Refund for prom dress service not carried out

[TheMeatyDrop]

DD prom dress, taken to alteration shop. Indicative prices are on website.

Dress hem pinned up, no other work needed on the day. Website says pinning is a free service. Also I requested a price for straps added for us to consider.

Got to till. Woman gestures card payment machine at ne & mutters the price. The cost of the hem is significantly more than the website suggested, the cost of straps has been added without informing or discussion at all about price.

I was shocked and queried this but was (looking back) rudely dismissed by the woman & felt pressured due to her tactics saying these prices were normal & we'd not find anywhere else decent now. Customers were queuing behind me in the small shop & their shop phone was ringing with only her at the counter huffing, I felt I was holding everyone up. Also conscious of my DD & wanting her to have a nice experience of prom prep.

I left the store & immediately felt sick like I'd been conned. The woman's manner was not pleasant. I took about 1 hr out to process then returned to get dress back & a refund. No work had bern carried out during this hour.

Woman refused a full refund. Claimed she had to keep some back for 'work done'. Only work done was pinning which website says is a free service & anyway she removed the pins before giving the dress back. I asked why she thought she could hold money back, she said because I'd wasted her time... yet SHE WASTED MINE!

I took what ££ I could at that point, but want to follow up to get the rest back. I wasn't given a refund receipt and in the horrible exchange from her to me & my DD during all this I forgot to ask. I'm still waiting on the refund to appear back in my accountbut assuming thats a standard refund processing delay. The original payment has been taken.

Thoughts on where I stand legally?

I can't find anything clear on this situation online. Things I've read cover faulty services. I can't see how she can keep moblney when no chargeable work was completed & the order was cancelled within an hr or so.

How much was the price inflated by? The price is usually a lot more for Prom dresses than a standard dress. My wedding dress alterations were £400!

You said 'indicative prices are on website', which is a suggestive price meaning it could possibly be more. As PP suggested we need to know the increased amount.

Surely once they'd seen the dress (and before the dress was pinned) they'd be able to provide an accurate price? I do think you've wasted their time a bit waiting until after the it was pinned to start complaining about price.

This. ^ . The way you ‘win’ here is to recognise that in future you need to listen to your inner voice more quickly and be ready to question assertively in the moment and not get sidetracked / flustered whatever you did in your overly polite British way of handling. It’s annoying and I do actually empathise however it’s done now and you are just feeling angry and want revenge . My big girl advice? Let it go. Save the energy and use it as a learning point for the future. In future, if you are not happy with a price then always step back and defer. You have got some of the money back. Just let it go. You just make yourself more upset by this and potentially your daughter. Who is therefore suffering here?

Using common sense I'm guessing OP was going to pay for hemming... you obviously cannot walk around in a pinned dress.

I think OP is saying she went in, they pinned the dress and when she went to pay it was much more than expected for the work she was having done including services she didn't want. She has asked for a refund 1 hour later (before the dress was altered) but is now being charged for the 'pinning' which was listed as a free service (not what she went in for).

She couldn't have been JUST been getting pinning done.

I think the free pinning would be on the basis you are paying for the hem to be done

I’ve never seen a thread were so many people cannot understand what happened and go after the OP for it. Reminds you how poor reading comprehension really is.

The OP did not want a free service and nothing else. She wanted the hem taken up, and knew she would have to pay for that. She checked the website and it gave guide prices for hemming. It also said the pinning would be free, so you don’t pay for that, you just pay for the actual labour of having the hem lifted. She was fine with that.

She got there, they pinned it up and then took her to the till were they charged a greatly inflated price for the hem work when compared to the guide prices on their website. She didn’t want a free service, she wanted to pay for the hem to be taken up but felt that had been underhand in their pricing and charged her a huge amount when the website indicated a much lower amount. She felt pressured into paying.

She changed her mind, went back and asked for the dress to be returned and no work to be done so expected a full refund. The woman has then kept some of the payment to cover the pin work she did; but the pinning is a free service so she legally cannot do that unless it states “free service when combined with paid service, otherwise we charge for that alone.”
And, as the pin job was paid for, then the pins shouldn’t have been removed. She can’t charge for it and then undo the work.

But @TheMeatyDrop, the website prices may have been for a standard dress. Prom dresses can be a lot more work and you should have discussed price before your daughter stood for the measuring and pinning. That’s the issue; you need to check these things and not go by a guide prices meant for a simple dress.

They pinned the dress then set an undisclosed price.

Legally thats dodgy practice and can't be done as the price contract was created after that work was done so doesn't contain that work.

If OP had refused to pay at the till the pinning would be free, the pins removed and dress returned... its essentially just a step in the free quote they offer.

Alterations are expensive if being done professionally . I bought a trouser suit in Zara for an event and it cost me almost as much as the jacket initially cost to get it altered but to be fair I was thrilled with it afterwards. My mum was a seamstress and worked in a clothing factory but can't sew now due to arthritis in her fingers and she gets so annoyed at how little the time and effort it takes to alter a garment is appreciated. She used to do a lot of favours for people back in the day and it would always start with "oh it only needs" when in fact it would be a lot more work than was appreciated. Bear in mind the OP went to a business with rent and overheads. What did she expect.

I suspect the staff member's version would be very different to yours but if yours is true, you paid the Wet Lettuce tax. WLT is usually non-refundable.

How much did she want for the hem and straps? I'd expect £50 or so. I pay £20 to have jeans hemmed.

If I understand this right (and to be fair the OP isn't very clear in her writing style), you had a quote from the alterations shop, you accepted the quote and booked the job (by paying), then later cancelled the job. You are now complaining about paying a cancellation fee for the service you cancelled .

Honestly, I'd expect to pay a cancellation fee in those circumstances - it may well be on their terms and conditions that cancelled jobs incur a fee. You have presumably used up their time, their expertise and admin time to book and then cancel appointments/book and then cancel seamstresses etc.

If you weren't sure you wanted to proceed, you shouldn't have paid and created a contract that needed cancelling. If you'd have walked away after the quote and said "I'll get back to you tomorrow to confirm", no fee would be payable.

You have no rights I’m afraid as she didn’t actually have to refund you.

I think the pinning of the hem was a freebie in relation to buying other services. The lesson is, you should have asked about charges.

As a dressmaker for myself and sometimes friends, pinning a hem to be level and just right is not necessarily a simple or quick process. You should pay for someone's skill, or do it yourself.

Were the prices on the website a from price, as in giving a price for a basic pencil skirt hem and you thought this would be the same price for a prom dress?

Did op not buy dress from the same store? Her post is a bit confusing but that’s what I thought had happened.

If it is a totally separate business, then op is in wrong for expecting a free service but if it’s the same store, she is not.

Finally someone seems to have actually read the OP

DD prom dress, taken to alteration shop. Indicative prices are on website.

Dress hem pinned up, no other work needed on the day. Website says pinning is a free service. Also I requested a price for straps added for us to consider.

I would not argue with paying for their time taken if I didn't continue with alternations, especially when they are at one of their busiest time of the year.

What were the indicative prices on website for each individual alteration and how much did they then charge?

If they hadn't added the sleeves at this point you could have asked for that part to be removed. Really I wouldn't have allowed them to start pinning until I had a verbal estimate of costs for the work I wanted done and it is not something I have ever had to do before. ds had his suit altered for prom, but I told him to take it and make sure he knew how much it would be before agreeing and if below £xx to just go for it.

In hindsight, if you go anywhere else for the alterations I am sure you will deal with the transaction much more effectively. But for this one you have some, perhaps equal, responsibility for how this turned out.

I read it fine thanks.

The pinning is a free service if you have work done. so you would be billed for the alteration and not the separate pinning session. They offer the free pinning in anticipation of paid work following the pinning session.

Having then decided that she does not want the work done she can hardly expect a business to absorb the cost for the time and effort of the pinning session. Completely ridiculous.

No business offers completely free services and I bet the poster is perfectly aware of that. It doesn't suit her indignant narrative though. Does she work for free or does expect to be paid for work undertaken?

This was my daughter in the dress alteration shop Monday, as you can see her dress is too long. The lady doing the alterations to shorten it is charging £30 which I think is very reasonable. How much did she charge you OP?

It’s very different getting a quote in person when they’ve looked at the what work needs doing to a customer looking online and finding a rough price guide.

And this is the question we need the answers too. I highly doubt we will get them though. I don’t understand why you paid in that moment if you were unhappy if someone was rude to me when I was paying for a service I would say sorry but I’m going elsewhere as I’m not keen on your attitude.

Lovely dress @whybotherx

I was being charged £100.
£75 for hem
£25 for straps I'd enquired about.

Dress simple material. Like a thick-ish sheen fabric. Regilar underskirt material. One length all around.

I went in with full intention to get everything done there, not just have the dress pinned, as I have many skills but not sewing. It was only after the event viewing the t&c I noted any refund shouldn't be reduced for the pinning as it clearly stated this was a free service not dependant on paying further services.

And in any case if there was a deduction made for the pinning then I should have received that service & the pins have been left in! They weren't. If you're charge someone for a service you surely can't then take the service back. I didn't care about this (the pins being removed) as I will be paying another seamstress to do the alterations who will need / want to do their own pinning. There was no benefit to me to have the pinning there given I'm not having the work done there. Hope that's clear!

I haven't won some advantageous situation here for free. I wasted a lot of yesterday going to this place with DD out of revision time, for no gain. I still need to arrange a seamstress. I don't know why so many think there is a CF benefit to this situation! There really isn't.

I’m very confused - why on earth did you pay for something that you weren’t necessarily having done, and why pay at all when you knew the price was wrong?? Your daughter is 16 not 6 - she would understand about being ripped off and ensuring you pay for services correctly 🤷‍♀️

I think you're going to find that about £100 is the going rate for hemming a two layer (top and underskirt) satin (I presume this is what you mean by thickish sheen fabric) prom dress plus adding straps. It certainly seems in the right ballpark to me (although in fairness I live in the expensive SE)

Did you use their website "from" prices for prom dresses or for regular dresses as a guide? Prom/evening/bridemaid dresses will be considerably more expensive to alter than a regular piece of clothing.

In any case, the problem is that by paying you entered into a contract with them, and therefore if you now cancel, a cancellation charge will be due.

£75 for two layers of prom dress is probably standard ish. I'm paying £65 for hemming of a one layer dress (the skirt has a slight train so it's not small) plus a couple of darts added to improve the fit. For the person who suggested upthread that you should do it yourself, I have basic sewing skills (made several garments on my machines) but there is no way I'd risk a pricey prom dress! I went to someone who specialises in wedding and prom dresses.

How much is she keeping for the work done?
I'm confused at what you are actually cross about. What did the website state about hemming? Does it say hemming begins at £X? Hemming a dress - and both layers - like this is totally different to a pencil skirt or a pair of trousers.