Now she wants a refund of half of her costs but the store says no. They're offering $75 as compensation, which is not half of the $230.50 she paid for the wrong dress.

On that day of departure, she looked for the tag, found it and noticed something odd. It didn't say Bill Levkoff. It said Eden Bridal. Tia thought that perhaps Eden Bridal was part of the Bill Levkoff line. Maybe Eden Bridal did the larger dresses. So she went to the computer and looked up Eden Bridal. It did not seem to be connected to Bill Levkoff.

Had there been a mistake? Had she gotten the wrong dress?

She rushed to Ultimate Bride. If there had been some kind of a mistake and the seamstress had been given the wrong gown, would there be time to do the alterations on the right gown? She explained to the seamstress that they had been working with the wrong dress. The seamstress went to talk to the store manager. She came back and said, no, this is the dress we ordered for you. The manager didn't think the other one would work for somebody of her size.

Tia started to cry. She took the dress and left.

She told the story to her mom in Iowa. It was humiliating. By the way, she now hated the gown. The sash was long and embroidered. Way too frilly. It wasn't shiny enough. She called the store from Iowa. She spoke to the manager. I want my money back, she said. The store manager said she couldn't do anything because Tia had taken the dress.

When Tia came back to St. Louis, she called the owner of the store, Ann Rafferty. She offered Tia a $25 refund, but overall, the discussion did not go well. Tia then spoke with general manager Richard Craig. That conversation was better, but resulted in the same $25 offer. Tia asked for half her cost back. In all, including shipping and alterations, she had paid $230.50. Craig continued to offer $25.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is asking readers to decide what should happen. What do you think?

OK, jury, you decide the Case of the Wrong Dress [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
(Photo: Getty)

Emily says:

On Wednesday, I got bullied into buying a dress that I liked but couldn't really afford. I should have stayed firm, but I caved, and now I find myself in this situation. Even though David's employees claim that you can walk away with any dress in the store, they told me I had to special order the dress I wanted and it would take up to 6 weeks to come in.

It's been 72 hours of thinking on it, and I absolutely have to cancel the order. Since I haven't actually received the dress, I called to see if they would cancel the order and refund the money. The employee said that all sales are final, but that doesn't seem right since I haven't yet received any merchandise. At this point, they have my money AND they have my dress order, but refuse to help a girl out. According to her, once it is in the computer, there is nothing anyone can do. Like she can't pick up a telephone and call the distributor (or, tell the truth that they probably haven't begun processing the order yet at all).

They try to justify it by saying that I have "special ordered" something, so they wouldn't be able to sell it to anyone else. I ordered the dress, but there's nothing "special" about it. I tried the same dress/same (average) size/same color on in-store, and they would certainly be able to sell it someone else (provided they didn't force that customer to special order it as well).

The best they could offer me was an in-store exchange for the SAME amount. They do not issue store credit. They refuse to refund money. In order for me to get a cheaper dress, I would have to wrangle all my bridesmaids to try on dresses on the same day, and order them all on the same day as part of the same transaction to equal the original total. (Thus forcing the girls to get their dresses at this hateful place also.)

I'm considering contacting Visa to do a chargeback, but if the David's policy is "All Sales are Final" - will they be able to do anything?
...

I am planning to meet in person with a manager tomorrow, but for now I have only heard bad things.

There is a fundamental irrational policy problem at this store that is not adequately explained when you purchase from them. Have you heard any positive news of people getting money back from this outrageous company?
Any suggestions?

Emily, when we first read your story, we wondered if the Mail and Telephone order rule that states that orders can be canceled before they are shipped would apply to you, but it doesn't look like it does. (Any lawyers out there want to explain this law?)

We looked at Visa's merchant agreement found a section on merchant agreement violation disputes that says Visa will help mediate conflict over the following issue:

"The merchant has failed to properly disclose their return policy to the cardholder at the time of the transaction."

Since the store did not explain that you couldn't cancel before the order shipped, you could argue that the store did not properly disclose this policy to you.

This type of dispute isn't a chargeback, you'd be disputing that David's Bridal violated their Visa merchant agreement by misleading you about the return policy. If you'd like to read about how Visa deals with these disputes, click here (PDF). (Read the section "When Chargeback Rights Do Not Apply")

Anyone have any luck canceling an order at David's Bridal?

(Photo: foundphotoslj )

UPDATE: Emily was contacted by David's Bridal about this story and they worked out compromise:

I spoke to the person at David's, and she put me in touch with a CSR who after a little phone tag confirmed that they can do a partial refund if no merchandise has been received.

I already have an appointment to go back tonight - and they will theoretically now be able to refund the difference in what I purchase tonight from the original.

When asked by Curry's defense attorney how he recognized Curry from 11 months ago, Smith said it was her glasses and her voice.

Curry later testified that she doesn't wear glasses and produced a driver's license as evidence.

Upset because she felt targeted, Curry said she began to raise her voice as Smith raised his.

Curry said when the other employee placed the drink on the counter, she grasped it, then let go when Smith grabbed it and tried to pull it toward him. He spilled the drink on himself, she said, when she let go of the cup.

"I was very much upset," she said. "He accused me of going to a store in Jantzen Beach and in his words running a scam. I was offended. . . . I don't need to steal for or scam for a $4.20 drink."

Smith called 911 after the incident, claiming that "a customer [just] assaulted me with a hot drink." We'd like to think that Curry would be entitled to a freebie if her iced tea was served scalding hot.

Starbucks' corporate office essentially sided with Curry, saying: "Providing great customer service is part of (the company's) commitment and if a drink isn't perfect, we want customers to let us know and we'll make it right."

Dispute over spilled Starbucks mocha ends up in Portland court [The Oregonian]
(Photo: ka3vo)

My daughter and I ordered a book as a Mother's Day gift, and I was disappointed to learn it would ship late and miss the big day. I had waited until the last day of the promotion (April 30th at about 9:00 PM EST), so I didn't want to complain. Then this landed in my inbox.

Dear Daniel,
 
Thank you for your recent Apple photo order.
 
I understand that you submitted your order to us in time to be received by May 11th.  You may have noticed that the tracking information for your order indicates the estimated delivery date is after May 11th.
 
To ensure that your order is received by May 11th, your order is being reprocessed free of charge and will be sent via expedited shipping. When it ships, you will receive a separate email with the tracking number for your duplicate order. Please accept both orders as a goodwill gesture.
 
I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. I hope you continue to enjoy using Apple Photo Services for your creative projects. If you have any questions or concerns, please reply to this email and we will assist you further.
 
Thank you for being a loyal Apple customer and have a wonderful day.
 
Sincerely,
 
Sofia
Apple Photo Services Support

Apple saved Mother's Day! Landed at 10:00 AM on Friday - plenty of time to wrap it up. Very impressed that this was an unsolicited effort to make an annoying situation perfect.

Here's Cole's email. We're going to pull out the actual URLs so we don't encourage more snooping, but we tried Cole's method and were able to pull up customer infor screens on our own:

My friend pre-ordered GTA4 from BestBuy.com and since he doesn't have a printer he forwarded me the confirmation email of his purchase so I could print it out. The confirmation email contained a link to print out the page if you were having trouble viewing the email from within your email client. I was (since the message was forwarded to me the styles and images were all messed up), so I clicked the link which took me to [redacted]. I was curious how random the &e parameter was so I decided to play around with it and discovered it isn't really random at all and by incrementing a certain part of it I was able to find home addresses of other users of BestBuy.com who had packages shipped to them.
 
This seems like a pretty serious privacy issue as I am now able to find full names and addresses of people that have bought something from BestBuy.com and had it shipped to them.
 
Cole

Bobby's brother canceled an order the day after placing it, and everyone he's spoken with at Circuit City seems to agree that they owe him a prompt refund on his cash. But that all happened on March 7th and 8th, so why is Circuit City still saying the check is in the mail? Are they waiting to get their stimulus check first?

My brother and father have been having many difficulties with getting a refund from our local Spring Hill Circuit City.
 
On March 7th, 2008 my brother went up to your store to purchase a Sony Camcorder. A sales associate helped him locate a model that he liked. The sales associate went into the back after writing down the model number and whatnot. He came back and said that they were out of stock but could order it today and have it overnighted to my parents house the next day. My brother agreed and placed the order.
 
Later that night, my brother got curious and went on the Circuit City website to investigate the specs on the camcorder he just ordered. To his surprise, what he ordered was not a camcorder but a regular digital camera. He woke up early and canceled the order. The person on the phone said that it would take a week for the refund to come in the mail and refunded $25.00 to his debit card.
 
A week went by and no check. My brother proceeded to call Circuit city and few times and it was the same store. About 2 weeks after the original order, my brother went up the the local Spring Hill store. He talked to a sales associate and was assured the problems would be fixed. About a week after this, which brings us into April. My brother ran into the original sale associate that had placed the mistaken order. She tried to fix what was going on what was unable to so she called over the store manager, Casey Warner.
 
She was very nice and would look into it. She even offered to take it out of a draw and give the refund right there but needed to talk to corporate first. About a week later, she called my father and said the check would be in the mail soon. That was three weeks ago. My father and brother have talked to Casey a few times since and steadily she have gotten an attitude and has become hostile to us.
 
Circuit City owes my brother $338.00
Bobby

The only information Minoru has to go on to reconstruct the last, sad hours of his new laptop's life are the status tracking updates:

• Apr 22, 2008 3:36 AM On FedEx vehicle for delivery
• Apr 22, 2008 5:24 PM At local FedEx facility
• Apr 23, 2008 1:10 PM Shipment exception / Unable to deliver

Wow. So now I'm really disturbed. I called FedEx, and the rep tells me that the package is damaged, and they will not deliver it. I demanded more information, and she switched me to her manager. Ceci Watts at Cincinnati call center was absolutely 0% helpful. You could tell she handled this type of calls frequently. All she could repeat was the same stupid line no matter what I said or asked. This isn't word for word, but it's pretty much how it went:
 
Me: So was the package on the truck at 3:36 AM or not?
Ceci: It was a miscellaneous scan.
Me: What does that mean?
Ceci: It was a miscellaneous scan.
Me: So what does it mean? "On FedEx vehicle for delivery" sounds like it at least made it to the truck for delivery. I would like to know if the package made it to the truck, and when and where the package was damaged.
Ceci: That's irrelevant.
Me: It's relevant because I need to know why I don't have my package.
Ceci: It's irrelevant.
Me: So was it a lie? Are you saying the status was a lie? It never made it to the truck?
Ceci: It was a miscellaneous scan. It doesn't matter.
Me: This is ridiculous.
 
Ceci insisted that there's nothing they can do for me, even though they destroyed my package. My laptop was fine until it entered that mysterious 14-hour window on April 22. It was in FedEx's hands, and it somehow got damaged, and who knows where it is now. The only option for me, Ceci said, was to contact Apple. So even though it's almost impossible for anybody else to be responsible for the matter, they're refusing to correct the situation or be helpful about it in any way. Now I have to take my own time to contact Apple, Apple would have to investigate it, then send me another computer.

Alvin writes:

I wanted to praise an online company that I happened to order custom printed apparel from. Spreadshirt Inc.or spreadshirt.com is one of many online services that customize shirts for a low price. I have used many of these sites because I graphic design on the side and enjoy putting some of my work on the clothes I wear. I want to let you know of the numerous sites I have used Spreadshirt has shown the greatest consideration of their customers. I made a mistake of getting one of my designs in a "silver" flex print which really ended up being a glittery reflective print. It made my fraternity letters look, lets say less manly. It was at my bad judgment but they were more than willing to redo it for me at no charge. I called them and left a message the night before and I am happy they were willing to call me back the next day. Hopefully, someone would recognize this great company too.

This one really left me scratching my head. Not only did [Sears] send me the wrong item, they charged the wrong prices on everything I ordered. I ordered an air blow gun and got a jigsaw instead. I submitted this order during the 20% off/free shipping promotion. The total in my cart at checkout was $26 less than my card was charged, and I was charged for shipping as well.

Half an hour of arguing on the phone with a Sears rep and I was able to get the discount credited back to my card, but no free shipping, and it could take 10-14 days for them to "trace" my $20 blow gun. I am filing a claim with my credit card issuer just to be safe. This is the same company that sends me a free ratchet in the mail every time I exchange one in the store, so I can't complain too much.

I ordered a new 50 inch plasma tv on Sunday march 2nd from Newegg.com. We decided to get a PS3 to go with it so we could watch Blu-Ray movies. The PS3 was listed as SONY PlayStation 3 w/Spider Man 3 40 GB Black - Retail [link] [Ed. note: the current product listing does not mention Spiderman 3, but it may have been updated since this customer's order was placed.*]

I recieved the PS3 and TV on Wed March 5th. When I went through the package I noticed there was no Spiderman 3 Blu-Ray disk. I called NewEgg to see what they would do for me.

The lady their said it should have been in the box, and stressed that they do not OPEN that packages. I stated that in addition to their being no movie in the box, the box I recieved was also different than the one advertised on thir site. The box on the website shows a Spiderman 3 Blu-Ray disk on the box, and the one I recieved does not.

I have attached pictures of the 2 boxes.

What he ordered.

What he got.

She said that it is not her problem if Sony does not include the movie anymore. I responded that I did not order a PS3 from Sony I ordered one from NEWEGG.COM and that NEWEGG says i'm getting Spiderman 3. Also, as the box I recieved is different from the box pictured, they should have known that the movie was not included, and not advertised it as such.

She ended with, "Not our problem, call SONY" I ended with "I will call Sony, but it is not thier job to resolve this, and if they do not, I will be calling back and you WILL be making this right!" (At this point I have not yet booted the PS3 and was not 100% certain that the movie was not on the pack-in disk of trailers and such)

I called Sony, and after a 10 minute hold I got a nice guy who listened to the compliant and said "No Problem, I can resolve this for you" So I had to fax Sony my reciept, name, address..... and an Authorization # he gave me, and they said they would mail the movie within 2 days of recieving the info.

I do not believe Newegg.com will be changing their listing to reflect that Spiderman 3 is no longer included (in their inventory anyways), they will just wait for people to call, then say screw you. [Ed. note: well, actually it looks like they already have—see link above.*]

I called Newegg back to let them know that even though they screwed me over, Sony has stepped in to make it right, and that they are false advertising their PS3 w/ Spiderman 3 and that I was letting the Consumerist.com know about it. Her response was to tell me that they could only talk to the account holder (My wife) and goodbye. Funny they didn't mention having to talk to her last time I called, and before there were complain notes in my case.

*Note: Since I began writing this post around 7pm EST, the link referenced above has stopped working. Before 7pm it led to a product page for an ordinary 40 gb PS3 with no mention of Spiderman 3. It now returns the following message: "We apologize for the inconvenience, but the item you are looking for has been deactivated."

(Thanks to Terry!)

I'm sure you've been flooded with Valentine's Day flower delivery disasters, but here's a disaster that happened without me even placing an order:

On the 13th (day before Valentine's Day), I went to Proflowers.com to send some flowers to my stepmom. I intended on getting the cheapest arrangement because I don't have a lot of disposable income, and it turned out to be tulips for $29.99. So I proceed in processing the order, and get to the confirmation page, which displays my total as over $64 (9.99 for rush delivery, 9.99 for the vase, blah blah blah), so I close out of the window (there is no "Cancel Order" button) and go about my business. A little while later I get an email from ProFlowers saying they noticed I didn't complete my order, and they'll give me a free vase and 10% off to complete it. So I log back in, go through the whole process again, and get to the confirmation page, and the total is about $54.

Still not what I was hoping, but if I wanted to pay less, I shouldn't have waited. So I hit confirm, and it tells me they're out of the arrangement I wanted to get, and I should choose another, more expensive arrangement. I feel overwhelmed and a little scammed, so I close the window again, and order them from somewhere else.

I get yet another email promising the same free vase and 10% discount, which I ignore.

Yesterday, I log into my bank to find two pending charges on my debit card for the totals for the orders I DID NOT CONFIRM on the ProFlowers website. I immediate call customer service ($100 is a lot of money to me, and to not have it is very hard). The woman in customer service sounds genuinely concerned, takes all my information, apologizes profusely, and assures me I'll get a call soon from someone who can fix this.

I wait all day, no phone call. I miss a call at work (today, 4:16 p.m.), from ProFlowers, telling me to call a number for someone who can take care of the charges on my account. I call them back, and a woman again apologizes profusely, and starts to take all of my information and tells I'll get a call soon from someone who can fix this.

I said, but I've already submitted this claim and gone through this process. They HAVE called me, and told me to call this number and someone would help me, and now I'm just having to start all over? Meanwhile, there's over $100 seized in my checking account that I absolutely did not authorize?

She was, again, profusely apologetic, and asked me to hold while she researched another method of recourse, and continued to apologize when she said this is the only thing she can do. I asked her what was going to happen when I keep going through this process and the charges naturally drop off my account, and she said, "Honestly, that's probably what's going to happen."

So, not only has ProFlowers captured and processed my credit card number without my consent, they're giving me the runaround until the problem resolves itself.

Somehow, not okay in my book.

No longer a ProFlowers customer,

Anne

FYI - after six phone calls and seven days, the charges for over $100 are still pending on my account for orders I didn't place. Even one of their account specialists told me they "need to modify their card verifying process so it just takes a $1 or something."

Because the banks were closed yesterday, they told me to call back this morning (a week after the charges were made) and they would take care of it, except the phone number is going straight to voicemail. I'm now overdrawn in my account as scheduled payments have come in.

It's now been almost two months since the purchase, and things still haven't been sorted out.

A credit of $58.10 was applied to my account on January 25, 2008, however there is no sign of the other $41.90. Along the way, apparently to apologize for the errors, an Apple gift card with a supposed balance of $100 was sent to my home. However, a representative checked the balance and found that it was not even correct! Only $47 was on the card.

(Thanks to Dawn!)

Walmart now lists the game for $49.82. After the jump, Walmart's email of lies, and the best way to speak out against their thuggery.

Here is Walmart's email. Reads like they are doing us a favor.

===========================================

Dear Avid Gamer Who Probably Does Not Like Getting Screwed,

We have received your request to cancel the item(s) listed below from your order (#xxxxxxxxxxxxx).

We will attempt to cancel this order, however, we may already have processed your order for shipping. If you need to contact us about this order, please call us at 1-800-966-6456 between 6 a.m. and 1 a.m (CT), seven days a week.

=================ITEM(S) REQUESTED TO BE CANCELED —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-— —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—- Order Date: 11 JAN 2008 04:54 Order Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxx

ITEM QTY PRICE TOTAL—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii 1 19.82 19.82

===========================================Returns If we are unable to cancel your order because it already has been processed, then you can return any unwanted items to us after you receive them. You will have the option of returning the item(s) to us via mail or directly to a Wal-Mart store, whichever is more convenient for you. Instructions on how to return items will arrive with your order.

Help If you have any questions, please visit our Help section:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=5436

Sincerely,

Customer Service at Walmart.com http://www.walmart.com

===========================================

After she rang up the amount, I then presented her the coupon (which I didn't reveal beforehand). She laughed, comped the entire drink, and I left.

At first taste, it tasted just like a shot. The 13 shots in it were just too strong. However, when I got home, I mixed it more with a spoon and it became drinkable (even enjoyable to my girlfriend). It was very sweet and I'm still shaking a bit. I didn't attempt to drink the entire thing since I'd like to sleep tonight....

UPDATE: We put it in the freezer and it's delicious frozen!

The Most Expensive Drink at Starbucks [An Error Occurred While Processing This Directive]

Matt writes:

My wife is due to deliver our first child in about two weeks. We decided to buy a bassinet to keep by our bed for the little guy, leaving his crib in his new room. We had store credit from Babies 'R' Us, so we ordered one from their website and applied the credit to make it more affordable (side note: all the bassinets in store are over $100, online is the only way to get one cheap from BRU). What we got is decidedly not a bassinet, as seen in the pictures attached. The packing slip-never removed from the box-claims this is a bassinet, instead of a badly damaged/shipped car seat.

BRU's response: print out a return shipping label, drop off box that may not be accepted by UPS (BRU said we may need to get another box...) and wait 4-5 days for item to arrive back in their warehouse, then wait 7-10 business days for credit. All of this leaves us without a bassinet, with BRU holding our money, both from credit card and store credit until well after our son is to be born. Reversing the charged on our credit card leaves us without the substantial amount of store credit.

Their solution to having a bassinet soon enough: order again and wait for the credit(s), but not too soon, for they say the problem may not be fixed yet, so we'd maybe get another pink and plaid, beat up car seat instead of a bassinet for our new baby.