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I bought my wedding dress over a year ago which cost me £1400 and with 8 weeks to my wedding i have been having some alterations done to it. Two weeks ago i noticed a small mark on it so i took it to Johnsons dry cleaners and paid £61 to have it cleaned, this £61 covered the dress for upto £600 if anything went wrong (it was £200 to be cleaned and insured upto £1000) i couldn't afford the £200 and thought what could go wrong so i paid the £61 (my stupidity once again). I picked the dress up on Friday and unpacked it all and there was eight tears all over the net, as you can imagine i was devestated. I phoned up Johnsons who said to take it straight back down, they basically have said that they will repair it as best they can, however if they cant i can claim off the insurance but only upto £600 and they keep the dress.
I was just wondering if anyone knows why i had to take out seperate insurance surley it would have been covered by public liabilty, also could i claim compensation for all the upset it has caused plus all the running around i have had to do looking for another dress.
Hello. I have also had problems with Johnson Dry Cleaners who will only compensate me for 65% the value of my dress. I suggest you contact their customer servves dept and make a complaint. Good luck.
I was just wondering if anyone knows why i had to take out seperate insurance
Just like the postal service, it depends how much the item is worth.
If a n item is only worth £150, people arent going to pay £200 for insurance, hence 2 levels of insurance
surley it would have been covered by public liabilty
No members of the public have ben harmed, your dress isnt a person
also could i claim compensation for all the upset it has caused plus all the running around i have had to do looking for another dress.
If this happened before the wedding why didnt you inform the maker that there were marks on the dress.
Again the higher level of insurance may have had additional benefits.
YOu may be able to start your own claim against them for distress and damage, but I have no experience in how you would go about that.
sorry to hear about your dress its terrible as an act of goodwill they should compensate the full amount, write a strong letter of complaint to the offices. they ruined some clothes of mine once and all i got was an apolagy from the manager.
they lost the bodice tie to my wedding dress (bougt for £690) at the beginning of May - they spent 5 months "trying to find the piece". Apparently, they couldn't send all the pieces they had down for us to go through to find mine as there were literally thousands of them that had been separated from their dresses!! :o
Over a month ago, I was promised arefund on the cost of my dry cleaning. I never received that, when I chased them, they said they're still looking for the tie!
i can claim off the insurance but only upto £600 and they keep the dress.
Why do they feel the need to keep the dress? For £600 I would think you could get a proper seemstress to do the repair and it would be good.
I can't see how they can keep the dress if they fail, or are they expecting to fail or not even attempt a repair?
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This situation has featured on watchdog earlier this year. Perhaps a complaint to them would prompt a follow up feature on thier programme. You could also mention this in your complaint letter to Johnsons.
Johnsons are a complete joke! They have also lost the bodice tie to my wedding dress and their laidback attitude disturbs me more than anything. They haven't once apologised. It must be very common. Though their Customer Services Dept don't seem to think so but they do get paid to say that don't they......
The process should be simple. Each Wedding Dress has a reference number/code. If they remove a bodice tie from the dress whilst cleaning it they need to put the same code on the tie, that way if it gets lost it can be tracked back to the dress. I paid nearly £2000 for my dress but they don't seem to care. Johnsons are an established Company who pride themselves on providing a professional service. They are supposidly the nations's no1 Dry Cleaners ha ha. Oh and they also ensure that a wedding dress will be returned in the best possible condition ha ha again!
At the end of the day they are in breach of contract. I won't let it go.
Well I hope you are good to your word and don't let it go. No one can destroy someone else things and just shrug it off. And I don't believe that any disclaimers stuck to the wall with bluetac will allow them to get away with it either.
Trading Standards wants your help
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OMG I am so sorry to hear this and I have been through a very similar thing. I put my dress into an ironing company to get ironed two weeks before my wedding (my mum made my dress and neither of us wanted to risk burning it!).
It came back with four big slashes on it. To cut a long story short, they denied liability and I ended up taking them to small claims (which I think is over your limit). I only got £150 out of them (8 years ago), which was basically the cost of material for my mum to make a new skirt for the dress.
The point of my post was to say, negotiate with them if its any way possible for you to keep your dress and get the £600 given that you can probably have a new skirt put onto the dress for that cost. Obviously if you haven't been married yet they can't keep the dress.
Are you covered by your house insurance at all?
I totally sympathise, I remember the sick feeling I had when I took my dress out the bag!!!
that is awful i can't believe they continue to be allowed to distroy people's big days and get away with it. i too had an awful experience with Johnsons dry cleaners and I feel that it is important to let people know of my expereince of using Johnsons dry cleaning wedding service in order to transport my dress to my wedding venue in scotland and to ensure this was appropriatley steamed for my big day. If you have already enquired about this service you will be aware that it is not cheap. In order to have my dress steam press and boxed it cost me £130 and the stress that it caused both days before the wedding and on the day was massive and has in some ways tarnish the memories of my big day. This is because of the following events:
On Saturday 13th October 2007 I brought into the newark branch a wedding dress, veil and bolero Jacket in order to purchase the wedding service. I was informed that these items would be cleaned and placed in a box. I explained to the shop assistant our intention to take the dress to Scotland and she informed me that the dress would be fine and would have no creases in it on the day of the wedding. All 3 items were checked and confirmed.
The difficulties began on Saturday 27th October 2007 when I arrived at the shop and these items were not ready for collection as promised. I informed the manager that we were leaving for our wedding at the end of the week. She informed me that they did not do this service at the shop and that she would contact wherever my items had been sent. This had already begun to increase stress levels for me and my partner with concerns that the dress would not be back on time. I was able to collect these items on Wednesday 31st October 2007.
When receiving the items it was clear there was a number of issues firstly; the veil was in the same condition as it was sent still creased and in need of steaming. When unwrapping the wedding box from its bubble wrap and plastic, the box was damaged. The dress had beading missing from the front and the bolero jacket was missing.
On Thursday 1st November 2007, I contacted the manager at Newark Brach to inform them of the above. The manger informed me that I had not taken in the jacket with the dress. I informed her that two members of staff checked the items before I left the shop. She informed me that the members of staff concerned had stated that this was not so and she believed them.
Totally devastated my partner then rang your head office to discuss the whole situation as this was causing her a great deal of anxiety. She was informed that a member of staff would be sent to the Newark branch in order to check out the situation. They would refund the cost of the wedding service and in the mean time due to time limitation, I was to go and buy a new bridal bolero jacket however, should they find the jacket then she was to return this to the shop she bought it from.
Disgusted with this requested I then rang head office myself and explained that bridal wear is not that easily obtainable nor returnable, the previous matching jacket to the dress had been ordered. They then agreed that I buy a new jacket and the cost would be refunded irrespective of finding the other jacket. I spent the remained of the day visiting bridal shops in Nottinghamshire to find a matching Jacket, luckily finding one.
On Friday 2nd November 2007 I then received a call from the Newark Branch informing me they had found the jacket and they apologised for the stress and anxiety the whole situation had caused. I enquired once again about the possibility that the dressed maybe creased due to the previous difficulties. The manager reassured me that the dress would be fine and crease free. Giving that we was leaving for our wedding on this day I had no option but to trust hat the manager had informed me.
On 12th November 2007 our wedding day i came to put on the wedding dress to discover when removing it from the box, the dress was terribly creased with clear definitions where the dress had been folded. This was more creased than when it had been taken to the shop. I was absolutely devastated and should our guests have not paid a substantial amount of money to attend the wedding she would have cancelled the whole day.
Luckily we were able to iron the dress but all the special-ness a bride is supposed to feel on her wedding day was taken from me when I removed the dress from its box, my dreams of stepping into my dress and feeling a million dollars were shattered. I felt degraded asking guests to help me iron my wedding dress minutes before I was due to walk into the castle. My visions of being a princess in a castle for a day had been taken away from me, which is reflected in my wedding photos and had a knock on affect to the rest of the day. My memories of the most important day of my life are tarnished by my thoughts and feelings of having to iron my dress minutes before the ceremony. I am totally gutted as I will never be able have that day again.
We felt that we could trust this company, as it is a reputable firm providing this service that is not cheap at a £130. We are both totally disappointed and do not feel they provided the service that they have stated on their website;
“Our specialist wedding dress cleaning services ensure that each wedding dress is treated with the care it deserves, and cleaned to the highest possible standards.”
when writing to them about this issuse they were very dismissive about it by not returning my calls and resulting in then just refunding the service. i contacted trading standard and they to was very dismissive about it, all i really hope for now it that they do not do what they did to me to others.
Just to update you all on what happened with my situation sorry i haven't done it sooner.
Eight weeks before the wedding i still couldn't get a dress in time i was getting married in the August and nobody could get my dress or anything simular until the October. The problems i had also was i had paid for a Swarovski bouquet which was made matching the colours of the crystals on my dress. I travelled to evey bridal shop across South Wales i think, I then found a shop who had my dress in that day as a sample but it was a size 16 (i am a size 10) the lady was really sympathetic and said that if it could be alterered she would be prepared to sell me it. Off to Cardiff i went to a lady who specialised in beading work and asked if it would be possible to tke the dress into a size 10 she said that it could be done but it would cost £300 so i agreed and bought the dress and paid the £300 for the alterations.
In the meantime Johnsons were still being complete pigs, i had paid for the original dress £1400 and now had to pay another £1400 for another dress. With my big day coming up i was struggling to pay the last bits and bobs, I ended up going to a consumer programme on BBC 1 called XRAY. The BBC come and interviewed me and after viewing the damaged dress contacted Johnsons, as soon as the BBC rang them Johnsons were straight on the phone to me accepting liability and that they would cover the cost of the new dress as long as i didn't go ahead with the programme. As i was so desperate for the money i accepted, they sent the cheque for £1400 and as soon as it cleared in my account i contacted the BBC and asked them to continue and show my story which they did, they even asked Johnsons to comment.
I hope those of you that are having simular problems are able to sort it out, i really sympathise with all of you, you have enough stress to go through without having to worry about things like this running up to your big day. Try and keep your chin up and fight them all the way!!!
they sent the cheque for £1400 and as soon as it cleared in my account i contacted the BBC and asked them to continue and show my story
I like that bit. I don't think there is anything immoral about what you did.
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Dubious website businesses Conterfeit alcohol and cigarettes Illegal sales of alcohol, tobacco, knives & fireworks to children Cowboy builders or tradesmen Car clockers Counterfeiters Aggressive selling
Never phone or accept phonecalls from debt collection companies.
If you don't believe you can win, there is no point in getting out of bed.
_________________________ ________________ _________________________ ___________________
I was wondering if anyone in the north east has had problems with fitzrite alterations based in dunston Gateshead. It is run by Miss x and mr P . They ruined our bridesmaids dresses and various other things. dress alterations also made several major errors on the brides dress and most if the dresses fell apart during the day not to mention them nit matching the design. dressmaker was still stitching dresses 5 minutes before the wedding cars left and caused unimaginable stress and financial cost due to ruined photos and post photo shoots that had to be cancelled.
I too was let down terribly by xxxxxx the dress maker from Gateshead. I actually think she lives in Dunston which may come under Newcastle. I think her company sometimes goes under the name of Fitzrite or Fitz rite but they are based in Dunston Tyne & Wear NE11 9TP. Their telephone number is xxxxxxx and they ruined our wedding photos due to her incompetencey. Each dress she made was either too large or too small. All were the wrong length and the biggest annoyance for me was her attitude of never taking responsibility for getting things wrong like not turning up for appointments. I was always made to feel that it was my fault even though I knew it wasnt. By the time things started to appear seriously wrong it was too late to find anyone else though. xxxxxx the dressmaker said she could do all these wonderful things but then when it came down to it her husband would make up these excuses saying she was under stress etc etc and never apologising. We would drive to her house along with my bridesmaids for a fitiing for our dresses and she wouldnt be there, or the dresses wouldnt be ready. She would always blame us for getting it wrong though. Dresses were still being measured and made the day of the wedding but they werent made to anyhere near the standard that you would expect from a good dressmaker. This is clearly obvious on all of the wedding photos. Some bridesmaids dresses fell apart during the day. Some didnt even have the correct pattern or design on them. Even our photographer was amazed when he watched what was heppening on the morning of the wedding. I was taken in by xxxxx but sadly I was let down hugely. The biggest day of my life will be stained forever because of what she did, or didnt do. The sad thing is she even charged me full price, never apologising for her mistakes. She even overcharged me for some items. I am too weak to fight her though so I just paid up. I hope others dont have the same problems I do. good luck.
wedding dress disaster
dress over a year ago which cost me £1400 and with 8 weeks to my wedding i have been having some alterations done to it. Two weeks ago i noticed a small mark on it so i took it to Johnsons dry cleaners and paid £61 to have it cleaned, this £61 covered the dress for upto £600 if anything went wrong (it was £200 to be cleaned and insured upto £1000) i couldn't afford the £200 and thought what could go wrong so i paid the £61 (my stupidity once again). I picked the dress up on Friday and unpacked it all and there was eight tears all over the net, as you can imagine i was devestated. I phoned up Johnsons who said to take it straight back down, they basically have said that they will repair it as best they can, however if they cant i can claim off the insurance but only upto £600 and they keep the dress.
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which they did, they even asked Johnsons to comment.
