A mum has been left devastated after her £1,000 wedding dress was returned from an alteration shop covered in dog hair, dust and even purple pen marks. Joanne Black says the dress was ripped and looking as though it had been "dragged along the ground".
And she said despite the gown being with the store for five weeks the adjustments she had requested were not done. Instead she said it has left her "totally deflated" and put off wearing what was her dream dress.
Joanne told the Daily Record how she had taken the dress to Alterations by Janice in Paisley at the beginning of March. She said it needed the shoulders lifting and the sleeves to be taken up.
When she collected it from the shop it was in a garment bag so it was only when she got home and opened it out that she discovered the issues.
Joanne, from Paisley said: "I've been so stressed. I didn't sleep the night I got it back and I was crying. It's stressful enough organising a wedding, but this has really put me off my dress.
"When I picked it up I expected to have this 'wow' moment and to feel absolutely ecstatic, but now I'm totally deflated. This has taken that moment away from me.
"You only plan to get married once and you should be so excited about it, but it's totally turned the other way. On one part of the sleeve, you can literally pull the fabric and see it's just falling away.
"I have no idea what she's done to the hem either... the bottom is all pinned up which I never even asked for. The dress has come back absolutely bogging."
Joanne, is due to tie the knot with her partner of three years, Tony, in Auchen Castle in Moffat on May 8. she said the experience over her dress has robbed her of all her excitement in the run-up to her special day.
The 32-year-old suffers from anxiety, so asked her mum to approach the shop the day after the garment was returned to go over her concerns. But the family claim Alterations by Janice refused to offer a refund of £200 Joanne paid to have the adjustments done on the grounds that she won't take her dress back into the shop to be fixed.
Joanne said she has now had to borrow money from her aunt and book in with another alteration service in Glasgow, leaving her a further £100 out of pocket - another blow to her 'budget wedding'. She added: "Even when I had my dress on to get altered in the shop, the owner's dog was walking all over the bottom of it.
"She says she makes her customers aware that there's a dog, but she didn't make me aware. If I was told that detail, I wouldn't have picked that shop.
"My heart was racing and my palms were sweating. I felt so uncomfortable and I just couldn't wait to get out of there. It was a terrible experience.
"Looking back, I should've just taken my business elsewhere, but I don't like confrontation. When I went to the new shop in Glasgow with my dress, they couldn't believe the mess of it."
Joanne now plans to pursue the matter with Trading Standards in the hope of getting her money back. She added: "I'm not leaving this. I've got three kids and I've not got a lot of money to throw about."
The Daily Record contacted Alterations by Janice a number of times for comment but could not be reached on the business telephone number provided online.
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea
