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I'm getting married on July 23, in 30 days, and here's my David Bridal experience so far in Carle Place (I apologize for the length, but there’s a lot to complain about!):
I ordered my wedding gown last August and received the gown within 3 weeks. “Wow, what a surprise!” I thought. They told me it would take about 12 weeks, so I was impressed. Little did I know that their customer service was about to take a turn for the worse.
My BMs ordered their gowns in August. I explained to David’s that one BM is out-of-town and is getting her dress at a California David's. However, to make it convenient for her, I ordered her a pocketbook to match the other BMs. One week later, David's called me to tell me that they can't process the order until my California BM orders her dress. However, they didn't tell me this when we were at the store the week before! “My God, just put the order through in the meantime,” I said! She's buying it on her own, so why should it delay our order?
October comes around and I hadn’t yet received a call about the BMs dresses. I contact them and they explain that they didn't call because the order was incomplete. They put me on hold while the woman gathered the invoices, etc. It turns out it was a mistake and everything was in! I went to the store to pick them up, and discover that the dresses are in, but not the purses. It was incomplete after all.
Months go by, and still no purses. The BMs and I went down for my first gown fitting in April. I ask them about the purses again. Someone went to look for the purses in the back. We waited for 20 minutes. The woman came back to ring up customers, but totally ignored the fact that I'm still waiting for an answer. I interrupt her before she starts to help the next customer on the line. 'Oh, nobody told you? They never made it to store. ' I then try to find a manager and the manager tells me that she'll put the order through again, but I shouldn't worry because my wedding is in July and they are only purses.
Then while having my fitting, some unattended 3-year old child is running around the alterations dressing area, and around me as my dress is getting pinned! One of my BMs tries to find out where his mother is, but she is no where to be found. The tailor doesn't seem to notice our annoyance. In addition, another customer and her mother are having customer service issues and the tailor working on my dress stops working on my dress to argue about it with them for 15 minutes or so while I’m still standing there.
The alterations on my dress finally continued after my seamstress had arguments with several customers and other DB employees in front of me. I later tell the tailor to alter sleeves which are jutting out to far from my shoulders. They should be more fitted. She told me it is not necessary because it’s a 'portrait shoulder' so its supposed to look like that. My next fitting was scheduled for one month later. I went home and looked at the picture of my dress in the catalog again and notice that my dress sleeves definitely don't look like the ones in the catalog - they are more fitted to my shoulders. I decided to tell her to fix them when at my next fitting.
3 weeks later I receive a message on my answering machine that the purses we ordered are discontinued, so we need to call back to pick another style. If they came in back in October like they were supposed to we would have the style we wanted! I called back and they kept putting me on hold, too! I was transferred back and forth 4 times, and every time someone would pick up and say 'Davids Bridal, can I help u' and I would have to explain why I was calling again. After being on the phone with them for 45 minutes, I got fed up and hung up on them. I decided to take care of this when I was in the store again so I could speak to them in person. I don’t have the time for this aggravation.
The day before my next fitting, I receive another call from David’s. They want to postpone my fitting for another week because they are backlogged. I express my discontent as I am worried that my dress will not be ready in time. That place is a zoo and they don’t know their asses from their elbows! The tailor tells me that she doesn’t understand why they scheduled my fitting so soon before my wedding date. Since when is 2 months before the wedding too early for alterations? Are they kidding me?! Plus they are the ones who said I should call to make a fitting appointment about 3 months before the wedding. Then another woman picked up the phone and inquires why I have a problem with the postponement. I tell her about my concern and she ensures me that I will have plenty of time to make the appropriate alterations in time for my wedding. I finally give in and she told me the new date. I then looked at the calendar and saw that the new appointment is actually 2 weeks from today! I tell her that and she said, “One week, two weeks, whatever.” I then mention that I have been trying to resolve the pocket book issue and she told me that she would look into it and call me right back. She never did.
Two weeks later, on June 3, I attend my 2nd fitting. I arrive a half hour early to resolve the purse issue. It’s a good thing because it took 25 minutes for someone at the place to order it because they didn’t know what purses I could dye to match my BMs dress color of Wood Violet. The woman assured me they will be in by July 1, the latest.
At the fitting, the tailor told me all the dressing rooms are full so I have to wait. I wait and wait and I actually see that there is one room that no one is using, except that it has some tissue paper and plastic on the floor. The tailor was no where in sight so I took it upon my self to enter the room and start getting into my dress. Once dressed, I get out and the woman bustles me. I was surprised to see that it actually looked good considering all the complaints I was hearing from the other brides-to-be in the dressing room that evening. The only complaint I had was about the sleeves. This time I brought the picture from the catalog to show her, but despite the photo, she still debated me on my decision to adjust the sleeves. Her reasoning is that it is just a photo of a dress not to be taken seriously. What?!! My mother and the other customers heard what she said, and had confused looks on their faces. I told her that was absurd and that is the way I want it. She warned me that I won’t be able to move my arms, but that doesn’t make sense because the sleeves have elastic underneath. She finally gives in and tells me it will cost me an additional $50. My next fitting is on July 2.
A day or two later I get a call from my flower girl’s mother that the dress she ordered in February hasn’t come in yet and she has been trying to call them several times to find out when it was coming in. I have 2 flower girls with the same dress, but my other flower girl actually had her dress. She’s OOT and she ordered her dress in a Pennsylvania store. They keep the mother that someone would call back, but they never did. I called them myself and they told me that someone will have to call me back because they are too busy to talk to me. I called them every hour until someone told me that the woman in receiving who was supposed to call me back went home and the system is closing down so I’ll have to call back the next morning. I called back the next day, and they told me that they will have to check on Monday because they can’t check orders on the weekends. The manager promised she’ll call me by 2 p.m. on Monday to tell me the status. Monday at 2:30 I hadn’t received a call yet. I called them back and the manager told me that it was too much trouble to track the order so they decided to order it from another store. In other words, they lost it, right? The dress finally came in the following week, but what will my next fitting hold for me? My other BMs were smart – they decided to get their alterations done in a David’s Bridal in Rockland County, where they are nicer and more organized. Stay tuned . . .
