PFB Investigates - David's Bridal's Missing Customer Service

I had the worst experiance ever with Davids bridal. I went to the
store in oklahoma city. Found the dress of my dreams. They only had it
in a size 4 i'm a size 2. I called the little rock store in Ar. They
had it in my size. When i told the ladies in the ok store i was just
going to purchise the dress over the phone and pick it up. They said
it'd be best for me to buy the four then exchange it for the two. Take
into mind i was already exchanging a 99 dollar dress for this 499
dress. So i did as they told me. Both stores were in agreement and
told me to do it this way. SO i drove six hours to little rock ar.
They did not want to exchange the dress. They were rude and heartless.
I broke down into tears holding my eleven month old baby in my arms.
Finally as she is shutting the door in my face. I'M CRYING AND SAYING
I DID WHAT THEY SAID. She snatched the dress from my arms, tore it out
of the garment bag and shoved the new one in it. Walked to the dorr
and threw it at me and my baby. Then slammed the door in my face. I
have complained to several people with just an i'm sorry and when i
couldn't get through to them that i'm sorry wouldn't be good enough i
had my mother in law call. Then they proceed to tell her i was
curseing at them. I wasn't even when i should have.

Last week after much deliberation I purchased a dress at a David's
Bridal location in Mishawaka Indiana. Meanwhile my mother was calling
salons all over Chicago to find this gown by Impression that I have
been wanting so badly,but could not afford.The very day after I
purchased the gown from David's she called to inform be that she had
found the gown and it would be her gift to me.

Assuming that it would be no problem because, #1)I had my receipt #2)
the dress was on order and not even in my possession as of yet. I
called David's Bridal to have the amount credited back into my
account. In a very short tone the sales associate on the other end
told me that" ALL SALES ARE FINAL".

I am in complete disbelief ,mostly because( I don't even have the
dress yet!) Why wouldn't they be able to cancel an order ?I don't
understand.I have not touched the dress I purchased and I'm stuck with
all 700$ worth of it.

If anyone knows of some angle that I can use against them to get my
money back, please let me know.

Angie

I have just come from David's Bridal with my future daughter in law
and her bridesmaids in an attempt to shop for wedding party attire. We
had an appointment. Our "consultant" greeted us after a few minutes,
told us which dressing rooms to use, and showed us where the dresses
were. She advised us to look and begin trying on and she would be
right back with us. After an hour and 10 minutes and trying on 9 or 10
dresses, we left the store, never again having contact with our
"consultant". She was in full view of us the entire time tht we were
there. never once were we asked how we were doing, did we need help,
can I suggest something...nothing! When she saw us don our coats to
leave, still nothing! I get better service at TJ Maxx!

I am very grateful that I have come across what you have to say about
David's Bridal, because I am currently making attempts to put in a
complaint. I was informed at a newly opened store that the
alterations for my bridesmaid dresses were included and when my
bridesmaids went back to the store for their fittings, they we slapped
with an alterations fee equaling the amount of their dresses. When I
called to store to get clarification, I was told that I was miss
informed, and they would also not give me the name of the consultant
that assisted my bridesmaids. When my bridesmaids went in for refunds
of the alterations, since we were able to stop it in time, the
consultants issuing the refunds did not know exactly what they were
doing and would go back to the managers office. Not once did the
manager appear, instead my bridesmaids needed to wait in the store
about 30 minutes at witnessed nerved consultants and a cowardly
manager.

I'm the "Pissed Off Bride". Fortunately, the Bridal consultant that
worked with me was "Wonderful". The reason why I would like to
encourage any one NOT to purchase from David's Bridal is because the
management and customer serivce, in the Store in Norfolk, Va was
Horrible!!. The arrogant witch,(some type of manager)sitting @ the
front desk was cold and insensitive. On more than one occassion, this
witch ignored my entrance to the store and decided to greet and help
ladies of another ethnicity. It was because my wedding consultant was
so nice(Veronica) I came back, specifically requested to be assisted
by her and ordered my mother's dress and a jacket. I was contacted by
phone, informing me that the jacket was back but that the dress was
not. I waited and did not received any notification. I called and the
"witch" (you know what I would like to call her...), in her arrogant
tone, informed my that the dress had been back since Oct 2nd. I
inquired about why I or my mother had not been informed and was told
that they emailed me. I told them that I did not receive an email and
inquired why I was called about the jacket and not called about the
dress. She responded with an arrogant answer and it was all I could do
to prevent from going to the store and shaking the sh.. out of her. My
wedding is in 2 weeks and mom's dress needs alterations. I attempted
to contact the corp office and like all the reviews I've read, I was
unable to find a corp contact.
In this type of business, I believe it is imperative that customer
service is top rated. I have not read one good review.Because of time
restaints and the stress of planning a wedding, I did not address the
"witch manager", but trust me, when this is all over,I'm going to the
store and I assure you, they will never forget ME!
Thank you for this wedsite because I needed to say something to
someone!

Signed;
The Pissed Off Bride!!!!!!!!

In Kalamazoo we have a shop that advertises that you should not buy
your dress from a "high pressure, carbon copy chain store". The
independent shop has a wide selection according to the advertising,
and an exclusivity registry so that nobody else in the area can
purchase the same one.

People should continually skip these chain stores and go to
independent places. The management and ownership is all local, and the
firm is small enough to care. Whether it be a bridal store,
restaurant, or specialty retailer, I have found local ones are always
the best.

I'm probably significantly older than most of the people who post here
(57 years old)...I've known David's Bridal since I was old enough to
know about bridal gowns- I don't know anyone who would shop there
unless they wanted something very cheap and their feeling is you get
what you pay for (there's always been plenty of word of mouth about
them). Apparently they're still in business so their poor service
doesn't seem to effect them and I doubt a blog on PFB will do anything
either.

I am single, but if I ever plan to get married, I will absolutely
convince my fiancee NOT to use David's.

We'll go someone that values its customers...and there's plenty of
competition.

Thanks for the story and the input!

Well i'm glad you did this! And found out that they all are on
commission. interestingly, when the 'store manager' called me back,
she insisted my consultant was NOT on commission. Feh.

I did not receive an apology from them either, but it just proves what
kind of company they are.

Caveat emptor.

1001 Washington Street
Conshohocken, PA
610-943-5000
Press 2 for Customer Service, I think it's 8 for all other
departments

Granted this information is not on their website but I found it in
about 30 seconds.

is the warnings not to leave multiple messages. That is a hoot,
considering that leaving one or ten results in the same response.

I can't see why they would care if the voice mailbox filled right up,
and people were told they couldn't leave a message. They aren't going
to bother returning the calls anyway.

What a poor way to do business. That is sad.

A few years ago, during my own wedding planning and dress research, I
got addicted to reading all the David's Bridal horror stories. (And
though I didn't join until later, that addiction is how I found PFB).

I wasn't surprised by all the stories as I had my own negative
experiences with a local store. But I was truly shocked by the depth
of many of the complaints and though many (if not all) were 100%
valid, I was stunned by how many didn't get resolved despite being the
store's fault.

The bigger the chain, the higher the number of complaints you'll get.
As Venice says, it means more people are shopping at David's Bridal
than at say, Ye Olde Bridal Shoppe. However, from what I've read from
disgruntled customers, David's isn't too proactive in resolving the
complaints they get, including the ones where they are clearly in the
wrong. And while I agree about contacting the manager, from what I've
read, in many cases the management IS the problem. So where do you go
in that case? The lack of a phone number was a frequent comment made
by customers seeking satisfaction. I've always felt that a company
that makes a customer jump through hoops to contact them and hides
behind voicemail is a company that doesn't really want to hear from
their customers. And that always makes me wonder why.

This isn't to say ALL David's locations are bad. I know Harleycat had
a great experience as did Venice and her daughter. I also had a great
experience at another location. Despite it being a hectic Saturday,
they were nothing but pleasant and patient with me even though I
wasn't making a huge purchase. So, the good ones are out there.
Perhaps even the majority of locations are well run, but the poorly
run ones tend to stand out.

Oh, as for the salespeople being on commission? No big shock there. I
didn't believe what they said in the "Heartless" letter one bit.

I knew David's Bridal was bad from stories from friends, but when it
was time to get my dress I decided to go with my fiance' if for no
other reason than to show him what a bad bridal store looked like. I
was 21 at the time, but to be fair I do look young. When I first went
in they wanted me to sign in, which I knew was a bad idea since they
promptly sell my information (which happened to me 4 years earlier
when I went in for my prom dress shopping). I made up an address and
then waited. And waited. And asked a consultant if she would help me
(since you're not allowed to touch or look through dresses without
permission) and she said sure, and lead me into the prom dresses. To
which I said no, I was here for my wedding, and she laughed and walked
away. Rinse, repeat. Every consultant insisted I was too young to be
getting married, I even offered to show my ID but they laughed me off
again. I left.

I figured I would go to a different store and have my fiance' wear his
army dress uniform to see if they would take me seriously, but still,
no luck. He even pulled out a few hundred in cash (thank god for
deployment money) and said if anyone helped me here was the money we'd
use. Still nothing. Promptly got my dress elsewhere and had a fun and
wonderful experience shopping.

On the "Contact Us" page (which was the top link when I googled
"contact site:.davidsbridal.com," so I didn't bother trying to find it
using the Site Map), it says "The Store Manager at each location will
be happy to answer your questions and discuss your concerns. The store
locator will provide you with the phone number and address of the
store closest to you." It includes a link to the store locator. The
same page includes a form for asking "online" questions. At the
bottom of the page, they provide the number 1-800-517-1820 if you want
to talk to "an Invitations Specialist" "regarding invitation
etiquette." They've also got the number 877-923-BRIDE on the top of
quite a few pages, if you want to call to make an appointment. And
the press information page seems to me to be pretty easy to find, just
like the "Contact Us" page.

It really doesn't sound as if they are all that worried about the
press they get (on this site or perhaps on websites in general, or
maybe at all), and it doesn't sound as if they are particularly
interested in helping customers who are dissatisfied with the service
they got at the store level.

But then again, they're in the business of offering customers a
"personal" relationship (I imagine that the point of paying commission
is to give employees an incentive to form that kind of relationship
with customers) with someone at the store level (because the things
they sell are the sorts of things most people want to see in person,
to try on when appropriate, and to match to other products), over a
short period (because by the time brides go shopping, a lot of them
are already on a deadline). If someone isn't happy, it's in their
best interest to resolve the problem quickly, because the longer the
process of trying to keep the customer takes, the closer the wedding
gets and the more likely the customer is to just go shopping somewhere
else and restrict their relationship with David's Bridal to "being
heard." It seems to me that it would be cost-effective to retain the
easier brides, the ones who are going to be satisfied by being
assigned a different "consultant" or going to a different store or
having the store manager do something for them, and not worry too much
about trying to keep the ones who are upset enough to want a more
time-consuming intervention.

I get why you aren't happy with them. If I were going to get married,
David's Bridal isn't a place I would go to. But I guess I just have a
hard time getting all that upset that they want to steer disgruntled
customers back to the store level. It makes sense to me that that's
what they'd want to do, and as I say it only took me a few seconds to
discover that, yes, that's how their website says they want to deal
with complaints.

I was 21 when I got married. Apparently that means I didn't have money
to spend on my wedding. David's totally gave me the shaft when I went
in the first time to look for a dress. They sized me (not a big
person), and told me I would wear a size 11, because wedding dresses
run small. Then I was just pointed in the direction of the size 11
dresses and when I found ones to try on, they pointed me in the
direction of the fitting rooms. I ended up finding a modest spaghetti
strap dress with no train, perfect for our wedding in Jamaica. No
thanks to the consultant.

Fast forward about two months. We decided to cancel our destination
wedding and bump up the date and have a small, local, winter wedding.
I went to David's Bridal with my MIL and son in tow, and asked for the
11s. The woman SNORTED at me, looked me up and down, and said "The
FOURTEENS are over there."
Not to mention I had lost weight in those two months. I told her the
dress I bought two months previous when I was 15 lbs. heavier was an
11, and no thanks, I would buy a dress elsewhere.

I found a very nice little shop owned by a sweet old Italian woman
named Tina who customized me the most beautiful dress and called me
"my little bride!" every time I came in. Size 8, thank you very much.
I wanted so badly to send a copy of the $1000 receipt to David's to
show them what they missed out on for being a bunch of jerks.

They only stay in business because they have their $99 bridal gown
sales during the year and most brides will buy one of these than spend
thousands on something else they will never wear.

They have gone downhill rapidly and I think customer service is the
first to suffer when a company is not doing well financially. The
staff usually knows something is going on and they pass this on to the
customers sometimes. Maybe this is one of those times???

David's Bridal is horrible. I don't know how they stay in
business.When I got married 2 years ago my bridesmaid ordered her gown
there. They ordered the wrong color and first they refused to do
anything about it, then said they would reorder but could not
guarantee she would recieve the right color! Then when we asked then
to do it on a rush basis (my wedding was just 7 weeks away!) they said
even a rush would take 6-8 weeks. They were completely and utterly
horrible and made it clear they really don't care about their
customers.

David's Bridal is the worst! I'm getting married this summer and I
would walk down the aisle in a trash bag before i would ever buy my
dress from David's Bridal. I went in the other day to look at
bridesmaid dresses, because my mother wouldn't listen when i told her
how bad David's Bridal is. As soon as i walked in, I was shadowed by
one of their employees insisting I register with a consultant. I told
the woman I just wanted to look around and I did happen to look at a
few of the wedding dresses. I was scolded for taking the dresses off
the rack to get a closer look at them. Needless to say, that was it
for me. David's Bridal will never get one measly cent of my money. I
don't need to be harassed just for coming in and looking around.

My experience with David's was the complete opposite. I ended up at
David's after being completely ignored at a local upscale bridal shop.
I guess I didn't fit the image, older woman dressed as bikers dress.

I headed over to David's since I had seen something I liked on their
website. I didn't want to spend thousands of dollars on a dress. I
was immediately greeted (on a Saturday) and taken over to where the
dresses were in my size. I saw the one from the website and my family
saw some others they wanted me to try on. One of those was perfect
and fit like a glove. I purchased it that day. From the purchase to
my wedding, I lost about 25 lbs. My consultant tried to find the
dress in a smaller size at another store but that style had been
discontinued. I ended up having it altered and they did a beautiful
job. My neighbor, a skilled seamstress, was impressed.

We did have an off putting exerience at the store where my sister,
niece and mother got their dresses. Everything was fine until my
mother picked up her bag and they had ruined the dye job. They
wouldn't give her a refund without her receipt, she only had her
claimcheck. They wanted an 80yr old woman to go crosstown in the
August heat to get it. She asked me to drive (35miles) to her house
and get her and the receipt and I really didn't want to do that. I
called the store and was treated to the nastiest person I ever had to
deal with. I just hung up on her, went online and found the number to
their corporate headquarters. It only took a few minutes. I called
and got someone who handled everything. She called my mother, got
some info off the receipt and issued a refund.

My thought's on David's is that it is a big chain. The Wal Mart of
the bridal biz. You are bound to have some people who have bad
experiences. How many complaints have we seen here about Wal Mart,
Target, etc? Are they all bad stores? Does everyone have a horrible
experience shopping there? No, it's by sheer volume alone. They must
be doing something right. I know of three other brides besides myself
who got their dresses there and were all happy.

I will never utter a positive word about David's Bridal, even if I had
something positive to say. The negative experiences of friends is all
I need to know. One friend took me with her to pick up her dress for
moral support, because she'd already had run-ins with them. They
purposely ordered her dress to be several sizes too big, so they could
charge for alterations (which really is how they make their money).
THen when they altered, they took it in too much and it was too small,
and they weren't even sure they'd be able to find enough fabric to let
it back out.

MEanwhile, my friend is in tears, and the store employees (all under
20) WERE JOKING AND LAUGHING. Even as we left the store, one of these
brats called out "If you find some free money, let me know." WTF?

Anyone spending money on a dress for their wedding should do some
internet/BBB research first, and that will be all they need to know to
avoid that store. At the very least, buy your dress and find your own
seamstress.

but David's is a cutrate dress store. It's like the WalMart of
wedding dress shops. You really should not expect any kind of service
in there and should only shop there if you know what you want and
don't need any help because that is exactly what you'll get.

I bought my dress from them a million years ago when I was young, dumb
and broke. It lasted about as long as the marriage did, so there ya
go!