Not my fault, no refund

[pageantmama]

I just had a customer contact me wanting a refund. I made her daughter a dress last week. I made it according to HER color specifications and design SHE wanted. Evidently her daughter came in 4th runner up out of 6 girls and it is the dresses fault Even if I was the one that came up with the design and color combo I would not give her a refund but just to humor her I asked her to scan the scorecards and send them. The scores?
Judge 1
Overall beauty- 8.2 out of 10
personality-8 out of 10
overall impression-8.6 out of 10
ATTIRE-9.1 out of 10


Comments-Great dress, good fit. Smile more

Judge 2
Overall beauty- 9.4 out of 10
personality-9.2 out of 10
overall impression-9.5 out of 10
ATTIRE-9.8 out of 10


Comments-love her hair. Great colors on her. A little stiff on stage

Judge 3
Overall beauty- 9.7 out of 10
personality-8.6 out of 10
overall impression-9 out of 10
ATTIRE-9.8 out of 10

Comments-no comments



Soooooo...yeah it was the dresses fault she did not place higher

[houdini]

I am honestly astonished that she sent you the scorecards. Did she really think you'd read them and suddenly change your mind?

[teh_blumchenkinder]

... your dress was literally the highest scoring thing on those cards.
/*brain breaks*

[Android Kaeli]

I've always been of the mind that anything that's custom-made is unreturnable -- then again maybe that's just me?

[spark]

No, not just you. My stuff *can* be returned... if you haven't worn it at all, for a *partial* refund. But I've never heard of anybody who just lets you return custom made stuff and get all your money back.

[Redbeard]

MY child is a beautiful perfect snowflake!! It must be YOUR fault that she lost!

Oy...

[pageantmama]

That is what I told her. I don't give refunds unless for some reason you put it on and it falls apart, which does not happen because I make quality dresses thankyousomuch, or something crazy happens out of the ordinary and it is sent back unopened and never worn. The attire scores were really good and I don't know what the heck she was thinking. Maybe she thought if she would have gotten perfect 10s on the attire it could have pulled up her score? I don't care, I just got two messages from other customers that went to a big National this weekend and their dresses got perfect scores and one girl got Mini Supreme and one girl got Grand Supreme I am betting they actually smiled and showed personality along with the awesome dress though

[Opalin]

Hm... I confess I'm not all that up to date on pageantry, but this sounds like she didn't even look at the scorecards herself. I mean.... it's pretty evident that your dress was one of the things that even helped her place that high at all.

[Andara Bledin]

So, the girl looks great except she doesn't seem to want to be there at all....

But it's not her fault that she didn't win. Riiiiight.

^-.-^

[MoonCat]

I think you're being very generous by offering even a partial refund on custom made items. Worn, though? No way!

Side note, I'm a little perturbed by the notion of people grading little girls on "overall beauty."

[underemployeed]

WOW, ice princess looks good but is cold to the touch.........

If she calls back, point out your dress rocked those score cards, and that her daughters winning personality is all thanks to mommy dearest being an uptight know it all and it must show.

NOW, I could see her wanting a refund with 1 out of 10 scores, that isn't to say I would even then see her getting money back, I mean if it was crap she should haven't finished paying and taken it home.

[pageantmama]

I think you're being very generous by offering even a partial refund on custom made items. Worn, though? No way!

Side note, I'm a little perturbed by the notion of people grading little girls on "overall beauty."

Yeah, that does sound bad. Overall beauty isn't really just based on facial beauty, it is several different factors. It is how well your dress color, hairstyle, makeup coloring, and everything go together as well as your facial beauty. I have seen some *forgive me* not so cute girls get high overall beauty scores because they had an awesome hair and makeup person that made them look very well put together as well as a great fitting dress with colors that made them look great. At natural pageants it is the fit and color of the dress, facial beauty, and hair as well but of course you don't go as all out glitz and glam like a glitz pageant. A lot of people say it is just facial beauty but I have talked to several judges about it and found out that is what they are looking at.

Once a woman on Toddlers and Tiaras was well, a bitch about the whole thing. As most of them are. First she pissed me off because she put the headband with the bow over her daughters ears and told her that she had to do it that way because she looked like Dumbo Then when the girl got upset she laughed about it and told her she was being a baby or something like that. The pageant was a double pageant, natural first and then glitz. So the girl goes out and does her thing in the natural side then goes and gets her hair and makeup done and switches dresses for the glitz part. I think she got an OK title in glitz but she got the highest title in natural. Her mom was upset because she wanted her to get the highest in glitz instead of natural. Honestly I think it is more of an honor to get a title in natural because anyone can look good with the right hair and makeup, a super expensive dress, and a routine taught by a coach. To win on your own natural beauty with a plain dress and your personality instead of basically acting like a trained show dog, that is impressive.

[morgana]

I tried watching T & T. Once. I found myself shouting at the TV. I would not be able to make dresses for those pageants, good money notwithstanding. Not and deal with some of the mothers.

A child who wants to do that, and is having fun? Go for it. Enjoy the hell out of it.

A mom who's living out her own fantasies, and making her child miserable in the process? Needs to be horsewhipped.

Thank you, PM, for NOT being one of those.

[PepperElf]

So, the girl looks great except she doesn't seem to want to be there at all....

But it's not her fault that she didn't win. Riiiiight.

^-.-^

I'm wondering if that's part of the issue... does the girl really want to do this?

[pageantmama]

That is what I was wondering too. There are some girls that either their mom started them out really young so that is all they know, and some that wanted to do it, enjoyed it for a while but the mom has invested so much they make them continue even though they don't want to. My daughter loves it and if I could afford it I would take her to one every weekend. She doesn't realize how expensive they are yet though. She is funny, she will be at the post office, grocery store, wherever and start telling random strangers "look at me I am a princess" and start doing her "pageant faces" lol. She even teaches my 2 year old son the moves she does and makes him do them until he gets it right Then she will give him a trophy and tell him Great job, you get a trophy, lol. That is another thing, I let her have access to her crowns and trophys and if she feels like wearing her big Miss GA crown to the store, fine. I don't keep them up out of reach like most moms. I figure she earns them, they are hers. I do intervene if her and the little one try to play lightsabers with the huge ones but other then that she can play with them