to ask for a refund on this dress?

[MaMaLa321]

I bought a dress last year. It wasn't cheap at £120. I've only worn it 3 or 4 times and the fabric has ripped along the seam. I sewed it up once but it reoccurred.
I've bought from the shop several times.
It was in a sale, but there was no fault when I bought it.
I've taken it into the shop, but the manageress wasn't in, so I left it with my phone number.
AIBU to expect a refund or credit note? And would you expect a full refund?

Lmao, yes that's completely unreasonable.

Its passed the 30 day return
You've worn it several times
you've damaged it, and sewn it up

If your really annoyed, i would email about the quality of the fabric however i dont think you have much of a case here

So the dress is baggy but it split along the seam. Why? How did it split if it's baggy. It would have needed some tension to make it split. The fabric surely didn't just disintegrate under no stress or tension just all by itself.

@MaMaLa321

I don't think you get a refund, especially when you have tampered with it. Best case scenario is a credit note. But I doubt you will get even that. It was last year you bought it.

There is some customer care rule where something has to last a decent amount of time and you can demand a refund even if your guarantee is up (as long as you have the receipt.) That is up to 6 years I think. BUT I think it may only be electrical goods. And as I say, the fact you have messed with it (and made it worse by the sound of it) will mean you will probably not get a refund...

I agree that the shop is not legally obliged to do anything and is well within their rights to refuse to help. But I strongly disagree that OP is a CF for asking the shop if there is anything they can do. Ultimately this product is faulty if she genuinely has worn it just 4 times and so it is completely reasonable for her to approach the store and ask them nicely if they can do anything.

I don't disagree that an item should last longer than four wears, but instead of taking the item back, she's tried to fix it herself, and so the shop can just turn around and say they're not touching it - how do they know she didn't damage it, try and repair it herself and is now wanting them to replace it for free?

I used to manage a retail shop with a ridiculously generous returns policy - if a customer had returned a ripped item after a year, we'd probably have replaced it or given them a credit note towards another purchase, but if they came in having repaired it themselves, we'd have told them not to push their luck

If there was a nick or catch in the fabric, it could have ripped from that.

I bought Seasalt coat and one of the sewn in drawstrings on the hood came off. I contacted them, I think it was after having the coat for a year or so that this happened, and they offered me £10 to get the coat repaired by a local seamstress. I never took them up on it and still have a wonky hood when I use the one drawstring.
They might refund you, or they might offer you a token amount to get it professionally repaired. Or they might say it's been a year and you've repaired it which has broken and there is nothing they can do.

All depends on where it's from. Some places will be happy to give you a credit note or even a refund, just be friendly and polite - I always play it this way and have a lot of luck with refunds etc. The case is, you bought an expensive dress, wore it 4 times and it's faulty, this is not acceptable. If they deny you it in store, you can send it to head office and they'll more than likely sort something out for you.

Under the Sale of Goods Act since 2015 you have six years in which to return a faulty item. If you’re returning the dress 12 months after you bought it, you would have to show that the fault was present at the time you bought it. If it’s ripped along the seam and you have repaired it once, then it’s happened again in the same way, you need to ask for a refund on the grounds that the fault is in the fabric itself. Even though you have repaired it yourself, you will be entitled to at least a partial refund. When you return it you don’t need a receipt but you need to show proof of purchase such as a credit/debit card or bank statement showing the purchase. You also need to explain that because of the nature of the dress- summer wear - it’s only been worn a couple of times even though you’ve had it twelve months.

The shop owner only has your word that you only wore it once and didn't lend it to a larger friend.

If you had the receipt/online invoice some form of proof of purchase and the dress looked immaculate id be inclined to refund you. Without a receipt Id only have your word when you bought it and how much it was.

I managed to get money back on a bag from Joules as it was faulty after 5 years.
I bough it as new on EBay with label still attached - for £35
I bought it on eBay and did not use it for a year after as I got lots of bags.
I started using it one day and the coating started to peel away like a big chunk on day 1.
I thought that’s not right as the bag still had a label attached literally the day before as essentially new, but I never expected to get a refund, just was disappointed.
i contacted joules, just a polite question, not pushy- nothing like that.

They were very friendly, asked me the product code from the label and said this definitely should not happen even after this time- apparently it was season 2016.
They offered me a gift card which I gladly accepted of last scanned price which was literally what I paid for it.

They have come back to me and been absolutely lovely, giving me a £90 credit voucher. It's Sahara, a small chain. Even apart from this I would recommend them as everything I've bought from them is very good quality and lasts forever.
Thanks for all the responses. Except for the rude ones, but, hey, that's AIBU.

Better than nothing ey

Great outcome and exactly as I suspected. There was nothing cheeky about asking nicely or attempting to fix a minor flaw yourself. The worst they could have done was say no but I certainly would have tried to help out a loyal customer in similar circumstances as it gives them faith in us and keeps them coming back.

I've had refunds from some shops after a year. They're not obliged to give you one but if you can prove purchase some shops will.

I love that Boden gives a 1y return window exactly for cases like OP’s where the fault only becomes apparent after wearing / washing the item.

This.
op you haven’t said how it split. It must have been pulled or caught on something?

Sorry just seen your update. Good result op

What a great result op.

That’s excellent news OP. Please do whatever you can to leave reviews for them. I firmly believe that companies/individuals should not be judged on what goes wrong but on how they put it right when it does go wrong. Sounds like Sahara deserve a huge high five for this.

Good result and seems they value you as a customer.

No one was being that rude really, especially as you didn't have a receipt and from reading from various acts in relation to items being fit for purpose it's changed and can be quite tricky to work out. Also, we have no idea of your actual character, there are a few people out there who are chancers!