BRIDAL SHOPS - Why so rude???

[Buena Girl]

A friend of mine, A., is planning her wedding. Two of our friends, B. and C., will be in the bridal party. A. lives in another state and wants to order all of the dresses at one time through the bridal shop near where she lives so that they can be cut from the same dyed fabric (so that they should be exactly the same shade of green). She asked everyone to try on the dress she had picked out at bridal shops near where they lived, see how the dress looked on them, and then email the measurements to her so she could order all of the dresses.

I went with C. when she tried on the dress, and took a digital photo of her wearing it to email to A. We had called ahead, and they said to come on over and that we did not need an appointment. The woman helping C. was okay, but she measured C. very quickly and I don’t think the hip measurement was correct. [It should not be a problem, though, because the dress at the shop fit her to perfection, so she just told A. to order that size of dress.] Once the woman felt she was finished, she went to the corner of the store and sat down in a chair. We had a few general questions for her, but her answers were unhelpful and her voice had a “why are you still here” type of tone. She also stared straight ahead looking past us. We felt uncomfortable so we left.

I went with B. to a different bridal shop on a different day. Same thing--- called ahead, came in, tried on dress, and took a digital photo. This time I think the woman taking the measurements did a good job, but she was rude when B. asked if the measurements could be written down on a card for her to take with her. The woman said, “Why? I just told you what they were.” B. insisted, so the woman eventually did write them down for her. We had a little time to kill, so we started to browse a little bit. We were mostly looking. I think we pushed one or two hangers over a couple of inches so that we could see one of the dresses better. The woman quickly came over to us and asked us to leave. She said that they preferred that people did not browse the dresses. I don’t think we even touched the fabric of the dresses, just the hangers ?!?

As yet, I have never been a bridesmaid in a wedding (and I’ve never been married), so these have been my first real experiences with bridal shops. Are they normally this rude? Am I over-reacting? I can understand them not being overly helpful since we would not actually be purchasing anything through them that day. But all 3 of us could have been potential customers. Both C. and I have a pretty good chance of being proposed to this year. From the way I felt I was treated at both, I don’t think that I would ever want to do business with them.

What do you think

 

[mellyjm]

I feel your pain. The bridal shop that I went to also treated me and my bridesmaids badly. The only time they were nice to me was when I picking out my wedding dress and when I paid for it. Other then that, they were rude. I have 2 bridesmaids in town and 1 bridesmaid out of town, and the one out of town said that even there they were rude to her. So I don''t know if its like some weird company policy...........but for some reason they are rude. Because of this I have decided to NOT get my dress fitted there because I dont trust them.

MJ

 

[flopkins]

I had a similar experience at a bridal store near me... also my first time as a bm... and my take on it is, some bridal shops only care about selling the big item - the wedding gowns, and could care less about the bm!!!
Part of the problem is this place was a bit short staffed, and only have enough ppl to help with the brides trying on dresses, so the bm are usually left on their own with little or no help... in fact when I went to the place to pick up my $200 bm gown, they lady didn''t want to even show it to me before I paid the balance!! I insisted on seeing the dress and trying it on... and the woman kept trying to get me to pay for it!! I was *pissed off*... I''m paying freakin $200 for this dress, that I already put half down on... I am going to try it on and inspect it within an inch of it''s life to make sure the order is right and everything is okay before I plunk down another $100 bux!! Sheesh!
I got so annoyed I told the lady straight to her face, "Look, I''m not going to walk out of here without paying for the rest of the dress, so why don''t you let me try on the dress, hmmm??"

Incidentally, all the other bm (there were 7 of us) all had a similar horror story for the same bridal store, and on top of that, they ordered the custom wedding gown incorrectly, ordered the wrong petticoat, AND ''forgot'' to give the petticoat when the gown was picked up!!

On the other hand, I am having a very positive experience at another bridal salon for wedding gowns... so I think it really depends on teh place... but I think bm get a little shafted sometimes in terms of service...

 

[kanne]

I've been to five bridal salons on my dress quest and most of them are very nice..or a least lukewarm. However, I had a strangely similar experience to yours at the very first salon..
1 All the dresses were in a closet. Only consultants were allowed to see the dresses..therefore they pick what you try on and the rest is a mystery.
2 No pictures. Fine, but don't they know that "us gals" are not idiots, so we are going to find the style # and manufacturer on our own? If they would just provide great customer service, they would not have to worry about people trying on the dress in one shop and buying it somewhere else...
3 The first thing my consultant said to me was..your wedding is in OCTOBER? You're too late to order a dress honey. (QUE? I should have walked out at that point, but was too excited since I had waited so many years to try on dresses)...
4 While making the appt, I stated on the phone that I wanted to try v neck and halter tops. Every gown the consultant picked was strapless. !?!?! While I was changing, my friend poked her head into the dress closet and pointed out a halter. She battled it out with the consultant and I got to try it on (shouldn't she have picked it out anyway?). Loved it. But needless to say, I won't be buying the gown there..

Plus, one of the other stores had ripped all the labels out of the gowns!!! Some salons are just terrible and others are great. You need to shop around and see what works for you. And you never know what you will find in the strangest places... I found a fabulous sample dress (may be THE ONE but I need to shop a bit more to know) for $700 (alterations, cleaning and pressing included). Discontinued Jasmine dress from 2002!

 

[JessesGrl]

I went bridesmaid gown shopping with my maid of honor before my ring was even finished because she was moving out of state. The shop attendants ignored us and when I finally went over to the counter to ask for help her reply was to stare me down for a couple of seconds before exclaiming "what?". Needless to say we walked out and vowed to never go back! Once I got my ring I speculated that maybe they would be nicer to me and take me more seriously seeing as I was wearing an engagement ring and was therefore a potential customer. I found my dream dress and guess what.....they only had it at the lil'' shop of horrors I described above. I ended up caving in and going back there and have spent about 5,000 dollars in their store on my gown and all the bridesmaids gowns and accesssories.....are they nice now??? NOPE......bridal shops are full of the nastiest employees ever...I think they get sick of all the hysterical girls running around in their gowns!

 

[elepri]

Wow, i''m sorry you girls had such awful experiences. I went to several shops when shopping for my own gown and with a few friends and everyone was perfectly nice. Well, okay one sort of bad experience was when i spent an hour trying on dresses but just didn''t love any of them. When i told my saleslady that i won''t be buying that day, she just couldn''t hide her disappointment and informed me that all the dresses i liked will not be available next week. Hmm, and there i though they were just samples. I really didn''t care for her pressure tactics so i never went back. Luckily, i had plenty of options.

 

[MelissaSue]

I really haven''t had any bad experiences with bridal shops! I will agree that they were a bit nicer and more attentive when I was bridal gown shopping than when BM shopping... but my shop, where my gown is from is WONDERFUL. There are a couple younger girls that work there and they couldn''t be sweeter.. some of the older women aren''t as nice to deal with, but they really haven''t been rude or nasty to me at all.

I have been to a few other shops in the area as well.. one of them isn''t overly helpful or friendly, but they certainly aren''t nasty. One I went to with my mom, and they weren''t MEAN, but they just gave me bad vibes.. like they were more important than me, and they weren''t all that helpful when I was gown shopping. I haven''t bothered to go back there to look for bridesmaids dresses.

There is one shop around here that i''ve heard nothing but bad stuff about, so I won''t even set foot in there. I''ve heard the ladies are rude there and they have also screwed up peoples orders and stuff.

I even went to Davids and only got annoyed once there.. I was there for my friends dress fitting, and afterwards, we just sort of wanted to browse their BM dresses, but the saleslady was really sort of pushy..I just wanted to look, and she was like.. blah blah blah.. this and that... I was irritated.. And I really didn''t want BM dresses from there ANYWAY. So that was that..

Its weird though.. that they only care about the wedding gown sales. They probably can make almost as much money if 4 girls all order BM dresses through the shop! You know? $150x4=$600.. thats a wedding gown! They might not be able to mark them up as much.. but they still mark them up a decent amount! The difference between bridal shop prices and houseofbrides.com is ASTOUNDING on BM gowns!

 

[Buena Girl]

Yikes!!! Sounds like I could potentially have many more rough bridal shop experiences.

Both shops that I went to had plenty of staff and were not busy while we were there. Coincidentally, at both places we seemed to be helped by the oldest sales person in the shop. One had to have been in her fifties, and the other had to have been at least forty. But the younger employees seemed fairly cold and distant also, so I don''t know?

I can''t believe how you gals were treated at some shops!! Especially when shopping for your wedding gown, which is such an expensive and very emotional purchase!

When I have to do my shopping, I''ll try to remember to ask around and get opinions on good shops. But it will be awhile before that happens