Never use Kite's Cleaners in Fort Worth

faithm1209

I wish that the Knot would allow us to review the vendors they endorse. One of the Gown Cleaning vendors that I found from the Knot ruined my wedding dress. I took my wedding dress to Kite's Cleaners because they are a member of the "Association of Wedding Gown Specialists". I was willing to shell out the $200+ for what I thought would be a professional cleaning. I waited over 2 months for my dress to be done. The first time I went back in, it looked like nothing had been done. There was still dirt on the train and cake on the blouse. They said they would take it back and try again. When I went back the 2nd time, my dress looked like an antique. It has yellow spots and split seams all over it. I was appalled and furious. They offered to give it to me for free. But it is ruined and now I can not sell it or keep it for my sister to wear. Never take your wedding dress here.

TexanTreasure08

I really don't like the knots vendor recommendations. The 'featured' ones have to pay a lot of money and then those fees get passed on to us.

stupid&lucky

I'd try to make them replace the dress....never mind your wedding is over!  You wanted to keep the dress and they ruined it.  Report them to the BBB if they don't. 

cbcbrass98

I've posted this on some other threads, but to be sure to follow up Faith's review, I'm posting it again!!  I am still in shock about the gall of this place!!

Let me tell you about my experience with Kite's cleaners for my wedding gown.  I brought my gown to them after I had had my dress let out and needed the seams steamed open.  This is the second cleaner I had been to to steam the seams open from where it was altered, and I should have left it at the previous one because they did at least 2 of the three seams correctly.

 Anyway, I decided that since Kites does wedding gowns especially, that they might be best qualified to finish the job, even though they were going to charge $150 to do it (the previous place was only going to charge me $40, but because they didn't do it right completely, they didn't want to charge me at all, btw this is Carleton Cleaners on Forest Park and I should have left my dress in their capable, though somewhat inconsistent hands.  Hindsight is 20/20, though.)

 I dropped my dress off at Kites, showed them the seams, watched them write down that the one side needed the seams steamed open, we looked over the entire dress, etc.  When I went the following Friday to pick it up (a week before I leave for my wedding), the side was still not steamed open!!!!!  There are just two huge folded lines still running down the outside of my dress!! Needless to say, I was very upset and they insisted they would have it for me the following Monday (yesterday) by 5:30 and would have it done right.

 So I went in yesterday ready to demand that since they didn't do it right the first time, they should not charge me, or at least not $150.  Well, the side was steamed open, not as well as I thought it should have been, but the big deal was MY DRESS WAS RIPPED!!!!!!  My dress has folded fabric all across the dress and there was a tattered edge hanging down beneath one of the folds in the front part where my thighs would be.  I lifted the fold and there was rip (no seam here) all the way from the left to the right of the fabric!!!  It was not like that when my seamstress let out the dress (she and I discussed this) nor was it ripped when I was showing them the dress when I first brought it in. 

 Well, they began insisting that they didn't do it and here is the best part:  THEY STILL WANTED TO CHARGE ME $150!!!!!!!  They were not going to let me take the dress.  I insisted they get the manager on the phone and after many tears and getting my fiancee on the phone, they offered to only charge me 1/2 and to have their tailors fix it!  I said, there is no way I am paying for this and their is no way anyone in their company is touching this dress again.  Eventually, they consented to let me take the dress, though the managers little teen daughter that was there was insistent that I should have to pay for it.

 I was very upset by this experience, and perhaps, if Kite's would have been willing to have good customer service and common sense from the very beginning, I wouldn't be telling everyone I can about this so they know and are warned.  If they would have admitted that someone there ripped my dress and offered to fix it or pay for it to be fixed before I found the rip, things might be different.  I should have insisted they pay for the repair as well, but as it is, all I want is my dress in one piece for this Saturday so I don't have to worry about it any more. If there would have been other people in there, too, the situation might have been resolved much quicker.

 Do not take your dresses here if you care how they look when they come out.  Take it anywhere else but here.  Just remember, you have been warned.

cbcbrass98

UPDATE: I received a call yesterday (Wednesday) from the owner of Kite’s cleaners, Gary Kite, who had been out of town and had just heard about the situation.  He apologized profusely about the incident and about what I had to go through and said that there will be some retraining going on in all of his locations with his teams.  He also said that they would be going over my letter point by point to illustrate what went wrong and how it could have been handled better.  He assured me that their policy was not being followed in any way during this incident, that when the dress first had to be redone to get the side pressed open right that there should have not been a charge to me at all from that point forward, let alone that the dress would be in such poor condition when I went to pick it up the 2^nd time.  He offered to help me in any way he could, if I needed reimbursement for the repair, etc and he offered that, if I would be willing to allow them to handle my dress again, they would preserve it at no cost after my wedding.

I was extremely satisfied with his response and feel that he will take the necessary steps to retrain his team regarding policy in such matters.