David's Bridal

I have bee in the local David's Bridal Store exactly three times and I have to say I will never again darken their doorway. Of those three visits I have left in tears twice. My very first experience should have been all that it took to never go back but as a nurse in an inpatient setting I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and be extra patient because you never know what kind of day someone is having. My fiancee' and I walked in on and Sunday without an appointment and were greeted by the sales woman seated at the desk who was actually very pleasant. Another sales woman overheard me say that I wanted to look at dresses and very rudely, and without explaining herself, stated that I needed to come back the next day. The woman who greeted us indicated that they were very busy and that it was usually necessary to have and appointment to look at dresses on the weekend which I was not aware of. I had no problem with this and I took a catalog and left the store. However, the more I thought about how rude the second woman was the more irritated I became. As a result, I put off the dress shopping for a while but because Abilene is a relatively small town and I did want to shop locally I did go back several weeks later. I had picked out several dresses in the catalog and looked a their website on a daily basis. I went on vacation on a Wednesday and decided that when I got home I would go back to the store and try again. My first choice, which was on their website the Wednesday before had been discontinued by Sunday and according to the snooty sales woman was "just not available anywhere" and that I had waited far to long to do my shopping. She also indicated that the other dresses that I picked out would have to be special ordered because I am a plus size and that it would take 15 weeks for anything to come in. At this point I am crushed, completely overwhelmed, and have no idea what I am going to do. This was the first time I left in tears.

With no other dress shops locally I began looking around on line for a dress but just could not find anything that I really liked so I ended up back on the DB website. The fourth dress on my list was available only online, and was out of stock. I finally purchased the fifth dress which I do like very much. I also purchased my jewelry from their online store.

As of today I have 36 days before my wedding and I still need my dress to be altered, the undergarments, shoes, and a headpiece. I reluctantly went in to the store again today to take a look at what they had available as far as head pieces. I also mentioned to the woman at the desk that I needed information about alterations. I believe that this woman was the same one who had told us we needed to come back on another day. Her behavior today was no different than the first time we had been in the store. She said that alterations took eight weeks and that there was no way that my dress could be ready in a month. I did go ahead and look at their head pieces and was very disappointed with their tiny selection. I decided not to bother with the other items and again, left the store in tears of frustration.

My fiancee' and I had planned to get married in June of 2009 but because I am a graduate student and had recently changed my degree plan we decided at the end of April to get married this August while I am not taking summer courses. I know that we are not the only couple getting married on relatively short notice and I am astounded that anything that I have wanted in the store so far is either discontinued, not available, or takes anywhere from 8 to 15 weeks to get. All of this on top of the poor customer service I have received on three separate occasions has left a very bitter taste in my mouth and this store will never get another dime of my money. I also find it interesting that there is nowhere on their website to lodge a complaint. It is almost as if they are aware of the volume of emails they would receive and choose to ignore it all together.

If you are a plus size woman or getting married in a short period of time I definitely would not bother with this store.