller then the SOGA protects you and arguably has better protection.

The key therefore is to ascertain if the contract is governed by English law

unholyangel

a.kav26 wrote: »

I didnt do this however i cleraly know within law that that is just their discretion and in law i have up to 6 months to return the item and 6 years to claim a full refund!!!

You may wish to check that law. As above, its a UK law and not applicable if you buy from a chinese company. Nor do you have up to 6 months to return the item or 6 years to claim a full refund.

You have a claim against the retailer up to 6 years for a remedy (which can be repair, replacement or even a partial refund - you cannot force a remedy that is disproportionately costly or impossible). If the fault appears in the first 6 months, it is for the retailer to prove it isnt inherent and after 6 months that burden switches to the consumer to prove it is inherent - nothing to do with returning the item.

While 3 days would likely be seen as unreasonable/unfair contract term in UK law, thats not really going to help in this instance.

a.kav26

Ok

Thank you for all of your advice.

I believe it is a CHINA company but it was sold to me that she was a UK seller... and the dresses were imported from CHINA, so i want to check the correspondence she has sent me

Im sure she told me she was a UK seller but the dresses were imported. would that make a case for me?

bod1467

Who did you pay? that's who your contract is with. If you paid a UK entity then SOGA applies.

InsideInsurance

a.kav26 wrote: »

I believe it is a CHINA company but it was sold to me that she was a UK seller... and the dresses were imported from CHINA, so i want to check the correspondence she has sent me

Im sure she told me she was a UK seller but the dresses were imported. would that make a case for me?

As previously said, the "where the goods came from" is totally irrelevant. It purely comes down to who you formed the contract of sale with.

As you seem a little confused, sharing anything like a website address may be easier.

a.kav26

I paid via the website yourbridalwear.com. I paid on debit card. The dress was "made to measurements" in that i sent the bmaid's measurements and the dress was apparently made to that.

a.kav26

Is there really no protection with me paying for an item, and it arriving completely un fit for purpose, in the wrong size, with holes in it... just because i bought it from china?