Wedding shop liquidation

IanJThomson

My fianc!e and I are due to get married in 10 weeks and last week we received an email from the wedding dress designer informing us that their stockist, the shop my fianc!e paid for the dress (up-front, in full and on debit card) had gone into liquidation.


The dress has been made and is ready for collection but the designer did not receive any money from their stockist and now will not hand the dress over until we pay them the retail price of the dress i.e. not the wholesale price which is the amount the designer was expecting to receive and what they are due but the full retail price which often includes a 100% mark up.


In my view, even asking the customer to settle the debts of their stockist and pay them the wholesale price again would be grossly unfair but to demand the full retail price seems immoral and opportunistic.


Does anyone have any advice as to how we can reach a fair settlement or how we can influence proceedings in anyway?


This has been extremely distressing for us and it is very difficult to see my fianc!e be so upset at a time when we should be getting excited about our big day.


Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
And I know that if anyone can help its the MSE forum!

comeandgo

I would check that the shop has gone into liquidation and check that the designers e mail address has not been hacked. It sounds unbelievable that someone would hold you to ransom so to speak.

OlliesDad

Presumably the shop going into liquidation would be covered by wedding insurance. If you claim the money paid from them and then pay the designer direct.

IanJThomson

Thanks but we didn't take out wedding insurance - I didn't know such a thing existed before this ordeal began.
We have submitted a claim via Chargeback (similar to section 75 protection for credit cards) but as the purchase was made over 120 days ago and the shop is in liquidation it is unlikely we will recover any money from the bank.

IanJThomson

Thanks but we have checked with companies house, spoken to the liquidator and spoken to the designer on the phone and it all checks out.


Based on comments left on social media we think approximately 60 brides-to-be have been affected. Although every other designer who chose this shop as a stockist has offered customers to pay the wholesale price and others have offered free veils as a gesture of goodwill etc. Our designer however continues to demand full retail price

unholyangel

IanJThomson wrote: »

Thanks but we didn't take out wedding insurance - I didn't know such a thing existed before this ordeal began.
We have submitted a claim via Chargeback (similar to section 75 protection for credit cards) but as the purchase was made over 120 days ago and the shop is in liquidation it is unlikely we will recover any money from the bank.

The 120 day limit doesn't always run from date of payment. I believe situations like this (goods/services not provided) it runs from the date they were supposed to be delivered/provided.

If your bank reject your chargeback, take it through the financial ombudsman. It will give you an additional opportunity to get your money back with no risk to you.

OlliesDad

IanJThomson wrote: »

Thanks but we didn't take out wedding insurance - I didn't know such a thing existed before this ordeal began.

I would look into taking some out now for any other potential issues. For the cost it really would save a headache if anything else goes wrong.

IanJThomson

Thanks - I will definitely escalate it to the financial ombudsman if the bank deny our claim.


A big issue for us is the timeframe. With only 10 weeks until our wedding day we are running out of time once you take into account fittings and alterations. I don't know when our bank will respond to our claim or how long the financial ombudsman review will take.

Aylesbury_Duck

I would crack on with organising a new dress and hope you can resolve the issue later. You will run out of time otherwise.

Gavin83

IanJThomson wrote: »

I don't know when our bank will respond to our claim or how long the financial ombudsman review will take.

Probably won't conclude until after your wedding. If the company is in liquidation you might not even be successful anyway but worth a try.

Do you actually know what the wholesale price is? Your designer does sound like they're being unreasonable, push the point that they'd have only got the wholesale price anyway so aren't losing out and if you walk away entirely they're likely to get a less for the dress. Feel free to comment that other designers affected by the closure have set up similar arrangements. However I don't think it's reasonable to expect the designer to release the dress for no payment at all.

It's probably worth at least starting to look into alternatives in case you and the designer can't come to an agreement.

NCC-1707

Just make 100% sure that whoever you get it from isn't sourcing it from the Far East.