House of Brides

My pathetic experience was placed online. My order from 10/12/2010 has created 2 negatives. First, I was unaware that my order would take over 3 months to arrive (which I am still waiting for). Second, because of the error in the website, my order was processed 2 times, therefore, it was double charged.

When any average person places an order, they know that usually the shipping arrival times given are really a deadline for them to deliver. Well, their website does have the feature that checks the estimated time of arrival, but only if you click a specific button somewhere. It does not actually disclose it on your order (normally it would say "Standard: Usually ships in _ to _ business days). I only found out later after following up about a refund that I had not yet received.

The website had originally given me an error after clicking on the "Submit my order" button, so I refreshed my page F5 and clicked submit again hoping nothing would go wrong because it did not give me a confirmation number on the first click of submit. When I checked my email, it had sent me 2 separate emails for 2 separate order numbers. I was double billed!

It was a weekday (during their business hours), I instantly called them up and expressed that I needed to be refunded for the second transaction. They said that they would note the account to process a refund and that I would receive an email from their company. I did actually receive an email. It said: I will send your refund info to the Accounting Department to look into.

I have called 3 times (including an hour ago) and sent out 5 emails in total regarding this issue (one call a month and several emails back and forth). Today is Saturday, ("managers are not available" on weekends, as per customer service's words). Here is the thing, they sound so professional and re-assuring about the situation that you automatically give them a chance. But now I've had it!

I had read many reviews about them, unfortunately, only after determining that I have an issue in my hands. It's been over 3 full months today that I have processed my request for a refund of $141.00. I asked the girl on the phone or name of a contact that I could reach out to during their business hours (8 am-4 pm Monday through Friday). She did not give me a name, but rather an address of 1184 Roosevelt Rd, Suite A, Glen Ellyn, IL 60137. He will be getting a letter from me soon too.

I am, unfortunately not the only victim/customer. It turns out that other girls that are part of the same wedding are also experiencing the same issue. Beware they do not give you refunds! I lost out on $141 and I am still waiting for my dress and it's been over 3 months.

I placed an order online with House of Brides. They had the best price and stated that they need 8-9 weeks for delivery. It was 10 weeks before I needed the dress so I placed the order. A couple days later, they sent an email (that looked like spam) stating that they needed to place a rush on the order for $45 more. Well, that just sounded like someone just wanted to profit more money so I let another week go by. Then three weeks later, they state they cannot fulfill my order. That leaves me in a bind to order elsewhere because now it's seven weeks until the wedding.

So, I go from saving a few dollars to paying nearly double to have this dress super rushed from Dress For Less Bridals who had to call in favors to get this dress for me. Why couldn't House of Brides produce the dress in 10 weeks? Then, when trying to call the company, no one offered any answers or solutions. In fact, they can't even immediately give me my money back.

They want to hold it for 30 days. How about that? When asked to speak with a supervisor, the receptionist told me they only take email and referred me to a generic email that is probably going straight to their junk mail. After calling for two days, she finally gave me a name, Judy, but said they don't give last names. Funny, huh? So, by trying to save $10 initially, I ended up spending double the price!

I placed a series of orders for bridesmaids' dresses which were received by House of Brides on June 14, 2010 which apparently did not get sent to the manufacturer until July 16, 2010. As a result, my order will not be ready for shipment until the first week in October which is extremely close to my October 10, 2010 wedding date. When I spoke to their customer service, they claimed that the manufacturer (Bari Jay) was backed up and filling orders late. This is not the case. Rather, their service department held the order for weeks before sending it to the manufacturer which has resulted in the extremely late delivery date (a date so late that the bridesmaids will not have time to do alterations).

According to your customer service representative, the order should have been placed with the manufacturer (Bari Jay) on the following business day. Instead, it was held for weeks. The credit cards were not charged for over a week after the order was received and the order not placed with the manufacturer for weeks after that.

The staff's failure to process the orders in a timely manner has resulted in a very late delivery date for the dresses for an October 10, 2010 (Sunday) wedding, well over the 16 weeks the website claims it should arrive by under the terms section. Even if the dresses were shipped directly to the city of the wedding (as opposed to the bridesmaids' home as was originally requested so they could have alterations done) during the first week of October, they might still not arrive by Saturday, October 9, 2010. The website claims that it takes 7-10 days for a dress to be delivered from the store to one's home. I was told, however, by a customer service representative that I could pay extra to have the dresses sent overnight mail! It is unacceptable that we would be expected to pay additional shipping charges due to their representatives failing to put the order in to the manufacturer in a timely manner and this would still not ensure that they arrive in time for any alterations to be possible.

This is unacceptable. The premise that as long as the dresses arrive by October 9 for an October 10 wedding does not allow for alternations,a reasonably expected need given that this is standard on most bridesmaids' dresses.

I requested that you rush the order but was told that you cannot rush the order once it has been placed and I was told that even if we placed a rush order at this point, it would not be delivered until early October (while the Bari J. voicemail message claims that rush orders will arrive by September 15). One of your customer service representatives told me I could call the manufacturer (Bari J. ) directly and look up the dress order. When I asked for an order number to look it up, she stated it was not needed (this was after she claimed to have just called the manufacturer on my behalf and claimed that Bari J. had looked up the dresses using the names of the bridesmaids). When I called Bari J., they told me they cannot look up a dress without a P.O. and account number or their own order number and that House of Brides was giving me the run around.

I believe that House of Brides has been claiming that Bari J. 's orders were backed up rather than admitting that they only very recently submitted the order despite having received it 6 weeks ago and this is the reason that the orders are so delayed. No one took the initiative to try to rectify a situation that one or more of your employees created by 1) not processing the order when it came in, and it came in twice,once via your website and secondly by mail, 2) holding up four orders when only one person had a problem with the credit card and 3) never informing the customers about their being a problem until when, according to your staff, it is too late to rectify the problems. 4) This the first business I have ever dealt with when they refuse to let customers speak to a supervisor when the customer representative cannot resolve the problem.

It is ironic to listen to the taped message about how you pride yourself on your customer service while sitting on hold, calling various representatives to try to piece what happened to our order as no one person would give me all the information, and being put on hold while the representative purportedly was calling Bari J. about the order, and being told that Bari J. could look up the orders by the customers name, which was not true. None of my bridesmaids received confirmations from you when you placed the orders, so we did not have confirmation orders to help your staff track them (the first representative said she could not give us that information nor the order numbers), they were not informed you had held up the orders, you did not advise them at the time you placed the orders that they should make the orders rush orders to have time to receive them before they traveled to Youngstown for the wedding and the events preceding the wedding (and for alterations).

5) A company with a large online business with all the sites that brides share information should have good customer service, but I am disappointed to find out that is not the case. If you do the volume of business that you claim to do on your on hold recordings, you should be able to contact the manufacturer and get the delivery date changed. However, no one had an interest in taking that next step to satisfy your customers. I would like to have my order canceled and the bridesmaids' refunded for the four dresses which will not arrive on time or have you put in a rush order that will expedite the dresses so that they will arrive on time.