Complaint Review: One Night Affair

My daughter had an appointment with ONA on August, 8, 2015 to try on wedding dresses.  We met with Liana who was extremely helpful.  My daughter told her which designer she liked and the style dress she was interested in renting and Liana showed her several beautiful gowns.  My daughter fell in love with a gown. The dress was stunning and fit my daughter perfectly. ONA requires a 50% deposit and a damage waiver fee up front to hold the dress for your event which was a total of $1,512.50.  My daughters wedding was scheduled for March 27, 2016.  I rented a beaded gown for myself for the wedding as well and paid the full amount of $200.00.  I was a bit sceptical on renting dresses so far in advance in fear of the dresses getting damaged before our actual event.  They assured me that they have been in business 29 years and will either have the dresses repaired or replaced before the event if any damage occurs.  They stated the dresses are not rented 30 days prior to your event to give them time to do any repairs or alterations needed prior to your event. I, therefore, signed their receipt which states payment is not refundable or transferable which I didn't think would be a problem with the promises they made.

Fast forward 5 months...After spending the prior 5 months telling her friends, family, fiancee' etc. what a fabulous dress she had found, my daughter booked an appointment with ONA for a fitting (several weeks in advance) as her future mother-in-law would be in town from Scotland for the holidays.  We arrived at her appointment to find the store full of customers.  The front door states "by appointment only".   The front sitting area had a teen on the couch doing homework with her books accross the couch and they had a small dog running through the store as well.  We stood around for about ten minutes before we were acknowledged by the poor over worked girl trying to manage the store.  We informed her that we had an appointment with Mecca, but were told she was in Las Vegas with her friends for the weekend.  We were later told by the owner Mecca that she was there for a medical emergency.  After being in the store for about 30 minutes and two attempts later, the girl was able to find my daughters dress.  On our first appointment we were given individualized attention and the use of the bridal dressing room since the gowns do take up quite a bit of room.  We were told to use one of the two small curtained off areas at the front of the store and one was crammed full with a customer and 6+ family members.  My daughter got the dress on and was shocked to see the state the dress was in.  The front of the dress was beaded, but to our horror the glue used to hold the beads to the dress turned a bright yellow.  The dress was also stretched beyond repair as the lace was sagging around the mid section.  The dress was several sizes larger than when she originally tried it on which they said would be fixed in alterations.  My daughter and I are clothing designers ourslves and have worked with lace and beading.  We knew that the damage done to the dress could not be fixed in alterations.  We found the dress I had rented for myself out on the floor in the showroom and found that my dress was in worse shape that hers.  The netting on the front of the dress had many large holes, the shoulder seams were ripped and the beading on the dress had fallen off throughout the entire dress.  We brought this to the girls attention and she said the dress should have never been on the floor in that condition and took it to the back room.  All the while this small dog I mentioned before was roaming the store and was even found lying on the train of the dress my daughter had rented.  We left the store heart broken as my daughter was left with only three months before her wedding and the uncertainty of what to do with the dress.

The store owner, Mecca, was contacted via email on January 13, 2016, the Wednesday following her appointment. She explained her concerns and asked that they cancel her contract.  We received a reply on January 14 stating the wedding dress was not damaged and since we are not a seamstress we do not know their business(we are clothing designers).  She also stated the dress I rented was in that condition when I rented it...seriously! She said if I wanted to talk to management to call the showroom.  I called on Friday the 15th and spoke with Mecca personally.  We had a nice conversation and she did admit they have a problem with that particular designer as the glue they use to adhere the beads yellows and they've received several complaints.  She said it yellows after dry cleaning which leads me to believe that when brides to be go in for their intial consultation they are shown newer gowns and treated like royalty.  Once the receipt is signed is when the attitude and customer service changes. She did seem a bit sympathetic at first and said her partner was out of town and due in by Monday, but would speak to him about working something out.  She did say they would refund my dress as it was irreparable.  I have not received this refund. She never called me back and my emails of January 25 and March 11 went unanswered as well. My husband went in to the store the week of March 24 to request a refund personally and was told the dress was out being dry cleaned for my daughter.  They knew we wanted to cancel the rental and never called my daughter to set up a fitting for the dress, therefore, I do not understand why it was it was being dry cleaned for her.  I called the following week to see if I could come in to see the dress since I wasn't even sure if they still had it in their possesion.  Mecca left a telephone message for me saying she was confused as she thought I didn't want the dress.  When I called back I got her answering machine and she never returned my call. 

A letter was sent to ONA on April 1 stating if this is not resolved we would have no alternative than to take them to small claims court.  She left me a telephone message stating the dress is in perfect condition and is out on rental and she will send me pictures to prove it.  This doesn't make sense since she said dresses are not rented 30 days prior to an event so that repairs and alterations can be made and my cancellation would be a loss to them. My daughters wedding date was March 27 which means they were paid for 2 rentals within the same 30 day time frame. 

Bottom line is we rented a beautiful gown which was not cared for properly and was damaged and therefore, not suitable for a wedding.