Bad experience at the dressmaker- WDYT?

amother ↓

Thu, May 11 2006, 11:38 am

The other day I dropped off a dress at the seamstress to be made tznius. The dress needed a piece to fill in the neck, and a lining in the sleeves which were a bit see through. it was also a bit long on me, so I decided to get it hemmed too.

When I went to pick it up, I gave in my ticket, and she handed me the dress. I noticed right away that the sleeves were not lined, and when I asked her about it, she looked at my ticket and showed me it said: neckpiece, hem sleeves, and hem. and thats what was done to the dress, the neck was filled in, the sleeves were hemmed Confused

, and the bottom was hemmed.

I realized that there must have been a misunderstanding, since the seamstress is Russian and doesnt speak English that well (it was hard for me to understand just about anything she said), and she thought I wanted
the sleeves hemmed instead of lined.

I did glance at the ticket when I first left but I didnt bother studying it, and when I saw: "neck, sleeves, hem," I was satisfied that they had it right.
I ended up leaving the dress there for another few days so she can line the sleeves.

when I went to pick it up I told her I dont think I should have to pay for getting the sleeves hemmed since I never told them to do it, it was obviously a miscommunication of the english language. she insisted I did want the sleeves hemmed and she marked it that way. I told her, that was exactly the miscommunication, you marked it for a hem when I wanted it lined! anyway, after back and forth for a few minutes and everyone around staring at me, I paid her the extra 10 dollars very reluctantly.

im not upset about the money, but im upset that the truth had to be concealed for a measly 10 dollars. (although it would have been nice to pay 60 dollars instead of 70.)

so I have hemmed sleeves, which are okay, but unneccessary. they werent that long in the first place, and I personally dont mind my sleeves a bit long usually.

this place gets a lot of business, but I know im not going back there again.
its also unfortunate, because I know she is very good friends with my motherinlaw, and I just have a bad taste about it all.

WDYT- what do you think?

TzenaRena

Thu, May 11 2006, 11:52 am

are there other seamstresses in your area?

I think the lady should have admitted that she made a mistake. $60 is enough pay at the end of it to compensate for any loss for her mistake, she should have given in.

Is she frum? because davka in these kind of things I think you see that frumkeit makes a difference in people's midos and ehrlichkeit.

Anyway, this probably wouldn't get solved without a din-torah, so don't eat yourself about it, forget the whole thing. Sad

and find another seamstress. There are loads.

micki

Thu, May 11 2006, 8:27 pm

as a seamstress I can tell you that when a person does work, they want to get paid.
she put in the time and effort to do it. and she did it.
miscommunication aside, I think you should consider that.
me? I would have asked her to let the hem on the sleeves down at no charge.
how did she know how much to hem it? I htink this was her mistake because I would never hem sleeves without knowing how much to hem!!!!

↑ amother

Fri, May 12 2006, 9:51 am

micki, I completely understand that. everyone wants to get paid for the time they put in to a job.
except they cant make up what they think the customer wants, and then expect to get paid.
the reason why this case is different is because the lady I went to does none of the work herself. she has a crew who sits for hours and hours doing all the work in the back room.
yes, I could have asked her to take the hem back out, but wouldnt that be extra work for her? so I would have to pay her for that too.
how am I supposed to know that when I ask her for a lining in the sleeves and she sticks a pin into the sleeve, that means she is going to hem it? well, now I know.