I'll preface this by saying most of the questionable interactions I had took place with the owner of the store, not her staff. When we first went to Moments to Cherish to pick out bridesmaids gowns, we had a fantastic time. The associate we worked with was a wonderful woman, very cheery, and had some great suggestions to find a dress that worked for all of our different girls. Unfortunately, our experience took a nosedive thereafter.
First, my matron of honor found a coupon online for $50 off per dress. On 2 separate occasions, she asked whether this was good for one girl or for every girl ordering. Both times she was told every girl. This brought the price down within our budget and we decided to order. My matron of honor ordered with no issues. However, as my third bridesmaid tried to order the dress, she was told she couldn't use the coupon. I got a call later from the owner of the store, who gave me every excuse in the book as to how she wouldn't be making money off the dresses. At the end of the spiel she did agree she would give each girl the discount so they would purchase the dress at the price that everyone else did. If that were the end of it, it wouldn't have been a big deal. We all understand that mistakes and confusion happen.
When we picked up some of the dresses, 2 of the girls were fitted to be altered. Another girl lives in Chicago, so she asked to be altered there. When we asked for a quote, we were told "somewhere between $10-$100". My girl from Chicago tried her dress on, and it was SO big. She was reassured by the seamstress that she would have no problem getting it altered.
Fast forward about 6 weeks, and my Chicago bridesmaid went to go get her dress altered. She was told at two places that the cost to alter the dress would far exceed the cost of the actual dress, and that she should reorder. She looked over the dress and found it was a size 12, when she ordered a size 8. We called the bridal salon with this info and were told that her dress must have gotten swapped with someone else's and that we'll need to ask around (even though they surely had the order info at their fingertips.) We spent a day contacting everyone to get their sizes - no one ordered a 12. The follow up phone call was the most unprofessional conversation I've ever had with a vendor, and the email to follow was not any better. The salon owner finally stated that they must have ordered the wrong dress size and then gave every excuse in the book: "Why did your bridesmaid wait 7 weeks to get altered (it was 6 weeks until the wedding)?" "Chicago is more expensive" "You got those dresses 'dirt cheap'"(as if the coupon was our fault?), that they're short staffed, and ended her email with "As I stated above I don't know what more you want from me."
In the end, the dress was reordered and did get to my bridesmaid, a week before the wedding, after she picked it up from the post office because the name and address were written incorrectly.
As for the alterations for the other girls, they were never set up with f/u appointments, never given a timeline for their alterations (they live out of town and have to travel) and in the end cost $75 and $106 for fairly minor alterations. My MIL, a seamstress, said she'd never encountered such unprofessionalism in her life. I'm sure the vendor will respond with excuses, but I hope no one else goes through this.
