Wedding Suit Error - What is reasonable to ask for?

[LondonOx]

My best woman and I have had suits custom made for my wedding in two weeks. We went to the shop yesterday to try them on and discovered that one of the suits (mine) has been made incorrectly. My suit has been made with a dart (as is traditional in a man’s suit) rather than a princess cut (as is traditional in a woman’s suit). There are a couple of problems with this:

1. We don’t match, which was a significant part of the reason for getting suits custom made in the first place


2. It’s just not what I ordered

Because the wedding is in two weeks, there isn’t time for them to remake the jacket before my wedding. This is obviously a bit of a nightmare, the only saving grace is that the suit does actually still look good.

I am having a call with the them to discuss a solution, which I assume will be some kind of discount. I have no idea what it is reasonable to ask for. For context the three piece suit and shirt came to about £2k.

Is it really impossible to make a suit in 2 weeks?
A wedding outfit has a ‘value’ which is difficult to quantify in financial terms.
There is probably no financial compensation that can make it right.
I think you need to be flexible, and if they are apologetic and accommodating and offer a reasonable compromise then for the sake of reducing your stress it might be a good idea to accept that at an early stage.
In pure financial terms you have paid for a professional service for an important event, and you have not received this. If they are difficult a good starting point is total cancellation of the order with 100% refund as you you don’t have 2 matching suits, and therefore neither is acceptable.
I assume, however, that you can’t get them from anywhere else in time.

I think you have a right to a discount, as they made a mistake. Maybe ask for 10% off? What do you think? They still put in a lot of work to make the suit. The main thing is that the suit looks good.

If you specifically agreed what you wanted and you got something else I'd ask for a full refund of the wrongly made suit. I've done dressmaking/tailoring, they could make another jacket in two weeks if they wanted to put themselves out. It's your wedding, they fucked up, they should be pulling out all the stops.

If they can't do it and the only route is to wear the suit I'd want a 50% discount as one half of it isn't what you ordered.

Enjoy your day whatever happens. Weddings are about you and your families at the end of the day. No one will notice the wrong jacket except you!

There’s plenty of time for them to make another jacket and that should be your starting point. I wouldn’t accept anything else.

I'd go for more than 10% discount. Maybe 50%. Keep asking the what they want to do about it rather than immediately offering a solution.

For £2000 you get what you ordered or you don't pay a penny. If would be better to decline the whole order and get something from the highestreet for a couple of hundred quid than to fork out £2000 for something you didn't want. Does the order documentation specify the princess cut in writing?

I suspect if you make it clear that you are prepared to walk away and not pay a penny and confirm that your consumer rights allow you to do this with custom-order goods that do not match the brief, but will be happy to pay full price for the correct item as ordered, then they will be able to actually make the change. 2 weeks is a long time they would just rather make you accept their mistake with a small discount rather than be bothered to put it right.

10% is nothing. If they can’t make the suit per the agreed spec then they should take 50% off.

This isn’t a small error.

Also agree with @BuanoKubiamVej

£2K is alot of money to not get what you paid for, agree with earlier posts - either full refund or they re-make the jacket.

I agree you either make them fix the problem or you accept it for a small discount like 10%.

You can’t expect them to give you a huge discount for something that you still think looks good and you are prepared to wear as it is on your wedding day.

But it’s not what she asked for? Or paid for! The mistake is there’s.
They fix it or I’d be wanting the jacket at a very considerable discount.
I had issues with my wedding dress 2 weeks before the day and it was really distressing. Right now it’s one of the most important things in your world and you’ve paid a LOT of money for it.
It’s only sheer luck that it still fits and looks ok.

I’d push for them making what you ordered in the two weeks.

I’d push for them to get it fixed at their own cost, 2 weeks is plenty of time. Is there no way they could still use the majority of the suit and adapt the cut? (I’ve never worn a suit so have no clue sorry). But honestly for 2k I’m surprised they don’t no anyone who could fix it, they are clearly industry professionals. I think they’ve seen that you will wear it and it looks good and decided it’s easier to give you 10% off than pay out of their own pocket to have it fixed.

And I agree, but I don’t think you can take it and then refuse to pay for it or only pay half or whatever. OP should refuse it or insist it is remade.

Of course there is time to remake it! They made the mistake. £2k is a lot for it not to be perfect.

If you are going to have to accept it pay 50%

For £2000 you get what you ordered or you don't pay a penny. If would be better to decline the whole order and get something from the highestreet for a couple of hundred quid than to fork out £2000 for something you didn't want.

This.

I refuse to believe they CANT make the right one in two weeks. They just don't WANT to.

If they can't fix/make a new jacket I would absolutely refuse to pay for the jacket part of the order. Do you have an itemised quotation for each element?

Thanks for your replies guys!

At the moment am doing my best to focus on the fact that it is still a beautiful suit, definitely fits me much better than any off the peg suit would (I’m an odd shape) and trying not to get too stressed about it. As @Bryonny84 said, the only people likely to know are my best woman and I. Purpose of the thread is really to try and gauge what is reasonable ahead of the call with the Head Tailer, so that in my looking on the positive side mindset, I don’t let myself get fobbed off!

I was originally advised to go for the princess cut as for people with big boobs (like me) the dart can cause gapping in the jacket. The fact that this hasn’t happened and it still looks good is, as @Smartiepants79 said, sheer luck.

To answer a couple of questions:

1. Yes, there is a cut box on the paper order form I signed, and on the electronic order they sent out. Both clearly have princess cut ticked.


2. They were really clear that they can’t remake the jacket in time. It would need to be done from scratch and my wedding is actually on Saturday in two weeks (I.e 8 days) which they said is too tight.


3. The cut isn’t something they can fix, it would mean remaking the jacket from scratch. The cut being different means the construction of the jacket is different so the seams are in totally different places - it’s not like you can just take it in a bit or something like that.


4. The issue with rejecting the order is that I’m getting married in two weeks on Saturday (i.e 8 days) so my options would be very limited in trying to get something else, and this is something that I’ve been picturing for my wedding day for the last two years.

The (incredibly apologetic and not to blame) suit fitter said they would obviously remake it for me but that it wouldn’t arrive in time. This doesn’t work from my perspective as then it’s not the suit I got married in, so I think it is likely that it is really going to come down to financial compensation rather than anything else.

I would divide the £2000 into half as the trousers are okay. Then I would ask for 50% off the jacket. So I think £500 off is reasonable.

I was originally advised to go for the princess cut as for people with big boobs (like me) the dart can cause gapping in the jacket. The fact that this hasn’t happened and it still looks good is, as @Smartiepants79 said, sheer luck

So the jacket still looks good, doesn’t have the problem the princess cut was supposed to rectify, it won’t register for anyone except you and one other person at the wedding but you’re still not happy. Is that a fair summary? Because if it is I can’t see that you’ve got a leg to stand on.

I personally never really got the importance of matching bridal parties tbh.

Surely if people are different shapes and sizes it seems obvious to me they would have slightly different cuts of the same fabric anyway?

Are you having matching accessories or a corsage? That might tie it together more?

The posters suggesting levels of discount which would mean the tailor either makes no profit or even loses money on weeks of skilled work, are having a laugh!

The tailor might have done weeks of work, but they didn't do what they agreed to do/were being paid to do!

If I was a decorator and had agreed to paint someone's house green, but painted it yellow instead would you still expect me to be paid even if the yellow looked nice? I don't think so, because I was being paid not just to paint the house but to paint it the right colour.

I would ask for 50% off the price of the suit, I don’t think this is too much as for 2k it should be right first time.

I agree with those saying £2000 is a massive amount of money and an amount you have paid to help ensure the suit would be perfect. I'd be looking at a really substantial discount.

When you speak to them don't give them any wriggle room. Don't say they you know it fits well or that it's well made or anything like that. Just stick to the fact that it's not what you ordered.