AVOID A Storybook Ending in Dewitt, IA!

amberwild3

I had heard good things about A Storybook Ending. However, my experience was much worse than I ever could have imagined. Initially, when we went to look for bridesmaid dresses, we were escorted to the back room and left alone. Every time we had a question, we were forced to go on a search for an available employee. When the dresses were ordered, we were given a date that they claimed was the latest day the dresses would arrive. When that day came, I gave the store a call and they accused me of lying and insisted that the they told me the delivery would be within weeks of the date they gave me. The icing on the cake was that one of the out of town bridesmaids was told that they would ship the dress to her. When she decided to double check the shipping arrangements (because of the problems we had), she was also accused of lying. I completely understand that problems arise but I cannot accept horrible customer service. You may find your perfect dress but your experience may have you regretting your choice to shop at A Storybook Ending. If you are looking for a specific dress that they carry...there are many other options in the Quad Cities that carry the same designers.  If nothing else, try the dress on at their shop and order online!

The more I share this story with others...the more I hear of others with similar stories.  The unfortunate part is that the owner provides the same level of customer service as the employees so other than a bad review...there's not much you can do after you have ordered the dresses.

hz80408

I have to say I'm really sorry that you had a bad experience there but I myself bought my dress, MOB, and MOG dress from Storybook as well as a BM dress for a wedding I was in and I HIGHLY recommend the store.

My wedding dress came in before the date they originally told me as did the MOB dress.

Did you have an appointment to look at BM dresses? 

As a lot of other stores I've found (cough *Celebration Bridal*) a lot of stores pay more attention to  you when you're looking at wedding gowns instead of BM dresses.  The unfortunate truth is that's b/c that's typically where more money is spent.

I have a complete review in my bio of my experience with Storybook.

In addition, from my personal experience Storybook is one of the only bridal stores in the QC I'd recommend:

Celebration: had an appt for BM dresses on a sat at 9am.  We were greeted by an consultant who pointed to where BM dresses are located and left us alone.  Didn't offer to help us look for items, didn't ask if we needed help, didn't even say bye when we left the store.

Bridal Room:  found a BM dress I loved but they didn't have the right color.  I asked the clerk if there's any way they did custom colors (since I'd seen online that other designers do).  The woman laughed in my face, literally, and said "are u kidding me? no, they don't do custom colors" then she shook her head and walked away. RUDE!

David's Bridal:  I don't like that essentially you have to take your dress as soon as it comes in and they have no space to store it for you.  In addition, someone I know ordered her dress from there and it came in dirty and ripped.  It took the bride 3 trips to the store to convince the manager to give her a refund so she could shop elsewhere since she didn't trust DB.

ljahns

I'm sorry you had a bad experience, it really ruins the wedding dress shopping experience. I had a nightmare of an experience at Heart to Heart in North Liberty, IA and feel your pain!! At least yours was simply bad service, mine involved late shipping dates, wrong dresses, wrong prices, and ended with a small claims suit

hz80408

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_iowa-quad-cities_avoid-storybook-ending-dewitt-ia?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:93Discussion:57451ade-d4ed-45d5-877f-9dd3e8a5dc88Post:5cd42add-0567-40a4-96e2-e59e7ef8f184">Re: AVOID A Storybook Ending in Dewitt, IA!</a>:
[QUOTE]I'm sorry you had a bad experience, it really ruins the wedding dress shopping experience. I had a nightmare of an experience at Heart to Heart in North Liberty, IA and feel your pain!! At least yours was simply bad service, mine involved late shipping dates, wrong dresses, wrong prices, and ended with a small claims suit
Posted by ljahns[/QUOTE]

Eek! How awful!!

liftedlove85

I had a bad experience at Celebration Bridal when looking at Brides maid/Maid of honor dresses. We were greeted and left alone the rest of the time. We had to get our own fitting rooms which we had our hands full of dresses. There were atleast 4 girls working and we were the only customers in the store at the time. So we eventually just left since we couldn't get help, and no one said bye or anything!!!! Just seems kinda rude to me!

madstaylor

I found my dream dress at Storybook, but ended up not buying it. I agree on the customer service, the lady who helped me was quite pushy. I also HATED the face you couldnt take pictures. I have one bridesmaid in Iowa, the others were in Illinois, Michigan and California so I wanted to get their opinions on the dress but couldnt. I ended up getting a dress I love at Hopes Bridal in Davenport.

kitc101

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_iowa-quad-cities_avoid-storybook-ending-dewitt-ia?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:93Discussion:57451ade-d4ed-45d5-877f-9dd3e8a5dc88Post:18384311-7625-4d3b-a904-6a10e88a12cd">Re: AVOID A Storybook Ending in Dewitt, IA!</a>:
[QUOTE]I found my dream dress at Storybook, but ended up not buying it. I agree on the customer service, the lady who helped me was quite pushy. I also HATED the face you couldnt take pictures. I have one bridesmaid in Iowa, the others were in Illinois, Michigan and California so I wanted to get their opinions on the dress but couldnt. I ended up getting a dress I love at Hopes Bridal in Davenport.
Posted by madstaylor[/QUOTE]

I understand how you feel about the no picture issue- I have been told by several people that the reason for this 'rule' is because people take pictures of the dresses to a seamstress (usually a relative, from the stories I have heard) and they have that person make the dress instead of ordering the dress from the designer!

hz80408

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_iowa-quad-cities_avoid-storybook-ending-dewitt-ia?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:93Discussion:57451ade-d4ed-45d5-877f-9dd3e8a5dc88Post:a98f9bba-90c6-40eb-b06a-13734d137ef6">Re: AVOID A Storybook Ending in Dewitt, IA!</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: AVOID A Storybook Ending in Dewitt, IA! : I understand how you feel about the no picture issue- I have been told by several people that the reason for this 'rule' is because people take pictures of the dresses to a seamstress (usually a relative, from the stories I have heard) and they have that person make the dress instead of ordering the dress from the designer!
Posted by KitW86[/QUOTE]

Or that people are able to go online and find the dress for cheaper.  I think it's just out of protecting themselves.  But you can take as many pics as you want after you purchase it

FutureKrogmans1011

I personally have not been impressed by Storybook Ending. I wasn't really a fan of Celebration either. However, despite the fact that three of my bridesmaids ordered their dresses (at the same time, per their requirements) a week before March ended. A fourth bridesmaid of mine, went to Celebration and ordered two or three bridesmaid dresses (she has a busy summer ahead of her) well into April (the thirtieth) and has already recieved her two dresses. Got them a week ago, to be precise. They are all the same designer, and Celebration has far more stores so I'm not sure how this happens. It seems like with more stores they'd be more likely to delay it. It wasn't like the dresses were at another store and they just brought them to our store. Ugh! At Storybook, after driving there on three separate occasions to pick out the dresses for these three girls, the associates were consistently unable to locate my file. And we were thrown into the mix of the dresses (haphazardly sorted by color, which seems kind of silly when everyone orders the color... and the styles intermixed, also a pain when going by a common style like we were due to location of the bridesmaids) when each individual girl found their desired dress they were ignored until we tracked an associate down... Many of which were hiding in the "breakroom" with all the shoes. When they were filling out the paperwork they failed to try and see if we needed anymore help, ie. finding shoes, jewelry, etc. Not normally a big deal if you don't like that sort of upselling, but these girls aren't dressy so they could have used a little push. Then to top it all off, they were just plain rude in general to us. NOT A FAN. I avoided purchasing anything from David's Bridal because I felt like they were not helpful, they were extremely pushy, every one was just a sale. It was like I wasn't allowed to just look, I needed to know immediately what I wanted. I ended up buying my dress from Hope's, got a hell of a deal. And my MOH bought her dress there too! Have yet to start the alteration process yet with any of  them though, WILL keep you posted!

b-modlover

My question would be if you got your Bridal Gown at Hopes why didn't you get your maids dresses their to??  I loved Storybook Ending and know alot that do!  I have always received awesome service from them!!

alisoncoffey

I also had a TERRIBLE experience here! The lady I worked with was full of gossip and did whatever she could to make me NOT get the gown I wanted becuase I could get it at another price. She even went as far as to call the designer and get my supplier BLACK LISTED!!! She then said they wouldn't sell me the dress either. So basically she went after me personally so I could not have the dress I wanted! So so awful. I wouldn't suggest ANYONE give them a dollar!