Received a used dress that was stained

[bsk654]

A couple of weeks ago, i bought an used dress which was listed as "Pre-owned" but there was no mention of the staining anywhere, however upon receiving it, there is some faint, however noticeable staining on the front of the dress, also some underarm yellowing which is a bit hard to see as the dress is pink. 
I'm still happy to keep the dress and don't want to return it, however i'll probably need to have it dry cleaned first. 

What are my options from here?
Do i just leave the seller negative feedback?

[robinsonmarineparts]

Hi, speak to the seller first and tell them your concerns before leaving feedback.

[kopenhagen5]

As above, the seller may offer a part refund to have the dress cleaned.

[harley_babes_hoard]

you want to keep it with underarm yellowing? ick

[lane-ends]

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@harley_babes_hoard wrote:
you want to keep it with underarm yellowing? ick

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To be honest many second hand items can have this then they are washed and if they clean up they are sold clean. If not then tossed

Hence my advice is to contact seller who probably just missed it. As you say it is hard to see and often things are not obvious until you are thinking of trying them on. Seller could very well be extremely embarresed, they could either have it returned or if it was me I would apologise and refund and tell you to keep it. Unless it was something unusually special they probably did not pay much more for the item than the cost of return post, so for the inconvience to you of returning it, the then cleaning and relisting (or tossing). It is better to let you keep it and chuck it in the wash which may work without dry cleaning and worth a shot if it cost you nothing. The PR could save them bad fb and a defect.

If they apologised profusely and did not attempt to put you out further, refunded and let you keep it. Then that is a good seller and deserves good fb as they fixed an honest mistake ASAP, and one you would trust buying from. If they get all defensive and put you through too much effort then the transaction gets less and less positive.

>>+fb=item had undeclared staining, seller resolved with minimum fuss>>Still ok to leave low dsr if you feel like it for item description, if you are not spiteful they will be ok to wear it

or

>>-fb= Item was stained, seller denied and reluctant to resolve>> leave low dsr for as described and communications

Email first dont raise a return dispute first off that only gets their back up. The aim is to get best result without getting anyone worked up and leaving accurate and useful fb for future buyers as to how this seller deals with stuff ups.

[springyzone]

What lane ends says probably sums it all up.

I am probably a little less tolerant of sellers leaving things out in their descriptions than some others are. I tend to think that if a person has the time to list an item, then you would think they would have the time to at least look at it as they write a description. A stain, even a faint stain, on the front of a frock would really wreck it for me.

If you the buyer can see a stain and under arm yellowing, then the seller should have noticed something, that is two things. Just saying it is pre owned isn't good enough.

By all means contact them and go from there.

You may not need to give negative feedback but I do think you should mark the item description stars right down, no matter what. It wasn't detailed enough.

[lane-ends]

One thing ebays new defect policy is affecting is the ability to be honest. eg seller lists something, overlooks a small flaw. Item sells, upon packing order seller then sees minor flaw. Traditionally i would contact buyer let them know an give option to either cancel/discount/ or even let them have it at shipping cost only or even sent for free as compensation for disapointment. After all many faws are minor and item is still useable, but not quite as expected.

The new system means doing this seller cops a defect, sellerrs are not allowed to intiate cancellations without being penalized. The temptation now is for seller to send as is and then deal with a potential complaint if it arises and often it is so small there is no complaint, doesn't mean buyer is not a tat disapointed

The policy is penalising good PR. 

[bsk654]

Thanks for the advice, I've contacted the seller to let them know and i'm waiting for a reply.

It's a relatively expensive and special dress so i'm willing to keep it even with the staining.

[fixnwear]

bsk654,

just had a quick look at your dress - and before I could even open my mouth, my friend's 18y.o daughter walked past and said:

ughhhh.......yuk!

As you know, younger people seem to always say as it is - mostly it's a brutal truth - dunno if that's good or bad - but at least it's straight to the pouint.

That pink & red concoction is a bit scary - who wears that?

And to where, I mean what occasions?

Never seen anything like it.

But that aside, if YOU love it - which after all is the only thing that matters - and don't want to send it back, just give it a good wash.

From the pictures it looks like something that can be washed, with better results than dry cleaning. (My friend just said that - I am by no means an expert in washing anything - not even the dishes!)

After all, it is a used dress, maybe seller didn't know that even with used stuff they have to sit there for hours scrutinising the items and spend even more hours describing every spot.

In my books, just getting an item that I like much cheaper than a normal price is always a good trade off for having some imperfections.

And if it turns out that it is REALLY unusable/broken/unwearable - long past the point of any repair - then of course I would send it back to them - except I haven't had anything like that up to date.

From what I see across the boards, your seller might be sufficiently scared into giving you a refund - all seller who sell on Ebay seem to petrified of something all the time - yet they continue to tolerate this situation and still sell here.

I'll never quite understand why.

[daydreams_12]

If dress is laundered or dry cleaned it cannot be sent back anyway.  It is not in the same condition as it was received.  OP needs to decide which way to go before touching it I am afraid.  If it was not an overly large amount of money I would probably take the chance and wash keeping in mind that once I do it is mine forever. JMO