BC Indian clothing store on the hook for thousands in wedding outfit case

An Indian clothing boutique in BC was sued for thousands of dollars by a customer claiming they did not get their desired wedding outfit in time.

Frontier Cloth House, located in Surrey, was sued for a refund of $3,790.

In defence, an employee representing Frontier claimed that the outfit was ready but that the customer did not pick it up, denying that Frontier owed a refund.

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In January 2022, Inderdeep Deo ordered a custom, hand-embroidered wedding outfit from Frontier. The BC Civil Resolution Tribunal inferred that Frontier ordered the outfit from an Indian vendor.

Deo told the tribunal that she paid $1,800 in cash and $2,290 on her credit card for the outfit.

According to the tribunal decision, Deo said that when she went to pick up the outfit in April 2022, there were several problems, including the skirt being too long and the top being too large. She also claimed the colours were wrong.

Deo added to her claims, suggesting that Frontier agreed to order her a new outfit. It didn’t arrive in time, so she purchased a new one from a different outlet.

Frontier had a different take.

Frontier said that Deo didn’t try the outfit on until May 2022. It admitted that the skirt and sleeves were too long on the first outfit. Frontier went on to say that Deo didn’t ask for a second outfit until June 2022, and it warned Deo that the outfit could possibly not arrive on time. However, Frontier said the outfit did arrive before the wedding, which was in July.

Because there was no written contract, the tribunal had to determine whether a verbal agreement had been breached.

“Deo says that Frontier told her the second outfit would arrive in early June. She says this was important because she needed time to order custom-matching jewellery and accessories for the outfit before the wedding,” the decision reads.

While Frontier provided some witness statements to prove its claims, the tribunal preferred Deo’s description of the events “as I find it is more consistent with the documentary evidence.”

“I find the parties agreed that Frontier would reorder the outfit and that it would be ready by June 15, 2022. As the outfit undisputedly did not arrive until July 6, 2022, I find Frontier breached its contract with Ms. Deo.”

Deo walked away with $4,215.31, which included $3,790 in damages and the rest in tribunal fees and interest.