Q: I purchased my prom dress in full cash, but they said no refunds however it’s been two months since I was supposed to ge

A: If they refuse to give you a refund even considering you were never able to use the dress and they failed to deliver when it was due, it seems you have at least two choices available to you. 1. Take possession of the dress to use at a later date, or so you can sell it to someone who can later make use of it. 2. File a small claims case for breach of contract and fraud against the store where you bought the dress and ask the court for orders that you be refunded your money plus any other damages you suffered as a result of the breach of the contract in which you were promised the dress by a specific date and time.

If you choose option 2, you can file your claim by yourself, because no lawyer is allowed to represent clients in small claims cases, and you can get the forms you need from the California Courts website here https://www.courts.ca.gov/forms.htm?filter=SC

Copy and paste the link in your browser and then review the instructions and forms for filing your claim (Form SC-100). All the instructions are right there when you download the form.

Good luck with your claim. I'm sure if you share this with all your friends who wound up in the same situation, you could get some leverage with the store to see if they might just give you the refund after all. That is, if you really don't want the dress now.

A: Hard to say here? Sorry for your issues. IF they did not allow you to pick it up that is one thing. If you chose not to do so, that's another. Some folks keep these dresses for a lifetime, others sell them as used once or in your case, if you went that route, as 'never' used. Perhaps your best bet is going to a local TV station for help? Good luck with it!

A: With all the stuff going on right now, this is just adding insult to injury. What you have is a contract between you and the shop to provide you a product for a particular purpose, which involved delivering it to you by a certain date. Think- bakery delivering wedding cake after the wedding- what good is that??? If the shop did not deliver to you, as promised, on time, or offer it to you for pick up, as promised, on time, they "breached" the contract with you . (Legalese for broke the contract) You are the injured party, and they have to pay you, with or without their private rules about no refunds. It is not a refund, they did not provide you the dress, on time, they return your money- same as if they never did the dress at all. It is not a refund on a return, it is returning your money because they did not provide the product. Another legalese is "frustration of purpose" which means that they did not provide the dress to you before the prom date which prevented you from having it for prom. Of course, we all know that proms were almost universally cancelled after March 15, but this gets into the facts about when they made the dress, are you entitled to legal relief as a result of "frustration of purpose" by the Governor's orders closing businesses and cancelling proms.

I would wager that you have a number of friends that are in the same situation as you are, and in this case, the more the merrier. You should all make claims against the dress shop and if they do not provide you with any return on your money, then go to Small Claims as Mr. Fazzi suggests in his answer. I would love to see 10 girls in court suing the dress shop for refunds for failing to deliver the prom dresses, particularly if the you tried to pick up the dress on time but there was no way to contact the dress shop.

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