An Affair to Remember in Scottsdale, AZ: The shop that I bought my dress at went out of business.

cfarnella

An Affair to Remember in Scottsdale, AZ

I ordered my wedding gown on June 15, 2009 with the promise date of October 27, 2009. I paid in full as they did not accept deposits.  At the beginning of November I started calling to check on the status and they kept giving me push back and stating that they had to call the manufacturer.  They would not call me back and I had to call them and they would state that they did not have time to call the manufacturer yet and would get back to me.  This happened for weeks. Then at the end of November, I received a phone call early in the morning and they left a voicemail that their number had changed.  I called the new number to inquire about the dress and was told they would have to call the manufacturer!  And the cycle continued.  I started threatening that I would come to the store everyday if I did not get an answer about my dress. I was told that the manufacturer was back logged and I would have my dress by the new year.  Well I called yesterday and found out that the store went out of business!!!!  I can't get a hold of the owner and the new number they had given was the alteration shop next door!  The old number has been disconnected, the store is closed and their website is down! My wedding is three months away and I am now stuck disputing to get my money back, trying to get Maggie Sottero supervisors to help me and devastated that the dress I had planned my entire bridal look, bridal party look, etc may not even be a possibility anymore!

I guess I am just posting to get ideas on what to do now...I really loved the dress... Has anyone else experienced this?

FutureMrsL.R.Allen

Oh no, I am so sorry this is happening!  The number that you were given, to the alterations place next door, have you called them?  They may have a forwarding number of the owner.  Also, try getting a hold of someone at Maggie Sottero, maybe they can help.  Lastly, if you are not able to get your dress for what ever reason, you should take the old owner to small claims court.

perfectlioness1

I would contact 3 on Your Side or something like that from one of the local news channels. I saw a similar story a few months ago. Good luck!

stahlop

That is terrible.  I would definitely take them to small claims court.  It seems shady that they put the alterations place as their forwarding number.  Definitely call Maggie Sottero, see if they even put the order in. From what I've heard, Maggie's don't take long to come in (3-6 months at the most), so they may not have ordered your dress due to financial problems.  Look on the boards to see if anyone is selling the dress you ordered, you may be able to find it for cheap without going through another store.  So sorry this is happening.

NillaWafer10

If worst comes to worst and you cannot get your dress, then I would recommend looking on ebay for a bride who is selling your dress.  There is also another website that brides can sell their dresses on, but it's a little difficult to navigate (The Wedding Bee).  I found my dress brand new from a bride who decided that she wanted a different dress.  She didn't even cut the tags on mine. It was significantly cheaper than David's would have charged me too.  That situation is very frustrating!  I feel like it's right out of the book of wedding horror stories

http://classifieds.weddingbee.com/

Phoenix10

Omg that's terrible! I'm so sorry, and I hope you are still able to have your dream dress on your big day. Hugs!

cfarnella

Just a follow up,

I have filed a dispute with my bank a couple of days ago and they have credited the money back to my account today.  There is the possibility that they will have to take it back if the merchant decides to dispute and they are unable to recover the money from her.

I have been in contact with Maggie Sottero and they are trying to get in touch with the owner.  She is not returning their messages either.  I was told that the owner did place the order but never paid them for the dress. They have the dress but cannot release it due to the owner not paying.

They also said that they were aware that the shop had gone out of business but the owner had told them (at the time) that she was trying to make good on previous orders. 

They are still trying to contact her to see if she will pay them for the dress.  If she will not pay or cannot be reached, they are going to try to work with me.  I can go to another retail store and pay in full for the dress again and the shop can order the dress.  Hopefully in time for the wedding...

It is cutting it really close, I do have to have the dress altered...

sms274

That is absolutely terrible that this happened to you. What a nightmare.

With the steps you took with the bank, she generally has to prove she provided the service you paid for and in this case she did not, so she has no ground for a dispute on your case. Although, since your bank mentioned they may reclaim the money from you if they can not get the money from them, that may be a slight issue seeing as they are most likely out of money and may have closed the originating account, I will keep my fingers crossed for you on this.

The good thing is that Maggie Sottero is being so helpful in working with you and since they said they already have YOUR dress and are just hodling for payment, they should be able to just ship it out once payment is received I would imagine, so you should have enough time to get the alterations performed.

Fingers crossed and best of luck.

vmilesic

OMG! I bought my dress from them and I went through the same exact thing, but thank God they were still in business. They changed their name to "Bridal". Now, at that alterations shops next to the store works an older lady with a thick accent.. not sure if she's Asian or Hispanic. She and her daughter were the owners of the shop, so if she is still at the alterations place, she should help you! OMG I can't believe I'm reading this cause I went through this exact same thing!!! Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck and I'm so sorry you're going through this..

vmilesic

What's the style of your dress?

Layla2415

I just called An Affair to Remember today to check on my Maggie Sottero dress (it was due in this week) and realized they went out of business too!!! 

A call to Maggie Sottero told me to call the alterations shop next door too.  I did call and spoke with a lady named Emma, she said she has been receiving any dresses ordered at An Affair to Remember and giving them to the brides. You may want to call her to see if she has your dress.  The shop name and number is: Bulan's Fine Dress Making & Alterations (480) 661-0087‎. 

Emma was able to give me the confirmation number for the order with Maggie Sottero and I called to confirm they had the order and the dress is almost ready to ship.  I am going to try to have them ship the dress directly to me so I don't have to trouble with the seamstress.  I won't breathe easy until the dress is in my hands!

My wedding is in April and this whole thing has left me sick to my stomach! What evil people close down a bridal shop and don't call their customers!!!!!

Good Luck with your dress, hopefully it works out fine for both of us.

cfarnella

Hi Layla,

I did finally speak with Emma last week (after Maggie got in touch with her, she finally called me) and got a little more information.  Apparantely she was partial owner and the other owner (I believe Kate) just left her with this mess and she has been overwhelmed trying to make good on already purchased gowns. 

She has promised that they gown will be paid for on January 20th.  Maggie Sottero has already said the gown was ready to ship, they are just waiting for payment. I will call Maggie on Weds to see if it was paid for and, if it has, I will drop the dispute with my bank. 

Have you contacted Maggie to see if the gown was paid for?  I do believe that the shop did order the dresses (and the shop gave me confirmation of that months ago but failed to mention that they had not paid for the gown yet), the problem is if they don't pay the manufacturer then the dress won't be shipped. 

Maggie can only ship to a retailer and not directly to you (I tried that).  I was told that because the gown is ready, I can choose another retailer and pay again for the dress and they will ship immediately.

I will let you know how it goes on Weds.  How did you pay for the dress?  My bank was really good about the dispute. 

Hang in there girl!  I have been making myself sick with worry over the past couple of weeks. We are both going to look great on our wedding days!  And if the shop doesn't follow through for us, we'll team up and take their a** to small claims court. 

Marissa0717

Good luck to you both!!! I hope you get your dresses without any more problems!!!

Layla2415

I paid with a credit card too, but haven't pursued my bank yet, because I am hoping this gets resolved.  I spoke with Emma again this morning and she told me the dress is ready to ship but Maggie Sottero needs to be paid by Kate first.  Just wonderful!! 

Emma told me she would try to get a hold of Kate today, but she also gave me Kate's cell phone number. I just talked to Kate and she said she was at work and needed to call me back at noon.  I gave her my name and number and am hoping for a call back in a few hours.  Kate's number is 602-503-0154 if you need to get a hold of her. 

I think I will be calling the bank this morning, I am not feeling very good about the whole situation.   How is it coming along for you? 

caseysue55

I am so glad I read these messages.  I bought my dress there and it was the floor model, they said as long as I had it altered by Emma they would pay for the cleaning.   Ever since I found out they closed I have been upset that I would have to pay to get it cleaned myself, but now knowing that Emma is or was a partial owner and is trying to make good on the store's promises, hopefully I can get her to pay for the cleaning or at the very least part of it.  Shame on Kate Poormon.  Thank you for posting her number as well.

cfarnella

After several weeks of worrying and nagging, I received a call from Emma last night to inform me that my gown was in.  She told me that since I filed a dispute with my bank I will need to pay for the dress again in cash or money order as my bank took the money out of her account and she wouldnt accept personal check or debit card...well I called my bank to verify her story and spoke to the dispute department and was informed that they had never recovered the money from her and that the dispute was open and the credit to my account was a temporary credit until they recovered the money from the merchant.  I told them that she had my dress and to just drop the dispute. 

I took the confirmation to Emma this morning to show that the dispute has been dropped.  She didn't apologize for lying to me (again) but I didn't really expect one anyway.  I just took the dress and will find someone else to alter it.  I really do not want to give those people any more of my business/money.

I am just happy that this is now over and I have my dress..... I am still annoyed that such dishonest people exist and they tried to the very end to screw me over.  Ughhh.