One of the main reasons I started Once Worn With Love was bought home forcefully to me the other day.
A downside to the many online sites selling second hand or nearly new wedding dresses is a bride’s inability to actually see the dress and try it on. And we all know that there are some unscrupulous types out there, and wouldn’t want to come across one during one of the most important purchases of our lives (no, not a pair of Jimmy Choo’s, although that might come a close second, but a bridal gown of course!!)
Since I set up Once Worn With Love, I’ve bought some second hand wedding dresses from online sites, and until recently it had all gone well. I was really pleased with the used wedding dresses I’d bought, and in some cases had underestimated just how beautiful they were until they arrived (the white lace Maggie Sottero wedding dress being a prime example).
The stunning white lace Maggie Sottero gown - proof unseen can be fab, if you're prepared to take the risk!
But eventually it happened. I’d had a lot of requests for red pre worn wedding dresses, so decided to see what I could find. I came across one on Ebay, listed as a second hand Pronuptia two-piece bridal gown with a red bodice. The pictures were taken from a distance but looked OK, and there was a fairly detailed description. So I paid (via Paypal of course) and waited for it to arrive.
I get very excited about every dress I buy, so imagine how disappointed I was to find that what I had actually bought was indeed a Pronuptia skirt, but not a Pronuptia top. Instead it was a badly made, cheap cotton basque with metal hook and eyes showing up the front. I contacted the seller straight away to see what she would do, with no joy. Her response was that someone else had done the same to her (and, as she hadn’t negotiated as well as me, she’d paid more for it) so she was prepared to do the same to someone else – very nice, thanks!
Luckily, as I’d used Paypal, I could raise a complaint, which they investigated, found in my favour and refunded the money. But it all took time, was very stressful and has made me much more wary of online purchases.
At least the worst that can happen to me if I buy a dress unseen is that I might lose some money, or get stuck with a dress I can’t or won’t sell. But I’d hate a bride-to-be to have to go through all that, when buying a wedding dress should be one of the best things she ever does. Of course, my experience is still very rare, and many girls do buy second hand wedding dresses this way without any problems.
But the rip-off merchants are out there, and this experience reminded me of one of the main reasons for what I do – to offer a service that means girls get a beautiful bargain wedding dress without any worry.
