N February, I bought a dress from Enstyle wedding designs in Springfield VA (oddly enough just changed to Dream Weddings for no reason). I payed an extra $150 to have the dress be made to exactly my height (which I found out later on was completely unnecessary). The dress was ordered from Alfred Angelo in February and I was told that it would be shipped out in mid June. I called in March to make sure that the dress had been order and to double check on the day that it was being shipped out on. June came and passed and I never received a phone call telling me whether or not my dress had arrive.
I then called in the beginning of July, not once by twice where I was told that the dress had not arrived yet. Upon calling a third time, I was told that the dress take a month to ship and would not be there until the end of July. I don't know whether to believe this or not but I do know that it would have been nice to have been told this the first two times I called.
In the beginning of August, I finally received a call about my dress arriving. I made an appointment for the following week because my mother would be up from North Carolina for my Bridal shower. I am an only child and being at the fitting is a big deal for her plus my father recently had a stroke and this would be the only time that she would be able to make it up to Northern Virginia before the wedding. The fitting appointment was made on the morning (10am) of August 9th. I arrived at the appointment on time with my mother as well as the groom's mother.
After trying on the dress I noticed that it was entirely too short and a little lighter than I expected. We stood around waiting for 1 hour while we were told that the bridal shop owner would be there in 15 minutes... Several times. Meanwhile we had to drive to my bridal shower at 12pm. I understand that this is tight time frame but it was all I could do to be able to have my mother attend.By 11:00, we had to leave for the bridal shower as the owner, Quanetta, arrived. She apologized and told us to call her on her personal cell phone if we could make it back in the early evening. The bridal shower ran over time and we hit traffic so we could not make it to the fitting.
I rescheduled the next weekend where Quanetta was promptly there. We soon discovered the dress was 6 inches shorter than she measured in February (no, I did not grow. I have been 5'9' since High School). It was also the wrong color (white) and mine was ivory. She quickly got on the phone with Alfred Angelo, in which they apparently told her that she would have to send that dress back before they would send another one. They could not guarantee to have a dress to me before the wedding that would be my height so I could not get the hallow to hem ($150.00 extra).
Meanwhile, the original dress that I had ordered was several sizes larger so that I could have it fit exactly to my size... Which I would have had enough time to do that many fittings if the dress had arrived on time. We asked if they had a size smaller (4) which they only had in white and not ivory. At this point, I really did not care what color the dress was. Quanetta ordered the white size 4 dress so that it would take less dress fittings to complete. I requested by 150.00 back because it would not be made for my height. I was told alter on that I would not be able to get the money back because the dress order was now different and then I was threatened that they actually should be charging the full price of a new dress rather than the discounted original price (I bought the dress at a trunk show).
My argument is
* Where is my original dress that I ordered?
* I would not have had to change my order if this dress had reached me?
* Where is my apology for the fact that the dress did not come on time?
The story does not end there.in my opinion, if the dress order had been wrong, the company should have shipped the dress overnight. The dress was discovered to be incorrect on August 15th. The other dress was supposedly mailed to the bridal shop. I called for the next week where I was given every excuse as to where my dress was. When week two hit, I told her and Alfred Angelo that I wanted the tracking number on the dress and to know the exact date of when it would arrive. This is not a hard request considering tracking numbers are attached to anything mailed through UPS nowadays. No one could give me this information or a possible day.
Meanwhile my maid of honor and myself were now contacting Alfred Angelo directly since we could not get answers from Quannetta. I am generally a calm person but I am very self aware as to when I need to detach from the situation. My fiance took over making the phone calls with Quannetta who then assured him that the dress would be in the shop by Wednesday August 3rd.
Right after my fiance got off the phone with Quanetta, I received a call from Alfred Angelo stating that my dress was on the way and would be there before the wedding. They would not give me a date and then I asked why it was taking so long. The women on the phone told me that there was a problem with UPS and the dress was being shipped back to them right away and then they would send it back to the shop. This seemed completely contradictory to what Quanetta said to my fiance on the phone. My fiance quickly called her back and she assured us again that the dress would be here and to make a fitting appointment for Friday the 5th of August.
Since Wednesday of this week, I have been calling the shop and leaving messages, sending emails and trying to schedule appointments through outlook and have received no response. I finally broke down and called her personal cell phone today where I was told that she was dealing with a family emergency and was driving back to town. She would not be in tonight and that she did not even know if the dress was in. She then told me to call her back in 1/2 hour so she could try to get hold of Alfred Angelo. Since we have discovered the dress was wrong, I have told Quanetta that I will be traveling before the wedding for work and business and I needed the dress by August. Now, I do not have a dress nor a time to pick up or get fitted for the dress and my wedding is two weeks away.
During this entire time, we were the ones that had to reach out to Quanetta. She was never the one that called us to keep us up to date on the status.
My fiance and I are on a tight budget and are paying for wedding. I have been told a myriad of excuses throughout this process. I do not believe that my dress will be in before my wedding and I do not know what to do. I don't have it in my budget to buy another dress. I either want my dress in my hands or my money back. Is this really too much to ask for?
My friend suggested contacting you not only because you may have more influence than myself but also because I do NOT want this to happen to other brides. Please help me.
Kind Regards,
Kerri C
* I also discovered that she wrote that my wedding was on August 21st in our contract with her and the order for Alfred Angelo. If this had been true than my wedding would have been over without the wedding dress. When going to another wedding shop in the area for my friend's wedding, I found out that she has done this to other brides and wedding parties before. And that she was in the middle of a lawsuit. This is all hearsay and I cannot back up if it is true or not. Someone needs to stop this women before she destroys another wedding.*
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