Bothered brides

Time for a bit of a vent!! I would like to caution all brides from going to Sposabella Bridal in Wollongong. While the dresses are resonably priced, and the store is nice, the staff leave a LOT to be desired!

I bought my 4 bridesmaids dresses from here, and I am now wishing I hadn’t!!! As soon as they are paid I will be taking them home to store, then to Lumeah’s Beautiful Brides for them to be altered. They are just lovely there.

They were insanely pushy (my wedding isn’t until next March), insisting that we should order the dresses now (in Febuary) because “We can’t guarentee that the dresses will be here next week, let alone in a couple of months”. I pushed it back until the end of April, seeing as how the dress was a brand new release, but they became much more pushy!  I have since found out that standard procedure is that lines are discontinued in October, and suppliers will normal give you another 2-4 MONTHS to get orders in of that line! I am fuming! 

They also put the names on the dresses, without bothering to check which one was which. I took one of my girls in today to try hers on, to make sure everything was fine, she was given a size 10 to try on, when she had ordered a size 0!!! And it was my bridesmaid saying it wouldn’t fit her, its the wrong size, before the staff would even take it back and find hers!

While all this is going on, the staff member is standing next to the change room with a frown on her face, like we were completely wasting her time when there was no one else in the shop. The dress was also too big on my BM, she is tiny, but instead of reasurring us that it would be fine with alteration, the staff memember just said “Well that’s the smallest it comes in”.

They will also only allow you to make payments until the order comes in, then it must be paid in full! I had asked specifically if the girls would be allowed to pay it of gradually (they are at uni and lump sums are pretty hard to come by!!) and was told yes that was fine. But when I checked the recipt (which I accept is partially my fault, I should have checked it sooner) it said that all dresses must be paid in full on arrival. I wasn’t actually told this, it was just assumed I would read it on the recipt, which was sealed in an envelope from them.  (Again I realise this is mostly my fault) So make sure you check all these things!!! I would hate to see what they would do if the order wasn’t right.

Sorry for the massive post, but I am quite put out, especially as I work in retail, and I know how easy it is to just smile, and make the experience just that little bit more pleasant!!! Has anyone had any other experiences there???

i brought my wedding gown from them and i had a similar experience! they were all nice while i tried on dresses, i originally wasnt going to wear a veil but i was pushed into it by the ladies(if u can call them that) in the store…they said i can wear a dress like that without one. so i eneded up getting one, i spent alot of money in their store. i paid my dress off over a few months so i dont know what the problem was with yours??? my dress was already in the store so no ordering had to be done. they charged me $450 in alterations, if they had done it right in the first place i wouldnt have had to pay so much. my last dress fitting was the thursday before my sunday wedding, i was freaking out but they didnt care. this was after they told me the wrong day which then put my alteration appointments back by a week!!!!

in my first fitting, i was stabbed with a pin in the skin under my arm, the lady just laughed….then when i put on my shoes, her comment was “oh ive seen so many brides with those shoes” thanks but i dont care about other brides!!!

i fell in love with a veil from another store which i ended up buying, i took it along to my last fitting so i could try it on with my dress, the lady said it was the wrong colour, pulled it off my head and took it over to another dress and said your veil goes with this coloured dress….needless to say i was soooooo upset.

they are soooo rude, once they get your money they dont care. they think they are better than everyone else.

i know this is a long story, but trust me this is the short version….lol

I’m glad I’m not the only one!!!

We were there for bridesmaids dresses, I would say that’s why there was the fuss over the payment.

We went down on the weekend, and one of the girls needed help with her zipper. Now the dresses are strapless and have those straps sewn into the sides to hang them from, well the woman that helped her zipped the WHOLE STRAP into her zipper!!! Then had two of them trying to get it out, they had to pick it out with pins!! Not once did they say sorry, or reassure us that the zip was fine, just ’It’s stuck’.

We also had my flower girl in there, she’s 4, and they were telling her to hold the dress up so she wouldn’t step on the hem…She’s 4, she doesn’t get it!!! And she was very abrupt about it as well!!

It’s a shame you had to pay so much for your alterations!! And if you loved your veil, I hope you wore it, I’m sure it looked beautiful.

thats really horrible!! its such a shame that we both have had bad experiences, my brothers friend went it there to have a look at dresses, shes a mother of 3 kids so shes pretty busy they took one look at her and told her that they didnt have anything that would suit her in their shop…..soooooo rude. if they dont like the look of you they wont help you. i reckon they should take a look in the mirror!!! a few of the girls i went to school with have also had bad experiences there as well.

i sure did wear it, i loved it on the day and i still love it now!!!

I completley understand, I went to Peter Trends at Roseville and I was made to feel like I was an elephant. I ended up going to Shazzam at Toronto who were nice until I had paid for the dresses. We got everything here and not one of the guys suits fitted even after getting measured by them. The Grooms pants were half way up his leg, the vest was too small and a day before the wedding they told us they are not sure if they could get a shirt long enough to fit one of the groomsmen. I was so flustered and annoyed, would never recommend them.