Wedding Dress Shop Deposit

stoobloo

Dear forum,

Yesterday my fianc! visitied a wedding dress shop and has put a deposit down for half the value of the item (by credit card), and signed a Sales Order at the bottom of the sheet. Above the signature area were the following terms and conditions:

Goods are considered ordered on payment of an initial deposit.

Cancellations. In the event of a wedding being cancelled or postponed, the balance of ALL goods must be paid for and collected before the 'Wedding Date' (The wedding date is specified on the top of the Sales Order sheet.

Goods ordered cannot be exchanged and money will not be refunded or transferred to other items or orders, except as stated in section 5.

'The Company Ltd' accepts no responsibility for the choice of gowns or accessories made by the customer or alterations to the gown due to changes in weight, size, subsequent to the date of placing the order.

'The Company Ltd' will use it's best endeavours to supply the item ordered, but in the unlikely event of the items being unobtainable the customer will be asked to re-select of accept a full refund in respect of the terms.

The 'balance' due as above is to be paid on arrival of the above ordered items unless otherwise agreed.


The company has been contacted by telephone who advise that they don't do refunds, and that they are confident that they will find a suitable dress.

Ultimately this has left a feeling of being unable to choose another dress shop, and continuing to have any involvment with this company will be awkward and uncomfortable.

The dress was not ordered in, it was a stock item.

Is there any way this deposit can be refunded by consumer law?

Look forward to hearing any advice you can give.

LilElvis

Your post isn't very clear. Has she paid a deposit for a specific style and size of dress? Are they now having difficulties sourcing it? BTW - wedding dress shops usually just have a single sample of each style with dresses being ordered, and then altered, to the customer's requirements. You don't usually buy the one in the shop.

meritaten

its a standard contract to protect the shop owner from a customer just changing their minds and getting the dress elsewhere.
normally you don't get the one in stock unless its 'on sale'. in which case you normally pay the full amount in cash - perhaps they allow customer to buy sale items on the 'Deposit and cash each month', as if they had ordered it.
my sis owned a bridal shop and she learned the hard way to make sure the dress was fully paid for before being collected.

tea_lover

What's the question?

fairy_lights

I don't quite understand the problem....she ordered a wedding dress and paid a deposit, all pretty normal. Has she changed her mind?

peachyprice

There are no consumer rights to protect against 'change of mind'.

meritaten

I think OP is worried that if she finds the dress cheaper elsewhere or wedding cancelled or she changes her mind, she wont get her money back. and she wont - that contract is binding.

BarryBlue

What needs to be considered is that, in the event of a cancellation, the business cannot simply refuse point blank to refund a deposit. It is far more complicated than that.

If a dress was ordered and a substantial deposit paid, then cancelled before they had done a great deal, retaining the whole deposit would become, in effect, a penalty charge rather than a true pre-estimate of the actual loss incurred by the cancellation. That is illegal. The amount retained must reflect that loss.

What is in the contract can be challenged and a court will disregard it as unfair if it is deemed a penalty rather than a real loss. The legislation that needs to be consulted is the "Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999". It will show that some of the above answers are incorrect.

stoobloo

Thanks for the replies.

My fianc! is very upset that she feels like she was manipulated and trapped in such a contract withthe shop. There is now no trust in the shop or the company owner as there was NO mention that this was a contract, just that a deposit would be required.

The shop are insisting they will find her the right dress (as the one a deposit was put down on is no longer desired due to style and cost).

Pollycat

stoobloo wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

My fianc! is very upset that she feels like she was manipulated and trapped in such a contract withthe shop. There is now no trust in the shop or the company owner as there was NO mention that this was a contract, just that a deposit would be required.

The shop are insisting they will find her the right dress (as the one a deposit was put down on is no longer desired due to style and cost).

So she chose a dress and paid a deposit and then later decided she didn't want said dress because she didn't like the style and it was too expensive?

I think if there's any trust issues, it should be the shop owner having misgivings.

What did your fiance think paying a deposit meant?

bunty109

Stoobloo, this is common practice for such shops and has been since I was married nearly 20 years ago. I used to work in the industry and we used such a form. Customers were always talked through it and given time to read it before signing: sadly people think change of mind is a reason enough for the contract to become invalid (or for the customer to lose trust, as you put it!).It isn't.