Terms

By making a deposit or purchase, you are agreeing to the terms on this page. Please review them from “Terms – Changes” through “Terms – Taxes & Customs”. Please read the terms carefully and entirely, and be sure to contact us if you have any questions whatsoever about our terms or any other questions about our costumes, goods, or services that we provide. We welcome your questions and inquiries and look forward to chatting with you.

There are multiple ways to contact us listed on the “Contact” page: Contact link is provided in the righthand side top menu as well as the left side of the footer menu.

Terms – Changes

Change orders are changes in the selection of items purchased specifically for your made-to-order project, the design, or redirection of the project’s final outcome. Along with a change order fee, there may be additional line items added to cover additional labor and materials to accommodate the change(s). Change orders start at $75

Change of delivery date are changes to the time frame you are wanting your costume to be available. An earlier date may not always be possible, but it does create a “rush order”. Please add a minimum of $100 to your order per costume.

Request for reschedule of an appointment within 24 hours prior to your appointment will result in a minimum of $25 fee to your invoice per occurrence. While we love our customers and dancers, our time is valuable, more so at peak times. We ask that you plan accordingly, we do.

Terms – Delivery

When we are available to process your order within time-line discussed and agreed upon as the suggested delivery date, we cannot be responsible for delays that may be experienced due to customer change orders, untimely response to our communications, delays to accommodate customer’s timeframe for fitting, or delivery by a third party (i.e. USPS, UPS, FedEx). Third party delivery delays may include, but are not limited to: inclement weather, volcanic eruption, terrorism, theft, etc.

Please note that in the past, we have been able to produce duplicate products within the original time-frame for lost or stolen mail. This does not guarantee that we can do the same for all future creations of last-minute rush orders.

Hailey in an age appropriate, jazz costume, “Shower”, a custom, handmade dance costume by ContenderWear™

Terms – Branding

We promote our entity name, Lona Smith Creates™, and the brands created under that entity: Lona Smith Creates™, ContenderWear™, Plain Brown Label™, HotMess Dance Apparel™, Bitsy Butik™, Havasu Bikinis™, and NuptialWear™.

Some of our suppliers have both authorized and prohibited specific tags for use on our products as it pertains to their manufactured items. As always, your costume will come with a detailed letter, which will outline care of your costume and which tags and descriptors may be used for your specific costume.

As always, we welcome your tagging and mentioning of our brands in your social media posts: Lona Smith Creates™, ContenderWear™, Plain Brown Label™, HotMess Dance Apparel™, Bitsy Butik™, Havasu Bikinis™,and NuptialWear™. We don’t mind if you choose to omit our business name or LSC brands from your postings, but we ask that you not give credit to another business for our work and products.

Any purchase of our products and works signifies that you agree to and will adhere to ALL our terms so that we can continue to provide you with the best of the best.

Shy in Soldier 2020-2021

Karlie in her dance costume, “From This Moment”, a custom, handmade, dance costume by ContenderWear™

FITTINGS—unfortunately must be spelled out for some: We expect you to be clean and wear a barrier. A barrier would be your underwear or pantiliner. We still have work to do on the costume so…No who-ha juice, tally-wacker tracks, or skid-marks.
The fitting is not the time for attitude (i.e. rudeness, eye-rolling, fussing, sewing instruction). If poor attitude, we will need to reschedule the fitting at your expense.

FIT—We are not responsible for fit due to growth, weight gain, and weight loss from initial measurements taken or given.

Terms – Deposit

Deposits and all monies paid toward a custom or semi-custom made-to-order product are NOT refundable. From the moment you place your deposit, work is performed toward your custom product, from ordering fabrics, supplies, rhinestones, and any other items; renderings are drawn; patterns are created. Your money is spent, so NO not refundable.

You are agreeing to the fact that a deposit is not “payment in full”; that you have read and understand the brand differences along with general price ranges and averages; that if you have a specific price point to meet, you should have communicated that with us along with a discussion covering such specific topic.

Terms – Exchanges & Returns

Referring to all our ready-to-ship items, exchanges & returns are not allowed, mainly due to:

Hygienic reasons
Specialty merchandise
Discount Price-Point

Terms – Measurements & Fitting

We take measurements for local customers who commission full-service ContenderWear and/or Plain Brown Label Costumes. Remote customers must take current, accurate measurements. We can assist with that via a scheduled video chat appointment, and we also have an instructional measurements page for your reference. Please do not miss your measurement appointment as this may result in a charge.

Remote fittings must be done according to our instructions for a great fit. We are not responsible for the fit if not done according to our instructions. Customers who deviate or request deviation from our recommended practices are responsible for the outcome and fit of their order.

Customers who are no-shows or repeatedly change their fitting and other appointments delay their production date. Most customers have a two or three-day turn around time between the time that they get their costume fitting and the time they mail it back to us. Please keep in mind that all our customers “have dance”, have holiday parties, and have other appointments. It is your responsibility to book a time that you can meet. Do not expect us to bump others’ appointment because you cannot plan well. Keep your appointment.

Ocassionally, we send optional items to choose from during your remote fitting. You pay for these items before the fitting is sent out, and when the costume is sent back to us for completion these optional items must be included in pristine condition with your costume for a refund. Any deviation from this plan requires that the optional items be returned in pristine condition for refund less 20% restocking allowance.

Terms – Earnest

Until your deposit is paid, your quote is not considered an earnest agreement. You may have 24-48 hours to make your deposit or until other orders are accepted, which dismiss your estimate/pending order…whichever occurs first. We have many orders at any given time. To be fair, the process is systematic with an ever changing schedule. Due to this dynamic schedule, we allow 60-90 minutes per customer prior to and during a quote. This time allows us to gain insight to the customer’s needs & wants while answering their questions about the quote and process. If there is no deposit made after the formal quote and Q&A session, we continue with customers who are earnest in their commitment.

If we create a quote for you and no deposit is received, please do not expect the next quote to be identical as pricing is based on the market going rate of supplies at the time of the quote.

Customers who schedule their costume early with a specific date in mind have their dates scheduled and locked in provided they are ready to start their project at the time scheduled; all others are first deposit, first served. When customers are not ready to go or are indecisive, we move forward with the next project. Timeliness of your choices and responses to our questions may delay your project.

Kalie in her beautiful age appropriate ContenderWear™ custom, handmade, dance costume for her lyrical piece

Hay in “My Girl”, a bright and colorful custom, age appropriate, jazz dance costume by ContenderWear™

Terms – Payments

Payments start with the non-refundable deposit.
All work and materials to date must be paid for in full before a costume is sent out for fitting. Certain brands require full balance of the order to release the fitting (HotMess Dance Apparel, Bitsy Butik, and Havasu Bikinis).
Final Payment is due upon completion or at fitting, as indicated previously, of costume or costumes. If the balance remains unpaid after 30 days of completion notice, costume may be sold to recoup the unpaid balance.

Ready-To-Ship Items in Our Store

RTS items ship immediately with PayPal and cash payments that can be immediately verified. Credit-Card, ApplePay, and GooglePay, etc can sometimes take several days or more to verify payment. Items will be sent as soon as the payment is verified.

Terms – Progress Reports

Progress reports are regular communications* with us. When we send you a progress report and have no feedback, it is understood that you are in agreement with everything to date. Otherwise, please comment immediately. Failure to do so may require reversing several steps, which will be charged to your invoice.

We offer selections during our communications; we move forward with other projects when responses/selections/choices are not communicated promptly.

*Communications are sent in a manner consistent with the original established thread. This is to avoid confusion that can be caused by multiple threads of communication on various platforms. If you have a preferred written communication platform, it must be requested from the onset.

Terms – Pricing Discount

Please see the pricing discount noted in the center of the footer within a pdf format quote. Cash direct can be either cash or ZellePay/QuickPay. PayPal has a different discount structure. Etsy has no discounts. The best pricing with the highest, discount structure is cash direct. Customer’s choice as to how paid, which dictates the discount structure.

Terms – Taxes & Customs

If you are out-of-state (outside of California), you are responsible for any local or federal taxes due as a result of this sale.

If you are outside of the United States Of America, you are responsible for any customs due and any taxes due as a result of this sale. Taxes or customs vary by state, municipality, and country. If you do not pay the customs within your postal carrier’s timeframe, the parcel will be returned to us as “unclaimed.” Customers must contact us for a billing for postage to have the products sent a second time. Items will not be sent again until the postage billing has been paid.

Shy in a handmade, custom lyrical dance costume, “Sweet Child of Mine”, by ContenderWear™