Category — Scams

Hobrias Sudoneighm

Been shopping for your wedding dress yet?

Finding “the” dress is one of the most exciting things about getting married.  It’s also ripe for the RIP OFF.  Literally.

The biggest rip off…

Most bridal shops remove the labels from designers wedding gowns. This is illegal, by the way…a label is required by law to designate the designer, manufacturer or distributor according to the Federal Trade Commission.  Check out their article, “Unveiling the Truth About Wedding Dresses.”

If the label’s missing when you try on a dress..the bridal shop is breaking the law.

Bridal shops started pulling this literal “rip off” to keep you from finding a dress you love in their shop and buying it cheaper from a discount store online.  Instead of figuring out how to compete with the discount outlets, they rip off the evidence.  Many bridal boutiques also forbid the use of cameras so you can’t identify it on your own later.

Anything to keep you enslaved to paying higher prices.

Unfortunately, without labels it’s impossible to know for sure if the designer dress you’ve chosen was truly made by that designer. Some shops even trick brides by selling them sample or used dresses when they paid full retail price for a brand new one.

So what can you do?

I reveal all the details about the wedding dress scams to avoid and how to find your designer dress at up to 92% off in my book.  But here are some ways to fight back…

• Don’t buy from the bridal shop.  You can almost always find a better deal on the exact same dress somewhere else.  Try ‘em on, learn what you love…and leave ‘em high and dry.
• Check the ID number.  Shops are permitted to remove the original label and replace it with a store label that identifies the designer, manufacturer or distributor by ID number.  Copy down the ID number on the tag (if there is one) and make sure the designer is who they claim on the FTC’s website in the RN Lookup Database.
• If they won’t tell you the designer…don’t buy from them.  Take detailed notes on the design of a dress you like, including the silhouette, neckline, length, etc. and locate it online.
• Never pay cash and always get a receipt.  Read your contract carefully and make sure it has all the specifics written in clearly.

Don’t get ripped off!  It’s up to you to protect yourself and make the most of your money so you can plan the wedding of your dreams.

If brides band together and so NO to wedding rip offs maybe those bridal shops will finally wise up and start giving brides the service they deserve.

Got a wedding dress story, good or bad?  Leave me a comment.

Carlos Mendoza Lima

 “From tried and true to the brand new, couples young and older are choosing the best of everything to celebrate their love…”

Reads like a flippin’ Hallmark card, doesn’t it?

That quote is straight out of the “2009 Wedding Supplement” of the New York Times.  According to them, 2009 wedding trends show couples “sparing no expense” to have the BEST as a “celebration of their love.”  

The unspoken implication is that if you dare spend less…you just don’t value your love enough.

Are they living on another planet?  The brides I know are getting smart, trimming their budgets and spending where it makes the most impact.  I’m not seeing those “Spare No Expense” brides around these parts.

Ah, now I see…it’s the 2009 wedding advertising supplement.  Why that explains everything!

Watch out for those advertisements disguised as newspaper ads.  The wedding industry is still projecting the illusion of extravagant spending as the norm, as the average, even. 

Why would they do a thing like that?  Maybe it’s to brainwash you into spending MORE MONEY…money you didn’t have to spend.

Of course you still want the best for your wedding.  I want you to have the best, too.

But gone are the days when brides would spend $10,000 on a dress and brag about it.  Even brides who have the money are toning it down these days.

It’s cool to be frugal.  It’s hip to be thrifty.

The wedding industry will try to keep you in the dark as long as possible.  They want you to think you have to pay their ridiculously high prices to have your dream wedding.  The truth is…

Most brides pay 2-3 TIMES MORE than they have to pay on their weddings.

I expose the industry’s wedding Scams in my eBook, “The $10,000 Dream Wedding,” because I know you can have the wedding of your dreams for a fraction of the cost when you know exactly what to say and do to get the best deals.

DON’T BUY THE HYPE.  When you see a “newspaper ad,” scan the top and bottom carefully and read the small print.  “A special advertising supplement…”  “This is a paid advertisement…”

Proceed with caution. 

Got a scammy advertising story?  Leave me a comment.

Did you ever buy something you really loved…?

Get home, knock yourself over the head and think…

Why the heck did I buy that?!!?

Maybe you overpaid.  Maybe you didn’t really need it.  Maybe it wasn’t as nice as you thought it was when you examined it in the (post spending spree) light of day.

Whatever your reason, you suffered from BUYER’S REMORSE.  And chances are you were a victim of the treacherous advertising industry.

Advertisers use every trick in the book to get you to BUY. And if they can get you to buy without thinking, chances are you’ll spend even more.

The wedding industry is no different. They know you’ve been planning your dream wedding in your head for years.  They know how badly you want your wedding to be unique…how much you want to feel beautiful…how you want your guests to say yours was the best wedding ever…how you want your wedding day to be unforgettable.

And they will USE IT to get your money.

Let’s be honest.  In today’s economy, you can’t afford to spend one penny you didn’t have to spend on your wedding.  But it’s up to YOU to stretch your wedding budget to the limit and get your dream wedding at an affordable price.

The New York Times revealed one advertising trick in this article last weekend:  The 99 Cent Pricing Scam.

By pricing items so that they end in 9 cents…$1.99, $79, $1,249…advertisers get you to buy more and spend more.  In fact, raising the price of margarine from 65 cents to 69 cents made sales GO UP 222%!

It’s crazy.  It’s illogical.  But advertisers know the tricks and tactics they can use to make you buy…even when it’s not in your best interest.  It’s like you have an automatic button in your head that says BUY…and if they know how to push it your money is theirs.

You better believe the wedding industry is going to use this against you.

So what can you do?

You’ve got to learn how to use the wedding industry’s own tricks against them.

If you’re planning your own wedding for under $10,000 like I was, download my FREE Bride’s Secret Weapon Report.  It teaches you the psychology you can use to MAKE wedding vendors give you deals, and exactly what to say and do to avoid getting ripped off, taken advantage of, and scammed.  When it comes to your wedding, this will probably be the most important thing you’ll ever read.

Photo by Devin Young

I was looking at designer wedding dresses the other day…just for fun…and came across something that made me really MAD.

A very famous wedding designer site (which shall remain nameless) made the following statement:

“We recommend not purchasing on the internet…Buying gowns on the Internet for a discount is a gamble.  We support full service brick and mortar bridal salons because we know they will provide you with the service you deserve and the product you expect.

Purchasing from an unauthorized retailer on the Internet presents many problems including the following reported issues:

• Receiving the incorrect size gown.
• Receiving the incorrect color gown.
• No support through the unauthorized website retailer you purchased the gown through.
• A gown being damaged in the shipping process.
• Losing money to a website that has gone out of business.”

I’M FUMING!

It’s fairly common knowledge that most designer gowns, even the “custom-made” gowns, are manufactured in China for a fraction of what it would cost to make in the United States.  Translation: HIGH MARK-UP before it even gets to the U.S.  Then, those designer wedding gowns are sold to warehouse distributors (ANOTHER MARK-UP) before being sold to bridal shops (THIRD MARK-UP) where they are sold to brides (FOURTH MARK-UP.)

The mark-up on designer gowns sold by bridal shops is 100% to cover the costs of rent for the shop, heat, and all the other overhead for the business.  It’s justified as a way to make a living according to this article at HubPages.com.

Hey, I’ve got nothing against making a profit.  But for a designer to say that buying off the internet is more of a gamble than purchasing at “brick and mortar” bridal salons is a CROCK.

There are risks, sure.  But if you’ve been around the wedding industry block a few times, you won’t go far before finding the exact same complaints–ordering the wrong dress, wrong color, no service, damaged gown, bridal salon going out of business–about those same precious “brick and mortar” establishments.

Who do they think they’re kidding?  Buying your wedding gown on the internet is a SMART OPTION that reaps huge discounts when you buy from a reputable seller.  By cutting out the middle-man, you cut out the mark-up, which is what makes those discounts possible.

Who do you think is paying the designer top prices?  Yep, those “brick and mortar” (or vinyl-siding, cheap facade) bridal salons.  So isn’t it in the designers best interest to scare brides away from discounted internet purchases…and keep lining their pockets with the cash of poor brides like you?

It really ticks me off!

Fortunately, I know the truth.  And I’d love to dish out all those secrets they don’t want you to know about saving on the designers wedding dress of your dreams in my eBook.

Has the wedding mark-up got you fuming?  Leave me a comment.