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View Full Version : BEWARE Online Gown Scams! Knock-off dresses!



Mariaalf
03-04-2003, 10:13 PM
My online gown purchase went very wrong!
I found the perfect Moonlight gown on a site called SaintAnn Dresses.com. But when the dress arrived it was very different than pictured! No sequins, uneven seams, very light, layered lace, and a slit up the front... all different than the picture. Inside the dress was a little lable that read "Moonlight"; no country of origin, registered #, or fiber content. (Hummm...)
Because it was different than advertised, I sent it back, despite their NO RETURN policy. Shirley accepted it back but refused to pay return shipping or return my money. She insisted that she'll get the right dress, and that she ordered it "special-cut order" from Moonlight.
Suspicious at this point, I contacted Moonlight themselves and asked it that were the case. They told me that Saint Ann Dresses/Audrey Bridals did not have an account with them or had authorization to buy or sell their dresses. They were very interested in the situation and said they would be sending her an "sease order".
I told Shirley of Audrey Bridals/Saint Ann Dresses, that I no longer had confidence and wanted my money back.
Here's the bad part! Shirley then accused me of wearing the dress and then sending it back!!!!
Pretty low-down!!!! I'm out $824.00 at Wedding time!!!!
PLEASE BEWARE OF INTERNET SCAMS AND FAKE DESIGNER DRESSES!
BEWARE OF SAINT ANN DRESSES IN UNION CITY, PA!!!!

Karenbain
03-07-2003, 04:51 PM
A number of friends have had similiar experiences with Ebay merchants. I think you can complain to Ebay and make their life miserable. In my opinion you need to go to a recognized web vendor as those in the Bridal Bargains book <a plug> and work with those. It is unfortunate that you were taken advantage of but there are some really nice vendors out there.

Community Chest
03-09-2003, 10:42 PM
If you paid for that with a credit card, call the issuing bank and let them know what happened. You will get your money back, due to consumer law.

Thanx to Denise and Alan, I read about this tip in their book. Thank the heavens for you guys...:) You were my "other brain" when I was wedding planning.

Shirley lied to you -- she did that as "her way out" of NOT RETURNING YOUR MONEY because she knew full well, probably, it was NOT a Moonlight gown.

SuzyQuezy
07-09-2004, 02:32 PM
Just a note about verifying if a store is authorized or not... I was visiting www.weddingexpressions.com and due to reading Bridal Bargains, I'm constantly on the lookout for any and all wedding-related scams. At this site you can click on "special order gowns" and get an instant quote on a large number of dresses, including Moonlight Bridals. However, I found it somewhat shady that their style numbers were different from the style numbers listed on Moonlight's website.

So I emailed Wedding Expressions and asked them about this and they responded saying that they were an authorized dealer and that the Moonlight company had "internet codes" listed on their website and that WE's codes were the "actual style number" and if I needed a quote just to email them the internet code. Needless to say, I was not convinced. So I forwarded that email from W.E. (along with my original email) to the email address on Moonlight Bridal's website. They responded saying that they'd never heard of www.weddingexpressions.com and that they recommend all their brides purchase from brick-and-mortar (don't they all), and that they were definitely NOT an authorized dealer.

Sooooooooooo.... I forwarded those emails back to Wedding Expressions and the Director of the company himself wrote back saying that yes, they are indeed an authorized dealer of Moonlight dresses and that they have a brick and mortar store in Burlington, Iowa. Also that I could look up on Moonlight's website for the state of Iowa and see that they were in fact listed as being authorized (which I did, and they are). A very nice email from a head honcho of whom I was nearly accusing his company of lying! I was very much impressed with the rapid and polite responses I got from Wedding Expressions.

Of course, in order to do my part, I forwarded that email (the forward button is rather handy in this day and age) to Moonlight and politely advised them to beware claiming stores are not authorized when they in fact are (to which I of course got no response). Then again, if Wedding Expressions would just list the "internet" codes as opposed to the "actual" codes (or both?), this whole mess could have been avoided in the first place! :) (and yes, I did suggest that to them... boy, I've got some nerve, eh?)

NoleGirl
07-09-2004, 02:57 PM
Way to be thurough in your research and follow-ups :-) Glad you got down to the bottom of it.

Just to comment on the style # / internet # thing. The dress manufacturer (Jasmine) that I ordered my dress from publishes 2 different style #s in the catalog & online. The woman in the bridal shop where I tried it on gave me the catalog page to take home. When I went to look it up on the Jasmine website, they had different style #s listed for the dresses. (They were reversed with a different alphabet preceeding the #s.) So both website and catalog were published by the manufacturer, but the numbers were different. Suppossedly, it is to deter unauthorized sales or something. When I spoke w/ my DBS rep she said that the "true" style # used to order the dress is published in the catalog, not online. Which would probably explain why many bridal shops will not distribute catalogs.

Good luck getting your dress!