Karen millen dress cannot be dry cleaned..

[Fisharefriendsnotfood]

I bought two dresses from Karen Millen a couple of years ago. I had a wedding coming up and loved them both so decided to get both of them. I wore one dress to the wedding and not the other. I then got pregnant has dc3 and finally fit into the other dress for the first time this summer.

I wore it twice on holiday and brought it to the cleaners when we got back. All the colour in the pattern of the dress ran and I got a report from the cleaners saying that the dress was faulty as it wasn't possible to clean it without the dye running.

I brought the dress back to KM a couple of weeks ago. They had their cleaner try to fix it (they couldn't) and will only offer me £50 store credit as this is the last known selling price of the dress and I have no receipt. I am a very regular customer and this is really upsetting me.

Surely if the dress cannot be cleaned then it shouldn't matter when I bought it it isn't fit for purpose?? AIBU? I really was expecting more from them

I think the offer is fair as you have no receipt.

I agree with you. How can they sell something that is impossible to clean?

Yes I have no receipt but I can't have bought it elsewhere as it is a Karen Millen dress

What does the tag say wrt dry cleaning?

The tag says it should be dry cleaned

Send the dress with copy of dry cleaning receipt and letter to head office fao Technical manager, registered post, and receipt/ invoice for that also
Explain

1. Dissappintment and 2. What action you want

Be clear unemotional and succinct Also point out that you've not had this issue wirh other upper end retailers products like reiss, whistles and Ted baker. These are their main competitors....

Has the dry cleaning logo got a line under it?

I haven't bought anything from there in years, but I do remember taking a couple of things to my usual dry cleaners, them taking one look at the label and refusing to clean it because of the unusual logo.

I got the same story at a couple of others, before finding one who would do it but only on the understanding that they wouldn't take responsibility for it.

To be fair, the fact that they are offering you a partial refund is quite generous of them, given that the dress is a few years old and neither you or the shop knows how much you paid for them.

But you are right to say they are ridiculous to produce clothes that can only be worn once

So they have refunded you the last price the were selling the dress at, as store credit. They have no way of knowing if you paid full price or got it in a sale. You could even have bought it from Oxfam for all they know.

They have tried to fix it and couldn't.

Did you pay for it with a card?

Bank or credit card statements can be used as proof of purchase.

Having said that, have a look at the sale of goods act, as I'm not sure you do need proof of purchase with faulty goods.

The offer is fair because you can't prove that you paid more for the dress. If you had the receipt it would be different.

I paid £185 or something similar for something that can't be cleaned

What if you hadn't shifted the baby weight and hadn't been able to even wear it? What a waste of £185!

If the money is an issue, I'd suggest you keep receipts from now on, for anything that costs more than £50.

That is depressing, but I doubt you will get more out of them. They are very, very, very arsey about returns in general, even when the item is obviously faulty.

Have you got bank statements to prove it?

I think they are being reasonable. Given how old the dress is you could have bought it from ebay or a charity shop. It's actually pretty good customer service.

I know it feels unfair but you can not prove that you bought that dress from them or for that price. Even with sales of goods act you do need to provide proof of purchase it just doesn't need to be a receipt however this is further complicated because you bought 2 dresses at once so even a bank statement wouldn't show the amount you paid for that dress

It may be a Karen Millen dress but how do they know you didn't buy it for £10 at a charity shop.

I agree it's bad that you can't clean it, but I think their offer is fair.

I think km have been very fair. You have no way of proving that you paid more than their last selling price. As somebody said up thread - it could have been bought from oxfam.

Yes, dig out the credit card statement - for 185 it's worth asking the bank for a duplicate if necessary.

And no they haven't been fair - they've been flogging unmerchantable goods, it's not like the OP decided the dress didn't match her new hair colour.

Re credit card statements or bank statements
OP has said she is a regular customer, so it might not be that easy to identify which transaction relates to that particular dress for starters
But it still doesn't prove how much she paid for the dress. It just proved at some point she spend £185 in the shop. She may have gone in a week later and paid £50 for that dress for all they know, or even £10 last week in a charity shop

It's highly indicative though. If there's a transaction for 185 quid with Karen Millen during the period that the dress was on sale, and the OP's testimony that that's what she bought and that's what she paid, then KM need to cough up, rather than accuse her of lying and refuse to make reparation for their shoddy merchandise.

Handy info here

Oh and if they still said "but you might have just bought it in the sale/on eBay and be trying to rip us off" then I would drop strong hints about suing for libel, because that's a flat accusation of fraud.

This is interesting - I was a bridesmaid in the summer in a KM dress, took it to get cleaned and the cleaners called me to say they couldn't do it as in their test patch all the colour had run! So now I have an uncleanable, unwearable dress. The cleaners told me to take it back and complain but as I didn't buy it, had no receipt and didn't want to moan to the bride who bought it I haven't. Perhaps I should, just so they can see their stuff is rubbish!