David's Bridal Evansville, IN

I am very angry right now with the customer service I have received. I will take some ownership of this problem however let me set the stage for you. How excited are you when you are trying on wedding dresses? If you were anything like me then you were pretty anxious to find the right dress for you. I went to David's Bridal and I tried on several dresses looking for just the right one. Let me ask you this, when you are trying on dresses do you read the walls in the dressing room? Who thinks to do that, I mean I guess some people would. For the most part all that is on your mind is finding that perfect wedding dress! Now for the most part people go home and think about all the dresses they looked at and decided on one. Well I was pretty happy with one from David's Bridal. I wasn't quite ready to purchase the dress yet but they had the deal going with a David's Bridal credit card. My sister and I talked and she decided to go ahead and get the credit card and buy the dress. Now I don't care what the store says, the sales representative that I spoke to advised us that the dress could be returned only if :

1. No alterations had been done.

2. ALL of the tags were still on the dress.

3. It had to be returned in perfect condition.

4. There was to be no type of odor on the dress ie. pet, smoking, etc.

We made sure to take special care of it just in case something happened. Listen I am not stupid I know things happen sometimes. I am a woman and just like everyone else you tend to change your mind from time to time. That is exactly what I did. I changed my mind. My grandfather passed away and the funeral was scheduled at the same time my wedding was. I love my grandfather very much and that was the appropriate place to be. My fiancee and I just decided to elope and save our money. I traveled a long way to be present at my grandfather's funeral and honsetly just didn't feel like having a ceremony. I didn't think it was going to be a problem because I hadn't paid a whole lot of up front costs and I was under the assumption that the dress could be returned. Well I WAS WRONG!!!! My sister went to return the dress and for starers she had to wait 45 minutes for someone to help. On top of that when the lady went to help her she didn't even look at the receipt she just said our policy states you can't return it. I called coporate and actually spoke with someone. You want to know what that got me? A lady who I will say maintained a nice tone while trying to make me out to be stupid. Her words were "it states it in the dressing room, by the cash register, on the walls, and on your receipt so I just can't believe that you didn't see it" mind you being someone sarcastic. Well HELLO I was told it was returnable so I wasn't paying attention! I will take ownership of the fact that I didn't see it, espically on the receipt but not because I am stupid it is because I wasn't paying attention. That is beside the point and the reason being is because they need to learn the golden rules of customer service. I am in a call center envirnoment and customer service is our number one priority. Regardless of what policies state every wisely ran business puts customer service first. Please understand that I am not doing this just to get my money back because I can pay for the dress. It is about principle now. It is about receiving great customer service. I know that I am only one person and that I can't bring a corporation that big down. Even if I can reach one, two, three, or even more people then I feel that I have accomplished my goal. My desirable outcome of this whole disaster is that someone from David's Bridal who actually cares for their customers reads this and does something about it. It is hard enough when you already have tragedy hit you, then to deal with something of this nature makes it even worse.

An Upset Customer in Indiana!

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Comment On This

I worked at David's for a long time, and let me tell you what I know to be true from my experience there. I was a bridal consultant. In fact I was employed there during the dates you had this issue.I was the one who helped you try on dress after dress until you found the right one. And in my experience, having had my own wedding and served hundreds of other brides is that you find that dress in the first 3 you try on 95% of the time. I DO NOT recommend going home to think about it because you will almost certainly forget what I never do- the look on your face whn you try on "the dress". All you will remember when you go home, even if yoou took pictures is a blur of white, the more gowns you've tried on the worse it is. So no, most of my customers did not wait, they bought the gown the day they tried it on, even if it had to be done with credit or put on layaway.

Secondly, bridal shops would be ruined if we took back gowns for everyone who insisted we should. How do we know you didn't just wear it to the wedding and the bring it back? Stranger things have happened. So almost ALL bridal shops have a strict "all sales are final" policy. Where would we be if we didn't? It's not like you'll ever wear the gown again! Your consultant was an idiot, because we all know that ALL SALES ARE FINAL and that doesn't change for anyone, so if you buy the dress you had better be committed to it. The only loopholes are state regulations, for instance, here in colorado we have a 3 day buyer's remorse law. Regardless of Davd's Bidal policy we have to honor that. So as long as the gown is in perfect condition we have to take it back, but we don't exactly emphasize that point at the register. It could be different in your state, find out. The best thing you can do to protect yourself in any case is be an informed consumer.

Third, not only does your receipt say it, we made you sign it at the register, saying that you understood that all sales were final. So you should have known that and your consultant is an idiot for telling you otherwise. Now, at the manager's discretion we have taken back gowns, because grooms have died, even brides have died and their families bring in the gowns... now that is sad. I am sorry about your grandfather but we have seen much harder situations as pertaining to the actual wedding, believe me.

All in all I think it sucks that your consultant misinformed you, I think it sucks that your grandfather died. But one thing you'll notice when you're greiving over something is that the sun still comes up and the world still turns and business is still business. Maybe somewhere there is a manager (or boutique owner)who would have returned the gown for you but it's not likely. That's the wedding industry as a whole for you. Pretty cut throat. You have to make your decisions fast and it had better be what you want, because caterers, cake makers, florists, etc, will eat up some kind of nonrefundable deposit of they can, otherwise they won't survive. And also because if you don't want it chances are someone else did and someone else will. Brides and their ma's are viscious and having the perfect wedding is almost like a race. Needless to say some are more prepared than others. Well if anyone is prepared, it's David's.