Selling under false pretences

A question about : Selling under false pretences

Hi,

I'm bridesmaid for my friend next year and we had been shopping for our bridesmaid dresses at a local wedding dress store but we hadn't placed any orders. My friend found the dresses she wanted and all 5 of the bridesmaids agreed to pay for our own dress (Ј200 each). The dresses were by a company called Forever Yours Bridal.

I then became aware that there was a rumour that Forever Yours were going bust from another stockist. I told my friend and she contacted the shop who assured her they'd checked with the company and it wasn't true. That was about 4 weeks ago. We still hadn't paid deposits at this point.

The wedding shop then called my friend last week and told her that we needed to order our dresses by last weekend as the colour she had chosen was being discontinued so the order had to be placed.

All the bridesmaids went individually to get measured and pay a Ј60 deposit and my friend paid another Ј300 towards the dresses. This was all completed last Saturday and she was told the dresses would be ordered on Monday and that it would be up to 20 weeks for delivery with the balance to be paid at that point. This was also the same as I was told when I went it and they also confirmed the colour was being discontinued.

I then spoke to the other stockist I know in a different part of the country yesterday and she passed comment that Forever Yours were ceasing to trade as of 1st June 2013.

All stockists had been sent a letter on 11th March 2012 stating this and telling them they only had until the 29th March to place any orders or 1st May for a rush order. All dresses would then be with the shops by 1st June 2013. Each shop only has 5 days from date of receipt to raise any issues with dresses and then there's no comeback. I have a copy of the letter all the retailers received from my contact.

I've spoken to the local store this morning and I'm awaiting the owner calling me back. However, what rights do we have? We were sold the dresses under false pretences and they knew we were already concerned that this company was supposed to be ceasing to trade and they blatantly lied to us on more than one occasion.

I want to know where we stand as we are furious that they've lied in order to secure an order worth over Ј1000, alterations are extra and really we have to have them done by them.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Shell

Best answers:

• How has the money been paid?
• Nothing on their website suggests they're going bust - they have a Spring 2013 range, are you sure it's not sour grapes from other suppliers??
• They are definitely ceasing trading. I have seen announcements from several wedding dress shops on Twitter about it.
  However, as long as you have the dresses, I can't see what the problem is?
• So at this point there's nothing to say the shop are not going to fulfill the order as promised? The shop wanted to secure the order from you so they can then secure the order with their supplier before they stopped trading.
• It seems like the only thing the shop have got wrong is the delivery timescale.
  As they've ordered after the 29th March standard delivery deadline but before the 1st May 'rush order' dealine surely that means they will be put through as a rush order and you won't have to wait the 20 weeks, only until the 1st June.
  Is that not better than waiting 20 weeks?
• A company doesn't announce its going to go bust in a couple of months.
  tbh the only problem I can see is that there is a limited amount of time to raise any problems that there MAY be with the dresses.
  Personally if I was the bride , I would get on the good side of the shop and arrange to go there IMMEDIATELY once the dressses arrive and inspect them myself.
• Your statutory are against the retailer, not the supplier, so they aren't affected. So no real reason to panic.
  However there is potentially an issue down the line. If one dress is faulty they will be unable to source a replacement, so you'll presumably have to replace all 5 dresses. Not a good situation.
  You are covered by the consumer protection from unfair trading regulations, which state that it is an offence for a trader to make 'misleading omissions' - ie not telling you something important that would have caused you to take a different decision. In this case you could take legal action against the supplier for not divulging the information that the supplier was ceasing trading, as with this knowledge you wouldn't have bought those dresses.
  In reality though, I'd keep this as an option if needed. Get the dresses, see if they are OK, and hopefully all will be well. If it's not, hopefully the retailer will sort things out. In the worst case, you may need to source dresses elsewhere and take legal action to get your money back - but that's very unlikely to be necessary.
• I am fighting a Cash back site (Topcashback) about an amount due from Tesco Direct since July 2014 but judging by the responses fro TCB, apart from their rather weak willed way of going about things, Tesco are trying to wriggle out of paying by claiming I returned goods or they were never delivered which is clearly false and I have said so. Since I clarified this with the cash back firm, I am only getting replies that "they are chasing the retailer" (Tesco and Tesco are ignoring them. What rights do I have on this? I have written to tesco my self with copies of invoices, and all the TCB correspondence showing that Tesco have lied but I doubt I will get anywhere? There must be something that covers this as I see this as False Selling from the retailer where the cashback is concerned?
• You need to start a new thread. This won't get noticed on the bottom of an old bridemaid dress thread.
• thread , bridemaid dress thread. chuckle chuckle
• carh , you should see a page like this at the top of each forum
  https://www.theterminalhut.com/public/forum.jpg
  I have arrowed the new thread link