to think I did follow the washing instructions?

[freddiefrog]

I bought a dress a couple of weeks ago - well, actually, it can only be accurately described as a dress if you're 4ft tall, or have a fuck off pair of legs and don't mind the bottom 2 inches of your backside hanging out. I have crap legs and I'm 5ft 6 so I wore it with skinnies

It's blue and white striped, with a blue knitted band around the wrists and the bottom of the dress

Wore it once, washed it on a 30 degree quick wash cycle and when I got it out of the machine the blue knitted bands had come away from the dress.

Took it back to shop, spoke to the sales assistant who refused to exchange or refund as I'd "not followed the washing instructions"

The washing instructions were to wash at 40 degrees

Is it just me, or is a 30 degree wash less likely to damage the dress than a 40 degree one?

It's actually really easy to fix and it's sold out now so I won't get an exchange so I might just repair it and keep it. I bought it in the sale so it was quite cheap, but the full price was £65, so for it to have fallen apart after 1 wash is crap

You should have asked to speak to a manager - the assistant was obviously a numpty!

I think she was the Manager, there was no one else in the shop with her.

It's a tiny branch of a big brand

Its not the wash. If you want a refund go back and demand one. Statutory rights and all that. If you want to keep the dress write to head office about the shoddy state of the clothes, and tell them that their staff refused to honour your statutory rights and you are not happy. They might give you a voucher to compensate your loss.

Yes, take it up with head office, and "name & shame" the branch so they know their managers are behaving like this. No company wants to get that kind of reputation, even the "cheap & cheerful" clothes brands want to keep people reasonably happy with their service.