What is the name of your state? PA
I was married in 2004, and following the wedding I had my silk dress cleaned by a professional cleaner that advertised it could preserve wedding gowns. I told the cleaner that my dress had had a glass of champagne spilled on the bodice and though you couldn’t see the stain (champagne is clear and the discoloration had not yet shown up), I knew it was there. They marked the bodice as “stained” to be cleaned and preserved.
When I received the gown back it was boxed and appeared to have been cleaned and preserved. A year-and-a-half later, I reopened the box to find a huge yellow stain on the bodice. Clearly the sugar from the champagne had not been properly cleaned.
I took the dress back to the same cleaners, showed them the stain and they agreed to clean the dress again and try to remove it. When we received the dress back, not only was the stain still there, but the entire silk dress had been ‘wet washed.’ There are now cracks in the silk fabric of the entire dress, the material’s lost all of its shine and the dress has been completely destroyed.
I took the dress to another cleaner (this shop is in Manhattan and specializes in preserving gowns to ‘museum quality’). They called me today saying there was nothing they could do for my dress, that the cleaner who previously treated it had ruined it beyond repair. They put this in writing and faxed me the letter.
My question is, do I have legal cause to go back to the cleaner that ruined the gown and ask them to pay for the cost of the gown? I purchased the dress for $2,100 and originally paid the cleaners $200 to preserve it.
I was married in 2004, and following the wedding I had my silk dress cleaned by a professional cleaner that advertised it could preserve wedding gowns. I told the cleaner that my dress had had a glass of champagne spilled on the bodice and though you couldn’t see the stain (champagne is clear and the discoloration had not yet shown up), I knew it was there. They marked the bodice as “stained” to be cleaned and preserved.
When I received the gown back it was boxed and appeared to have been cleaned and preserved. A year-and-a-half later, I reopened the box to find a huge yellow stain on the bodice. Clearly the sugar from the champagne had not been properly cleaned.
I took the dress back to the same cleaners, showed them the stain and they agreed to clean the dress again and try to remove it. When we received the dress back, not only was the stain still there, but the entire silk dress had been ‘wet washed.’ There are now cracks in the silk fabric of the entire dress, the material’s lost all of its shine and the dress has been completely destroyed.
I took the dress to another cleaner (this shop is in Manhattan and specializes in preserving gowns to ‘museum quality’). They called me today saying there was nothing they could do for my dress, that the cleaner who previously treated it had ruined it beyond repair. They put this in writing and faxed me the letter.
My question is, do I have legal cause to go back to the cleaner that ruined the gown and ask them to pay for the cost of the gown? I purchased the dress for $2,100 and originally paid the cleaners $200 to preserve it.