Ruined the wedding dress i was going to send back

Goodness I don’t know why someone said this cheeky to order a few different items of clothing with intent to choose the best one !
I have to do that , often my size and fit aren’t in store so I need to order online

Not a good omen for the wedding - what does that mean? Are you quite new to the earth, that's not really how things work!!

I'd use Micellar water on the stain and try to clean it off. Or Vanish liquid and leave for as long as you dare. Then gently remove the Vanish using a cloth and water. If it's a small stain use cotton buds for cleaning.Then return it as too small. If it's from JL online you can just send it back via Waitrose with the form. If you weren't wearing makeup when you tried it on, I find it hard to believe it wasn't there beforehand.

Hi Op. What a fab way to set the tone of your marriage - fessing up, rolling with the punches, asking for help, trying your best. Me thinks you’re going to have a happy marriage. Maybe your wedding dress will represent all that is good about you and you will love it as such.

I was ironing my daughter's new school skirt after giving it a first wash before she wore it. Discovered a name tape from a previous owner! Returned to M&S and given a full refund.

@whathaveidonehelp I sent you a PM. If you saw it, no probs.

Buyers protection against what? Receiving the goods in perfect condition and then staining them?

I haven’t read everything but how did you pay? Some credit cards offer buyers protection insurance (e.g. Amex). Here’s how it works for Amex
https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/security/purchase-protection/
I haven’t used it but worth checking?

Christ there’s some sanctimonious people on here. Can some of you honestly not understand how other people may live a different life to you?

My daughter ordered about 20 wedding dresses from Debenhams to try on which I’m sure will send the pearl clutchers into apoplexy 😂. We live in the arse end of nowhere and I’m disabled. They’re getting married on a low budget and we wanted to have the fun of trying dresses on without having to slog two hours on public transport to do so. I don’t think a lot of you understand that these dresses are off the rack, budget brands like Coast, Oasis etc. The ones we ordered ranged from £60-£200 and I’m sure Debenhams didn’t give a toss when we sent them all back in pristine condition for a refund. They certainly didn’t send the online shopping police round anyway.

@whathaveidonehelp my DD bought a wedding dress from Vinted in the end which had a massive stain on it. It came out almost instantly with Tesco Oxy Spray in a pink bottle.

It’s too small…

Do not try and clean it yourself and then try for a refund.
Do not get it dry cleaned and then try for a refund.
From the sound of you, you will hate yourself if you lie.
What would I do?

I haven't seen the dress, but how about trying to see it as some sort of omen that you are meant to have it. Seek professional advice about removing the stain. If that fails, get advice on alteration (lacing up the back can add a couple of sizes) or disguising the stain (beading, brooch). Look on the bright side, it is pre-disastered. You won't have to worry about spilling food on it, tripping and tearing the hem. You can enjoy the day and dance the night away in it.
Good luck.

The dress will have tags though so attempting to dry clean it and return is a no go.

It’s much harder to let dresses out if they’re too small than to take them in. The chances of it being possible to let it out sufficiently and it to still sit right are slim. OP could pay for it and decide it doesn’t look right.

I would start by seeing if you can remove the stain either by taking it somewhere or trying one of the methods above.
Then if you genuinely can’t see any trace of it or any effect on the dress take it back to JL. It’s no different to trying it on and then returning imo.
If you can’t quite get it back to original condition then you can either sell it on or have it altered depending whether you like it enough.

I think in view of the other dress you will just have to suck this one up.

Dry cleaning wedding dresses requires a specialist and it’s expensive. If you sell it on eBay afterwards you might only break even.

I would put it on Freecycle, pretend to yourself you had to fork out £500 on repairs. Find yourself a nice perhaps more budget wedding dress than you were expecting.

I 100% guarantee they have ordered clothes to their home before.

What a bizarre assertion to make. I, and many others I'm sure, have never ordered clothes for home delivery.

What are the terms of your "100% guarantee"?

completely agree. There is something wrong with some people. I 100% guarantee they have ordered clothes to their home before. If the business didn't want people to do this they wouldn't offer it as an option!

OP - to add to some of the other suggestions, I've had success with using those floor/surface wipes to get stains off clothes before.

It's become necessary to order multiple dresses online these days. Once upon a time, you would go into a department store like John Lewis and try on multiple dresses in the changing room. Now stores have very limited stock in store, you have to order online and try at home.

The point is that the item can no longer be sold for full price and that is not JL's fault.

They were quite happy sending OP a smelly dress presumably at full price though and hoping she wouldn't notice.

Well you must have measurements and a body shape that fits perfectly within standard women's sizing then - congratulations, many of us don't. I have clothes that range from size 8 to size 12 in my wardrobe. Wedding dresses are even worse, in one brand I was trying on I was needing size 16. Even measuring yourself against the measurement tables doesn't help as different fabrics have different amounts of give. I have several pairs of jeans from the same stores that if placed on top of each other are hugely different in size, this is really not a new phenomenon, in fact it's baffling to me if you genuinely are unaware of the issue.

How many times have you picked up an item in a shop and it’s got make up stains on from somebody else trying it on already. It happens all the time.

It does happen and what do I do when it does? I don't buy the dirty one. I either get a pristine one or I negotiate a reduction in price to reflect the damage. The point is that the item can no longer be sold for full price and that is not JL's fault.

Yes it is.

Whoever buys that dress (assuming returns are sent out again) will be expecting to receive a new dress - not a dress that has already been dry cleaned. What if the dry cleaning process introduces a fault in the fabric or stitching that you did not notice at the point you returned it?

How many times have you picked up an item in a shop and it’s got make up stains on from somebody else trying it on already.
Not often. They’d certainly have you wear a neck scarf in the wedding dress department!

How many times have you picked up an item in a shop and it’s got make up stains on from somebody else trying it on already. It happens all the time. Shops must have a way of dealing with this.

And those people who stain the clothes they try on aren’t vilified and pressured into buying them to save the shop a few quid.

I wouldn’t return the dress in this situation but neither is OP planning too. Everyone’s righteous indignation is obscuring that the OP came here for help with a really upsetting situation.

No I don't believe that's the case. If it happened in store and the customer came clean with the staff, I very much doubt that the shop would charge them for the dress. Mistakes happen and retailers like this have a big enough margin that it makes hardly any difference to them.

Just return it to a big John Lewis. If you had tried it in store they wouldn’t make you pay it if your neck makeup had rubbed on it?
Otherwise they would be making you try a sample dress like proper wedding shops. :) don’t worry this happens all the time!
it’s your right since you didn’t USE It.

This is a baffling take. Is it only 'use' if she wore it to her actual wedding? Why should the retailer take the cost of an item they now can't sell because someone damaged it whilst trying it on in their home? The invoice will say on it that returns must be in sale condition.

The reason it would be different in a shop is that someone who did this and noticed would just stick it back on the hanger and leave.