Wedding dress not as described - Upcoming hearing

[AM_8]

Seeking advice for my upcoming hearing -

 

I am from West Yorkshire, in December 2018 I tried on a sample wedding dress at House of Zargham store in East Shopping Centre, London (I have pictures of the beautiful sample dress I tried on). I ordered colour swatches (£50), I chose my colour and transferred £800 deposit (50% of total price) for the dress via mobile banking (regrets!). No changes were communicated to me apart from the colour.

 

The dress arrived April 27 (two months late) and was a poor replica of the original sample I tried on in the store. The dress was cheaply made, significantly less fabric, no trail and the material was poor quality and frayed (sadly I do not have pictures of the final dress they produced).

 

On the day of collection, the owner recommended their tailor, who destroyed the dress even more by adding scraps of material. I refused to pay an additional £800 and asked for a refund. The trader refused to provide a refund and kept the dress.

 

The next day I discovered hundreds of google reviews online where customers have had similar experiences, some customers never received their dress at all and others ended up in violence/verbal abusive arguments. April 30 I wrote a letter of complaint to House of Zargham asking for a refund and they did not respond (I also recommended they show the dress as evidence if the matter was to go to court).

 

In May I had to order an emergency wedding dress costing me £2300 (I have receipts). I requested mediation however SCMreferrals claim they could not contact both sides even though I confirmed my appointment. Now the matter has been transferred to small claims courts in London. My hearing is on 26th November I must supply documentation 14 days prior.

 

Any advice on what to supply the hearing and claiming costs will be much appreciated. Let me know if you would like to see pictures.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

Can you tell us who issued proceedings please, was it you or the shop?

 

Best, HB

[AM_8]

Myself (I am the claimant). 

[honeybee13]

Thank you for that. I'll let the legal people on the site team know that you're looking for help.

 

Can you type up your Particulars of Claim minus any personal information please? That will help us to advise you.

 

HB

[BankFodder]

Please will you post up a PDF scan of your claim form. This needs to be done urgently because as you are aware, you don't have a lot of time. The defendants muster father defence. Please can you post up a PDF scan of the defence as well. You would have been served on allocation questionnaire which you completed. Please will you post up a scan of that as well.

You are the claimant but you are an individual and they are a business so the case should properly have been listed for a hearing in your area in Yorkshire. So immediately something has gone wrong and I suppose that maybe you have completed your allocation questionnaire correctly and asked for the matter to be heard at your local court.

I don't think we can give any further advice until we see these documents. Don't hang around

[Andyorch]

Quote

My hearing is on 26th November I must supply documentation 14 days prior.

 

And also a witness statement from yourself...can you upload the defendants defence also...redacted.

Has the court  given you a date to pay the hearing fee?

 

Andy

[AM_8]

Thanks I understand now why there’s been confusion. The first defendant is the company house of Zargham the second is the owner (name I won’t mention). This must be why the hearing is in London. I have sent an email to the courts explaining I am a private individual taking the company house of Zargham to court. I’ve asked them to remove the second defendant.

 

i can upload documents shortly.

 

i have paid for the hearing (the deadline was 25 October) 

[AM_8]

File sizes are big so I have deleted some pages.

Small_claims_questionnair.pdf_redacted.pdf

[AM_8]

Defendents claim.pdf page 1 redacted.pdf

[AM_8]

This is the first defence I received (again I had to crop just the defence in order to fit the size limit). The defendant has lied a number of times throughout their claim so will not be able to prove some of the claims. I have not yet received their documents that will go to the hearing 25 Nov.

defendents claim part 1 2 3 pdf.pdf

[AM_8]

This was my initial letter to the courts

 

HouseOfZarghamCourtLtr2_Redacted2.pdf

Edited November 1, 2019 by AM_8

[honeybee13]

3 minutes ago, AM_8 said:

This was my initial letter to the courts

HouseOfZarghamCourtLtr2_Redacted.pdf 90.05 kB · 0 downloads

 

Hi.

 

You seem to have left your name on the pdf. I recommend you remove to keep this anonymous.

 

HB

[AM_8]

This is the document I am currently putting together to send to the courts and the dress company (deadline Nov 12th, 14 days prior to hearing).

 

Claimaint documents to court (1)_Redacted2.pdf

Edited November 1, 2019 by AM_8