David's Bridal

David’s Bridal – Springfield, MO

I would strongly urge any future bride to shop anywhere other than David’s Bridal.

I stopped in a David’s Bridal store last month to browse the dresses for my upcoming wedding. At this particular store, I was pounced on by a sales associate, who was kind of rabid about finding me a dress. I am guessing DB sales associates work on commission. I found a dress I was interested in; however, this dress was not available in my size at this store. The associate looked online to see if the nearby Springfield store might have it available. They did, but she explained that even though it showed “in stock” the dress in the two sizes I needed to try on, the computer would not tell her if they were “really” there or if they were in layaway. This in itself seems pretty ignorant to me. I told the associate that I really didn’t want to drive all the way to Springfield to see if they “might” have the dresses there, so she called the store to make sure, and in the process she set up an appointment for 10:00 am the next morning for me to try these dresses. By the way, I did appreciate this from the sales associate later…what seemed to me as expected customer service was really not the norm for David’s Bridal.

10:00 am the next morning I’m at the Springfield David’s Bridal being told by a sales associate that they don’t have my name on file, I don’t have an appointment, and they only have that particular dress in a size 8, but no 6. And, since I didn’t have an appointment, there was nothing they could do. I stood dumbstruck and turned to leave, but another associate, seeing my disgust, herded me over to the other dresses.

Long story short, I found THE dress, which also happened to be a last year’s dress on clearance. However, it was about a size too big. “NO problem!” said the sales associate, “We can do alterations…really it’s no big deal…you’re going to need this size anyway to accommodate the ‘bridal bra’…blah blah blah” Then proceeds to try to sell me a $175 veil. I asked if she could look and see if it were at another store, to which she replied that there was NO WAY I’d find that dress at another store…it was on clearance…if I wanted it, I’d better get it now and do the alterations (which were no big deal) because I HAD to have that bridal bra ($75), and the smaller size would not accommodate it. (According to my Mother who was with me and who is an experienced seamstress…a smaller size was exactly what I needed – Bridal Bra or not.) Well, the alterations lady comes out, looks at the dress, and gives us the alteration price – MORE THAN THE DRESS!!! Baloney! We told the associate that we needed to think it over while we went to lunch, which was where she lost interest. Her words were, “That’s fine, but I can’t guarantee it’ll be here when you get back.”

I didn’t want to give in to her high-pressure sales tactics, but I really did want the dress. After lunch, we returned to the store where my fianc