This rental agreement applies to all rental items booked through The Dress Lab website, unless otherwise specified.

CONTRACT

By placing an order on the The Dress Lab website, you are entering a legally binding contract between yourself and The Dress Lab.

PAYMENT

By entering this agreement, you authorise The Dress Lab to charge the selected payment method according to the terms outlined in this agreement.

You also authorise The Dress Lab to charge the supplied payment method for any additional fees as outlined in this agreement (such as damages or late return fees). If a charge against the supplied payment method cannot be made, we will provide you with an invoice for the fees which you agree to pay within 5 business days.

The Dress Lab reserves the right to take all steps necessary to recoup any amounts owing as per this agreement, including the use of debt collection agencies and taking legal action. This may increase the amount owed by the customer, to cover the costs of these services.

IDENTIFICATION

In some cases, after you've placed an order via our website, you may be asked for a passport, driver's license or other forms of identification. If this isn't provided, we reserve the right to refuse the booking.

BOOKING PERIOD

The Dress Lab offers 4 or 8 day rentals. The rental period you have selected for your rental is 'inclusive'. For example, a 4-day rental period can mean that your item will arrive by Friday and you will post it back on Monday. In this example, both the Friday and the Monday are included in the 4-day period.

DELIVERY

When booking an item with The Dress Lab, you are asked to select a "Delivery Date". You should select a Delivery Date which is 1 or 2 days before the day you intend to wear the item(s).

The item(s) will be sent in order to arrive to the address provided on or before your chosen Delivery Date. All items are shipped express.

You will receive a tracking number to your supplied email address when the items have been dispatched.

All deliveries are marked 'leave in a safe place' and do not require signature to leave. Even if this request is passed on to Australia Post, it is still not a guarantee that it will be left without signature. Australia Post makes this decision at the time based on whether they believe it is safe to do so, and this is completely out of our control.

If you wish for your delivery to require signature upon delivery please contact us immediately after your purchase.

In the vast majority of cases, your item(s) will arrive on or before your Delivery Date. Due to unforeseen circumstances and factors outside our control, usually related to issues with Australia Post, it may arrive late.

If the item arrives too late for you to wear it to your event, and it is returned unworn within 1-2 days of delivery, you will be provided with a refund or credit note per below:

• If your order was placed 3 or more full business days prior to your chosen delivery date, it will be a full refund.
• Otherwise it will be considered a "last-minute order" and you will have the option of a full credit note or a refund minus delivery.
  

If you aren't able to return the item(s) within 1-2 days of delivery for any reason (e.g. if you've already travelled away from the delivery address), then please contact us to let us know.

If your delivery fails because you have provided an incorrect or incomplete address, you will not be entitled to a refund or credit. It is your responsibility to ensure that the address you enter is accurate and complete according to Australia Post and in some cases, other postage providers. This includes providing a valid apartment/unit number, company name or any other information required for postage providers to deliver to you. If the items cannot be recovered after being delivered to an incorrect or incomplete address that was provided by you, you will be liable for a replacement fee.

We do not delivery to PO boxes or Lockers.

INCORRECT OR FAULTY ITEMS

If you open your delivered parcel to find that you have been sent the incorrect item, please let us know immediately. If there's enough time, we will do our best to get you a replacement so you still have something to wear.

If you find that the item is correct, but has other issues (e.g. damage, faults or noticeable stains), please let us know within 24 hours of receiving the item, and definitely prior to wearing the item.

If you don't let us know within this timeframe, we reserve the right to refuse a refund as it will not be clear when the damage was caused or by who.

If you've been advised that a refund will be offered (or will be considered upon return), you must post back the item(s) within 1 business day.

You acknowledge that the items being sent to you are not brand new and may have some signs of wear & tear. A refund may not be granted if the issue is considered minor or insignificant.

ISSUES WITH FIT OR APPEARANCE

We try to provide as much information as we can regarding the fit of the items available for hire on our website. We take no responsibility if you choose a size or item which does not fit you or does not suit you.

In cases where you have received your item and it doesn't fit, you can email us immediately to request an exchange. If we have an alternate size available we can arrange an exchange.
Delivery fees will apply. Local pick up available at no cost.

CUSTOMER CANCELLATIONS

For cancellations on all rented items, you will be entitled to a full refund if:

• Your cancellation request is received in the first 24 hours after placing your order, as long as it is still more than 72 hours from your booking start date and your package hasn't yet been dispatched, OR
• Your cancellation request is received 21 or more days prior to your booking start date.

You will receive a credit note if:

• Your cancellation request is received less than 21 but more than 7 days prior to your booking start date for the full amount paid including postage. The credit note can be used to rent any item from The Dress Lab website and will have a 12 month expiry.
• Your cancellation is received 7 days or less prior to booking date. A store credit at 50% of the rental price will be issued with a 12 month expiry.

We understand that sometimes things happen. For cancellations of exceptional circumstances, refunds or credit notes will be at the discretion of The Dress Lab.

Cancellation requests can be made via our contact form.

In exceptional circumstances we will consider a cancellation outside the allowances above, but reserve the right to decide.

CANCELLATIONS BY THE DRESS LAB

The Dress Lab may cancel your booking, for any reason. The compensation to you will be limited to the amount you paid for the booking including postage. 

Reasons The Dress Lab may cancel your booking include, but are not limited to:

• The item is damaged by a customer that has rented the item prior to you.
• The item is lost or stolen by a customer that rented the item prior to you.
• It is deemed that it is not possible to deliver the item to you in time for your booking, due to previous late return by a customer, or for any other reason, such as postage network delays.

We will do our absolute best to mitigate the consequences in these instances, but in all cases above, you will be entitled to a full refund.

RETURN OF ITEMS

All items hired through The Dress Lab are to be returned in the box and postal satchel they are received in. We will include a prepaid Australia Post Express Post satchel for returning the item back to us. If you don't receive this, please Contact Us immediately.

If your "Return on" date falls on a Sunday or a public holiday, you may post the item on the next working day.

Items should be returned over the counter at an Australia Post store or depot, on or before the specified booking return date. This will be labelled the "Return on" date during checkout and in your order confirmation email.

If for any reason you aren't able to attend an Australia Post store to post back the item over-the-counter, you may return the parcel via a yellow Australia Post Express Post street postbox. This is at your own risk. If the parcel is lost and is never scanned by Australia Post, you will be liable for replacement at the full RRP price of the item.

Similarly, if the item arrives back much later than expected, the date of the first scan on the tracking will be used as the date it was posted back to calculate late fees.

CLEANING

Straight up. We understand that small accidents may happen, we have an incredible team that can remove stains and make minor repairs to the dresses quick and without fuss. We don't want you to worry about these.

However, we do have other brides relying on us to provide their dress is top condition for their special days too, so we appreciate your support in taking extra care and letting us know as soon as possible if something happens that may impact this.

Dry cleaning is included in your hire.
There will be no fees charged for small stains as long as stains can be removed.

Under no circumstances should you attempt to clean the rental item(s) yourself, or have them cleaned by anyone else.

If something is spilled or causes a mark to your dress that you are concerned about please let us know as soon as possible so we can give you directions on what we can do to minimise the damage.

If you attempt to clean a garment and cause damage, or cause a stain to be permanent, we reserve the right to bill you a fee up to, but not more than 120% of the full RRP of the garment. The garments available for rent on our website are often sold out in all retail stores and no longer available from the designer, which is why a charge above the RRP may apply. This fee will be on top of any amount already paid for rental or postage.

For your special bridal events we understand that fake tan is often worn, small marks on the inside of the dresses that do not impact the dress will not be the cause of additional fee's. However if there are deep tan stains that we are unable to get out, that impact the ability for the dress to be worn again then damage fee's will apply.

DAMAGE OR LOSS

If damage (stains, rips, etc) is observed when your garment arrives, please take photos of this and let us know right away. If you don't do this and there was no known damage prior to delivery, it may be assumed that the damage was caused by you.

If you damage a rental item, do not attempt to repair it. If it can be easily repaired (e.g. sewing on a button, re-stitching) it will be taken care of with no additional cost to you. It's also not a problem if the garment is stained, as long as it comes out when it is dry-cleaned after you've returned the garment.

You agree that under no circumstances will you attempt to clean/repair the rental item(s) yourself, or have them cleaned/repaired by anyone else. Do not cut, alter or hem any item booked via The Dress Lab.

Damage insurance of up to $100 is included in the booking fee.

If an item is damaged and is not covered by minor repairs as mentioned above, or insurance, you will be liable for the cost of restoring or replacing the garment. In the case the garment cannot be restored to a suitable condition, the fee charged may be up to, but not more than, 120% of the original RRP of the garment. This fee will be on top of any amount already paid for rental or postage, and the item will still need to be returned to the rental partner, regardless of the amount of damage.

If you've lost or not returned an item, you will be liable for up to 200% of the RRP of the item.

The items available for rent on our website are often sold out in all retail stores and no longer available from the designer. This has led to some people renting an item and not returning it, or saying it is lost, so that they are able to obtain something they want to keep. This, along with loss of earnings from potential future rentals, is why there is a fee of up to 200% of RRP for lost and unreturned items.

If an item is lost by Australia Post, then there will be no fees charged to you. This is only on the condition it was posted over the counter at an Aus Post Office, and tracking is available.

This will not happen when you put it into a street post box, as there will be no evidence of you having posted the item. In these situations you would be liable for the loss.

By placing your order to hire, you give permission for The Dress Lab to charge fees for damages or loss of an item to the payment method you used when placing your order. You will be given the option of using an alternative payment method before the charge is made.

For further enquiries on Cleaning & Damages please contact us.

LATE RETURN

If for any reason you post back the rental item(s) on a day after the “Return On” specified, late fees may apply. We will often allow a grace period of 1-2 days for this, but only if it doesn't affect a future booking for another customer. If it does affect this, late fees will be enforced.

The fee charged for each day late will be your rental price divided by the number of days you've rented for, up to 120% of the original RRP of the item. For example, if you selected a 4-day hire and the rental fee was $100, late fees would be charged at $25 for each day late. Any lodgement after 4pm local time will be considered as an additional day late, as it won't be collected from that Australia Post location until the following day.

CHANGES TO THE RENTAL AGREEMENT

The Dress Lab reserves the right to change the Rental Agreement at any time, so it is important you review and accept them each time you place an order.

The terms that apply to an order will be in accordance with the Rental Agreement as they stood on the date the order was placed.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us at any time.