Debbie Pitt called her mother in tears when she opened the package carrying her designer wedding dresses.
But she was not shouting from joy.
“When she got clothing, it was horrific, ” said her mother, Ami Pitt, of Warsaw. “Other than not fitting her in the right places, the material was slow and horrible quality. The lace was fraying, and there were purple and blue marks along the inside of the lining. Clothing itself was two different colors.
“Sarah was heartbroken. ”
Debbie Pitt tried an Alfred Angelo dress on in a marriage store near where she lives in Florida. Ami Pitt said this dress was done and very costly, and she found the designer’s picture of the dress online at a discount dress website. The site guaranteed to send the bride a custom-made copy of the Alfred Angelo dress, originally marked for more than $1, 000, at a discounted price of $300. When the dress arrived, however, the bride realized the website was a scam. The caretaker and daughter contacted the website via the contact e-mail provided over the internet, and the company rejected to send a refund.
“I thought maybe I could find some more information, ” Ami Pitt said. “I called every salon in upper Indianapolis that sold that dress she wanted, and I learned that many girls were being robbed this way. Virtually every store had an account to tell me. ”
When Ami Pitt called Greta Claeys, owner of Greta’s Marriage and Formalwear Shoppe in South Bend, she learned Claeys saw other women fall victim to the same website.
“I looked at the website, and it looked very legitimate, ” Ami Pitt said.
Claeys advised Ami Pitt to cancel her daughter’s credit card because the same website borrowed another of her client’s credit information and $4, 000 from her account.
Debbie Pitt canceled the card immediately, and the two severed communication with the website. The original money was never refunded.
“We discovered our lesson about shopping online, ” Ami Pitt said. “Here we thought we were getting a bargain, and all my daughter got was a heartache. ”
After searching, Claeys found the designer dress Debbie Pitt originally ordered for $400 in a designer storage place.
“When looking at being married ceremony, the bride wants the soon-to-be husband to look at her and see her as a beautiful woman, ” Ami Pitt said. “That was the part that was important to my daughter. She wants (her fiancé) Aaron to look at her like the beautiful woman she is. ”
Claeys said four women in the past three weeks visited her store after being targeted in online scams.
“It’s been horrific this year. It’s been more women and girls, prom girls and marriage girls, being rooked these days, ” Claeys said. “That’s because people have found out that people online do not use common sense. They are so motivated because of the economy to get the deal that they are not asking the right questions. And then when they lose their money and don’t have a product or it’s an inferior product, chances are they are destroyed. It is just so gloomy to them. ”
Three of the women did not receive any product for their money, Claeys said. Credit card information was ripped off from another client using the same site Pitt used.
“When she started using it in, it was horrific, ” Claeys said. “She called me on the phone and she was shouting so hard I could not learn what she was saying. ”
Women do some searching online to save money on a dress for a wedding or a prom, Claeys said, but they then have reached risk for an inferior gown.
“It’s her bridal dress. She wants it to be super special, and she doesn’t want a Pinto when she thinks she’s getting a Cadillac, ” she said.
Designers typically do not intend for customers to buy their dresses online, Claeys said.
“The online presence is really a tool presenting the product so the customer can see what it looks like and get an advantage on which (owner) is presenting, but it is not for purchasing, ” Claeys said. “So they use it as a way to promote themselves as branding, but they don’t really want the customer to buy online. They would prefer you find a nearby retailer where you can go in, touch the fabric, see the fabric. ”
Claeys advised consumers to look for signs of an unauthorized website before making an online purchase.
“If you go on to a (vendor’s) page and they are not an authorized dealer, then you should not be doing business with that company because they are not making sure, ” she said. “No designer wants someone cannibalizing their products. That’s what they are doing, they are cannibalizing a. They are saying, ‘Here is this dress as of this price. ’ But it is not that dress at that price. ”
Designers authorize dress stores to market and sell their products based on certain requirements, Claeys said. Each designer determines his or her own requirements, but a vendor usually must buy a certain amount of product from the designer and have an established store.
Bogus websites “have been using images from established designers like Alfred Angelo or Blush, and they take that images, which is copyrighted, and they wear it their website, ” she said.
Mishawaka citizen Deha Wezeman said her daughter, Mishawaka High school senior Ashley Pallo, tried to buy her gown online at a discount bridal dress site after seeing the image of her dream dress over the internet for a much cheaper price.
“My daughter found a website that would make a dress modeled after the designer dress, ” Wezeman said. “We would outline measurements, and they would make a dress for her. ”
Wezeman placed the order for the dress on April 14, higher than a month before her daughter’s April 12 prom. She paid a $30 fee to expedite shipping on the dress.
“When the money came out of my bank account, the charge was under a different website, ” Wezeman said.
But, she continued, when she checked online, she saw the two sites were allied, so she wasn’t worried.
She said a website representative called her home to verify her daughter’s measurements, and she exchanged e-mails with different employees while waiting for clothing. The expected date for the dress’s arrival came and went.
“We are sorry for keep you waiting for clothing, there is a delay because of the really busy season, can you give us more time? We will refund you the $30 rush fee when you have the dress. Genuinely Sunlit, ” one e-mail read.
Wezeman said as the date of her daughter’s prom received finer, they became more anxious.
“We don’t have an overabundance time!!!!!! She needs clothing in 3 days, ” Wezeman wrote in an e-mail. “You have had more than a month. I RECENTLY NEED CLOTHING HERE!!!! So what I am understanding is that even though you have sent us numerous emails suggest that you would have the dress done, now we won’t even get it?? ”
The employees then canceled the order and said Wezeman would be refunded shortly by April 25. Pallo was devastated, Wezeman said.
“My daughter cried for three days, ” she said. “She was almost inconsolable. ”
The caretaker and daughter visited Greta’s Marriage on April 19 to buy a gown for Pallo’s prom.
“We had $470 covered up in a prom dress this year between the one she ordered and the one she bought, ” Wezeman said. “Of course, as a parent you expect to spend some bucks on a prom dress, and you should do anything to make the occasion special, but you don’t expect you’ll spend very much. ”
Wezeman said she received her refund April 27. The cost of shipping was not included in her refund, but she said she was shocked and pleased for any organ of the money.
Before buying the dress, Wezeman read positive testimonials about the website on its website.
“When I tried to post my own review, the website didn’t let me, ” she said.
Alizeebridal 