Second Story Wedding Shop

Thank you for looking out for consumers. Unfortunately, as you can see with the attached contract, we outlined everything for our consignor at the time they left the items in our shop. Not only do we recommend that they read the online copy before coming to the store so there are no surprises "at the door" but offer a paper copy when they are in house. The contract is online to provide complete transparency. At the time of drop off, we may not go over the entire contract verbally but we ALWAYS review the percentage that the client receives upon a sale and the contract expiration date and what that means. We suggest that consignors set themselves a reminder as we do not reach out due to our volume. We admit we are not always available to answer the phone as I am often the only one in store and our store front customers get our full attention when they are in the shop. Our voice mail CLEARLY indicates this and to either email us or send a text message to us at the same number. The individual who submitted this complaint initiated contact by email on August 12, 2018. On August 29th we have an email showing that we referred her to the website to see all the details on how consignment works before bringing her dress in. She texted me on Sept 13th regarding bringing her dress in. She therefore had access to both our email and cell number to text. She checked in on her dress once during the contract by text and we advised we did not yet have sale, but would continue to try. The conclusion of her 12 month contract was September 2019. We left the dress in her account until Nov 2019 as goodwill to provide extra time to reach out. The next time we heard from her was Jan 27th by email where we advised that her dress expired and no longer available she then texted on the 28th again asking to pick it up. We donate to many places such as theatre groups, not for profits (***), other not for profit clothing outlets, schools and our own in house program known as "CARE". etc. CARE is where the item may remain in the store, but the item number changes. Should the item sell, the funds go into an account marked "CARE" and gets spent in the community such as helping grade 8 graduation students get into graduation dresses. We are unable to tell the individual which program her item went to. We do not track where each individual item goes as, per the contract, upon the expiration of the contract the item no longer belongs to the individual and our shop can donate as we need to keep the store supply moving. We are disappointed that the individual reaching out has received less than expected results with our store, we pride ourselves on our strong reputation. We upheld our end of the contract and are unable to provide further compensation to this individual.

We appreciate that the consignor is not happy with outcome of her relationship with us. Unfortunately, we have a contract for a reason. We indicated to her PRIOR to her dropping off her garment where she could locate the contract to review it. She dropped her item off and signed that she had seen, agreed and understood the contract. It clearly indicates (item 7) SSWS may make decisions regarding any items remaining 12 months past most current date will no longer belong to the original consignor. No compensation will be due. SSWS can donate or sell via CARE program. Pick up prior to expiry or call (***) to make arrangements to save this expense. Number 10 of the contract indicates: Record Keeping and Follow-Up Calls: It is the responsibility of the consignor to maintain all records of consigned merchandise and are welcome to call to confirm sales, pickups and contract termination. No notice of expiration is made. The consignor indicates that she called multiple times to discuss the matter with us, but on every attempt, it seems she failed to leave a message as all messages are tracked and replied to. No message was left. Her call, assuming she made it, was incomplete at relaying her intentions. A message would have solved this as we would have called her back and discussed the matter. Better yet, our voice mail indicates that we do not answer the phone when we are with clients to leave a message and/or text, email. She had access to our email and texting line, as she has used them prior to, during and after expiration of the contract. Had she done this during the summer where she claims to have called with no answer, again, we could have addressed any concerns, renewals etc. She did not request to renew the dress at any time. We are uncertain where the new concern of the garment bag is coming from - however, to address this, we do offer every consignor to keep there garment bags for use with their dress should they pick it up, or other items they may have. Those left behind are offered to the next shopper - as we do not have storage space. This is the same reason we do not keep expired dresses - our space is limited. Her account expired in September 2019. We retained the item on her account until Nov 2019 in goodwill for her to reclaim her items. She failed to do so. We assumed, like many consignors do, she opted to have her item donated. She failed to follow the contract/agreement we had with her. In an attempt to remedy the situation and not have an upset consignor, while providing "superior customer service" (as we discussed with the consignor) upon her reaching out at the end of January 2020 we attempted to contact locations that we may have donated the item to in order to retrieve it for her (in goodwill - as this is not something we are required to do based on her contract - but we do wish for everyone to have a great experience with us) to try and track down her item. We have not had success in this. is unfortunate, but her item is gone. We feel this claim/complaint does not have merit as we have acted exactly as she was advised we would in the contract. We have again attached the contract to support this statement.