Business ProfileforYes to the Dress, llc

On 12/13/21, we came across this wedding dress consignment shop and thought we had hit the jackpot especially with the wedding being a little over a month away. My soon to be step mom and my dad had a very tight budget for the wedding, but we were grateful to have come across her dream dress at the shop. It was love at first sight with all the waterworks and feeling her prayers have been answered. And to make it even better, it was on sale since it had been there a while and the dress had seemingly never been worn. ****** was also nice enough to let us keep the slip that goes under the dress, rather than pay the 20$ to just rent and return since we lived over an hour away. The dress was a little bit tight on my step mom and a bit too long. We requested alterations originally so it would be the perfect fit for the big day. ****** had thrown out the price of around 100$ when we were discussing alterations and even implied her seamstress would potentially give a discount since my step mom is Columbian and her seamstress was Spanish. Everything seemed perfect! We put down the 80$ deposit and the remaining amount was to be paid in full by January 1st. As she told us and Im sure shes told everyone else, she said her policy was that alterations arent started until the dress is paid for in full which is understandable. ****** showed no objection with the time frame given (us paying in full by the 1st and having the dress ready by the wedding on the 22nd). January 1st rolls around (the due date of the dress to be paid in full and by this point, alterations shouldnt have been started) and we call and ask if we could pay in a couple days and decided to not have the alterations done since we were low on funds. ****** says sure no problem, you can pay in a few days and Ill call the seamstress to let her know not to do the alterations. Well ****** had already sent the dress out to be altered before we paid in full and had said it was too late, the seamstress had already completed them and the alterations had come out to 235$. We paid for the dress in full and she refused to release the dress to us until we paid the 235$ in alterations we had decided against before what we had the impression was our deadline, per her policy. We offered to cover half of the alterations (although we shouldnt have had to pay a dime) and she was unwilling to meet halfway after she had violated her own policy. I raised this point with ****** that we shouldnt be held liable for her mistake and she argued that she didnt have a formal policy. I had spoken with a lawyer who had told me that while she may not have a policy written out, her telling us alterations wouldnt be done until we paid in full was her verbal contract that she violated and that we were almost guaranteed to win if we decided to take her to court. And also I might add, what professional business doesnt have an official policy? Its necessary to protect her and the customer in situations in like for example. Considering all of this mess had come about 8/9 days before the wedding, we had no time and no more money to go spend on an entirely new dress. ****** knew all of this and took advantage of the circumstances that forced us into buying the alterations. Luckily, a family member stepped up and was willing to pay for the alterations as a wedding gift