Preloved shop - where do I stand ?

[Brigette67]

I’ve recently taken some high cost items into a pre loved shop,
Have previously purchased from them but never sold anything.
I took a very expensive dress / labels on and never worn before among other items that were high end.

When we went through the items the lady said she’d research prices and confirm back to me before they went on sale. She took them from me the ones she was happy to sell on as not all of my items were suitable to sell doe to fashion trends.
At the time I went lots of other bags of clothing had been dropped off and she said there’s a lot of things to process.
A week had gone past and I hadn’t heard and was about to chase her when she messaged to me to say she’d sold one of my dresses.
i messsged her back and said I hadn’t confirmed prices and she’d sold a £500 dress for £70 and I would get £35 as she takes 50% commission

I told her if I knew that was the cost she was selling for I’d never agree to that. I immediately asked her to take off sale one of the other expensive dresses I had given her and she asked if she could sell it and what price I wanted, I said no I want it back and she said she’d take it off sale

ive gone into the shop today to pick up the dress I wanted back and she brought out another dress which was the same colour as mine only it wasn’t the dress I handed over, the one she tried to give me back looked very cheap other than the colour being the same it was a different dress.
she looked panicked and had a look in the shop and then I looked and it wasn’t in the shop on display - she checked her records and said it hadn’t been sold as it would of had the designer on the sales.

im devastated - i said what happens next and she said she’d ask another member of staff to look and check if she’d sold it I want it back - I feel I’ve lost 2 dresses worth nearly £800 together / no contract: no dress and I don’t know what to do and where I stand legally .
as I left the shop in a calm manner - I said it’s very disappointing and she said I’ll call you next week - I said I wanted to hear sooner than that and then she said she wasn’t in.
What do I do or say or where I stand legally if my dress is missing or sold for a lot less as we hadn’t agreed to prices before going on sale or ?
any advice most welcome -

I think you’re going to struggle to get anywhere with this without a contract OP

I think if you don't agree a price before leaving and you don't have any kind of contract then you have no recourse.

There is no written contract, but there does appear to be a contract. If I take my clothes into the cleaners, there is no written contract, but they are still liable if they lose them. The question is what was the nature of the contract. A written contract would help to clear that up. If the shop has published terms and conditions, e.g. on its website (if it has one), that would help to clarify the terms of the contract. However, my guess is that the shop is liable to OP for the second-hand value of the clothes (which may, of course, be less than OP thinks) less any commission they would have charged if the clothes had been sold at that price.

I don't think it's comparable. The dry cleaners are giving the clothes back to you. The OP has given her clothes to the shop and is now unhappy that they have sold them for a lower price than she would have liked. I think as soon as she handed them over she was letting the shop do with them as they wished.

No, she was not letting them do with them as they wished. If that was the case, there would be no talk of commission. They would be able to keep the entire sale proceeds. The way these shops typically operate mean the clothes remained OP's property until the shop sold them at a price agreed with OP, at which point OP would receive the sale price less the shop's commission. It is clear that OP left her clothes with the shop so that they could give her a suggested sale price and not for any other purpose.

Thank you. It’s a tricky one I’m so gutted that I handed over in good faith.

it was so difficult as I wanted to do the pricing but she said she needs to research first and then do pricing and she was very busy with all the bags that had been dropped off I’ve never done this before so I guess I was led blindly and I was naive

You're mistaking this for a charity shop, I think?

It sounds more like a dress agency type place where they sell things for you then give you a share of the money.

Do they have a website with any T&C's, @Brigette67 ?

How could this be resolved in a way which will make you happy, OP? If you felt so strongly about these clothes, you should have been more assertive. You can't use the excuse that the shop assistant was busy with a lot of bags, as a reason why you weren't assertive

A hard lesson OP, but maybe one others can learn from.

I do think you were reasonable to expect better service than this though, she sounds incredibly badly organised.

Do you have pictures/ receipts at all to evidence the items that you owned? Pictures of the label or anything?

I wonder if you could have a look on Vestiare (or other similar websites) to see what comparable dresses would sell for? And then you would have a position to argue for in the shop.

Gutted for you OP, you trusted them to do their job.

Yes and hopefully others can learn from my post. Thank you - irony is that they say hassle free selling. My experience quite the opposite

If the items were worth that much I'd have got her to sign something before handing them over, to be honest. You must have had an idea of the minimum amount you were prepared to accept for each item, so the minimum she should have sold it for was twice your agreed amount.

Hi yes it’s a pre loved shop that sell on items and take 50% commission
no terms and conditions on their website

OP has a contract - A verbal one. If we take their word as gospel, the agreement was for the store to research prices and come back to OP before selling anything.

However - and this is the issue with verbal contracts - if the shop disputes this version of events, it's going to be very difficult for either side to prove exactly what was agreed.

Which is exactly why I said, without a contract. A verbal contract is all well and good except OP says “she said Y” and the shop says “No I said X”.

Without a written legal contract it’s a non starter really.

@Brigette67I would listen to @prh47bridgewho is a lawyer (as am I) and a stalwart of these boards. Many of the posters clearly don’t understand the law.

It sounds as if there was no actual contract for them to sell the items - you were awaiting confirmation of a sale price and until you had received that and agreed to it you had the right to ask for the items back and they had no right to go ahead and sell what was your property. Even without formal T&Cs on their website, is there anything on there about how it works eg “bring your items in for us to let you know how much you could get for them” or the like? It would help.

For the moment, wait and see what they come back with. They may still locate the dress you tried to retrieve and, if they can’t, ask them what they intend on doing about it and the fact they sold your other item without you having confirmed a price. Try communicating by email if you can as they may say something that firms up your position as to how it should have worked. The biggest issue you have is evidencing what happened and what was agreed, even if legally you are on solid ground.

Thank you for the time to respond and to let me know that you are a lawyers as well
@prh47bridge. Thank you for both your input,

I’ve checked again on their website there are no formal t&c’s
this is what they have

why sell with us - we make selling preloved designer items easy and hassle free.
we take care of everything from marketing to buyer questions and ensuring safe delivery
book an appointment with us to drop off items and selling with us is simple and professional every time.

I dropped about 12 items off on a pre booked appt. The lady went through them snd selected 9 thst she said she could sell. She said leave it with me I will need to research pricing and I will get back to you and also said she was very busy as several people had dropped off items
under no circumstances did she mention she’d put them on sale straight away without confirming prices.
it’s only when I chased her on a what’s app message the following week to say I hadn’t received a list of the items she’d taken and prices to agree that she she said it’s been busy and she’d get them over to me which was the following day. Be which time she mentioned she’d sold the white designer dress. I told her I was not happy she’d sold it for £70 of which I’d receive half and I told her I would not of let her sell it for £70 had she checked with me first,
it was then that I said immediately take off the green dress as I want it back / she agreed she would take it off sale for me to collect only when I went to collect it from her shop and she handed me over a dress which was very cheap looking and didn’t resemble mine we all. I told her that was g mind and she panicked. And checked her sales and said it hadn’t been sold but it also wasn’t in the shop either.
I had taken photos of my dresses of which the white one had labels on still. The green one now appears to be missing and it hadn’t been worn / a mistake of a dress which was expensive and no longer fit me hence I wanted to sell on - I hope it’s found but I’m afraid it’s now sold of which I will receive very little for it.
I’m absolutely disappointed of what looked a professional shop has taken my property to sell and never followed through with pricing to agree prior to sell. I would never of accepted this and would have taken them back immediately. The other items were low cost items so they didn’t matter so much and I would bd happy to get something from them bring sold
I’ve got a feeling she’ll message tomorrow saying the dress had been sold or they’ve lost it
I paid £400 and if hadn’t even been worn / it’s a special occasion dress
I’ve had a lot of stress with my son’s illness and just wanted to get some money of items not being used
im so upset and not knowing what to do or what mh legal rights are

I understand what you mean but again, there is a contract. Mediators can absolutely consider verbal contracts and small claims courts can find them enforceable, assuming they meet the threshold of a contract and can be evidenced.

Obviously much harder to evidence a verbal contract, but not necessarily a non-starter. As PP have said though, even if there is a legal claim, it's probably not worth pursuing. The value of second-hand clothes is extremely fluid, unworn or not. DP and I are into our rare trainers; we have pairs that we've paid nearly £2k for on the second-hand market which retailed at less than £150, and pairs that we've paid £600 for that now wouldn't sell for fifty quid! Legal advice/letters, a small claims action and the stress that comes with the process will almost certainly not be worth even OP's estimation of the value of the goods.

That doesn't mean that OP, especially if armed with a bit of advice and an understanding of their rights, has to write this off though. The very first step in any civil dispute is usually an attempt to resolve it without involving the courts.

It will largely depend on the shop's position of course. There's a chance that with the correct approach, a small business such as this will admit some fault (especially with regards to the second dress given that they've attempted to return it - or what they thought was 'it' - to her) and look to shake hands on an amount of compensation to avoid any further unpleasantness, bad online reviews etc.

For me, the biggest question is the second hand value of these clothes. Even if clothes are unworn and still in their original packaging, they may not be worth anything like the original retail price. So OP needs to figure out what the clothes were likely to fetch second hand.

The fact there is no written contract and the shop does not have any published terms and conditions makes things more complicated, but OP may be able to get around this by generating evidence of what was agreed. If, for example, she emails the shop setting out her version of events, that is evidence of her understanding of the contract. If the shop does not dispute her version, that is evidence to support her understanding.

As the previous poster says, the shop may compensate OP adequately without any need for legal action. If they don't, OP will need to consider whether it is worth pursuing. She will be able to recover any court costs from the shop if she goes to court and wins, but she won't get any compensation for her time and stress in going through the small claims process with the attendant risk that she might lose.

Thank you. I’ve not heard anything from them today should I wait to hear or email so my version is documented and sent today

Regarding prices, did the person say she’d confirm prices with you before selling? Or did she just say she’d research prices before selling the items?

I would email them today.

Thank you

Just as I was emailing I received an email saying they have sold my green dress that was lost.
It was brand new and have u details at a price I’d never agree to however they said they would compensate with their commission. I feel this is somewhat still not satisfy as I told them I wanted it back as soon as the prices were given as I was not in agreement with them, they told me it would be immediately be taken off sale which clearly they didn’t.
tm beyond exasperated and do not know what to do as although they’ve recognised by saying sorry they have still sold two items I never agreed to smd the prices and they are in breach of miss sellin my property