Candalina Brides

Review: I have been contacting Candalina bride since the beginning of July 2014 on a dress that was to be ordered for a wedding I am in. After several calls to the shop and voicemails I finally get a hold of someone. The bridal shop "lost" and/or "never ordered" my dress. Mind you I am the only one out of 8 bridesmaids who never received their dress, or notification on status of my dress. I am 16 days away from the wedding and I have asked that the owner [redacted] to contact me and he has failed to do so in the last month. I was told that "He has another job and good luck getting ahold of him" His lack of compassion for the situation and lack of professionalism is completely unacceptable. They had no problem cashing the check for payment of the dress, but couldnt remember to order it.This is a poorly run establishment and I feel like they need to be reported/repremanded for their actions.Desired Settlement: I am in need of a dress and alterations in 16 days, I will also like a refund for the dress that I paid for already and for the alterations to be done for free as well since I will not have enough time to get them done elsewhere.

Business

Response:

We apologize for this unfortunate situation, and were able to get the dress to customer in time for wedding, including alterations.

We did issue the customer a complete refund and did alterations for free as requested by the customer.

Review: I am the Maid of Honor in my sisters wedding- all of the bridesmaids purchased their dresses at Candalina. Early on, her mother in law noticed the sales rep almost ordered the wrong dresses for everyone and had the problem corrected. Now, after picking up my dress we realized that they ordered me the wrong size. My receipt says a 12 but I received a 14. While the dress could be fixed by alterations, I feel that I should not have had to pay for their mistake. When I called & asked to speak to the owner I was told he'd call me back. I called every day for a week straight (sometimes 2 times a day) and still got no where. After about 4 calls I was told that, to speak to the owner I needed to go onto their website and write an email. I was floored that after wasting so much time they told me that I needed to write an email! Angrily, I did but it was returned - saying "The e-mail message could not be delivered because the user's mailfolder is full."I still have the email if there are any questions (along with my receipts). Clearly after calling every day for a week I'd be furious. I can't say that I was the happiest of customers while talking to the employees but I'm sure anyone would reach a point of panic when your in a wedding that was less than a month away & your dress was the wrong size! I didn't want to bring the dress back to the store until I spoke with to the owner and ensure he was going to make it right. I live about 45 minutes away and did not want to waste anymore time. I specifically told that to every employee. The owners wife told me that in her country I'd be expected to just deal with it and move on. When the owner FINALLY called me he treated me with complete disrespect and wondered why I was so angry. He barely let me talk and continuously spoke over me. At this point I had an appointment with my own seamstress to fix their mistake. I was hesitant to let them even touch the dress after the way he specifically treated me.Desired Settlement: If anything I think it would be fair if Scott, from Candalina Brides just reimbursed me for my alterations. He told me to bring the dress into the store when speaking over me on the phone but I told him I wouldn't waste my time until he agreed to fix the mistake. I didn't want to drive out to his shop which is 45 minutes to an hour away unless he was going to make it right. He unfortunatly refused to say he'd take care of it. When I was sized in January the size 12 that I ordered required zero alterations. The dress that I received was only one size bigger and actually only cost me $35 to be fixed from our family seamstress. After all of the hassle I went through to talk to him and he treated me so negatively - I'd say that'd be more than fair settlement.

Business

Response:

We are not surprised to be getting this complaint as this customer “assured” us she was going to do everything she can to make sure everyone in the Pittsburgh area did not visit our shop.

On her first comment about her mother in law noticing we were ordering the wrong dress, none of our employee’s can remember this situation, and at the end of the day, the correct dress came in, so we really have no comment on that.

As is customary in our shop, she was asked if she would like to try on the dress prior to leaving with it, just to ensure everything was satisfactory. She stated she was too “busy” and took the dress without trying it on.

About one week after she left the shop, she started calling saying the dress was incorrect on the size and demanding a new dress. She initially wanted a complete new dress in a size 8. She was informed by our staff that it was too late to get her a new dress prior to the wedding, and the best thing would be for her to bring the dress back in and let us take a look at it as she should not need a new dress. We never told her we would do alterations for free, nor did we say we would not. We just wanted to see what the dress looked like on her before we could make any commitments.

Over the next six days, this customer called us approximately thirty-seven times. Each time she was told to stop by with the dress and the owner would be there if she would just set some time up to stop by so we can review the situation. Every time she refused to set a time up or stop by. Over the course of these 6 days and numerous phone calls she talked to four different associates, all of which tried to help her by telling her to come in.

While we understand her frustration at potentially having to come back, unfortunately without seeing the dress on her, we could not agree to give her these alterations for free. We have had situations in the past where customers have taken their dress to another seamstress who messed the dress up, or the customer tried to do alterations themselves, and messed the dress up, so we have a policy that we need to see the dress prior to agreeing to anything.

Had the customer brought the dress back in for us to see, it is entirely possible we would have been able to work something out between us since the alterations were only $35 at another location, and we never told her we would not do alterations. Once a customer leaves with a dress, and refuses to bring it back so we can see it if there is a problem, it is difficult to agree to free alterations. Unfortunately, because this customer never came back in with dress, we can not grant her request for free alterations.

Review: On May 14, 2015 I ordered the last of my bridesmaids dresses. I was told on the phone that my dresses would be here the second week of aug and yet when I received the email of conformation it stated they would be mailed to the girls the week of the 17th. Okay the 17th it is. However since then I have been getting the run around that they have no idea where my dresses are and now we are only a few weeks from my wedding day and my girls will have no dresses and I have no dates as to when they will. All I'm being told is to keep waiting.Desired Settlement: Delivery of my order no later than September 2, 2015.

As well as $25.00 off of each dress to help with expedited alterations for the situation created.

Business

Response:

The dresses were delivered to the customer prior to her requested date, as they did arrive August 31st, which was one business day late than the expected shipping dates. We can provide tracking numbers if needed.As we kept telling the customer, the dresses where late due to the explosion in Tinjain port in China, which caused the US Customs to inspect the shipping containers in greater detail, which caused a slight delay in the ports. [redacted], the designer of the dresses, overnight aired the dresses to us, and we in turn got the dresses to customer in one day as well, to have them arrive August 31st.As far as $25 request for expedited alterations, the dresses could have been ordered via rush delivery at a cost of $55 per dress. Customer chose not to do this, but rather ordered dress with regular shipping, even though the rush shipment would have arrived 5-6 weeks earlier. We also endorsed the customers decision, as even if the dresses were late in arriving, it only cost $25 for expedited alterations as opposed to $55 for rush shipping.While we understand customers concern about late delivery, our delivery times are not guaranteed, and even so, we were one business date late from our expected arrival times, so we do not feel we should refund any money, particularly after the dresses where over night aired from California to get to her and she was kept apprised of the situation.Regards