Wedding Dress Nightmare

unholyangel

wealdroam wrote: »

I fear you have no claim.

Simply because your agent, your husband's aunt, apparently has agreed that the money she collected was in full and final settlement of the claim.

Did your husband's aunt sign such a document?

Them asking the aunt to pick up the money doesn't mean the aunt has the power to make legally binding decisions for them though.

The same as you can get couriers to deliver or collect packages on behalf of a company but they don't have the authority to make legally binding decisions for them.

That being said, OP's figure of £1800 sounds like its unreasonably high. Especially given they've already had £250 and only paid the shop £1700 for the dress.

OP, were there any local dressmakers? If so, your claim for travelling costs to london are likely to be too remote/not a loss caused by the breach. Likewise if the dress was able to be worn but just a little uncomfortable, I think the best you can expect is a small partial refund & similarly a small amount for the distress/inconvenience.

EDIT: i see you've added more info in the time I've taken to post (was back and forth at the pc so took me a while!).

Bogalot

MarcJacobs wrote: »

I couldn't do that unfortunately. I am a very modest individual and the reason I went to have one made is because you simply cannot find a dress anymore that has sleeves, no exposed back or chest and a bum area that isn't extremely tight. Believe me if I could have just gotten one off the peg I would have done that. Not even hair extensions can cover up sufficiently.

This is a wind up right?

MarcJacobs

Bogalot wrote: »

This is a wind up right?

No it isn't. The shop was well aware of my values and reasons for having to have a tailored dress.

fairy_lights

Have you posted on their facebook page? Sometimes a negative public review can spur a company to take action.

k3lvc

Bogalot wrote: »

This is a wind up right?

Is it full moon tonight - with this and the new house with dented carpets :rotfl:


Sorry OP - keep us updated on any future court case but IMHO you don't stand a cat in hells chance - especially when you start banding around daily rates of £425 (presumably for the sake of honesty you'd be claiming the nett rather than gross amount ?)

MarcJacobs

unholyangel wrote: »

Them asking the aunt to pick up the money doesn't mean the aunt has the power to make legally binding decisions for them though.

The same as you can get couriers to deliver or collect packages on behalf of a company but they don't have the authority to make legally binding decisions for them.

That being said, OP's figure of £1800 sounds like its unreasonably high. Especially given they've already had £250 and only paid the shop £1700 for the dress.

OP, were there any local dressmakers? If so, your claim for travelling costs to london are likely to be too remote/not a loss caused by the breach. Likewise if the dress was able to be worn but just a little uncomfortable, I think the best you can expect is a small partial refund & similarly a small amount for the distress/inconvenience.

EDIT: i see you've added more info in the time I've taken to post (was back and forth at the pc so took me a while!).

Thanks unholyangel. I didn't think such a signature could be legally binding - good to get reassurance on that.

I have provided a breakdown of the £1800 figure in an earlier post and the bulk comes from my loss of earnings as a result of having to cancel work shifts. There are closer dressmakers, however, the one in London has been used previously by family and came recommended for the job.

The dress was able to be worn, however, it was more than merely a little uncomfortable. I could physically get into it but couldn't move my arms upwards, which I and the dressmaker have deemed as the dress not fitting properly.

MarcJacobs

k3lvc wrote: »

Is it full moon tonight - with this and the new house with dented carpets :rotfl:


Sorry OP - keep us updated on any future court case but IMHO you don't stand a cat in hells chance - especially when you start banding around daily rates of £425 (presumably for the sake of honesty you'd be claiming the nett rather than gross amount ?)

adzuna.co.uk/jobs/locum-dentist
Please see daily rates for locum dentists

I am not sure what you mean by net and gross for a day rate contract. Let me know so I can correct the value if necessary.

unholyangel

MarcJacobs wrote: »

Yes I am close to London, approximately 40 minutes away.


.

All losses were mitigated at the time. I made every effort to reschedule my work shifts and have correspondence proof of this. There were no spare work shifts and I therefore had to cancel my shifts to see the dress maker. A total of 4 work days at my day rate of £425 is £1700, but minus £25 per day travel that I didn't make to work is £1600. At 45p per mile it cost me £99.25 in travel to get to and from the dressmaker. That totals £1699.25 and I rounded that to £1800 to cover the emotional distress and inconvenience. It is purely coincidental that this exceeds the dress price.



With such little time til my wedding, what choice did I have but to wear it? I had no choice. I was very lucky that the dressmaker managed to adjust it for me to fit into it, but even then I still couldn't lift my arms.



I would absolutely agree had the dressmaker managed to get the dress to fit properly, however, due to the fundamental problems with the making of the dress there was no way for it to be altered to correctly fit - only enough for me to get into it.

Regarding the fittings.....did the shop you ordered from originally give you a set number of fittings that would take place and were all of the fittings you mention in the quoted post over and above this set amount? If not, you might struggle to claim for time off as you may have needed to take that time off anyway to have the shop do their fittings.

I'm also a bit dubious that an entire day would need taken off for something that should be 2-3 hours at most (and thats including 1.5 hours of travelling time).

k3lvc

MarcJacobs wrote: »

adzuna.co.uk/jobs/locum-dentist
Please see daily rates for locum dentists

I am not sure what you mean by net and gross for a day rate contract. Let me know so I can correct the value if necessary.

Now I know this is a wind-up - you're (allegedly) educated enough to be able to earn £425 a day (gross) but think it's acceptable to claim this and then pocket the tax/NI you would have paid on this amount

unholyangel

MarcJacobs wrote: »

Thanks unholyangel. I didn't think such a signature could be legally binding - good to get reassurance on that.

I have provided a breakdown of the £1800 figure in an earlier post and the bulk comes from my loss of earnings as a result of having to cancel work shifts. There are closer dressmakers, however, the one in London has been used previously by family and came recommended for the job.

The dress was able to be worn, however, it was more than merely a little uncomfortable. I could physically get into it but couldn't move my arms upwards, which I and the dressmaker have deemed as the dress not fitting properly.

The fact theres closer dressmakers could be a huge stumbling block for you.

In law, you're expected to take reasonable steps to mitigate your losses and not take steps which result in additional losses that could have reasonably been avoided. As I've said on other threads, this wont stop you claiming for damages, it just means that damages would be awarded as if you had taken reasonable steps/not allowed your losses to accumulate unnecessarily.

Basically the purpose of damages is to put the party not in breach into the same position they would have been in had the contract been performed correctly (or as near as money can do it), not to punish the party in breach.

What about asking them to enter into mediation?