Try before you buy!

Send 'em back, glammagran. The distance selling regulations mean you have 14 days from date of receipt to change your mind for any reason.

In this case, the dresses are unfit for purpose - the sizing isn't correct and what you ordered - so you should email the seller ASAP to let them know you will be returning the items for a refund and why. Ask them to email you a returns label so you can send the clothes back at the retailer's expense.

As a point of information, if you simply change your mind about something but it is not faulty, then the cost of returning it falls to you. (Sorry, I sound like something from You & Yours but I had to mug this up very recently when we had a problem with some expensive electronic stuff.)

I think you need to be careful with online retailers. If they don't have a uk contact address and telephone number I don't use.

If you bought them from a website - under Distance Selling - you have the right to return the item and you do not have to give a reason.. you are entitled to a refund. But as you altered the clothing you are not entitled to a refund. You may get some goodwill deal but you have no right to a refund. just force your argument, politely, and hope for the best.

PS: You say or imply you bought the clothing online. If you did and they were sent to you - i/e you did not meet a person face to face and see the items - you would have been entitled to a full refund and you DO NOT have to give a reason. But you altered the items which show your acceptance of them and they are damaged goods.

Put on a brand new pair of trousers from M & S yesterday morning - the fit was so good that I thought 'I'll buy another pair of these tomorrow'. Well, by the end of the day they were so baggy and shapeless they were falling off me. That's the last time I am buying summer trousers in Marks!

I’ve been buying M&S trousers (small length) for years, the latest pair I bought are over three inches longer.

Buy trousers from Ambrose Wilson or Chums they do lengths from 25 27 29 etc.I am 5 ft 1 l am not going to spend more money getting clothes shortened. I can't understand why manufacturers can't do different lengths.

cathieb I have had just that problem - I bought three pairs from M and S a year or so ago, in a linen mix. A really good fit, and having a silky lining around the pockets and waist area to avoid the slightly scratchy feeling you can get with linen - I thought I had struck gold. Sadly they stretched so badly that at one event I kept having to haul the trousers up and eventually had to use a safety pin to make the waist smaller. When washed they reverted to a good fit, but half an hour of wear, and especially sitting in the car and they were at least two sizes bigger. All three pairs went to a charity shop.

Bit late joining in here. Still have a tape measure in my handbag from when we were posted in Hong Kong and needed to measure everything in the markets as the main reason for stuff being there was mis-labelling