It is with great regret that I’m writing this review. I was very disappointed by the services provided at Ladies & Gents. I feel the customer service was dreadful and staff lacks knowledge in taking measurements, staffs comments are misleading and alterations lack quality
On February 2009 we were in search for my bride’s wedding gown, after searching at all the local bridal shops we arrived at Ladies & Gents Bridal. Upon arrival, we felt that the young staff ignored us as they were too busy engaging in their own conversations. When expressing our desire to look for wedding dresses they simply pointed to the back and told us that go and look at the dresses as they were everywhere. A girl did go and sit in the back desk but failed to knowledge our presence. It wasn’t until the owner arrived and offer assistance that my fiancé was able to try on multiple dresses. Also, during this same visit, I inquired on purchasing a suit for myself. I was never given a straight answer. All I was given was a catalog. When I found one that I liked, the staff was unable to give me frames for arrivals or prices. The staff was not able to provide the price of the suit nor did the staff attempt to look for the information. I opted to purchase the suit elsewhere.
After searching my fiancé decided to order her wedding dress from Ladies and Gents Bridal, based on, it is the only local store that sold Jasmine Couture. She was measured by the owner; we assumed that no complications would arise, as we were working with an "expert" in the field of bridal wear, the owner herself. Sadly, the outcome was not favorable.
Upon arrival of the dress, we discover that it did not fit. It was about 4 inches too small. When reviewing the order we notice that the dress was ordered 2 sizes too small compared to a dress ordered at another bridal shop (only a week after ordering the wedding dress). This was clearly an error from Ladies & Gents. Since my fiancé wanted that specific dress style and due to the lack of time we just opted to keep the dress.
When my fiancé went to your store to see the seamstress to see what it could be done to her dress as it was too small, the seamstress states that is not possible to create a corset for the dress and wants to completely remove the bidding from the sides dress and leave gaps with nothing on it to gain the 4 inches needed and wanting to charge $500.00+ destroying completely the look of the dress. Clearly this is not something you want to do to a $2000.00 dress. Due to the lack of confidence in the seamstress we just took the dress somewhere else and per consultation with another seamstress, it is possible to create the corset for the dress without distorting the look of the dress.
ALSO
We ordered a dress for my mother at Ladies & Gents. Per recommendation of the staff, we ordered a dress and a coat one size up as they claimed that based on the measurements the size requested wouldn’t fit. We agreed on the sizes as we assumed the staff was knowledgeable in measurements, the brands and designers they carry in the store, big mistake.
Upon arrival of the dress, the difference in size was extreme, as it was just too big and the coat did not arrive. During the fitting, the seamstress said, and I quote: "These girls don’t know how to take measurements". In addition, the seamstresses re-measure my mother and told us that we should have ordered the dress a size smaller (which was the requested size). The dress was marked to get altered but when asked to mark the length of the dress the seamstress said that would be done after the rest was done as it was impossible to do it before. Furthermore, the seamstress told my mother the cost for alterations would be as much as the price of the dress itself and that we should take the dress directly to her. When we talked to the girl in the front desk about the alterations the girl told us it would only be a total of $45.00 for the alterations regardless of what the dress needed.
On the second fitting, the dress remained too long since the seamstress had said that could not be done until the rest was altered. Now the girls at the front said that they have to pay additional $30.00. When asked why the extra charge as they were previously informed that it was going to be a total of $45.00 for the dress the girls said in a very sarcastic tone "Nothing is done for free." Staff is not only provided with conflict of information but is also making really inappropriate comments for someone in the customer service industry.
The coat arrived almost a month after the dress. This time the coat was huge as it was order by the staff in an even bigger size. We expressed our concerned on how the coat is going to get fix as it is gigantic and it had little rhinestone all around. The seamstress tells us that it won’t be a problem as she could fix it and look just fine.
On the next visit the seamstress denies ever saying that the coat could get altered as it was very complicated. After clearing things up, we were instructed to return the following day only to find out that it was going take another week. It took 3 extra visits and 5 phone calls and one undeliverable e-mail to get the coat done as staff kept changing the dates on us. No courtesy calls were ever made to notify of these changes. Obviously there is lack of consideration to the customer and a lack of communication within the staff.
A week before my wedding, we finally get my mother’s dress and coat. The alterations were poorly done. The neck of the dress remained too big, leaving extra material on the back that makes it looks as if she had a hunchback, same problem with the coat. On top of the poor alteration job on the dress we were charged $30.00 extra plus tax (my understanding is that there is no tax charge for labor). We no longer feel that we are getting a high quality, designers dress but something full of patches that should be at an outlet store.
My experience at Ladies & Gents Bridal was the most stressful out of all the wedding planning and I was not the one wearing one of their dresses. Poor customer service, lack of experience of staff for measuring, lack of consideration, lack of quality, comments and conversations that generate conflict of information just discourage us as customers from doing business at the establishment.
"Word of mouth is the best advertisement".