topic Re: Received a used dress that was stained in Buying

Received a used dress that was stained

bsk654 — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 09:46:05 GMT

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?

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

robinsonmarineparts — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 09:49:58 GMT

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

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

kopenhagen5 — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 10:00:03 GMT

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

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

harley_babes_hoard — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 10:49:11 GMT

you want to keep it with underarm yellowing? ick

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

lane-ends — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 14:35:54 GMT

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

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

>>-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.

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

springyzone — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:29:55 GMT

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.

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

lane-ends — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 01:55:43 GMT

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.

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

bsk654 — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 03:29:49 GMT

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.

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

fixnwear — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 04:46:30 GMT

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.

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

daydreams_12 — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 05:08:07 GMT

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

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

black*poppy — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 06:07:54 GMT

I don't agree that if the dress is laundered that it can't be sent back if it arrived dirty (I am not condoning someone wearing then washing for a return). Gosh, the buyer might even improve its condition!

I've received clothing in the past that was stained - I emailed the seller and we agreed if I couldn't get the stain out they would refund/accept return. Sellers have sometimes given a partial refund for the inconvenience anyway.

As a seller it's easy to miss small flaws totally unintentionally. One time I sold a jumper that had tight ribbed sleeves. I missed the hole inside the ribbing because I didn't pull apart each rib to check. A couple of times I've only picked up a flaw on packing. Amazing really after all the washing, ironing, photographing all different angles, and listing that they would get missed but it happens.

What I can't stand are flaws where it is obvious that the seller has just sent it out to try their luck, things that can't be missed like staining down the front or densely pilling patches.

In the OP's case, I would contact the seller about the problem and take a few photos to show her. See what she says about trying to wash first but returning if they are unmoveable.

If the dress is cotton - looks like it might be - then the only thing that really shifts underarm stains is nappysan. You can make a paste of it with water and put it ONLY on the stain, it might fade it a little but the stain itself will have done that somewhat anyway. Just don't leave it too long (if you're not confident test in an inconspicuous place first). Then hand wash with laundry soap giving it a light scrub. If it's old staining you still might not get it out. If it's viscose or rayon that's much more problematic so I would be sending that back. I don't know what drycleaners can achieve but my experience has always been expensive and disappointing.

I couldn't see the stain on the front so don't know what to suggest.

fixnwear - I think that's a bit off to criticise the OP's taste. Some of my ugliest dresses (in my mind) have sold like hotcakes. Who's to say what's good taste, eh?

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

bsk654 — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 06:17:13 GMT

Thanks for your opinion, it's a niche fashion which might be hard for some people to understand 🙂

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

fixnwear — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 07:11:35 GMT

black*poppy,

fixnwear - I think that's a bit off to criticise the OP's taste. Some of my ugliest dresses (in my mind) have sold like hotcakes. Who's to say what's good taste, eh?

I didn't realize I was doing that - maybe it came out that way.

I was merely bewildered by the dress and it's style as I have never seen anything even similar - and was curious.

Who wears dress like that - and where would they wear it as I have not seen anyone anywhere, oh, maybe in some theatrical productions or fancy dress or something.

And may I also remind you that the taste is indeed subjective and individual - we all know that - but I have just as much right not to like something as the OP does have to like it.

Not that my opinion, nor anyone else's matters here, I have already stated that in the above post - it's only the OP's opinion that counts in this case.

And, don't mean to be funny but am genuinely curious - you say your ugliest dresses sold like hotcakes (in your opinion), so how on earth did you get to have them in the first place if you thought they were ugly? And how did you bring yourself to wear them - before deciding to sell them?

Sounds very similar to a friend of mine whose husband buys her clothing sometimes - she never likes any of it - she doesn't sells them though - just chucks them out.

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

black*poppy — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 07:32:02 GMT

I just feel that the point of the OP's post was to get advice about what to do about receiving an item not as described.

Bagging out her taste in clothing on a public forum wasn't helpful IMO (or good taste).

I sell clothing from size 6 to 22 - rarely is there something that was personally mine.

My point was that other people obviously have very different taste to mine so I wouldn't begin to comment on what people purchase.

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

digital*ghost — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 08:34:03 GMT

@fixnwear wrote:

Who wears dress like that - and where would they wear it as I have not seen anyone anywhere, oh, maybe in some theatrical productions or fancy dress or something.

I can answer those questions, if I may...

Who wears dresses like that? People.

Where would they wear it? Anywhere they like. Sometimes it's to cosplay (kinda like "dress-ups"), sometimes it's other kinds of special outings, other times it's just day to day wear like any pair of jeans etc can be.

Google things like steampunk / cyber / gothic / lolita fashion if you're curious to get some insight into the world of 'alternative' fashion - IMHO it's a whole lot better than the bedazzling craze from the late 80's, and ultimately not that much different to people reintroducing new takes on older fashion fads, like flares. 😄

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

joethenuts — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 09:19:53 GMT

could somebody give me the item number of this dress or point me to it thanks

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

cq_tech — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 13:57:40 GMT

Why, Joe? It's already been sold.

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

joethenuts — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 20:39:44 GMT

but maybe you have one in your wardrobe for sale mmmm

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

i-love-my-sheep — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 06:40:32 GMT

I know this thread isn't about the actual dress, but I actually don't mind it. I wouldn't have bought it though......only because I don't go anywhere where I could wear it. I'm a bit of a home bod, so don't tend to buy many nice clothes. They just go to waste.

I can see someone with black hair, gothic style make up and a nice pair of black shoes wearing this dress. If I was still young and still going out of a weekend, I'd buy it. There was another outfit that seller sold that I quite liked too. The one that is her most recent feedback.

Whether it be clothes or music or whatever, everyone's taste is different. If we all liked the same things, it would be a very boring world. Plus it would make buying stuff hard because everyone would want the same thing!

Re: Received a used dress that was stained

joethenuts — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 07:35:27 GMT

i would like to coment about the dress as a male ,but somebody will have to point me in the right direction so that i can view the dress