Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 26, 1995 TAG: 9509260029
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Don't talk to Holly Pack about the joys of getting married.
Oh, sure, she loves her fiance, Chris, and she's excited about the candlelight ceremony they're planning, and her satin-and-sequin dress is beautiful.
But those bridesmaids' dresses...
Pack, whose wedding is set for Dec. 30, ordered her four bridesmaids' dresses months ago from Lady L Bridals in Roanoke, and her family paid the bridal shop more than $300 as a deposit.
But Lady L's parent company, E&H Corp. of Richmond, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August and Pack was told that the dresses - and the money - were gone.
Filing under Chapter 11 of federal bankruptcy law normally involves reorganization of a business, but a possible purchase of E&H by a Pennsylvania company fell through and left Lady L to liquidate its inventory instead.
Pack said the ordeal has been frustrating, but she knows she's a lot better off than many of Lady L's other hundreds of customers. She, after all, managed to get her wedding dress from Lady L before the bankruptcy was filed.
"You can usually find bridesmaids' dresses somewhere else," she said. "It wasn't worth getting too angry about. What good would that have done?"
Cyndi Kelley of Lynchburg wasn't quite so matter of fact about her experience. She's getting married in December, too, but her $1,478 wedding dress got stuck in bankruptcy limbo. Her mother had written the Lady L store in Richmond a check for $783, more than half the cost of the gown.
The company assured Kelley the dress would be delivered, even after its Roanoke store closed in June. But when she called Lady L a few weeks later, she was told the company had declared bankruptcy - and she had no dress.
"Lady L has been in business for, what, 30 years?" Kelley said. "You feel safe with a store like that. You never think you'll end up with nothing."
The New York manufacturer of the dress, the Demetrios Group, offered to sell her the dress for an additional $850, what it said was its wholesale price. But this would have brought her total charges to $1,633 and still wouldn't have included shipping or nearly $100 in alterations. A receptionist at Demetrios said no one was available to comment on the company's relationship with Lady L.
Both families said they're upset at the way Lady L has handled the bankruptcy. No one at Lady L headquarters in Richmond has been very helpful, they said, other than to tell the brides that there was no way they would get their dresses.
Nannette Shor, president of Lady L, could not be reached for comment. The former Lady L telephone number in Richmond has been changed to an unlisted one.
Bruce Arkema, E&H's attorney, said his firm has done everything it was supposed to do. His office sent a letter, dated Sept. 15, to all Lady L customers suggesting they file a claim in bankruptcy court and call the Richmond Better Business Bureau for more advice. The letter also listed several Virginia stores that have agreed to help Lady L customers.
But by Thursday, Kelley's mother still hadn't received the letter. And both she and Holly Pack's mother, Gaile Pack, said Arkema's office had told them nothing about alternative arrangements when they had called to ask about their options.
"We don't represent the brides," Arkema said. "If people called us for information and whoever they talked to didn't tell them about these stores, it's probably because they simply didn't know."
The Richmond Better Business Bureau has been calling Lady L customers all over the country, said president Tom Gallagher. The customer list, which includes names from E&H's mail-order bridal business, was 70 pages long, he said, with wedding dates ranging from early September to the middle of 1997.
Roy Creasy, a Roanoke lawyer who specializes in bankruptcy cases, said all these customers will have priority when E&H's assets are distributed following bankruptcy proceedings. This likely will take months, however, and even with priority standing these creditors will be paid only after all administrative expenses, tax claims and employee payments have been covered. When it filed for Chapter 11 protection, the company listed assets of $1.85 million and liabilities of $1.7 million.
According to a bankruptcy notice included in the letter from Arkema, customers have until Dec. 19 to file proof of claim with the bankruptcy court in Richmond. Any customers who paid by credit card may be able to cancel the charges, depending on the issuing bank's policies.
Cyndi Kelley ended up paying a Lynchburg seamstress $962 for a custom-designed dress. She loves her new dress, she said, and she wishes she had thought of that option months ago. Her mother plans to file a claim in bankruptcy court to recoup her $783 loss.
"I, at least, had time to regroup," Kelley said. "It's caveat emptor, I guess - let the buyer beware."
Holly Pack has managed to find the same bridesmaids' dresses at another Roanoke store, for about $10 less than Lady L had charged. Her mother, too, wants to file a claim.
But Pack offered a word of advice for bridal shop owners:
"Don't mess with girls who are trying to get married, because they're a little psychotic anyway."
by CNB