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Alivia Briggs, 17, a junior at Austin High School, ordered what she thought would be an elegant beaded pink dress from an online retailer based in China. What she got was quite different. (Submitted)

"This is why you don't order from China!" tweeted one Alabama teen after she received a prom dress that was, well, not what she was expecting.

Alivia Briggs is a 17-year-old junior at Austin High School. She'd saved up her own money for a prom dress and was shopping around a couple of months ago when a friend told her about DH Gate, an app that sells everything from clothing to kitchen appliances. http://www.dhgate.com/

Briggs found a dress she loved - dusky pink, with a mermaid skirt and hand-beaded detailing. After reading reviews of the dress, which was from a website called Allanhu, Briggs bought it for $230. She ordered it on March 10; her prom was April 16.

This is why you don't order from China!!!!!! 🙂 pic.twitter.com/9fCk6Csz7P — Liv (@alivia_briggs) April 14, 2016

"They told me it would take 17 days," she said. "Then they told me the dress would be ready by April 5. Then they told me I should get it by the 12th. I asked if I could pay for quicker shipping but they told me the dress is hand-beaded so it couldn't be rushed."

A friend had a green beaded mermaid-style dress she wasn't wearing to prom and offered to let Briggs use it if hers didn't arrive in time. It fit perfectly, so Briggs relaxed a little. "I was kind of worried, but I wasn't panicking yet," she said.

The dress finally arrived. With a sense of foreboding, Briggs took the package to her friend's house so they could open it together.

"I opened it," she said, "and just started laughing.

"The material - you couldn't even use it as a bedsheet, that's how cheap it was."

The dress was Pepto-Bismol pink. The line of delicate buttons that ran up the back - one of Brigg's favorite parts of the online version - were nonfunctional and attached to a crooked zipper. The "hand-beaded" appliques appeared to be ironed on, with a few stitched plastic beads attached.

"I put it on and walked around my friend's house," she said. "I could tell my friend's mom didn't want to say anything until she knew if I liked it or not. Her dad was like, 'What is that?'

"It was pretty funny."

She later tweeted about the dress debacle, saying it looked like "a quilt with arm holes."

Briggs wore her friend's green gown to prom, and said she felt beautiful in it.

As for the pink dress? She messaged DH Gate the following day to say she would be returning the dress and wanted a full refund. A representative messaged her back and said they'd need to see pictures before they decided whether she would get a refund.

She's tried several times - and from several different computers - to upload pictures, but the site gives her an error message every time. She plans to keep trying. A family friend who is an attorney offered to help.

Briggs' nightmare prom dress story has garnered national an international attention from outlets like Seventeen.com and the UK's The Daily Mail. Some of the commenters from other sites called her a "spoiled rich girl" but Briggs wanted them to know she had saved up her own money to purchase the dress.

She's bought a few less expensive clothing items from Chinese-based websites prior to the prom dress and had no problem. She says she might consider doing so again, but would never order another evening gown or anything expensive.

The dress is still listed for sale and the site claims to be "committed to your 100% satisfaction."