What advice do you have for dealing with an unprofessional business when they already have your money in their pocket?
I have purchased my wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses from Davids Bridal. I’ve also gotten my very expensive alterations done through them. My first experience with them (when I purchased my dress) was a good one. My consultant was helpful and I found a dress I loved. I overlooked the fact that I informed my consultant I was on a budget and she insisted on bringing me gowns that were 4 x’s my budget.
Unfortunately my experiences since then have gotten much worse. The appointment my bridesmaids had to purchase their dresses was awful. We had the same consultant, except this time around she was absolutely no help at all! She gave us no attention, rushed us into a sale, and made us feel unwelcome. Why did we have an appointment if she was going to be helping random walk-in clients? It was a very unpleasant experience but I let it slide.
The next bad experience happened when I noticed the date for which my bridesmaid’s dresses were suppose to arrive had passed by over a week and we had received no phone calls. I called them to ask what the problem was and they informed me that one dress was in but the other had been delayed another month. They claimed to have put a phone call in to us (but they didn’t). So we picked up the one dress. A couple weeks later I went in for my alterations on April 3. They told me, to be on the safe side, bring $175. So I brought $200 to be even safer. After all was said and done it was $260. I had to go to my bank account via my phone and transfer money to my checking account in order to afford it!
The last thing that sent me over the edge with David’s was something that happened today. I decided to call them and ask if my other bridesmaid dress had arrived yet. It had. Again, they hadn’t called anyone to let us know. Big surprise. I asked what date it had arrived and they said April 1…My bridemaid and I were in the store April 3 for my alterations and nobody felt the need to say, “Hey, by the way, your other dress came in.” Really? So now she has to drive over an hour to pick up the dress that she could’ve picked up last week.
I spoke to a manager today and informed her of all the problems I’ve had with their company and how much money I’ve given them over the past year. Did she care? Not one bit. She offered only an insincere aplology. No discount, no nothing. So my question is, now that David’s Bridal already has my money, how do I resolve these issues?Go straight to their main headquarters and complain? Send an email? Or do I just live and learn? Walk away and know better than to give them another cent of my money in the future?
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23 Answers
I think you answered your questions at the end there: Go straight to their main headquarters and complain (politely, though), live and learn, and find another place to do the rest of the dresses if at all possible.
I was going to say talk to the manager. You have done that. Now, I would write a letter to the corporate office (use the President’s name) with a cc to the manager that you spoke to detailing all of the issues and saying that you are very unhappy with the service to date.
Then tell them what you want. A discount? Tell them that if you do not get some kind of satisfaction that you will feel forced to take additional action. (Do not be specific.) You should get some response.
Note: It is important, nay vital, that your complaint be in writing.
As is well known in business: a happy customer tells a friend, an unhappy customer tells the world.
complain to her boss. Weddings are super special days. When I work with a bride I treat her well. It’s an important event and these people are screwing the build up to it.
One quick Google search will provide you with an abundance of bridal forums. These brides talk a great deal amongst themselves about their experiences with vendors.
So two things…
#1
Gather a list of these forums and send this list to David’s Bridal. This is not a threat, but it is your duty to share your experiences with other customers. Your comments will be based upon their actions. Just by telling the truth in multiple platforms, David’s Bridal will earn respect, or loose potential customers.
#2
Part of the problem is with you. Sorry, but there is no shortage of resources available to check vendor ethics before you deal with them. If you did that, and David’s Bridal was recommended consistently, then this is either a uniquely bad situation, or you yourself are being unreasonable. If you did not check your vendors before giving them your money, well, what can I say? The information was available. You’ll live and learn.
Good luck with your wedding plans. I wish you well!
@Zen_Again: Hit it on the head. I’m guessing many of your friends are unmarried but are planning to get married. Tell them all. Tell them to tell their friends. In addition to that, write to the headquarters and tell them that you plan on telling all of your unmarried friends that you were screwed over and that David’s Bridal is a terrible place to shop.
@KatawaGrey Thats the route I took with the manager. I let her know that because they refused to fix or care about my issues I’ll make sure to let all
my friends who are getting married to steer clear of their company. She didn’t care. But maybe I’ll have more luck with headquarters.
@ItalianPrincess1217: It’s entirely possible that it’s just that store in which case, going to headquarters might help because they can discipline that store’s manager.
Here is how I handled it with an auto insurance company who refused to pay the claim for their client who backed into me.
I wrote a letter that flamed and gave every detail and addressed it to the Chairman of the Board (by name) and the CEO/President (by name), with a copy to the local office.
I told them specifically the results I expected. The very morning after the letter arrived (sent Fedex so I could trace them). I got a call from an Administrative Assistant to the CEO who told me “no sweat”, the claim was being paid. I never had to utter an unpleasant word (the letter took care of that). Admin Assistants at the CEO level are usually very very good and take care of problems so their boss won’t have to. They even followed up a couple of times to make sure I was satisfied.
The rule is S*** rolls downhill, so start with the TOP level….absolutely nowhere else. Give all the details (as you have done above) and you tell them what you expect them to do. The power of an articulate will written letter to the right person is great. But it has to go to the very top. If you go lower, then you put the lower level person in the position of having to justify action to someone higher up…..which is always a weak position. I wanted the Admin Assistant to see it and make the decision to recommend action to the CEO…..for him it was a minor problem to fix.
@plethora Great advice! I will absolutely be writing a letter to headquarters.
i agree. write to someone higher up. and like zen said, you’ve already spread the word well, and i’m sure they’ll lose some business because of it. it sounds like a horrible experience, and one i don’t want to have, so i’ll avoid them as well if i ever get married lol.
@deni Definitely avoid them if at all possible. I live in a small town so they were the only option at the time. But it wasn’t worth it. I would’ve rather traveled 4 hours to get a dress then 1 hour to get poor service. They really are awful.
@ItalianPrincess1217: A piece of advice for the future would be to not buy a more expensive thing from the store. Unfortunately, once you agreed to buy the dress that was 4 times your budget, the sales lady took it as a sign that you could be had. I understand that because of your lack of options, once you bought the dress you had to stick with David’s Bridal but sales people can be ruthless and nasty. I hope you have better luck in the future with this kind of thing. :)
You know, I’ve always wondered… Who do you complain about the BBB to?
“Say hello to my little friend”
If you didn’t get satisfaction at the franchise then go to the company website and lodge a complaint or “comment”. Google them and see if they’ve got a facebook or twitter acct. and leave something there but note the location if you can.
Like everyone else, I would find the headquarters office and demand immediate resolution of all of these issues. Be sure and write letters as well as calling (in case you resort to litigation).
Corporate Headquarters:
1001 Washington St.
Conshohocken, PA 19428
CEO is Bob Huth
There are a lot of complaints about them on the web, all for similar reasons to yours.
@PandoraBoxx Thanks for that. I couldn’t find the CEO’s name. And I did notice how many complaints there were on the Internet. I regret not doing my research beforehand!
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