HIS wedding was in two weeks. All he had to do was to go with his bride for the final fitting of her gown and try on his suit at the bridal shop.

But on that day, which was just two days before Christmas, the 31-year-old civil servant found to his shock that the bridal shop was closed and empty.

The shop, Focus Bridal, is located in IMM in Jurong.

The groom-to-be, who wanted to be known only as Mr Leng, said: 'On my way to the shop, I tried to call to confirm my appointment for the final fitting.

'I called 20 times. Nobody picked up the phone. The alarm bells started going off in my head.

'I decided to go there without my wife.'

He had hoped that, perhaps, the shop had closed due to the Christmas holidays, but when he arrived there, he said his 'worst fears came true'.

'The showroom on the second floor was completely empty,' Mr Leng said. He last visited the shop early last year.

Quickly, he went up to the bridal shop's photo studio on the third floor. It was closed as well.

'I peeked through the gap between the doors. The studio was empty except for a few gowns thrown on the floor, and a few toppled chairs,' he said.

Mr Leng is not alone. Other couples were also affected by the closure.

Nothing is known about what happened to the shop.

At least 13 of the couples had put up their contact details on an online forum discussing the matter. And there are apparently 150 bridal packages that have not been honoured.

For Mr Leng, telling his wife the news was the hardest part.

The couple had paid a deposit of close to $1,000 for their $3,800 wedding package, which included two gowns, two suits, bridal car service, as well as makeup and hairstyling.

Mr Leng said: 'When I called my wife on the phone, she told me not to crack such jokes because it wasn't funny. I had to tell her it wasn't a joke, the shop had really closed.

'Our wedding was in two weeks and my wife had no gown. I had no suit, and no bridal car.

FRUSTRATED

'I was very frustrated. A wedding is supposed to be a happy event. I never expected the bridal shop to shut down without telling us, leaving us in the lurch.'

Fortunately, Mr Leng managed to get a gown, suit and bridal car service from another bridal shop at Tanjong Pagar.

Another horrified groom-to-be was Mr Kaidy Kofim Kho, 33, a business manager.

He called The New Paper hotline after he arrived at the bridal shop with his fiancee on Christmas Day to try on their gowns and suits, only to find the shop dark and empty.

Last May, they had paid a deposit of about $900 for their $3,200 wedding package. Their wedding is scheduled for June this year.

Mr Kho said: 'We are angry, but we are waiting to see what can be done.'

Another victim, Miss Dawn Lee, 26, an administrative assistant, and her fiance, Mr John Quek, 31, a senior technician, had paid a deposit of $500.

Ms Lee said: 'It's not about the $500, although it is also our hard-earned cash. We trusted them, and they broke our trust. Their actions have also made us sceptical of trusting other bridal shops.'

Mr Quek said the shop has 'no sense of responsibility'.

He added: 'It's fortunate that our wedding is only at the end of the year and we have more time to look for another shop.'

Two other clients of Focus Bridal we interviewed had already made full payments.

Mr Darius Tai, 29, an engineer, was not optimistic about recovering the $3,400 he had paid in full via monthly instalments to the bridal shop since November 2006.

His wedding is scheduled for December this year.

Mr Tai had chosen the shop as his cousin had gone to it too.

He said: 'It is our bad luck. I am fully prepared that we will lose the money.'

He has made a police report and filed a complaint with the Small Claims Tribunal.

'It is an expensive lesson to learn that we cannot simply trust companies here,' he said.

One customer, who wanted to be known only as Ms Christina, said she had signed for a $3,400 wedding package with the shop.

'I had paid them cash in full in 2004 with an open date for my wedding,' the 26-year-old said.

UNSATISFACTORY SERVICE

Ms Christina, who is in the property line, had planned to get married this year, and had last visited the shop about six months ago.

She wasn't pleased then as the salesperson had tried to convince her to get a gown off the rack, even though her package included a made-to-measure gown.

Now, she plans to make a police report.

Some other clients of the bridal shop have a different problem.

They have done their bridal shoots, but are unable to collect their wedding photos.

Ms Agnes Chin, 32, a homemaker, had signed up for a $2,000 wedding package and has paid close to $1,700 so far.

She did the bridal shoot last November and was to have collected her album in December.

She found out recently from the online forum that the bridal shop had closed, and learnt that the shop had handed some clients over to another bridal shop at Telok Ayer.

Ms Chin said: 'I went to the other bridal shop and the person there told me they have the soft copies of my digital photos, but the album had not been made.

'I am unhappy because they said they cannot make the album in the way that was agreed upon by the previous bridal shop, and neither can they release the soft copies to me.'

The manager of the shop in Telok Ayer, MrEric Chai, said that the shop would give clients the soft copies of their photos if they wanted the album made elsewhere.

He said that the affected clients would not have to pay extra for this.

The Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) said that consumers may lodge a complaint with the association if the status of the business or company reflected at the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority is alive.

A check showed that it is.

Mr Seah Seng Choon, the executive director of Case, said: 'Consumers must exercise caution when placing advance payment for services to be rendered in some future time.

'It is advisable for consumers to pay as small a deposit as possible and never make full payment because there is no guarantee that the business will still be around when the services are to be performed.'

Mr Seah said that in the event that a business is wound up, consumers can only file a claim in court, a process which is 'not only tedious but costly'.

'Moreover, consumer deposit is not high on the priority list of company creditors and they may end up getting nothing after going through the process of filing their claims in court,' he added.