Ruined the wedding dress i was going to send back

[whathaveidonehelp]

Oh mumsnetters I'm hoping you can help me.

I'm getting married soon, and ordered a selection of dresses from John Lewis.

One dress arrived in a box, and as soon as i got it out i could smell it had been worn (BO). Took it back to the store same day, spoke to the manager, refund organised. Stay with me...

Try on another dress (also from john lewis). Got my daughter to take a couple of photos but it wasn't right, and was too small. Walked through to the bedroom and to my horror there is dark make up on the chest. It's a cream shimmery fabric. I have absolutely no idea how that happened, but it must have been my fault as the photo DD took had no mark on the dress.

Not content with messing it up, in my panic i tried to blot it gently and made it worse.

I'm on a budget. We can't afford a big do, I'm happy with that but I've just thrown £500 down the toilet. Ive already taken one dress back saying it was soiled and asked them to make a note to ensure it's not attributed to me.

Is there anything i can?

In the "reason for return" section of the return form for just about any company I have ever ordered clothes from online is "More than one item ordered for fit" or similar. Businesses who sell online expect this and if it wasn't an option they offered, they would lose business because people wouldn't buy from them.

You will have to pay for it now tbh

If the stain comes out then no one will ever know, will they?

Good shout!!!

This is why re-stocking fees came about.

Would your wedding insurance cover it?

I would take it to the dry cleaners for them to sort out. If it works, you don’t need to tell JL-you’d be returning a clean, unworn (except for trying on) dress. That’s not being dishonest..

Oh, it wouldn't be nice for the next bride, though. Plus costumes deteriorate slightly every time they are drycleaned. The original stain may even "disappear" but reappear in certain lighting on the big day. I'm glad OP is more honest.

Ridiculous

@whathaveidonehelp

I will talk to them, and will tell them exactly what has happened. They might have insurance that covers this kind of thing, although i think thats highly unlikely. Up to them to decide.

This is crazy. You can't take it back.

On the multiple ordering thing I think it's fine to do as the OP has done here but there's definitely an issue for retailers where those Insta/TikTok 'influencer' types order a massive haul of clothes simply for the purposes of generating their most recent content and then send it all back for free. And it is the reason, in part at least, why some places no longer offer free returns.

Agree with this. I just had to buy wedding suits for my sons. I had to order two sizes each to see what fit. If I could have tired them in store I would have but no one actually has them in store anymore

Take it to a dry cleaners and ask for their advice - they are the experts

Don't be ridiculous!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.