Please be aware
POOR QUALITY GOWNS & SCAMMING
More and more customers are being let down or scammed by non UK websites, where you have NO LEGAL RIGHT TO A REFUND, and may RISK CREDIT CARD FRAUD.
Buying evening gowns and prom dresses on the internet may seem attractive, but many are non-authorised stockists, so you may receive a counterfeit gown, of inferior quality, that fits poorly, and that looks nothing like the original.
Some people have even suffered severe allergic reactions to the fabrics and dyes used, and if you take the dress to an alterations service, many won't take the job, or will charge you extra because of the poor workmanship and materials used.
Many sites use the original manufacturers' photographs and offer dresses at “discount prices”, but the gowns often arrive damaged or faulty, and lots of customers receive their dress late, or not at all!
If a website is selling a dress at substantially lower prices, it is likely you will receive an ill-fitting, poor quality copy, in cheap fabrics made by unskilled labour.
As reported on BBC TV, many WEBSITE DOMAIN NAMES ENDING IN co.uk are NOT UK SITES, so you will not be covered by UK distance selling laws. On a recent Google search we did, to check online sellers, we found MORE Chinese websites on page one than UK based sites, and yet ALL of them had co.uk domain names!
Some websites state they are UK based when they are not, and have "customer help lines" with a UK phone number which is diverted abroad. Lots advertise dresses at "SALE" prices, but they are not sale dresses, just cheap copies. A few even have a bogus UK returns address, so you could end up with no dress and no chance of a refund, plus they will have your card details!
So, if they list a UK address you need to check its genuine, and if there's no address, chances are they are based abroad and you will have no right to a refund (even though they claim you do) and it may cost so much to return your dress it would be cheaper to put it in the bin!
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AMERICAN WEBSITE PRICES
Be sure to check the FULL, DELIVERED PRICE if ordering from America, as you will have pay your bank or card issuer a foreign currency transaction charge, you may have to pay for delivery, and the carrier is obliged by HMRC to charge you 12% import duty and 20% VAT plus their admin fee.
Add all this to the quoted prices, and will pay CONSIDERABLY MORE than the price on their website!
Then, if its not the right size you will have the cost of returning it AND the extra carriage for sending a replacement dress, so it may well cost more than if you buy the same dress from a UK shop.
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BE SURE YOU'RE GETTING YOUR PERFECT DRESS
Most internet sites use retouched pictures, so if the surgery and/or digitally enhanced model looks good in a dress it doesn't necessarily mean you will!
Visiting a shop and trying on lots of dresses can be great fun and is the ONLY way to be sure of getting the PERFECT evening, wedding, prom dress, because its the only way you can find out which dress you look and FEEL good in.
At Ball Gown Heaven we offer advice and assistance, but DO NOT use high pressure sales tecniques, and when comparing like for like gowns, our prices are consistently lower than almost every other UK stockist and website and around the same price as US sites if you include their extra charges.
We make your experience fun, relaxed and enjoyable, and help find the perfect dress for YOU.