Beware of David's Bridal!
I bought my dress from David's bridal and had it altered there. I paid $1150.0 for the dress and $318.00 for alterations – almost $1,500.00 for my wedding dress! The only 2 times I have tried on my dress were for my 2 alteration sessions at the David's Bridal store in Natick, MA. I am very unhappy with the service I received, and the rudeness shown to me by the manager on duty Wednesday 1/13/16 when I went to pick up my dress at 5pm.
On Wed January 6, 2016 I went to try on my dress after my first alterations appointment. There were a few things that needed to be fixed which included an uneven hem, an uneven bustle, and the stay band needed to be tightened. That’s fine, my mom was with me, and saw the dress, and noticed no other problems with it. Last night, January, 13, I went to pick up my dress after these alterations were complete for a 5pm appointment. I drove 1 hour from my work to get there. When I got there, I was asked if I wanted to try on my dress which I declined since I forgot to bring my petticoat and bustier with me and I assumed that the dress would be fine since nothing major was done to it, and that I could trust the alterations department at David’s Bridal since this is their job and the only thing they do besides selling dresses. I then drove an hour to get home with my dress. I brought my dress to my parents’ house because that is where it is being stored until my wedding which is this Saturday 1/16. As soon as I got there, my mom and I opened the bag and were horrified at what we saw. There were pink, brown, and grey stains on the dress, as well as picks in the fabric, and discolorations in the fabric (which I am assuming from pressing the dress). The most prominent stain was a pink stain on the front of the bodice – very noticeable – I don’t know how the alterations department even let it out the door looking like that (I have dated and timed pictures of these if you need me to send them to you (so you can see how little time elapsed, considering I live an hour away) ).
After thoroughly examining the dress, I called David’s Bridal, where I spoke with an associate, who then told me a manager would call me back. I then spoke with the alterations manager, who said she couldn’t do anything unless I brought the dress back and she could look at it. At this point, it was almost 7pm. I drove an hour back (you can see in my David’s Bridal account how far away I live from your nearest store!) to David’s bridal with one of my bridesmaids for moral support, and was not helped upon entering the store – we were actually ignored by multiple associates while standing in the entryway holding my dress. Eventually, we found the alterations manager who brought us back to the alterations department, and we showed her the dress. She didn’t apologize, or comment, just took the dress in the back “to go over it with a fine toothed comb”, and left us to wait. After 30-45minutes, she brought the dress back out, and it was still covered in stains. We went through the dress again, marked the dress with at least 10 more pins where it needed cleaning and she went back a second time to clean. Keep in mind, there are still picks in the fabric that can’t be corrected.
The second time, the dress was brought out, it looked better, cleaner, and the alterations manager took it back to re-steam it. She offered a new bag, which was helpful. I am appalled I did not receive an apology or acknowledgement that this type of situations should NEVER have occurred. I paid a lot of money for this dress and expected it to be treated with care, and trusted David’s Bridal to do so. I was obviously wrong to do so. I also want to note that while we were there, another bride was getting a final fitting and she asked us why were there so long where we politely just said they are adjusting a few things. Out of courtesy to your brand and staff, we did not make a scene. I was obviously wrong to do this too.
We didn’t end up leaving the store until 9:45pm, 45 minutes after their closing time. Before we left, we spoke with the manager (unfortunately she didn’t tell us her name, but she was tall, with dark brown hair in a ponytail, wearing black pants and a black shirt with white details on it). We asked her if anything could be done since this this situation never should have happened. She proceeded to be extremely rude to us, spoke to us in a very unprofessional tone, snapping at us, and indicated that it was my fault because I didn’t try on the dress at the time of pick up. Regardless of looking at it or not, your job is to make my very expensive dress look good and the fact that it went out to a customer that way is completely poor business practice. Additionally, the fact that she was still arguing despite the alterations manager having to go over it twice to remove the stains is ridiculous. When you had the opportunity to fix the situation, the attention to detail was NOT there and it was brought out with stains still on it. Eventually, she said she would “look into it,” but got no definite answer, and still no apology or acknowledgement that it was the fault of David’s Bridal. Regardless of the fact that I did not try on the dress, IT NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN COVERED IN STAINS!! I shouldn’t have received a dress in anything less than perfect condition, especially when spending almost $1500.00 on it…from a company that only focuses on WEDDING dresses the details of your wedding, and making your “dream dress perfect.” I shouldn’t have had to drive back to David’s bridal because they did not take care of my dress. I shouldn’t have been put in this situation 3 days before my wedding – extra stress, extra driving, and not to mention wasting everyone’s time. I didn’t get home until 11pm last night, I am very tired, very angry, and will never use David’s Bridal for anything ever again, nor will I recommend it to anyone. Your customer service has been way below par, and I have never been treated so rudely in a store before – EVER.
I am requesting that someone from your Corporate location contact me regarding this experience, and attempt to rectify the situation. I will also have you know that a friend of mine had a very similar experience to this with this exact alterations department and David’s Bridal location so perhaps you should look into this store and their employees further.
Someone from David's Bridal corporate contacted me the NIGHT before my wedding - proceeded to talk to me like i was stupid, and say since i didn't try my dress on at the time of picking it up, it was not the store's fault that my dress was covered in stains and had thread pulls. She said they normally offer 10% off the dress in situations like this which I find highly unacceptable. I SO did not need this aggravating phone conversation the night before my wedding, on my way to our rehearsal. The woman I spoke with said she would get back to me that evening with an answer, and of course she never did. This situation is still unresolved, and I am still very upset with my experience shopping at your store....still awaiting a resolution.
Re: Beware of David's Bridal!
Also, I think it's standard practice to try the dress on or look it over yourself before removing it from the store to make sure something like this doesn't happen.
Sorry you had a bad experience, but it's not fair to say "Beware David's Bridal" as if the whole corporation and chain of stores is bad.
You should've at least checked the dress before you left. It would've saved a whole round trip and they would have been able to fix it as soon as possible. They let it go out the door like that because you said it was okay and took it with you. Once it's out the door, it generally isn't their responsibility anymore.
I worked retail for six years, and more than once has someone come in with two minutes until we could lock the door and forced us all to stay because "oh, you can't close when there's a paying customer in here! *har har har*". I'm sorry that you got snapped at, but remember that they were at work an extra 45 minutes longer than they had to (and probably weren't getting paid for it).
They're name may be David's Bridal, but they do more than JUST wedding dresses. My girls ordered their bridesmaid dresses from here, but they also have prom dresses and dresses for other formal occasions.
It sounds like corporate got back to you as soon as they could, and they told you what they offer for when a customer isn't satisfied. I'm sorry that you weren't happy with what they offered you, but it sounds like they did what they could.
But did you really wait to get MORE alterations done 10 days before your wedding? To pick it up 3 days before your wedding? Especially if you thought they did a bad job on the first go around I would have found a new seamstress or tailor.
In my limited DB experience, when you get your dress, you get it at reception. I actually removed my BM dress from the bag to look at it and the associates up front seemed... a little impatient. Like they had an "of course it's fine, just sign the form" attitude, especially as it's a big and crowded location and they had other people to check in. No way; I was checking the dress.
Same wedding, my fellow BM picked up her dress and thought it was the wrong color. The associate insisted it was the right color. She took it, showed up the morning of the wedding- it was the wrong color. The MOB and the BM drove to the nearest David's where they promptly refunded her, gave her a new dress in her size off the rack for free, altered it within the hour (thank god we weren't wearing matching styles, just matching colors), and gave her free jewelry.
Just... everyone check your dresses, check your orders. I think you do have to do the diligence that associates may not do.
As a corporation, I am sure that there will be more discussion about your situation, but posting a flaming notice on a public internet site isn't one of the ways to get them to help you. David's Bridal has many, many stores, and most of them have a good reputation, or else they would not stay in business. 30% of brides in the USA get the gowns from DB. They must be doing something right.
Good luck with your resolution. Small claims court could be the answer. Start looking for a new dress.
I get how you're feeling OP, you paid a lot of money for something and you got screwed over. When I moved to my first job a few states away after college I decided to save time/effort and hire movers. Long story short I decided to go with a company that gave me a great quote. Well they come load up my stuff and then tell me it's going to be $2k over what I was quoted and if I didn't pay them in cash now they were keeping my stuff. I managed to get the money and pay them and then rather than delivering my stuff they held it hostage until I paid another $2K. When I finally got my stuff most of it was damaged quite badly and they refused to do anything about it. Turns out it was a scam company and even the lawyers I talked to said I had no way to win any case against them. I was stupid and didn't do my homework on the company (read reviews, read the small print on their forms, read about my rights as a customer of a moving company, etc..) For over a year I would just rage when I thought about them and I posted bad reviews very similar to yours on every site I could find (turns out there were a lot just like mine though).
I learned the same expensive lesson you just did and I paid a lot more money to learn it... Save yourself the time being angry and just move on and chalk it up to an expensive life lesson. Next time you're making a big purchase (or any purchase) do your homework first, read reviews, read the small print, and look at the things you order before you sign saying it's ok. If you want to try and get 10% still try but don't set your hopes on it. Enjoy your wedding and your life with your new spouse!
I didn't order through them
The only reason we ended up going with DB was because of the easy access for the long distance BM and everyone was so flustered we did not want to go dress shopping again. We found dress everyone liked and stuck with it. I would have much rather taken my business else where.
Maybe you should post an online review of your location if you haven't already and maybe warn your local board, but it is unfair to say DB is horrible just because you had a bad experience at one location.
As a bride, they were running way late for my appointment, and were rude. When it was finally my time, they were like, did you pick dresses to try on? I hadn't so they were like "we're out of the books, so here's the store's copy of the book of dresses, tell me which ones you want to try on, but don't mark the book". OooooooK. So I do. I picked about 5 dresses. They say "No, we don't have those". Um, OK. I asked if they just didn't have them at that location, or they didn't exist, and got no answer. Eventually one of the people with me picked a couple dresses off the rack for me to try on. Once I was in a dress, the sales lady finally decided to try to "help" and tell me what dresses I should look at. I told her "no strapless" and she freaked out, and was rude to me. We left.
For my mother, we had an appointment on a non-busy day and were looking for dresses. Since she is a breast cancer survivor who had a double-mastectomy with no reconstruction, she needed a dress with a higher neck. The sales lady was soooo pushy, and was ignoring what my mother wanted. Even though she doesn't like to talk about it, I explained to the sales lady why higher neck was a necessity. She STILL blew it off. All the lady wanted was a sale, at any cost. She didn't care a bit about customer service. It was uncomfortable, and embarrassing for my mother. There were 1 or 2 dresses that were reasonable options, but they didn't have them there in the right size or color--the sales lady was just like "well, that's it". We left.
And of course you should have checked the dress before you left. You know that. That was your mistake. But your mistake does not in anyway negate the major mistakes they made with your dress! All that would have changed is the driving time--the dress still had stains on it, and picks in the fabric. That's a major problem, whether you left the store with it or not.