Scam #1: Bridal Shops Cut The Dress Manufacturer Labels Off Wedding Gowns

How the scam works: Some bridal dress shops remove the dress manufacturer's label from wedding dresses on the racks to prevent you from comparison shopping with other stores. If you can't tell which model of dress it is, then you shopping blind. We get angry email from dress shop owners justifying their crime with bogus excuses like "we don't like tire kickers that come in here, waste our time, then go somewhere else". Wow, I feel sorry for car dealers then. How many people do you think stream in and out of dealerships every day before one of them buys? Yet I don't see Toyota removing the Toyota tag off your car so that you cannot comparison shop. This is considered an unfair and deceptive act or practice under the Federal Trade Commission's Textile Act, punishable by federal district court action for civil penalties up to $11,000 per violation, federal court proceedings, as well as other legal remedies. This strict regulation is similar to the law that requires all manufacturer labels to be present on mattresses until removed by the consumer. This wedding gown label removing scam is illegal and unethical, yet many shops who pull this scam on you will use all sorts of Jedi mind tricks to "prove" they are within their legal right, when of course they are not. Some bridal shops do it as a means to substitute cheaply made knock offs for the original higher priced custom made couture.

How to avoid the scam: If you walk into any bridal shop and you see this nonsense, just turn around and walk out. Any bridal store that thinks this low of you, with no regard to your legal rights provided by the FTC, and operates in this unethical mode, will surely pull other tricks on you later. If they think nothing about lying to you about this, then you can probably expect they will lie to you about returns, about delivery dates, about alterations, and even whether they are an authorized reseller of your wedding gown. If you are foolish enough to continue doing business with a bridal shop after all this, then you should at least get everything in writing about which wedding dress manufacturer and model, and size of the wedding gown you are buying, and any promises of alterations or any other guarantees about ordering time or refunds. If they refuse this, then only the biggest fool in the world would buy anything from that bridal shop.

What to do if this scam happens to you: Inspect your dress before you leave the shop and verify the designer label is on it. If it is not, then leave the wedding dress at the store, and immediately file court action against the shop. You should also enlist the help of the dress manufacturer. You should immediately file a complaint through your state's Attorney General Web site and indicate they are violating the FTC's Textile Act. Next, you should fill out the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Consumer Complaint Form. Lastly, you should report them to the Better Business Bureau, so that other brides doing research before shopping for a wedding dress can have a heads up. Also try a local TV consumer reporter, businesses hate to be featured on the news in a bad light.

Scam #2: Overseas Diamond Jewelry Stores Lie About Diamond Quality and Guarantees

How the scam works: You're on a cruise in the Caribbean and in your stateroom you'll see flyers placed there on your bed by your cruise line recommending certain local retailers at ports of call along your cruise route. You visit one of the cruise ship recommended international diamond stores on one of these Caribbean islands, and the sales people make all sorts of false claims about the quality of the diamond you are about to buy. They make lofty promises about how wonderful their guarantees are and you can exchange them in their store in New York if you are unsatisfied. You find out later after you return to the United States and get the ring appraised locally that your diamond is several grades of quality less than what they told you, and suddenly that low price you thought you were getting turns out to be a rip-off. You try to cash in on that satisfaction guarantee and quickly find no satisfaction, they are not answering your emails or returning phone calls. If you do manage to contact a human, they make up all sorts of excuses why you are not getting your money back. You just found out the hard way that laws in the U.S. do not protect you in overseas countries, and these retailers know there is nothing you can do to them and no law enforcement agency will come to your rescue. One victim was sold a $900 broken Movado watch and the salesperson claimed the automatic movement would take 36 hours until the watch would work. Of course the watch never worked, nor will the retailer accept a return for refund. There is an endless supply of starry eyed suckers blinded by the euphoric greed of "saving half off the cost of diamonds in the U.S." But the lying about quality occurs all the time in diamond jewelry stores inside the US too. You should always have the full specs of your diamond itemized on the invoice, and you should get the GIA certificate for the diamond or else you should not buy it. Also, never ever make payments on a diamond engagement ring. If you cannot pay for it all at once and take it with you then do not buy. Victims who were making payments report that the jewelry store went out of business while collecting payments. Often unscrupulous businesses will keep on receiving funds right up until the day they shut their doors.

How To Avoid The Scam: We will shout this out loud until we are blue in the face. DO NOT EVER BUY DIAMONDS, EXPENSIVE WATCHES, OR EXPENSIVE JEWELRY OUTSIDE THE U.S. Most of us are not seasoned experts in jewelry, and this is why people get taken. We all know what M&M's taste like, so if someone sells us fake M&M's we know instantly. But only a professional jeweler with their own 10x magnifying loupe can tell for sure if the diamond is of the quality which the salespeople claim. Personally I don't trust any recommended retailers from the cruise ships, they just want you shop from the retailers who paid them to have the flyers placed in your rooms.We received complaints from people who cruised on Princess and on Carnival about recommendations made by these cruise lines. If you can get internet access, you'll want to research the retailers recommended by the cruise ship on Better Business Bureau or RipoffReport.com. There you'll get the true picture of what you'll expect. The BBB might not have foreign retailers listed, RipoffReport will, and BBB might if the retailer is an international brand with a U.S. location.

Scam #3: Bridal Shops Sell Used or Damaged Wedding Gowns as New

How the scam works: The typical scenario is you order what you think is a brand new wedding dress, paying in full by cash or check, because the bridal shop does not accept credit cards. They promise you the dress will arrive in 2 to 3 months in plenty of time for your wedding. The bridal dress shop is supposed to order your new dress from the manufacturer, which is usually how wedding gowns are purchased, as they are generally custom made to your measurements. After several months go by, longer than you were told of course, you begin to panic, the bridal shop keeps stalling you, if they even return your phone calls at all. Your wedding dresses somehow mange to arrive at the shop, but only within a week of your wedding. You quickly find out your wedding gown or bridesmaid dresses are either store samples, or have been used before. They either have damage, lipstick and other cosmetics stains from the previous girl who wore the dress, or they are dirty and dusty on the bottom, another sign indicating prior use of your dress. If your dresses were brand new, there would be no sign of blemishes or dirt anywhere, because you paid for a new $1000+ dress right? Of course your dresses are in the wrong size too, another indicator that something is afoul, and of course your wedding gowns have no labels on them in violation of the FTC's Textile Act, so now you have no way of verifying if your wedding dress is authentic. It's obvious this is not the order you placed, and the bridal shop is scrambling to make it appear that is the order you placed even though the dresses appear to be too big. Since the dresses don't fit, now you and your bridesmaids are required to shell out hundreds more to the bridal shop to make the alterations for the dresses to fit you, although they measured you when you bought the dress and they should fit since the manufacturer is top notch, and you are paying top notch money for top notch service right? Some bridal shops might even blame you for weight changes, but a simple step onto the scale can quickly put a stop to that claim. This scam is sometimes combined with the "Bridal Shops Lie About Being An Authorized Reseller for Your Wedding Gown" scam.

Possible root causes for this scam: Maybe the bridal shop forgot to place your order. This happens all the time and with your wedding drawing near, they know they must produce something quick, so they find something that looks close and pray you don't notice any difference. They cut off the label so you don't know that your wedding dress is not the real Demetrios wedding dress or the real Vera Wang wedding gown. Another possible reason would be the case of a real unscrupulous salesperson who has some previously used wedding dresses lying around that they cannot unload, and they just happen to be close to your size. So they let you order your new wedding dress, but substitute these used wedding gowns or samples instead. Often the wedding dress will have damage or residue from cosmetics on them.

How To Avoid The Scam: It's pretty hard for you to prevent another human from lying and cheating you like this. But you can improve your odds by screening your bridal shops before you go shopping there to avoid shops that have a history of complaints for this scam. You should check any wedding vendor you plan to employ in the Better Business Bureau database or on RipoffReport.com. Additionally, you should go to your clerk of the county court web site, type in the name of the business, and see if any court cases have been filed against them. It takes 30 seconds to find bad weeds in the thicket and few people think to do these most basic checks. If a bridal shop has pulled this scam before, chances are there will be complaints somewhere, and you should always learn off other people's misfortunes, not your own. I checked one well known local Fort Lauderdale bridal shop in the Broward County Records web site, and found several lawsuits against them by disgruntled brides, as well as tax lien notices from the state, and they had an "unsatisfactory record with the BBB due to a failure to respond to complaints." Had those brides spent 5 minutes on this search, this would have alerted the brides, and they could have saved thousands in losses and aggravation. Also, make sure you order your wedding gowns as far in advance as possible to allow for delays from the manufacturer, which can be up to 5 months or more.

Scam #4: Bridal Shops Lie About Being An Authorized Reseller for Your Wedding Gown

How the scam works: You visit a local bridal shop who claims to be an authorized reseller of Demetrios wedding gowns, or Vera Wang wedding gowns or other name brands, so you place your order. Of course they only accept cash or check and there are no refunds allowed once the order is placed. Many months go by and your dress does not arrive. You get bogus excuses from the bridal shop if they even return your phone calls at all. Finally your wedding day is approaching and you still do not have your wedding gown as promised. If you get anything at all, it's completely the wrong size, or the tag is removed. Sometimes you find out the bridal shop lied and your wedding gown is a knock off, not the genuine article from the genuine manufacturer as they claimed. This happens even more with online wedding gown websites, where your risk of getting scammed is much higher. In fact some wedding dress designers warn you not to buy your wedding gown online, and they don't even allow any of their legitimate resellers to sell wedding dresses online. Unauthorized bridal shops sometimes obtain your wedding dress by just ordering it through another retailer who is an authorized reseller. But this adds levels of complication and more risk for calamity. Just like on our other consumer advocate site CarBuyingTips.com where we strongly urge you not to let Dealer A order your car from Dealer B, the same advice applies to bridal shops.

Possible root causes for this scam: Sometimes the bridal shop can be in bad financial trouble, and can't even afford to buy your wedding gown from the designer. In desperation they'll pass off samples to you as the original couture. But former employees of bridal shops go online all the time to confess that with their previous bosses, this was business as usual.

How To Avoid The Scam: This scam is also highly prevalent because brides don't take very simple steps to protect themselves. If you know which manufacturer dress you want, go to their web site and print out the list of authorized resellers. If the bridal shop you're going to is not on the list, then you know they are not authorized to sell that brand. You should also print out available web sites of local bridal shops you plan to visit and verify all their claims of authorized reseller for the manufacturers they list. Always call the manufacturer and get from the horse's mouth. You should check any wedding vendor you plan to employ in the Better Business Bureau database or on RipoffReport.com. When you get to the bridal shop, ask to see their proof of license to sell a particular brand of wedding dress. If they give you any grief about it, and I can't imagine why any legitimate business would, then you should consider leaving immediately. If I was a legitimate reseller for Demetrios, you can bet I'd have signs everywhere, and my copy of the reseller agreement up on the wall. Don't be fooled by posters, you want to see the official approval from the wedding dress designer. As mentioned earlier, go to your clerk of the county court web site, type in the name of the business, and see if any court cases have been file against them. If you don't have an accurate explicit written contract from them itemizing your wedding dress down to the last detail, then you will most likely lose your case against them in court. Written evidence wins your court cases, not "He said, she said", or "they promised me..."

Scam #5: Limousine Service Doesn't Show Up Or Has Wrong Vehicle

How the scam works: You sign up with a chauffeured limousine rental service to provide limo services for your wedding. You secure your wedding limo months in advance and pay a hefty deposit, maybe you reserved one of their exotic limousines, a fancy 20 seat Hummer Limo, or perhaps an ultra fancy Rolls Royce limousine. The day of your wedding arrives and the limousines either does not show up at all, or they show up with the wrong limousine, or they don't know where to go although you wrote down perfect instructions for their dispatcher. We have heard from brides and grooms who rented the high end limos, and a 2 seat limousine shows up at the last minute. You have no choice, you either have to accept the 2 seat limo, or scrap the limo altogether and come up with other transportation fast. To make matters worse, the A/C is not working, the windows don't roll down, the champagne is warm, and the equipment is in overall disrepair. You demand a refund from the owners and they flatly refuse you, stating that you accepted the limo as delivered, and they performed their service. You have no contract in writing stating what they promised you so your chances of winning in court are zero. This is not anecdotal evidence, this happens all the time whether it's for wedding limos, or just an airport limo. I've even booked a limousine that was supposed to take us to the airport and it never showed up. We had to scramble to pack our luggage into our sedan and barely made our flight.

Possible root causes for this scam: Most often the limo company you are booking with does not own the limo you want, despite their misleading flyers to the contrary. Rather they are brokering the limo, and thus have no control of the exotic limo you rented. This adds extra layers of complexity miscommunication, as your directions often don't get transferred to the driver. Just like in any business there are some inexperienced people who one day wake up and think they are a limousine company. They buy old limos at auction, do little to fix them up, and you the customer will get stuck with bum equipment. Other times you get sleazy people who just don't care. They just want your money and they want you to shut up and go away.

How To Avoid The Scam: The problem with limo companies is many of them have misleading ads showing high end limos which they do not actually own. They try to appear as though they actually own that Rolls Royce. So you want to filter out these brokers by asking to come inspect their cars on an off day, like Monday at lunch time. You want to verify that they indeed own the limo, and that it's good condition. That's not asking too much, and it's within your right as a consumer. Second, no matter what sales talk or double talk you are given, they better itemize everything on their contract. If you want a 20 seat Hummer, your contract better say "20 seat Hummer", not "Large Limo". Your contract must have all the arrival times, dates, address of the bride, the church, and the reception, down to the last detail, most important, the number of hours you have the limo for, and who the driver will be. When you book a $200 hotel room, the hotel gives you a whole detailed printed itinerary. For a $1000+ limo rental you should expect no less. Now if the limo company mistreats you, then you have a contract that you can use in court against them to remind them all that they promised you, and get a refund. As we mentioned with other wedding vendors, you should check the Better Business Bureau database or on RipoffReport.com for any possible mention of the limo company before you hire them.

Scam #6: Musician Does Not Show Up To Your Wedding

How the scam works: You hire a band or other musician to play at your reception, and you are shocked when you get there to discover they have not shown up and honored their end of the agreement and you have no music. You probably have no DJ, now you are stuck. This happened to my sister at her wedding, the supposedly respectable harpist hired to play at her ceremony and reception was out getting drunk when she should have been playing at the wedding, and then claimed she did not have the money to refund my sister. Luckily I had some Jazz CDs in my camera bag.

How To Avoid The Scam: It's pretty hard to make a human being show up when they'd rather be out drinking. You'll find that bands and musicians are usually not professional businesses, so there may be no information about them in the Better Business Bureau so you really need to make sure they have a good reputation by verifying with people you know, or check references from prior clients before you book the musicians. With the high risk in this category, it's especially important to get in writing all the itinerary of your wedding with accurate directions. Don't just accept the musician penciling you into their notebook and taking your deposit, you want a written document that clearly spells out all their obligations. That is your only hope of getting a judgment against them in court. Even the simplest of musicians should at the very least have a one page standardized contract written up.

Scam #7: Wedding Studios Bait & Switch Photographers, Don't Produce Photos As Promised

How the scam works: One of the most common complaints we have heard concerning wedding photographers is the bait and switch, where you interview the studio owner and they promise to shoot your wedding. But on your wedding day you are surprised with another photographer, which effectively invalidates the interview process you went through to choose the photographer you liked the best. Some photography studios are in the business of luring in clients by making them think the well-known owner is going to be the photographer at their wedding. They'll say anything to close a deal, charging top dollar, then send a cheaper photographer to do the job. This allows them to book more weddings, after all there are only 52 Saturdays in a year. Another scam we hear about is after the wedding brides have a hard time getting the wedding photographer to produce the photos, or the wedding photo album, and the photographer dodges all their calls, emails, letters, and is never around when brides show to confront them in person. All this after the newlyweds paid $3000-$5000 in advance before the wedding, standard practice in the industry. Why would your wedding photographer not produce photos? It's simple, he keeps all the money and does not have spend any of it on making your prints. Six months after your wedding the photographer is still giving excuses about why your photos are not ready, and promises a few weeks more, or gets rude and defensive and blames you. Bottom line is for any studio there is no acceptable excuse why they cannot have pictures ready in a month. I can mail my negatives to any of the top professional labs around the country and have them done in a week. This is why we prefer to use studios who print their own pictures in house as it takes the "out of state lab delay excuse" out of the equation. The studio has no one to blame for delays but themselves.

How To Avoid The Scam: Your contract should always specifically state who the photographer will be. Don't accept verbal promises, if they refuse to commit to a photographer on your contract by name, then leave immediately and do not sign, you'll regret it later, I guarantee it. Your contract should also clearly itemize how many pictures and which size you are to receive, how many albums, and their types. and when you can expect them. In this day of digital photos, many studios let you log onto their web site a few days later and choose your proofs and photos. You'll easily dig up dirt about the studio in the Better Business Bureau, and find court judgments on the county records web site to alert you of their past. You might also try searching Google with their name and see if other people have reported problems with the wedding photographer. If you have to take them to court, sue for the negatives or digital photos on disc as well. From plaintiff victory going forward, you'll want everything under your control so you can send negatives or digital images to a professional lab for printing yourself. Once you choose your album, don't change your mind, don't change the package, don't change anything. They love to overcharge you and blame the fact that it's a year and you have no pictures on your indecisive changes. Don't give them a reason to blame you.

Scam #8: Wedding Disc Jockey Does Not Provide Services As Promised

How the scam works: You meet with your wedding DJ who happens to be the owner and agree to hire him for your wedding, and choose some upgraded lighting packages as well. Your wedding day arrives and you're blindsided to learn that someone else is the DJ at your wedding, and you did not get your upgraded lighting either. You might even be shocked to see your DJ is not appropriately dressed. Sound familiar? I bet most of you know at least one newlywed couple who has gone through this. You also find out you only had the DJ for 2 hours and he's threatening to leave now if you don't fork over another $200 because your wedding is running over. But wait a minute, didn't he verbally promise you 11 months ago that you had him for 3 or 4 hours?

How To Avoid The Scam: Your contract should specifically state who your wedding DJ will be, as well as any additional equipment you want, the number of hours they are hired for, any overtime fees, what food they are allowed to get and any special requests. We've heard of the DJ getting drunk at the open bar. It's so important to get all these details in writing, because people make all sorts of empty promises which they will forget about in the 11 months until your wedding. You'll have no legal recourse unless you get it in writing. As with the other wedding vendors, you should check out your wedding DJ in the Better Business Bureau and court judgments on the county records web site. You should also contact your DJ two weeks before your wedding to review what is expected. Go over the list of all names and pronunciations and first dance and parent dances, etc.

Scam #9: Florists Short Change The Number Of Flowers In Your Centerpieces

How the scam works: You meet with your prospective wedding florist, and they make up a quick centerpiece for you on the spot with a bunch of flowers and other decorations attached and offer you a price which you agree to, and fill out the paperwork for your wedding flowers. The problem is, you'll find out later at your reception they put a lot more flowers into that sample centerpiece than the one that ends up on your table. Why didn't they just build a sample centerpiece that had half the flowers, which would be closer to the centerpiece they will really make for you? Because they know you'll go elsewhere. The stakes are high, flowers are expensive, there's profit at stake, the more you can charge and the fewer flowers you put in the centerpiece, the more money you'll make. Also, be careful if they fax you a quote, and you try to haggle the price down. If they refax the quote, check every single item to make sure they did not remove any items. Some florists get sneaky and say "Sure we can come down on the price a bit". When you scrutinize their new quote, you'll see your "Champagne lace" table cloth was changed to a plain tan table cloth. So they really did not come down on the price, they came down on the quality.

How To Avoid The Scam: Your contract should specifically state what type of flowers you are getting, any decorations, and the number of flowers in each centerpiece, and how many centerpieces there will be. People make empty promises which they will forget about later. Check out your florist in the Better Business Bureau and court judgments on the county records web site.

Scam #10: Diamond Jewelers Switch Your Diamond During Cleaning

How the scam works: You arrive back from your honeymoon and decide to get your diamond cleaned up, so you leave the ring with a jewelry shop for cleaning. But when you return to pick up your diamond and get it home to examine it, you discover the diamond was switched. You can easily tell it's not your original diamond, the switched diamond is of much lesser quality, has flaws and cracks in it, Mr, Magoo could tell this is a bad diamond. This is not just a scam of yesteryear, I still get complaints about this. Come on, did you really think all the bad guys stopped being bad guys all of a sudden? This scam will be going on until the second coming of Jesus.

How To Avoid The Scam: One good way to avoid this is when you buy your diamond, see if they can etch a serial number onto the edge of the diamond girdle. Then whenever you bring it in for cleaning make them write down your laser etched number on the invoice. When you pick up your diamond, be sure to verify that your laser etched number is still on the diamond. Bring your diamond grading certificate with you also, so you can make sure that your diamond matches all the flaws drawn on the certificate. If they switched your diamond, obviously there will be no laser etched serial number on the diamond. Other means you can use to protect yourself are to arrange in advance to bring your ring to the jeweler and be there to watch them when they do the cleaning, it does not take long. You really never know who is going to switch your diamond, but you can search online for any prior complaints about a jeweler before you give them any business.