Gillian was getting married in April therefore,Marketing Research and Data Analysis she was required to purchase a wedding gown and decided to purchase the gown from an online e-commerce retail outlet known as ‘The Wedding Gown World’ that advertised themselves as being wedding gown experts. Due to their website maintenance, Gillian was not able to see pictures of the gowns on the website and so, telephoned the customer service hotline and spoke to Bella who was a customer service executive.

Gillian explained that she was looking for a long satin off-white wedding gown. Bella confirmed that she knew the perfect dress for Gillian and it was called ‘The Princess’. She described the dress as being one of a kind, unique, floor-length gown with ruched detailing on the left-hand side. Bella also suggested that Gillian should read the online description about the dress before confirming, as soon as the website was up and running. However, Gillian
did not read the online description as she loved the sound of the dress as described by Bella and completed her order online for a size 7 ‘The Princess’ gown and paid the price of $3000. Gillian received an email receipt confirming the order.

When the dress arrived, it was brown in color with a pin-stripe design. It was not off-white and it was short-length and not long as described by Bella. With the wedding being days away, Gillian had not much of a choice but to try on the dress and make do with what she had paid for. However, to her dismay, she was unable to fit into it, as it turned out to be a size 5 instead of a size 7 that she ordered.

Gillian was extremely furious and immediately contacted the customer service hotline and demanded to speak to a manager. The manager, Charles, informed her that he was sorry to hear of her disappointment however, he was confident that Bella would have referred Gillian to confirm the description on the website before purchasing the dress. The description on the website states that the dress was brown in color, pinstriped design, and came only in one size which was a size 5.

Charles also advised that he would not entertain a claim indicating their exclusion clauses which he said were included on the emailed receipt and on their Business Terms that were incorporated in their website which customers were to check as being read before completing their purchase. It read,

“The Wedding Gown World excludes all liability for any representations made on its behalf by sales/customer service executives in connection with any goods or services”

• Advise Gillian, and in particular, outline the legal principles concerning Bella’s
  statement and possible implied terms.
• Advise The Wedding Gown World if it may rely on the exclusion clause.