Beaded Creations South Africa

On the 17th of October 2019 I contacted a lady by the name of Riana Howie from a company called Beaded Creations, an online store that specializes in 1920s style dresses. I needed a dress for a function at the end of November. She assured me that I could order at that time and that the dress would arrive in good time.

She indicated that I needed to take measurements and be sure that the size was correct according to a chart that she has on her website. I did that and placed the order for the dress on the 4th of November 2019...

The dress arrived at my home on the Tuesday the 12th of November 2019. I opened the package to find that the dress had a factory floor in the right hand seam of the dress (pictures attached)

I contact Riana immediately and sent through the pictures. She was hesitant and the time to offer me a refund on return of the dress and was quite adamant that she could send me a replacement dress before the end of the month but she was not willing to guarantee it rather she indicated that she believed it was possible. The replacement dress that she offered was also R151.00 less than what I had paid for the original order. She also asked me to send back the damaged dress, she never did clarify if that would have to be at my cost, never once mentioning at the time that she had any intentions to credit the balance of R151 or that she would cover the shipping costs to send the original dress back to her to her address at 8 Jukskei Street, Virgina, Free State.

I did go to Biz express (postage service) on the 14th of November with the intention of returning the dress and they told me that it would cost approximately R210 to send the dress back. I contacted her getting increasing concerned that the dress had now cost R1307.00, I was going to lose R151 on the replacement dress she intended to send and now have to pay R210 to send the dress back, I was in all honesty becoming frustrated with the idea that this dress was going to land up costing me so much money and I was mistrustful given the quality of the first dress that I even wanted to take a chance on the replacement dress which at that stage I believed was something else she just had ‘lying around at home’.

I did not send the dress back that day trying to figure out another way to get the dress back to her without costing too much. I did contact her and said I was concerned about the expense around shipping the dress back to her. She then did enlighten me to the idea of sending it back through a company called Aramex that it would cost R99. Honestly speaking at this stage I was becoming increasingly frustrated at all the running around and the admin and the worry about the money, having this dress in time for the function which she could not guarantee and I will admit I became increasingly nervous I was being ****med and that I would land up sending her the dress back and that she would not send the replacement or a refund. I made a decision at that point to hold onto the defective dress until the arrival of the replacement dress thinking that when I had the replacement dress and was satisfied, I would send her the original dress and if I did not want or like the replacement dress I would send the whole lot back to her. I did not communicate this to Riana which in hindsight I should have done. I did not hear anything from her, not that she had in fact sent the replacement dress no shipping number nothing. And then also never received the replacement dress which she claims that when she did not receive the original dress she then rerouted the package which she said had cost her R350. She also did not at any point communicate that to me and left it that I was expecting the replacement dress.

On the 29th of November I contacted her indicating that I had not received the replacement dress and that I would be sending the original dress back now and that I expected a full refund. This is when she got angry and confrontational saying that I did not return the dress in the 7 days which her terms and conditions indicate is the required period for returns and so she had no intention of refunding the money. I sent her back the damaged dress on the 3rd of December the dress arrived back in her possession, she did not acknowledge that she had received the dress back nor did she then agree to refund the money. I did look at her terms and conditions on her website more closely and found this...

I’m not sure why given these terms and conditions she would still refuse to do the refund. I really can’t tell you this is no longer a matter of the money this is in my opinion poor business practice and I find her to be ********* in how she has handled this whole matter.

She has the damaged dress back and I am R1406 out of pocket.