Has anyone bought this River Island dress? It's been a disaster for me and I need advice!

[KittytheHare]

I bought this dress (from River Island directly but couldn't find exact link). Loved it for the first five minutes until it started moulting in the most ridiculous way. I wore it to a party and was honestly embarrassed by end of the night. There was a significant trail of feathers left in my wake everywhere I went.
I can understand a couple of feathers shedding, but this was extreme and has put me off ever wearing it again.
I brought it back tothe store, saying it was faulty/flawed and essentially unwearable, only to be told that the dress was perfect and that's what is to be expected with this style. According to the manager, apparently, no one else has experienced any problems. She gave me the address of the UK office to complain to (I'm in Ireland) and I will contact them, but before I do, I'm keen to to some background investigation to see if anyone else has had this problem.

https://www.riverisland.com/ie/p/petite-black-velvet-feather-hem-shift-dress-917189

Post all over their socials op. Usually gets a response.

Years ago I tried to return a sequin dress to River island after one wear as it had lost half the sequins. They really didn't want to and in the end refunded half the money but I kept the dress. Which was zero use to me. Not great customer service at all.

I would speak to the store manager about the duty manager’s behaviour - the tone, the gum chewing etc.

They should have accepted the return. It's no skin off their teeth.

On another note the feather industry is horrifically cruel.

Reminds me of the time I went to a fancy dress party as Roxy? From Chicago. Anyhow my friend went as the other one, so one of us was dressed like Catherine Zeta Nones and the other as Renee Zellweger. I bought both of us a feather boa. Came home in a taxi and honestly, when we got out of the taxi it looked like we had been slaughtering turkeys for Christmas. There were feathers everywhere. Talk about shedding.
As for the dress, no I don’t think it’s acceptable but probably inevitable based on my previous feather experience.
As for River Island I once bought dd a bag from there for school. The strap snapped after a few uses. I took it back only to be told by the assistant that it wasn’t designed to be used to carry much in.
But it’s A BAG I said, which by its very existence is designed to carry things. After she processed this thought she then gave me a full refund.

It's an expensive dress bearing in mind you've only got finite, limited wear out of it before it becomes a featherless dress.

The issue is that this is a party dress, at a party time of year, and you admitted you wore it to a party (and presumably took off the tags). This time of year there’s an epidemic of people wearing a party dress once and trying to return the next day for a refund. She may have seemed rude but was almost certainly following company policy. ‘I like the dress and it was fun for a night out - but not to keep for $88’ is basically the subtext of what they hear every time. Yours just had added feathers.

‘Have you never worn a feather boa’ really made me laugh 🤣

Off point, sorry, but how are you supposed to wash a dress with feathers? Is it dry clean only?

I was thinking about this too.
The washing instructions on the website say 'machine wash on a gentle cycle 30 degrees'.
How are those feathers going to survive that and remain attached and fluffsome for the next outing?

Like I say, it's pretty much a single use dress to my mind.

The shedding would have driven me mad OP so yanbu.

I'd be more concerned about the misery endured by the poor birds who produced the feathers.

They're synthetic feathers.

Until it didn't.

I did used to wear feather boas, often - cheap, brightly coloured ones - they didn't really shed to a noticeable extent so a nice quality dress from a respected high street retailer which was not cheap should last longer......

Yes I was coming on to say the same. Maybe my boas simply had properly-attached feathers. 🤣

OP this dress sounds badly made. It might be the one dress and you might have been unlucky, or it could be a design flaw; either way, the manager should have accepted it back. Hope you get somewhere with the customer service number.

This act became obsolete nearly 10 years ago. It's the consumer rights act these days.

Apart from the obvious shite service and garment experience it's also totally unacceptable these days from a sustainability and green perspective to manufacture garments that shed to this degree.

And chewing gum in a customer facing role ... just rank

Use resolver, companies respond pretty quickly and usually well via this!

FWIW I wouldn't be happy either!

My old feather boas never lost their feathers, but I often ended up with a line of the dye around my neck!

The dress is beautiful, but at that price I agree shouldn't be shedding feathers at that rate.

If the store manager is to be believed and no-one else has had issues, then clearly your dress is the one with issues OP.

I notice how RI doesn't have reviews on their website, which is pretty unusual in this day and age. Perhaps if they allowed reviews it would tell a different story...

Telling you “no-one else had issues” isn’t the flex she thinks it is, as it proves that yours is faulty surely?

I’d go back and quote “fit for purpose” and “of satisfactory quality” at them until they were so fed up they gave me a refund to get rid of me 😁.

Is anyone else now picturing Moira Rose in The Crows Have Eyes III: The Crownening?

Sorry you came up against an unhelpful manager, OP. No experience of this specific dress but you are absolutely right to pursue this further.

First thing I thought, but given my username probably not a surprise 😂

Thanks and God yes, I kept thinking of Moira Rose as I was shedding!

I would be mortified if I was shedding feathers everywhere from a dress.

I hope you take it further.

I've just realised what's missing in my life. I've never worn a feather boa.