My daughter’s wedding
My daughter, her Maid of Honour and myself had booked an appointment here with a view to trying and purchasing her wedding dress. I live in Wales, an hour and half away from the shop, my daughter lives in London. On arrival, we were informed by staff #1 that we were early ( we were 10 minutes early) in what I can only describe as a rather unwelcoming manner, although not directly rude. But better to be early than late, yes? We asked if we could use the toilet and were told no, that wasn’t possible. No explanation as to why, just no. I asked if that being the case she could tell us where the nearest toilet was situated - she replied she had no idea. Judging by her manner, she had no interest either. Now don’t get me wrong, but to my way of thinking, if you’re expecting customers to spend their cash on a dress running into hundreds of pounds, surely the comfort of that customer/party should be paramount? Obviously not, in this case. If I had had my way, I would have left there and then and never darkened their doors again, however, it was up to my daughter and this was about her in the main. So we had to find a cafe nearby who was kind enough to let us use their facilities before we even started.
On our return, we were met by staff #2 who told us she would be looking after us. Due to the covid guidelines, we would need our temperatures taken and details logged. We were then told by staff #1 to step over to her and she would give us sanitiser for our hands. Even though the restrictions have now moved to alert 0 in Wales, I respect the fact that each shop has its own guidelines with regards to covid and I am happy to comply with them. Having lost two members of my family to covid this year, I am more than happy keeping safe and I always carry my own sanitizer as a matter of course. I pointed out to staff #1 that I would use my own.
I have to say, this member of staff made us feel that she had stepped into something rather unpleasant and had a condescending and stuck up attitude.
Finally we were taken to one of the two bridal rooms, it was clean, bright and really nicely decorated.
Myself and the Maid of Honour were told to sit down on the chairs provided, and not to browse or touch any of the dresses in the shop and not to move around. Having never been through a ‘bridal’ experience, I thought this was the norm. My daughter was told she could look through the dresses but she had to wear gloves provided if she was going to touch and select any. After she made her selections, she was told to remove the gloves and put them in a bag/nappy sack provided. She was then assisted in trying the dresses on…..what was the point of the gloves, you may ask? If she was then touching the whole of the dress with her body? I have no idea, but staff #1 came bustling into the room wanting to know if we had complied with the gloves and where were they. She was told by her colleague that it had been sorted.
Staff #2 was helpful and knowledgeable about the dresses and as such she was able to present them really nicely once they were on. Staff #1 constantly came in and out while this was happening, I have no idea why.
The whole experience took a couple of hours and I have to say, I didn’t find it a good one. It was something myself and my daughter had been looking forward to for a long time, but unfortunately, because of a particular member of staff, it was ruined. We had other appointments booked with other bridal shops for later that week, but this experience had really put me off, and I would have happily not attended any of them.
My biggest criticism of this shop, apart from the member of staff, is that if you are not going to allow clients to use your toilet facilities you should have the common decency to find out where the nearest toilets are, and impart that knowledge to customers. No where in covid guidelines does it stress that customers cannot use the toilet, the washing of hands is actively encouraged!
There was one dress that we finally narrowed down in this particular shop, but nothing would induce me to buy from them.
I would add, that I did in fact go to the other appointments later that week, and the experience with the others (3) was completely different from what I had here.
After posting a review on google, the manager/owner has left her telephone number in case I wish to contact her to discuss my experience…what is there to discuss? Perhaps she should discuss our experience with her staff instead.
