My friend is getting married in July of this year 2009. She, her mother, her physically challenged 4 year old daughter and her five bridesmaids including myself went to David's Bridal on January 25, 2009. We arrived in a positive state of mind and with high spirits this would be fun and exciting. My friends and I are not what you would consider small women - are sizes range from 6 to 22 in dresses. Everything was going smoothly, we had all tried on our dresses and the young lady who helped us was very helpful. We are boisterous ladies, some of us use colorful language but we are friendly and try get along with everyone. I noticed we were not as nicely dressed as some of the other customers with their tiny frames, colored hair, nice haircuts, expensive purses and full blown makeup several of the store representatives were giving us certain glances. My friend’s daughter was in her stroller - although she is four her medical condition does not enable her to communicate and frolic as most four year olds do. She is mostly deaf and has medical devices implanted in her head so she can distinguish sounds. Unfortunately she suffers also from a seizure disorder and communicates with sounds rather than words as her medical condition has hindered her learning process. Nonetheless she is a beautiful girl and we love her dearly but it doesn't seem some of the store employees feel the same way we do about our little angel.

My friend's daughter as any child would be did not want to stay in her stroller and became upset. I decided I would try to soothe her and picked up one of the hand mirrors customers are given to use to see what the back of their dress looks like while they are wearing it. I held it up to my friend’s daughter’s face so she could look at herself. Children’s reflexes are more quick than adult’s at times and this one no exception and my friend’s daughter grabbed the mirror and threw it on the floor. The mirror landed face down and I had a feeling it was broken. I planned to pick up the mirror and ask someone how much it would cost to replace it when a sales clerk snatched it up off the floor, made a sharp sigh and made it a point to turn it towards me while she looked away so I could see it was broken. She then walked away briskly. It was the sound she made and her mannerisms that upset me. This was the same woman who had acted in a “holier than thou” manner when we entered the store. I was upset because I felt if I were in her place I would have said “is everything okay, can I help you?” to which I would have stated “I’m afraid this mirror has been broken, how much to replace it?” But she didn’t, she scoffed and didn’t give me the respect of acknowledgement. I told the bride and the bridesmaids what happened and they were concerned. I told the girl who was helping us what happened and that I wanted a manager and she left to get her. The manager was busy ringing up other people so I waited, and waited ….and waited. I approached the woman who had taken the broken mirror and I asked her” I’m not happy with the way you handled what happened with the mirror? Why didn’t you acknowledge me?” She responded “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.” My thought is if you want to make sure someone wasn’t hurt would you not ask “Is everyone okay?” This woman didn’t even look at me or my friends daughter she just picked it up and walked off – you would think she would have at least checked the child if she were concerned. She also added “I didn’t want you to be embarrassed” To which I answered “Embarrassed by what? Embarrassed by a child? Why would I be embarrassed by a child throwing something?” She didn’t respond she just ignored me. I got the feeling she meant embarrassed because a child like my friend’s daughter would embarrass someone – a child with a disability who grunts instead of speaking.

The store manager approached at this time and the woman didn’t have the courtesy to stay to defend herself to which the manager’s reason was she was helping other customers and this matter apparently didn’t take precedence over the sale she was trying to complete. The manager was appalling to say the least. Before she even opened her mouth I could tell by her demeanor she felt we were beneath her and had no business to question her or her employees. I advised her of the situation. She stated “I wasn’t here and neither was the girl helping you so I can’t say what happened and I’m not taking sides I am being diplomatic”. I thought to myself, are the customers not always right especially when the customers are looking to spend 1500.00 and more at your store? The manager continued: I will take the necessary measures we have in place to rectify this…” to which I stated “listen, I don’t appreciate what was done and …” to which she interrupted me stating “I told you I would do what was necessary..” to which the bride’s sister in law stated “I think she should apologize for what she did.” The manager said and mind you this was all in a condescending tone “I cannot make anyone do anything” and continued to talk even when the sister in law stated “but she’s human and she should recognize when someone has been offended “but the manager wouldn’t stop talking and at this point I stopped listening because now the manager was talking down to my friends sister in law. I looked at the store manager and stated “Why are you speaking to us as if we don’t understand you, why are you talking to us like we are stupid?” and the manager responded “I’m sorry you feel I am not talking to you in the right manner.” The manager went back to the bride’s sister in law and they proceeded to argue with one another. I asked the girl who had helped us and asked her for the corporate number, she said the store manager is the only one with it and she didn’t know how to get it. I interrupted the manager and asked her for the corporate number. She rattled of the number in a condescending, melodic tone and then I asked her for her name “My name is Dana Martin and I’m the only one with that name in this store.” I asked her for the other woman’s name to which she stated “Her name is Tina.” I asked for Tina’s last name and she said “I can’t give that out” to which I stated “You are very uncooperative.” Then I told the bride and everyone I was leaving and I would not be buying my dress here and I will tell everyone I meet to never shop at David’s Bridal. Upon leaving the store I called the corporate number and left my first vocal complaint in a voicemail as no human was available to take the call. In fact, I am writing this complaint 3 hours after the event occurred. I have yet to talk to the bride to find out what happened after I left but if she decided to continue doing business with David’s Bridal I feel so strongly about the injustice done that I will refuse to be in the wedding. I know if my friend’s and I had been more attractive and less noisy and if our little girl had been what society considers “normal” we probably would not have had this occurrence. Or maybe if the store employee and the manager had better manners and more experience in their positions they would have listened to us and apologized rather than tried to prove to us we are as dumb and unimportant as they believe we are this would not have happened.
I will never shop at David’s Bridal again. This is a shame since I am a repeat bridesmaid and I am sure there will be many times again where I need to buy a dress for the occasion.

Please, I'm begging you all to NOT EVER shop at David's Bridal!!! I wish I had researched the company more before I even wasted my time with them. OK here's the story:

I went to DB in August 08 to get a head start on my wedding planning and dress selection. I had a really nice associate (I have to give them that she was great, poor girl no longer works there so she's probably SMART!) who helped me find a gown that I LOVE! So far so good. I was told not to worry that I'm apparently a shorty and that I would definitly need the hem taken up because they offer one free alteration with the purchase of the dress and that they also clean/press the dress, do a bead check, and make sure any loose threads are taken care of. So I'm thinking GREAT, no problem cuz I'm not psycho dieting, I'll wait til the spring, get my fitting & free alteration and be on the road for one single price!

Soooo I went back in Dec 08 (wedding is in June 09) and bought the dress. I verified and was again reassurred that I get one alteration free and to call soon to make sure I get an appointment in a timely fashion. So I called today for the alteration. And the seamstress was very rude to begin with and then informed me that alterations are NOT free, not even one time, and that there is a set cost depending on your dress for whatever parts need fixing. This could add up! I was irate. I asked how much just for the hem which of course she couldn't even give me a ballpark figure. So I asked to be transferred back to the manager. They told me that they never do free alterations and that they would never have said that. So too bad for me. Now I have a non-returnable dress and I've been lied to and I'm out of $$ for dresses cuz seriouosly, I'm not rich! So I called corporate and they can do nothing or don't care. The lady (Heidi Miller) was pleasant on the phone but couldn't really do much or wouldn't or whatever. She said I have one day to return the dress & they will refund me.

So my beautiful princess dress is going back and I'm really sad about that and I have to start over. Thank god I have a few months but such such such BS!!! I'm so mad about this and they will lose the extra money of my 6 bridesmaids & 2 mothers (mom & mom-in-law) who will not purchase so much as a ribbon from this crappy store!!!

Rude Rude Rude...that's all I can say. I was prepared to purchase 3 bridesmaid dresses, and a $700 bridal gown that day, and one of the ladies there told me I could not try on my dress again because they were too busy and short handed. I did have an appt, plus my consultant left me 5 min into my appt to leave to go to another job!!! Now I'm starting over from square 1 again and now have to find somewhere else to get the color of bridesmaid dresses because I had already made dicissions based off that color!!! Never again they lost my business plus anyone else that asks me about David's Bridal!!

Well I don't really know where to start, there is so much that went wrong.
but first things first MY Daughter and her friend went to look at wedding dress because my daughter was to be Married on October 3, 2008. I her mother told here to go looking and narrow down which ones she liked. So she did and me and her grandmother took her to look at the dress that she pick out. And when I saw the dress I knew that this was not the dress for my daughter that she has been talked into it and I expressed my concern right away, that this dress was not the type that she would ware so I got more options out but the young assistant kept talking her about how good the dress look and so on and so on,
So we went with the dress that was $450.00. and by the time we left the store the bill had become $1500.00. or so. and they were running a special 300.00 off and dress and when I ask about that I was told that the dress that she pick out was not included.

Well about a week pass and my daughter came to me crying, because she didn't like the dress that she pick out that the associate pushed her into getting the dress. So we headed back to David's bridal to see what we could do old by the way we paid cash the first time before we walked out the door.
So I went to the seamstress to see if the dress had at all been alter. and nothing had been done to the dress it was still handing on the rack. so we found her a new dress that I knew that she would wear. and it was beautiful so when it came time to refund the difference they told us they didn't do refunds. So now we are stuck with a $550.00 store credit which I am not sure what i am supposed to do with now that the wedding is over. MY MAJOR COMPLAIN IS THAT HER DRESS NEVER LEFT DAVID'S BRIDAL NEVER LEFT THE STORE. I SHOULD HAVE GOT A FULL REFUND OF IN CASH OR CHECK BECAUSE AS BE OF AND ORGANIZATION AS DAIVD'S BRIDAL THEY SHOULD HAVE HAVE A MUCH BETTER CUSTOMER SERVICE PLAN. AND OF COURSE THEY GAVE ME A DISTRICT NUMBER THAT NO ONE WORKS AT ON AND ANSWERING MACHINE.

SO IF YOU NO ANY ONE WANT TO PURCHASE A DRESS I HAVE A GIFT CARD FOR $550.00 DOLLARS



BUT I WOULD SENT MY WORSE ENEMY TO THIS PLACE .

The first time I went to David's Bridal I presented myself to the woman at the counter and she asked me for the bride's information. It was a whole production involving two or three sales people and they couldn't find the information for the bridal party in their system. Lucky for me I remembered the color and style of the brides maid dress that I needed to get - they should have been able to tell me this but they did not know to find the information in their system. So they put me as a separate entry in their system.

I found the dress and did a fitting. It was too big in the bust and she wanted to sew pads in it. I told her I wanted her to just take it in. She disagreed and said it would look better with the pads. I had to convince her I didn't want them and she said that she would take in the bust. So, she did the pining for the alteration as I requested.

I was required to pay before they did the alterations. When I went to pay I was standing right in front of a sales woman at the register. She was not busy except for the fact that she was chatting with the sales person and customer at the next register. I just stood there and stood there waiting to just pay. I'm sure she saw me - I was standing right in front of her and she just kept on having her conversation. And I'm not talking about waiting for a brief time, she just went on and on and ignored me. When she was finally done running her mouth, she said that she couldn't ring me up because she couldn't find me in the computer. They just entered my information in the system minutes ago! I had to wait more - just so I could pay and leave!

When I went back the second time the seamstress finally saw me she could not find my dress. They had put it in the wrong location on the rack. When she finally found it I got to try it on. I had (wrongfully)assumed that it was ridiculous to have a second fitting - if they measured me right they should have been able to do the alterations correctly. However, she never even took in the bust seams! I was speaking with a different seamstress this time (the head seamstress) and she said that I didn't ask for the bust seams to be taken in. This made me furious. I had go there a third time.

I went back for my third appointment, which I scheduled it for the first appointment of the day (I think it was noon on a Sunday). Because the store was a distance from where I live and I wasn't sure what the traffic would be like I left with ample time so that I could arrive on time. I got there early and waited for over half an hour outside their doors in the hot South Carolina heat. Evidently there was a bride that was already in getting a fitting before the store opened. The sales people saw me waiting outside. I understand that they didn't want to let me in before the store opened but, it was unfair that they let another customer in the store while I stood sweating outside.

I couldn't be seen at the time of the appointment because the bride was getting upset or something in the fitting room. I had to wait another half an hour after the scheduled time of my appointment. This was totally unfair because I was there early! They asked me to come in at a specified time and I was early but had to wait even more. They had trouble finding the dress again as I had come to expect they would. I tried it on and the seams were all crooked. I definitely did not want to come back a fourth time. I settled for the unprofessionally altered dress because it was getting too close to the wedding, I didn't want to drive all they way there again and I was afraid that they would make the dress worse. They made me sign a form saying I was satisfied with the dress, which I was definitely not - there were all sorts of bumps because of the crooked sewing! I should also mention that when they dyed the shoes they got dye all on the inside of the shoes which stained my feet. I would strongly recommend against anyone doing business with David's Bridal.