Dear David's Bridal...

As I mentioned in my last post, my little sis is getting married in less than 5 weeks.

After having success in finding a wedding dress off the rack at our local David's Bridal, she picked out several bridesmaids dresses for me to come over that night and try one and pick out the one that looked and fit the best.

The sales lady that took over while I was there trying them on was absolutely NO HELP whatsoever.

I'm sure you may have seen my rant on Twitter last week... I swear, this place is the worst in town for wedding stuff as this is now my 2nd (out of 3) times I've had a bad experience with them. The 1st bad experience was when I was trying on gowns for my own wedding, roughly 4 years ago - I got a super pushy saleslady who kept pushing their heavily marketed dress on me that I knew wasn't "the one" and no matter how many times I told her I didn't think the dress was "it" she still kept insisting on this and that and then proceeded to deck me out in their overpriced accessories that I told her I wasn't buying there either! The woman refused to listen to what I was saying and we eventually left and bought a dress at a smaller, local boutique that I tried on earlier in the day and loved!

This time though... as I said, my sis picked out a few styles for bridesmaid dresses that she wouldn't mind us wearing and wanted me to go with my mom to start trying them on and ruling some out as she was finishing up picking out tuxes and would meet us shortly. Out of the 3 she had picked out, only 1 really seemed to work best (the 1st looked too old lady-ish, and the 3rd was just too tight in the thighs, even when I went up a size). So we go with the 2nd which looked pretty good and go to order them in the color she wanted and the size.

The initial girl that had been helping us up to this point was great and very sweet!

But when we went to order, this older lady took over... and my what a bitch she turned into!

She tells us that this particular dress is discontinued and she can't find it in my size in ANY store. So we ask her if she can tell us which dresses aren't discontinued so we're not wasting our time trying ones on and picking ones that end up being discontinued. She says she doesn't know what dresses are discontinued until she pulls them up on the computer. She points us to the poster with various styles on it and tells us that ones that aren't on sale most likely aren't discontinued and we'd have better luck, but then she goes on to say that the color my sis has chosen is a popular one and we might want to pick a different color. I remind her that I'm only a bridesmaid, not the bride, so that's not my decision to make. Then she starts going on about how 5 weeks is too soon, not enough time to ensure they'll be here with enough time for alterations, etc... um yeah, again, I'm not the bride, what does she expect me to do about it? Bitching to me about the wedding date being so soon isn't my fault!

Frankly, I got sick of her bitchy and condescending attitude she was taking with us.  It was very rude and unwarranted - we were being completely cooperative and understanding of the fact that yes, the color we need is a popular one and yes, we understand the wedding date is very soon. Why she was taking a bitchy and condescending tone with us is beyond me, and was very off-putting.

Jay was with us, as we had hoped to have him try on some baby tuxes that night, so I used his fussing as my excuse to go outside, motioning for my mom to follow me. I told her I really wasn't appreciating the attitude this woman was giving us for no apparent reason and how I would really rather not do business with her. I suggested we go out to the mall and look at formal dresses in the department store there and see if we can't find something that'll work. She agreed and went back in to let them know we would be leaving, apologizing if we were being an inconvenience to anyone.

We found one that might work out at the mall, but decided to look online that night and see if we couldn't find something. Out of sheer curiosity, I went on David's Bridal's website just to see what they had that was available (since the lady was no help with that) and lo and behold! There's the dress that she told us was discontinued! They had all the sizes in it, in the color we needed, except for my size, but my mom said I could easily go up a size and she could just take it in for me, as they had the next size available (something the woman in the store didn't even suggest we do or offer to check!).

We promptly ordered them and guess what! The dresses arrived 5 days later! And the lady claimed we would be cutting it too close to the wedding date... pfft!

My mom and sis are half tempted to go in with one of the dresses and show the lady that "hey look! We got the dresses! In the color and sizes you said we couldn't get them in! And they already arrived!"

I told them I totally would - rub it in her face that her bad attitude cost her a commission (as we would have been purchasing all 4 bridesmaid dresses at once).

So yeah, there's my little David's Bridal rant.

I've only shopped at one other location, with my experience there being neither great nor bad, but our local store, here in Rockford... the customer service for me personally has been terrible 2 out of 3 times now. That's unacceptable.

If you do shop with this company, I recommend trying on in the store, getting your sizes and then ordering online. So much hassle-free ordering off their website!

**edit**
I JUST looked on their site to get an image of the dress and... it's now available in my size and color! Um... if a dress is discontinued why are they getting more sizes in??? Discontinued my ass...