House Of Brides - Beware!
For all you soon to be brides out there, a warning goes out to anyone shopping at any House Of Brides store in Chicago, IL. They also have a website, boasting "the world`s largest bridal mall". Let me tell you that this was the absolute worst shopping experience I had ever had in my entire life! The website has very, very good prices on nearly all designer wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses. I printed out a copy of the bridesmaid and flowergirl dress I intended to order and took it to the store in Schaumburg. I wanted five bridesmaid dresses and two FG. The snotty receptionist told me the dresses were ugly and gave me a quote $100 per dress higher than the website. She also could not guarantee me shipping, and told me that she had never even seen their very own website. Their wedding dresses were dirty, and the consultant offered me a slip so dirty I would not let it touch my skin. After an hour of being treated rudely, I left. The consultant never once attempted to help me with anything, even though I had made my appointment six weeks in advance. Everyone at the store was extremely rude and arrogant. Unfortunately I drove four hours to get to the store. The great thing is, I found my dress the same day at the BrideSmart across the street. When I got home, I looked on the Better Business Bureau`s website and was appalled at all of the complaints all five stores had lodged against them. One store had even closed down after 111 complaints in 18 months!! So brides, beware of this store and their website! The website is merely a ploy to get you into the store where the dresses are much, much higher priced. And the way the consultants and other workers treat people while they shop for the "happiest day of their life" should not be tolerated. Good luck to all of you, and don`t visit those stores!!
Posted by jodi; updated 04/06/09
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I actually had a good experience with House of Brides. I ordered my dress about 2 months ago, with express shipping and it`s due to get here this week. Has already been shipped out of IL, I have the tracking number on the package. Was able to save $100 on my dress even after the express shipping. I ordered online and they even e-mailed me checking to make sure it was the right size ordered before processing the order.
All of my BM ordered their dresses online as well. One of them mistakenly ordered the wrong dress style and even though their policy states they can`t make changes to the orders once they are processed, they were able to call the manufacturer up and switch the dress style for her. Had the problem taken care of within 2 days of us calling them. So they did go above and beyond for that.
Although one of my BM dresses was just found out to be on backorder. =( But they did contact her and let her know that the dress wouldn`t make it in time for the wedding, so they gave her a full refund of her money.
It sucks that so many people have had bad experiences with them, but I just figured I`d be the voice of the girls who have had positive experiences with them.
Posted by Tara M; updated 04/06/09