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 05/06/05
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Hi
I just want to add my thoughts on House of Brides, the World`s Largest Online Wedding Store so that people are aware for what they are in for if things go wrong.
My fiance and I have been dealing with this company now since October when we first order bridesmaid dresses. When we placed the order they had a `run-time` error on thier website that results in us getting charge 5 times on our credit card for the purchases. This was for a total of ~$1800.
We immediately got in contact with House of Brides once it had come through on our statement and House of Brides said it would be refunded in 30 days. It is now 24th February and they still refuse to contact us to give us our $1400 back that they incorrectly charged us.
Everytime we call them their ordering department put a message through to head office and assure us that they will get in contact with us. The one time we were contacted they asked for our credit card details including our security pin over an unsecure email. We refused to supply it as it is rediculous to do this (and their ordering department agreed).
We now wake up at Midnight (8:00am in Chicago) so that we can call their ordering department and get them to place another message through to head office to contact us. We are up to at least 30 messages. They have given us their head office contact number 011 630 629 4062 and an extension to Marisol in their customer service department. This number is impossible to get through on and I have never dealt with a worse phone queue in my life.
DO NOT DEAL WITH HOUSE OF BRIDES
We are starting to give up hope now that we will ever see our money ever again. The way they have structured the business is that the call centre is seperate from head office and they do not give anyone the authority to help you. All they will do is pass on a message that is never responded to.
If things work out ok with House of Brides (we managed to get the dresses and they were great) then good for you. But if you are thinking about using House of Brides then be well prepared for any error to occur and absoutely no customer service to rectify the situation.
Please Google `"House of Brides" Reviews` and you will see websites in the top search results that are filled with pages and pages of people that have been burned like my fiance and I.
I feel so bad for my fiance, she is doing such an amazing job at organising an amazing wedding and every day, we call House of Brides, she literally break down in tears when we have to explain the story to yet another person that says "Sorry but all I can do is put a message through to head office". We tell them that we do not believe them and to put us through to their supervisors but they can`t help either.
Good luck to everyone. I strongly suggest looking elsewhere for your dresses. House of Brides may have some of the cheapest wedding dresses online but they certainly make their coin ripping people off and then hiding behind their call centre like we have experienced for the last 4 months.
Posted by Kaija; updated 02/27/11
