Fiona Mullins was told by The Wedding Warehouse in Carlisle it would continue making the dress "in case of a change of circumstances"
A grieving woman whose fiancé died suddenly was left stunned after her wedding dress designers refused to refund her deposit and told her they could carry on making the dress - in case of a change in circumstances.
Fiona Mullins, 44, from Workington, Cumbria, went looking for her dream dress in November last year and thought she had found it at The Wedding Warehouse in Carlisle.
She was looking forward to wearing it next year at her wedding to fiancé Kevin Elliott, 34.
But tragically factory worker Kevin dropped dead in December.
The cause of his death remains unknown.
Following his untimely death devastated Miss Mullins requested a refund of the 50 per cent deposit she had paid to The Wedding Warehouse, a sum of £1,200.
But to her horror staff at The Wedding Warehouse informed her their policy was to take the deposit as a cancellation fee or carry on with making the dress.
Her daughter Rhiannon Clark said: “They told her they could cancel the dress but the money would be held as a cancellation fee or they could carry on making it in case of a change of circumstances.
“We could not believe what she was hearing.
“We have never heard of anything so callous in our whole lives.
“What was her fiancé going to do - come back from the dead?
“Money is not everything in life but when you also only work in a supermarket, trying to provide for your children, as now, a single parent £1,200 was a lot of money to lose.”
Rhiannon decided to organise an online petition in a bid to recover her mum’s deposit which gained over 6,000 signatures in the first 24 hours.
Tonight The Wedding Warehouse relented and agreed to repay the deposit in full.
A triumphant Rhiannon said: “I’m so pleased they agreed to pay the money but the whole family are still upset this was deal with so badly.
“We are going through enough as it is at the moment so sorting this out should not have been so painful.
“This situation could have been handled so much better but we are thankful they have seen sense and decided to honour my mum’s request.”
Ailsa Taylor, Managing Director of The Wedding Warehouse, told The Daily Mirror: “We were really saddened to see that the family decided to use social media rather than deal with us.
“Our usual policy when a dress is not wanted for any reason is to take the deposit as a cancellation fee or to continue with the process.
“From our point of view as a business we have to take a financial hit on any decision we make.
“Obviously we are very saddened to hear what happened to Miss Mullins and offered her our full condolences but this was the first time this situation has ever happened to us and it took time for us to sort it out.
“But we have now offered Miss Mullins a full refund and have put the cheque in the post.”