Behind Belinda’s Desk: The Lies Customers Tell a Dress Rental Business

I swear to God, after almost 10 years in dress rental, I think I've heard them all.

And before anyone comes for me: no, I don't think customers are inherently dishonest.

The overwhelming majority of our customers are bloody lovely.

Things go wrong. People make mistakes. Australia Post occasionally seems to send parcels on a scenic tour of the country. We make mistakes too.

But then there are the situations where the tracking is sitting right in front of us.

The dress is sitting somewhere it absolutely shouldn't be.

The story isn't storying.

And somehow we're still expected to pretend we don't know what's going on.

Welcome back to Behind Belinda's Desk.

Today we're talking about:

The lies customers tell a dress rental business.

And I have heard some crackers.

"I Posted It Back Yesterday"

Ladies.

We have the tracking number.

😂

This would have to be one of the most common ones we hear.

A dress is due back. It hasn't arrived.

We contact the customer because another woman has it booked and we're starting to get nervous.

"Yep! Posted it yesterday!"

Excellent.

Except…

Australia Post says you didn't.

When we send dresses out, we record the return tracking number. That means we can see when that return enters the Australia Post network.

So if you tell us you've posted it and the tracking hasn't even been scanned…

We know.

And honestly?

Just tell us.

"I'm so sorry, I forgot. I'm going to the Post Office now."

Fine.

We can work with that.

What we can't work with is losing another 24 hours because we're operating under the assumption that a dress is travelling back to us when it's actually sitting on your bedroom floor.

Because here's the part you might not realise:

Someone else may be waiting for that dress.

"My Dress Never Arrived"

There's a sister to the first one.

"I never received the dress."

Again…

Tracking.

We monitor our parcels.

We know when they've left us.

We know when they're travelling.

We know when they've been delivered.

We also know when Australia Post has genuinely delayed something—and yes, that absolutely happens.

If they've stuffed it up, we'll do everything we reasonably can to help.

Believe me, when your dress isn't arriving and you've got an event on Saturday, we are stressed too.

Probably more than you realise.

Because we don't want you standing there on Saturday afternoon without something to wear.

But claiming something hasn't arrived when the tracking tells a completely different story isn't going to magically make that tracking disappear.

"It Doesn't Fit, So I Want a Refund"

This is where things get interesting.

You order a dress.

It arrives.

You try it on.

And…

You hate it.

It doesn't sit how you imagined.

It doesn't suit you.

It doesn't fit.

We genuinely understand how disappointing that is.

But hiring a dress online and discovering that you don't love it on your body doesn't automatically entitle you to a refund.

There are fit notes.

There are measurements.

There are photos and videos.

You can contact us for advice.

And now we've introduced AI virtual try-on to give customers another tool to help visualise a dress before committing.

We are genuinely trying to make choosing the right dress easier.

But sometimes a dress simply isn't going to look how you imagined.

That's fashion.

What you cannot do is…

HOLD THE FUCKING DRESS HOSTAGE.

Yes.

This happened.

A customer received a dress that didn't fit her.

She wanted a refund.

And essentially decided:

No refund? No dress.

She refused to return it in an attempt to force us to give her what she wanted.

Eventually, the situation escalated to the point where we had to involve the police.

Over.

A.

Dress.

Ladies.

You cannot hold a fucking dress hostage.

Apart from the sheer ridiculousness of it, here's what people sometimes forget:

That dress isn't just your booking.

There may be another customer waiting for it.

The Domino Effect Nobody Sees

Dress rental can run on incredibly tight turnaround times.

A dress comes back.

We inspect it.

It goes to the dry cleaner.

It comes back.

We prepare it.

It leaves again.

Sometimes there might only be 24 hours to make all of that happen.

So one person deciding they'll keep a dress for an extra day can create absolute chaos.

Suddenly we're chasing you.

We're talking to Australia Post.

We're talking to the dry cleaner.

We're looking at courier options.

We're contacting the next customer.

We're trying to find a backup dress.

And meanwhile the next woman is thinking:

"My event is Saturday. Where the hell is my dress?"

Now multiply that across hundreds of bookings.

This is the bit customers don't see.

We're Not Myer. We're Not David Jones.

I think sometimes there's a misconception about how much money small businesses are making.

Someone pays $130 or $140 to rent a designer dress and perhaps imagines most of that money is going straight into our pocket.

I bloody wish.

😂

There's the cost of buying the garment.

Cleaning.

Repairs.

Staff.

Rent.

Postage and packaging.

Payment fees.

Technology.

Insurance.

Marketing.

And all the other boring expenses involved in keeping a bricks-and-mortar and online business alive.

Most independent dress rental businesses aren't enormous corporations.

They're small businesses.

Often they're women running businesses with tiny teams.

Sometimes they're sole traders.

And I can almost guarantee you:

When something goes wrong with your booking, the owner knows about it.

And yes.

It's probably stressing the shit out of her.

"If You Don't Give Me What I Want, I'll Leave a Bad Google Review"

Ahhhh.

The nuclear option.

"If you don't refund me, I'll leave you a one-star Google review."

Well.

Holy shit.

A bad Google review?

What the actual fuck?

Here's the thing.

Google reviews matter enormously to small businesses.

Australians use them to decide where to shop, eat, stay and spend their money.

One review can influence someone who has never interacted with your business.

And that is exactly why customers should leave bad reviews when they've genuinely had a bad experience.

If a business treats you terribly?

Say it.

If the service was appalling?

Say it.

If a business made a serious mistake and refused to fix it?

Absolutely say it.

But threatening a small business with a one-star review because they won't break their terms and conditions to give you what you want?

That's different.

"Refund me or I'll destroy your reputation" isn't feedback.

It's leverage.

And if you do decide to leave that review, tell the whole story.

Don't write:

"Absolutely disgusting company. Would never use again. Refused to refund me."

…while conveniently leaving out the part where you refused to return their dress.

Context matters.

And While We're Talking About Reviews…

Here's my little public service announcement.

People are incredibly motivated to leave a review when they're angry.

When everything goes beautifully?

We tend to get on with our lives.

So if you've had an amazing experience with any small business, not just ours, tell people.

Leave the five-star review.

Mention the staff member who helped you.

Tell people what they did brilliantly.

It takes two minutes.

But for a small business, those two minutes can genuinely matter.

Here's the Funny Thing: The Truth Usually Works Better

This is probably the biggest thing I've learned.

If you fuck up…

Just tell us.

Forgot to post the dress?

Tell us.

Spilled something on it?

Tell us.

Damaged it?

Tell us.

Lost something?

Tell us.

Something completely ridiculous happened at 2am and now you have no idea how to explain it?

Believe me.

After almost 10 years, try me.

The customer who rings and says:

"Belinda, I've fucked up."

is infinitely easier to deal with than the person who creates an elaborate story when we've already got the evidence sitting in front of us.

Because once we know what's actually happened, we can try to solve the problem.

And Yes, Sometimes WE Fuck Up Too

Because this can't just go one way.

We're human.

We've made mistakes.

We've sent things later than we'd like.

Things have occasionally been missed.

We've had situations we could have handled differently.

Every small business has.

And when we're wrong?

We need to own it too.

Good customer service doesn't mean a business never makes a mistake.

That's impossible.

It means that when something does go wrong, you communicate, take responsibility where appropriate and try to fix it.

That's all we're asking customers to do in return.

After 10 Years, My Advice Is Pretty Simple

Don't tell us you've posted the dress when you haven't.

Don't tell us a parcel never arrived when the tracking says otherwise.

Don't hold a designer dress hostage because you want a refund.

Don't threaten a small business with a one-star review because they won't give you your own way.

And please remember that behind that website you're ordering from are actual human beings trying to make sure your experience goes smoothly.

If something goes wrong?

Tell us the truth.

We can deal with mistakes.

We can deal with accidents.

We can deal with Australia Post.

We can deal with a lot of weird shit.

What makes everything harder is when we're trying to solve the wrong problem because somebody isn't telling us what actually happened.

And to every other dress rental owner reading this…

I KNOW you've got stories.

So tell me.

What's the biggest lie a customer has ever told your rental business?

And more importantly…

did you have the receipts?

Because chances are, you bloody did.

Until next time,
Belinda x