Alpine Construction & Engineering

INTRODUCTION:My name is ***, and I own Serendipity Bridal I am referred to as “ [redacted] ’s husband” by Mrs [redacted] in her complaint My wife [redacted] co-owns the store with me and works part-time when our kids are in school ***, who is also mentioned by Mrs [redacted] , is our store manager.Below I have responded to each of Mrs [redacted] ’s accusations Mrs [redacted] is the mother-in-law of our customer, *** We have had several interactions with [redacted] about this matter I would like to preface by saying that every interaction we have had with [redacted] has been very different from what Mrs [redacted] describes in this complaint It is important to note that Mrs [redacted] was not present for any of the interactions that she describes between [redacted] and anyone at the store My understanding is that Mrs [redacted] has never been to our store, which is to be expected given that I believe that Mrs [redacted] lives in Kansas City In any case, it needs to be noted that Mrs [redacted] is not speaking from first-hand knowledge with respect to anything other than her phone calls to the store, and she was not present for any interactions we with ***.Perhaps most notably, Mrs [redacted] ’s most significant omission from the complaint is that [redacted] has requested on multiple occasions that we deal only with [redacted] on this matter and not to communicate with Mrs [redacted] further about this Whether Mrs [redacted] knows this, I am not sure However, this is what [redacted] instructed both me and my manager to do [redacted] told both of us that she would relay this information to Mrs [redacted] on two separate occasions, including telling me in my most recent phone communication with her that she would let Mrs [redacted] know that, at ***’s instructions, we would not be contacting Mrs [redacted] further regarding this matter.On this point: to be clear, Mrs [redacted] is not our customer [redacted] is our customer Mrs [redacted] may have very well paid for some or all of ***’s gown A family member helping with the purchase a bridal gown is a very common occurrence in this industry – I frankly do not know whether or not she paid for the gown, as we do not keep record of this information, but I have no reason to doubt that she did But this is beside the point All we know is that [redacted] was the bride for whom we ordered a bridal gown, the only person who signed a contract for us to order her bridal gown, and, with the exception of Mrs [redacted] repeatedly calling us after the wedding had passed, the only person with whom we have interacted at the store Given this fact, and the fact that [redacted] asked that we deal with her directly (and her only) on this matter, we have indeed ceased communicating with Mrs [redacted] .Regarding Mrs [redacted] , she has now called my store repeatedly, threatened my wife and manager (who at the time was months pregnant and is now on maternity leave) with slanderous reviews, which she said would be made by both she and multiple friends of hers on social media and elsewhere, threatened both with legal action, and had an attorney call my store (who I promptly called back, fully explained the situation, and who has not since called me back, as discussed further below) Mrs [redacted] now continues to make and defamatory accusations about me, my business, my employees and my wife via the Revdex.com complaint process AS STATED, I HAVE RESPONDED SEPARATELY TO EACH PORTION OF MRS [redacted] ’S COMPLAINT BELOW IN THE ORDER OF HER COMPLAINT: [redacted] and I started searching for THAT wedding dress in November in AustinThe search continued in Austin and Kansas City until she found the dress of her dreams at the Serendipity Dress BoutiqueThe dress needed to be ordered and also needed alterationsSerendipity assured her it could be accomplishedThe alterations included changing the straps and work on the bodiceRESPONSE:It is accurate that the dress [redacted] purchased from us was a “special order” bridal gown In fact, we do not carry any “off the rack dresses” with the exception of a few sample dresses on sale So all new dresses must be ordered from the designers, and all require alterations of some kindAt the time [redacted] ordered the dress, [redacted] and our staff discussed that she wanted to modify the straps and bodice of the dressIt is true that neither of these are complicated nor difficult alterations to perform, and this was discussed with [redacted] – there is no reason it would not have been discussed, as we stand to gain nothing by telling a bride a dress can be altered in a certain way if it cannot be.The dress arrived and Serendipity REFERRED her to an alterationist because the the boutique was booked so they recommended she go to Mesa Alteration, [redacted] ***, Austin Texas [redacted] went to Mesa and the nightmare beganRESPONSE:The dress was ordered by [redacted] near the end of March, We needed to order it with a “rush” given that the wedding date was August 28, 2015, and this particular designer, like many, takes as long as six months to produce a new dress Mrs [redacted] failed to mention that, before ordering the dress, we specifically told [redacted] that our seamstress would not have enough time to perform the alterations given the short turnaround, as we tell all of our brides who will have less than months between the order date and event date This is also stated in ***’s contract – specifically, it states that we “cannot guarantee seamstress availability if a bridal gown arrives in store less than three months before the event date,” as was the case with ***’s dress, which arrived less than months prior to [redacted] leaving town for her wedding To re-iterate: The fact that Serendipity would not be performing alterations on this dress and that [redacted] would need to use an outside, unaffiliated seamstress was fully communicated to, understood by and signed off on by [redacted] at the time of purchaseSecondly, this is not at all unique to [redacted] – it is actually the case for approximately 2/of our brides due to the limited capacity of the one seamstress we employ Mrs [redacted] expressed, first to our manager and then to my wife, that she was appalled that our store would not be performing the alterations on all dresses We tried to explain that Serendipity is one of only a couple of stores in Austin that even employ a single seamstress, much less multiple seamstresses The vast majority of stores here do not offer this service at all If we could afford to employ three full-time seamstresses and the additional square footage it would require to do alterations on all of our brides’ dresses, we would love to do so But this is simply an impossibility for a small business such as oursWith respect to Mesa Alterations, we provided [redacted] a list which I believe at such time included four or five alternative seamstresses here in Austin that perform alterations on bridal gowns This is the same list we provide to all of the 2/of our brides who do not use our seamstress One of the seamstresses on the list was Mesa AlterationsAt the time we provided [redacted] the list, we had never had a complaint from a bride about Mesa We have no contract, employment agreement nor any other affiliation with any of these seamstresses, including Mesa, nor do we receive any money, fee or any other compensation of any kind related to these seamstresses or their alterations services Providing a list of unaffiliated outside seamstresses for brides is a courtesy intended to help our brides locate a seamstress, but let me be clear -- we have no means of controlling or otherwise policing these seamstresses, nor do we have any ongoing role in alterations when our brides choose to use one of them We take who is on the list very seriously, of course, but our only means of control is to remove a seamstress from the list in the event we receive a complaint from a bride about their services – which, as Mrs [redacted] later points out, we immediately did with Mesa after learning after the wedding of ***’s experience Last, we typically do not know whether our brides have decided to use any of the seamstresses from the list for their alterations, and, if they did, which one they may have chosen Many brides choose to use other seamstresses who are not on the list – of whom there are many – or a family member who is a seamstress, but it is impossible to know given that we typically have no interaction with either the seamstresses or the brides after the bride takes their dress from the storeThis was the case with [redacted] – we had no idea she elected to use Mesa until we later learned about her problems with Mesa We had no ongoing role in the alterations after [redacted] picked up her dress on July 2, 2015, when she tried on the dress and signed it out under the notation “Received Gown in Satisfactory Condition.” The straps were FIXED with plastic straps that were visible and did nothing to alter themShe also need work on the bodice that ended up in a puckered messand to finish the scenario they spilled something on the dressRESPONSE:Again, please note that all of this occurred at Mesa Alterations at a location several miles from Serendipity None of this occurred at Serendipity Bridal, and we had no idea that this had taken place until we were later told about it by Mrs [redacted] – after the wedding had already passed – as more fully described below.She was very sad and disappointed but hoped Serendipity could remedy the disasterTheir response was "we are so sorry about the dress but are so happy you told us about Mesa that we will never refer anyone to them again" So to her surprise they said there was nothing they could doRESPONSE:This is simply not true Neither [redacted] , [redacted] nor I had any interaction with [redacted] or Mrs [redacted] , nor any knowledge of the problems with ***’s alterations at Mesa, until after her wedding had passed when we received the first call from Mrs [redacted] while [redacted] was on her honeymoon None of us told [redacted] “there was nothing we could do” to help, nor did we say anything to [redacted] about taking Mesa off of our referral list at this time, as none of us spoke to [redacted] until she returned from her honeymoon.The only time [redacted] was in the store after she picked up her dress but prior to her wedding date was when she brought the dress in on Saturday, August to be pressed, a regular occurrence given that we offer all of our brides a complimentary pressing This was the Saturday prior to [redacted] leaving town for her wedding on Tuesday, August 25th She picked the gown back up and signed the gown out on August 25, with her signature under the notation, “Pressing Only,” written on her file [redacted] did not speak to [redacted] , [redacted] nor me at this time, and none of us knew anything about ***’s problems with Mesa [redacted] and I were both at the store when [redacted] dropped off the gown to be pressed on Saturday, and our seamstress was at the store when [redacted] came to pick it up after the pressing -- but none of us were told anything about the issues with Mesa I have asked other employees who work at the store, and no one recalls anything remotely resembling the interaction Mrs [redacted] describes, nor did [redacted] describe this interaction to us when we later met with her [redacted] did not speak to me, [redacted] nor [redacted] , and did not request to talk to a manager or the owner, when she dropped off or picked up the dress from the pressing; no one called us before or during this two-day period before [redacted] left town to tell us what had happened with Mesa, nor did we receive an email As such, there was nothing we could attempt to do to correct Mesa’s mistakes at the time of ***’s pressing – even though our options at this time would have been virtually non-existent given that it was mere two days before [redacted] was leaving townLast, to re-iterate one further point: Mrs [redacted] was not actually present at the store when [redacted] dropped off the dress for a pressing, nor when she picked it up from the pressing However, as noted, when [redacted] and I later spoke with ***, [redacted] did not say anything about this interaction or being rudely turned away by anyone as Mrs [redacted] describes In fact, [redacted] acknowledged that she understood that the phone call from Mrs [redacted] was the first either of us had heard about the situationThis nightmare continued with more tears and a feeling of helplessness and hopelessnessShe began to re***ze she was not going to wear the dress of her dreams and it was too late to find and order a replacementThe days that followed were of anxiety and depression of having to accept the inevitableShe was unable to change the date , the venue , the photographer etcand yet she did bot have a dressSerendipity sold her the dress and they were finished, not offering and alternative or trying to alter the one she loved.RESPONSE:As stated above, neither ***, [redacted] nor I had any idea there was a problem with Mesa, so there was not an opportunity for any of us to offer any kind of alternative prior to the wedding date Had someone let us know there was a problem a month, even two weeks prior to the wedding, we could have at least attempted to correct Mesa’s mistakes But, contrary to what Mrs [redacted] said, we did not have such an opportunity No one called us, emailed us nor in any other way interacted with anyone at the store other than when [redacted] brought her dress in to be pressed two days prior to the wedding date.Secondly, as stated above, it was not a matter of “not trying to alter” ***’s dress We knew before she purchased the dress that our seamstress would not be able to do the alterations, we clearly communicated this, and the contract clearly states this fact The wedding was quite uniqueSeveral moms and friends spent the day working on a dress she borrowed and at 1:we were sewing on a belt and the trolley was arriving to pick up the wedding party at 3:The entire day was spent on working and pinning and sewing a friend's wedding dress for her to wearThere was little laughter, eating or drinking enjoying the day--it was total disbelief that this could happen on the ONE day that should be the happiestSince I have a vested interest (financially and emotionally) I proceed to call Serendipity and explain the situation they put her in [redacted] immediately tells me that the alterationist was contracted and independent and Serendipity was not responsibleAt this time they were on their honeymoon and were unable to show them the dress( even though they had seen it previously but denied it) RESPONSE:Mrs [redacted] first spoke with both [redacted] and [redacted] while [redacted] was on her honeymoon This was the first time [redacted] , [redacted] or I was made aware of the fact that [redacted] did not wear the dress and the problems she faced with Mesa When [redacted] learned that we had not done the alterations, it is accurate that [redacted] said that alterations issues would need to be addressed with Mesa, as we do not have any affiliation with them other than Mesa being one of several seamstresses that were at that time on a seamstress listHowever, [redacted] did also tell Mrs [redacted] that we would support [redacted] in any way we could in pursuing damages against Mesa if [redacted] chose to do so, which we have confirmed and re-iterated to [redacted] on multiple occasions At the end of ***’s initial conversation with Mrs [redacted] , Mrs [redacted] told [redacted] that she was going to contact Mesa about their mistakes, and [redacted] would reach out to [redacted] to set up a time for her to come in to the store when she returned from her honeymoon Mrs [redacted] was very much aware that we would be reaching out to [redacted] to discuss the matter directly with her.One important note that Mrs [redacted] still fails to recognize: we did not “put [redacted] in this situation,” Mesa did, and we have attempted to offer whatever support we can in helping [redacted] with Mesa Mrs [redacted] somehow does not seem to understand that Mesa Alterations is not affiliated with Serendipity Counter to what she says above, we are not “contracted” with Mesa Alterations in any wayWhen she returned she took the dress on October 12, to show them the problems AGAINThey offered the following solution on a $2,dress Serendipity would provide [redacted] with a hair stylist, someone to do make-up, and a photographer and [redacted] was to LEAVE the dress with them so they could work on it ( Fortunately she didn't leave the dress.) Then [redacted] and her husband (in a suit) could have their picture taken in the dress she was NOT able to wear(is this so she could place the picture in a prominent place of honor to remind her daily that this is the dress she was not able to wear?) We were astounded with this solutionA real insult to our intelligenceRESPONSE:This is simply not accurate First of all, my manager, [redacted] and I were present for this meeting Again, Mrs [redacted] was not As such, Mrs [redacted] again has no first-hand knowledge of this interaction, nor what was said, despite the fact that she portrays her statements with absolute certainty.When [redacted] first came in, she initially indicated that her intention was to resell the dress, at which point we told her that we would have our seamstress correct Mesa’s mistakes to try to get the gown to its original condition for her to resell it We of course wanted to know what had happened with Mesa, which we discussed with [redacted] at length Never once did [redacted] ask for money back for her dress, nor did she ever once suggest that Serendipity was in any way responsible for Mesa’s mistakes or for [redacted] not wearing the dress at her weddingClearly we all felt absolutely terrible for [redacted] given that she told us she did not wear her dress due to Mesa’s alterations mistakes As such, during the conversation, [redacted] asked [redacted] what else, if anything, we could do to help, to which [redacted] replied that she just wanted “to wear her dress and feel beautiful.” Because [redacted] indicated that the thing she was most upset about was not being able to wear the dress how she imagined it, we brainstormed what else we might be able to do to help Only at this point did [redacted] bring up that we would try to help arrange for all of these things Mrs [redacted] mentioned above and to help [redacted] to find a wedding photographer to memori***ze her in the dress as she envisioned it It was by no means an insult to ***’s intelligence – indeed, it was very much an idea that [redacted] was a part of creating We all obviously knew that there was nothing that could be done to make the wedding happen again, but we wanted to offer this as a small consolation – if [redacted] wanted us to do so – which [redacted] said at that time that she would love and seemed to make her very happy Our impression was that she was very excited about this.Regarding Mrs [redacted] ’s statement that we said that we would “work on it,” this is again not quite accurate I said I would have our seamstress correct the mistakes Mesa had made for [redacted] to resell it (complimentary of course) – which then shifted, after talking with ***, to altering the dress for her to have portraits This would typically be anywhere from $to $in alterations charges This was not a trivial offer as Mrs [redacted] suggests.Finally, Mrs [redacted] leaves out the last thing we told [redacted] we would wholeheartedly do: support any claim she made against Mesa for the mistakes in her alterations – whether that be for the alterations fees, the price of the dress, or both I do not dispute, nor have we ever, that Mesa did not adequately perform the alterations on ***’s dress Helping her pursue a bridal seamstress for damages is not something that we would do lightly, as the bridal world is a very small community However, we felt that Mesa had let [redacted] down, and we were prepared to do anything we could to help her with Mesa Frankly, we would have all testified in court in support of [redacted] if this is what she wanted to do, and we told her as much in this meetingWhen she left, [redacted] did indeed take the dress – because she said she was going to go talk to Mesa about it, and she would follow up with us as soon as she knew what we could do to help I do not know whether she took it to Mesa, but this is how [redacted] left it with us We offered to keep the dress at the store for her until such time that she was going to take it to Mesa, but she elected to take it then, indicating that she was going to be going to Mesa very soon (if not right then), and would later bring it back We were of course not going to begin alterations on the dress until the Mesa issue was resolved, as further discussed below.Last, although Mrs [redacted] asserts that our offering to store the dress for [redacted] had some evil motive on our part, I would think it should suggest the opposite: counter to what Mrs [redacted] asserts throughout her complaint, the last thing we were attempting to do was “be finished with” [redacted] after having sold her the dress or in any other way avoid further involvement in the matter We were in no way, shape or form trying to wash our hands of this situation, we were trying to help [redacted] in any way we could.Under pressure and being intimated by being told that the owner is an attorney [redacted] agreed and left the store but in no way was she going to go through with that solution and no way does she ever want to put that dress on again.Again, to re-iterate, Mrs [redacted] was not at this meeting with ***, so she again has zero first-hand knowledge of anything that was said in the meeting And these accusations are again completely false I have never attempted to intimidate a customer with legal action of any kind, unlike Mrs [redacted] , who threatened to sue virtually everyone she has spoken to at the store.In fact, I did not even mention to [redacted] that I was an attorney during our conversation at the store This only came up in passing at the very end of the conversation, after [redacted] had decided that she wanted us to re-alter the dress and to help her to pursue Mesa When discussing how next to proceed at the end of the meeting – having my seamstress begin repairing the dress or taking it to Mesa first to address their mistakes with them – I said that we should not do anything to fix the dress until the Mesa situation was resolved because she needed to be able to establish what mistakes they had made The dress was of course the best evidence of Mesa’s mistakes.At this point, [redacted] made fun of me for talking like an attorney – but by no means did either of us in any way use it as intimidation Indeed, as I said, this exchange took place after [redacted] had decided what she wanted to do – it was not something that came up in an attempt to influence her decision And secondly, the comment only came up in the context of my attempting to help [redacted] determine how best to pursue Mesa, not trying to intimidate her with my being an attorney To say anything otherwise is completely false When [redacted] left, she was actually very happy, she thanked us, and she was even laughing with [redacted] about something unrelated as she was leaving – not in any way intimidated, rushed or pressured into leaving the store.Last, at the end of this conversation, we asked [redacted] a question: Given that Mrs [redacted] had been calling the store, did [redacted] want for us to call Mrs [redacted] back, or, rather, did [redacted] want to call Mrs [redacted] and let her know how she had chosen to proceed? We also specifically asked who [redacted] wanted to be the point of contact going forward on this matter [redacted] very clearly said that she would talk with Mrs [redacted] , we should communicate with [redacted] directly, and we should not communicate with Mrs [redacted] further on the matterAnd the stress continuesI have called Serendipity and expressed my astonishment and talked with the owner, [redacted] and the managerThe owner said she would have her husband call me and discuss the situation At that time I asked her to leave my [redacted] out of it-- since it was my moneyShe did not want to talk about it again with themBut none of that happened .The husband did call her under the guise that it was the phone number he was givenAnd then said to her "it must be your mother-in-law".RESPONSE:At this point, after our conversation with ***, I very explicitly told my staff and [redacted] that [redacted] had requested that we deal with only her on this matter, and not Mrs [redacted] I also told them, in the event that Mrs [redacted] called again, to let me know so that before calling Mrs [redacted] back I could reach out to [redacted] to see if anything had changed from our prior conversation such that I should indeed communicate with Mrs [redacted] .Given that [redacted] is our customer, not Mrs [redacted] , ***’s instruction not to deal with Mrs [redacted] obviously takes precedence over Mrs [redacted] ’s request that we not communicate with *** We therefore determined to respect ***’s wishes, which were clearly stated On the contrary, if [redacted] had told me to contact Mrs [redacted] , I would have done so, as I told [redacted] at the time.So, [redacted] did indeed call me at the office to tell me that Mrs [redacted] had called yet again after we had met with *** At this point, I called *** But I did not call [redacted] under “the guise that it was the phone number I had been given” – we of course have our customers’ phone numbers in our records I called [redacted] to confirm whether she had changed her mind and wanted for me to deal with Mrs [redacted] given that she had previously told me not to, and I very clearly communicated this to [redacted] as the reason for my callThe only confusion I had was due to not understanding why Mrs [redacted] was continuing to call us when [redacted] had said she would tell her that [redacted] would be handling the matter going forward.I specifically said that Mrs [redacted] had called the store to let us know Mrs [redacted] was unhappy with the arrangement we had worked out with *** First, I asked whether [redacted] was unhappy with the arrangement and whether I had missed something in our previous conversation with respect to her not being content/happy with what we had discussed Second, I asked again whether [redacted] wanted me to deal with Mrs [redacted] or ***, either of which I explicitly said I was happy to do[redacted] told me: (1) that she remained happy with what we had discussed and that I had not misinterpreted anything; (2) not to call Mrs [redacted] back, she just hadn’t had a chance yet to discuss it with her yet, and (3) that she would call Mrs [redacted] to tell her that she had asked me not to call Mrs [redacted] back and that [redacted] would handle it from there As such, I did not call Mrs [redacted] back after this conversation, as [redacted] very explicitly told me not to I then called Serendipity again and talked with [redacted] asking her what happened and she said she was not in the room when her husband, [redacted] talked with ***Reminding her that I asked them not to call her she could not tell me why her husband had not called me.At this point, it was becoming quite difficult to figure out what to do in this situation with Mrs [redacted] Again, we did not call Mrs [redacted] because [redacted] asked us not to [redacted] is an adult, and there is no reason for me not to respect her clearly communicated wishes given that she is our customer, and given that I very explicitly told her I was happy to call Mrs [redacted] back if she wanted me toPlus, it was literally impossible for me to deal with both of them given that [redacted] told us that she wanted for us to do one thing – re-alter the dress, help arrange for new portraits, makeup, hair, etc., and most importantly, help her to pursue Mesa While Mrs [redacted] was asking for a refund of the dress and Mesa’s alterations fees for damages we did not cause I could therefore not communicate with both of them, and when both were telling us not to call the other one, we obviously (and rightfully – from both a legal and ethical standpoint) determined to follow the instructions of our customerAt this point, we determined not to call [redacted] back yet again and ask yet again whether we should talk to Mrs [redacted] I had confirmed this twice now, and I did not want to continue to pester [redacted] with the same question, nor get further involved with what appeared to be a disconnect between [redacted] and her new mother-in-lawSo we did not call Mrs [redacted] backThen I asked if she wanted me to proceed with my plans to contact Better Business and the Attorney General and secure an attorney and she said sure They have been given ample time to remedy the situation and to date have done nothing.It is true that Mrs [redacted] did continue to threaten my wife I figured that, if Mrs [redacted] had an attorney call us, made a complaint with the Revdex.com, or otherwise continued to threaten and defame us, we would just have to deal with it at that timeMrs [redacted] ’s attorney called the store several days later I called him back the same day, and told him in detail what had happened I also explained the contract to him, the fact we did not do the alterations, and the fact that we did not have a contractual relationship with Mrs [redacted] , only *** I also told him that [redacted] had asked that we deal with her, and that we were between a rock and a hard place with respect to figuring out how to handle the situationThe attorney told me that he would call Mrs [redacted] and suggest that she should let [redacted] and Serendipity resolve the matter As of now, several weeks have passed, and I have not heard from the attorney again, nor from Mrs [redacted] , until receiving this Revdex.com complaint.CONCLUSION:I hope it is obvious from the length of this response that we do not take complaints such as this lightly When we make mistakes, we take responsibility When we do not make mistakes but our brides have been wronged in our estimation, we still try to help our brides in any way we can, which we have offered to do for [redacted] in this situation When people call and get angry without justification, we attempt to handle each situation as professionally as possible At this point, however, the situation with Mrs [redacted] has moved past the point of reason – particularly given that I do not believe Mrs [redacted] has even once called Mesa Alterations, yet continues to harass us.As we have repeatedly attempted to tell Mrs [redacted] , we simply cannot be held monetarily accountable for the work of another business over which we have no control and with which we have no contractual relationship Nor can we be held liable for not having the ability to offer alterations to every one of our brides, which is essentially what Mrs [redacted] is asking to have happen It would be different if my seamstress performed the alterations and made a mistake It would be different if we told [redacted] we would perform the alterations and then failed to do so It would be different if Mesa was a contractor of ours, and we hired them to work on ***’s dress on our behalf (in which case we would have recourse to make a claim against the contractor for anything we paid to our customer for the contractor’s mistakes) There are many ways that this could have been different and potentially been Serendipity’s fault, rather than Mesa’s However, none of those things are true Nevertheless, after all of this time, I am not aware that a single call has been made to Mesa by Mrs [redacted] , despite my store offering to help in any way possible in pursuing them, when Mrs [redacted] knows Mesa performed all of the alterations, and when we have no control over Mesa’s servicesMrs [redacted] wants us to refund the full price of ***’s dress, which was ordered exactly as [redacted] requested, in a timely fashion, due to mistakes made by a business entirely separate from us If this was how we operated, we would not stay in business We have offered to go above and beyond to help [redacted] in any way we can simply because we truly feel terrible that she, our bride, was unable to wear her dress on her wedding, regardless of whether we are to blameInstead of recognizing this, however, and letting us help how we can, including pursuing Mesa for the money she now seeks from us, Mrs [redacted] has chosen to repeatedly call, harass and threaten my employees and my wife with accusations and legal action Now she is attempting to disparage my business and livelihood by defaming me, my store, my manager and my wife with this complaint in a clear attempt to dishonestly damage our reputation and extort a refund from us that we do not owe her We are not going to deal with Mrs [redacted] further on this matter We are not going refund Mrs [redacted] the price of ***’s dress, and we are not going to compensate Mrs [redacted] for ***’s alterations fees charged by Mesa At this point, if [redacted] would like for us to do what we originally told her we would do, we remain willing to do so

INTRODUCTION:My name is [redacted], and I own
Serendipity Bridal.  I am referred to as “[redacted]’s
husband” by Mrs. [redacted] in her complaint. 
My wife [redacted] co-owns the store with me and works part-time when our
kids are in school.  [redacted], who is also
mentioned by Mrs. [redacted], is our...

store manager.Below I have responded to each of
Mrs. [redacted]’s accusations.  Mrs. [redacted]
is the mother-in-law of our customer, [redacted]. 
We have had several interactions with [redacted] about this matter.  I would like to preface by saying that every
interaction we have had with [redacted] has been very different from what Mrs. [redacted]
describes in this complaint.  It is
important to note that Mrs. [redacted] was not present for any of the interactions
that she describes between [redacted] and anyone at the store.  My understanding is that Mrs. [redacted] has never
been to our store, which is to be expected given that I believe that Mrs.
[redacted] lives in Kansas City.  In any
case, it needs to be noted that Mrs. [redacted] is not speaking from first-hand
knowledge with respect to anything other than her phone calls to the store, and
she was not present for any interactions we with [redacted].Perhaps most notably, Mrs.
[redacted]’s most significant omission from the complaint is that [redacted] has
requested on multiple occasions that we deal only with [redacted] on this matter and not
to communicate with Mrs. [redacted] further about this.  Whether Mrs. [redacted] knows this, I am not
sure.  However, this is what [redacted] instructed
both me and my manager to do.  [redacted] told
both of us that she would relay this information to Mrs. [redacted] on two
separate occasions, including telling me in my most recent phone communication
with her that she would let Mrs. [redacted] know that, at [redacted]’s instructions, we
would not be contacting Mrs. [redacted] further regarding this matter.On this point:  to be clear, Mrs. [redacted] is not our
customer.  [redacted] is our customer.  Mrs. [redacted] may have very well paid for some
or all of [redacted]’s gown.  A family member
helping with the purchase a bridal gown is a very common occurrence in this
industry – I frankly do not know whether or not she paid for the gown, as we do
not keep record of this information, but I have no reason to doubt that she did.  But this is beside the point.  All we know is that [redacted] was the bride for
whom we ordered a bridal gown, the only person who signed a contract for us to
order her bridal gown, and, with the exception of Mrs. [redacted] repeatedly calling
us after the wedding had passed, the only person with whom we have interacted at
the store.  Given this fact, and the fact
that [redacted] asked that we deal with her directly (and her only) on this matter, we
have indeed ceased communicating with Mrs. [redacted].Regarding Mrs. [redacted], she has
now called my store repeatedly, threatened my wife and manager (who at the time
was 8 months pregnant and is now on maternity leave) with slanderous reviews,
which she said would be made by both she and multiple friends of hers on social
media and elsewhere, threatened both with legal action, and had an attorney
call my store (who I promptly called back, fully explained the situation, and who
has not since called me back, as discussed further below).  Mrs. [redacted] now continues to make false and defamatory
accusations about me, my business, my employees and my wife via the Revdex.com
complaint process.  AS STATED, I HAVE RESPONDED SEPARATELY TO EACH PORTION OF MRS. [redacted]’S
COMPLAINT BELOW IN THE ORDER OF HER COMPLAINT:[redacted] and I started searching for THAT wedding dress in November 2014 in
Austin. The search continued in Austin and Kansas City until she found the
dress of her dreams at the Serendipity Dress Boutique. The dress needed to be
ordered and also needed alterations. Serendipity assured her it could be
accomplished. The alterations included changing the straps and work on the
bodice. RESPONSE:It is accurate that the dress [redacted] purchased from us was a
“special order” bridal gown.  In fact, we
do not carry any “off the rack dresses” with the exception of a few sample
dresses on sale.  So all new dresses must
be ordered from the designers, and all require alterations of some kind. At the time [redacted] ordered the dress, [redacted] and our staff
discussed that she wanted to modify the straps and bodice of the dress. It is true
that neither of these are complicated nor difficult alterations to perform, and
this was discussed with [redacted] – there is no reason it would not have been
discussed, as we stand to gain nothing by telling a bride a dress can be
altered in a certain way if it cannot be.The dress arrived and Serendipity REFERRED her to an alterationist
because the the boutique was booked so they recommended she go to Mesa
Alteration, [redacted], Austin Texas. [redacted] went to Mesa and the nightmare
began. RESPONSE:The dress was ordered by [redacted] near the end of March,
2015.  We needed to order it with a “rush”
given that the wedding date was August 28, 2015, and this particular designer,
like many, takes as long as six months to produce a new dress.  Mrs. [redacted] failed to mention that, before ordering the dress,
we specifically told [redacted] that our seamstress would not have enough time to
perform the alterations given the short turnaround, as we tell all of our
brides who will have less than 3 months between the order date and event date.  This is also stated in [redacted]’s contract – specifically,
it states that we “cannot guarantee seamstress availability if a bridal gown
arrives in store less than three months before the event date,” as was the case
with [redacted]’s dress, which arrived less than 2 months prior to [redacted] leaving town
for her wedding.  To re-iterate:  The fact that Serendipity would not be
performing alterations on this dress and that [redacted] would need to use an outside,
unaffiliated seamstress was fully communicated to, understood by and signed off
on by [redacted] at the time of purchase. Secondly, this is not at all unique to [redacted] – it is actually the
case for approximately 2/3 of our brides due to the limited capacity of the one
seamstress we employ.  Mrs. [redacted] expressed, first to our
manager and then to my wife, that she was appalled that our store would not be
performing the alterations on all dresses. 
We tried to explain that Serendipity is one of only a couple of stores in
Austin that even employ a single seamstress, much less multiple seamstresses.  The vast majority of stores here do not offer
this service at all.  If we could afford
to employ three full-time seamstresses and the additional square footage it
would require to do alterations on all of our brides’ dresses, we would love to
do so.  But this is simply an
impossibility for a small business such as ours. With respect to Mesa Alterations,
we provided [redacted] a list which I believe at such time included four or five alternative
seamstresses here in Austin that perform alterations on bridal gowns.  This is the same list we provide to all of
the 2/3 of our brides who do not use our seamstress.  One of the seamstresses on the list was Mesa
Alterations. At the time we provided [redacted] the
list, we had never had a complaint from a bride about Mesa.  We have no contract, employment agreement nor
any other affiliation with any of these seamstresses, including Mesa, nor do we
receive any money, fee or any other compensation of any kind related to these
seamstresses or their alterations services.  Providing a list of unaffiliated
outside seamstresses for brides is a courtesy intended to help our brides
locate a seamstress, but let me be clear -- we have no means of controlling or
otherwise policing these seamstresses, nor do we have any ongoing role in
alterations when our brides choose to use one of them.  We take who is on the list very seriously, of
course, but our only means of control is to remove a seamstress from the list
in the event we receive a complaint from a bride about their services – which,
as Mrs. [redacted] later points out, we immediately did with Mesa after learning after
the wedding of [redacted]’s experience.  Last, we typically do not know
whether our brides have decided to use any of the seamstresses from the list
for their alterations, and, if they did, which one they may have chosen.  Many brides choose to use other seamstresses who
are not on the list – of whom there are many – or a family member who is a
seamstress, but it is impossible to know given that we typically have no
interaction with either the seamstresses or the brides after the bride takes
their dress from the store. This was the case with [redacted] – we
had no idea she elected to use Mesa until we later learned about her problems
with Mesa.  We had no ongoing role in
the alterations after [redacted] picked up her dress on July 2, 2015, when she tried
on the dress and signed it out under the notation “Received Gown in
Satisfactory Condition.”  The straps were FIXED with plastic straps that were visible and did
nothing to alter them. She also need work on the bodice that ended up in a
puckered mess. and to finish the scenario they spilled something on the dress. RESPONSE:Again, please note that all of
this occurred at Mesa Alterations at a location several miles from
Serendipity.  None of this occurred at
Serendipity Bridal, and we had no idea that this had taken place until we were
later told about it by Mrs. [redacted] – after the wedding had already passed – as
more fully described below.She was very sad and disappointed but hoped Serendipity could remedy
the disaster. Their response was "we are so sorry about the dress but are
so happy you told us about Mesa that we will never refer anyone to them
again" So to her surprise they said there was nothing they could do. RESPONSE:This is simply not true.  Neither [redacted] nor I had any interaction
with [redacted] or Mrs. [redacted], nor any knowledge of the problems with [redacted]’s
alterations at Mesa, until after her wedding had passed when we received the
first call from Mrs. [redacted] while [redacted] was on her honeymoon.  None of us told [redacted] “there was nothing we
could do” to help, nor did we say anything to [redacted] about taking Mesa off of our
referral list at this time, as none of us spoke to [redacted] until she returned from
her honeymoon.The only time [redacted] was in the
store after she picked up her dress but prior to her wedding date was when she
brought the dress in on Saturday, August 22 to be pressed, a regular occurrence
given that we offer all of our brides a complimentary pressing.  This was the Saturday prior to [redacted] leaving
town for her wedding on Tuesday, August 25th.  She picked the gown back up and signed the
gown out on August 25, with her signature under the notation, “Pressing Only,”
written on her file.  [redacted] did not speak to [redacted]
nor me at this time, and none of us knew anything about [redacted]’s problems with
Mesa.  [redacted] and I were both at the store
when [redacted] dropped off the gown to be pressed on Saturday, and our seamstress was
at the store when [redacted] came to pick it up after the pressing -- but none of us
were told anything about the issues with Mesa.  I have asked other employees who work at the
store, and no one recalls anything remotely resembling the interaction Mrs.
[redacted] describes, nor did [redacted] describe this interaction to us when we later met
with her. [redacted] did not speak to me, [redacted]
nor [redacted], and did not request to talk to a manager or the owner, when she
dropped off or picked up the dress from the pressing; no one called us before
or during this two-day period before [redacted] left town to tell us what had happened
with Mesa, nor did we receive an email.  As
such, there was nothing we could attempt to do to correct Mesa’s mistakes at
the time of [redacted]’s pressing – even though our options at this time would have
been virtually non-existent given that it was mere two days before [redacted] was
leaving town. Last, to re-iterate one further
point: Mrs. [redacted] was not actually present at the store when [redacted] dropped off
the dress for a pressing, nor when she picked it up from the pressing.  However, as noted, when [redacted] and I later
spoke with [redacted] did not say anything about this interaction or being rudely
turned away by anyone as Mrs. [redacted] describes.  In fact, [redacted] acknowledged that she understood
that the phone call from Mrs. [redacted] was the first either of us had heard
about the situation. This nightmare continued with more tears and a feeling of helplessness
and hopelessness. She began to re[redacted]ze she was not going to wear the dress of
her dreams and it was too late to find and order a replacement. The days that
followed were of anxiety and depression of having to accept the inevitable. She
was unable to change the date , the venue , the photographer etc. and yet she
did bot have a dress. Serendipity sold her the dress and they were finished,
not offering and alternative or trying to alter the one she loved.RESPONSE:As stated above, neither [redacted],
[redacted] nor I had any idea there was a problem with Mesa, so there was not an
opportunity for any of us to offer any kind of alternative prior to the wedding
date.  Had someone let us know there was
a problem a month, even two weeks prior to the wedding, we could have at least
attempted to correct Mesa’s mistakes. 
But, contrary to what Mrs. [redacted] said, we did not have such an
opportunity.  No one called us, emailed
us nor in any other way interacted with anyone at the store other than when [redacted]
brought her dress in to be pressed two days prior to the wedding date.Secondly, as stated above, it was
not a matter of “not trying to alter” [redacted]’s dress.  We knew before she purchased the dress that
our seamstress would not be able to do the alterations, we clearly communicated
this, and the contract clearly states this fact.    The wedding was quite unique. Several moms and friends spent the day
working on a dress she borrowed and at 1:00 we were sewing on a belt and the
trolley was arriving to pick up the wedding party at 3:00. The entire day was
spent on working and pinning and sewing a friend's wedding dress for her to
wear. There was little laughter, eating or drinking enjoying the day--it was
total disbelief that this could happen on the ONE day that should be the
happiest. Since I have a vested interest (financially and emotionally) I
proceed to call Serendipity and explain the situation they put her in. [redacted]
immediately tells me that the alterationist was contracted and independent and
Serendipity was not responsible. At this time they were on their honeymoon and
were unable to show them the dress( even though they had seen it previously but
denied it) RESPONSE:Mrs. [redacted] first spoke with
both [redacted] and [redacted] while [redacted] was on her honeymoon.  This was the first time [redacted] or I was
made aware of the fact that [redacted] did not wear the dress and the problems she
faced with Mesa.  When [redacted] learned that
we had not done the alterations, it is accurate that [redacted] said that
alterations issues would need to be addressed with Mesa, as we do not have any
affiliation with them other than Mesa being one of several seamstresses that
were at that time on a seamstress list. However, [redacted] did also tell Mrs.
[redacted] that we would support [redacted] in any way we could in pursuing damages against
Mesa if [redacted] chose to do so, which we have confirmed and re-iterated to [redacted] on
multiple occasions.    At the end of [redacted]’s initial conversation
with Mrs. [redacted], Mrs. [redacted] told [redacted] that she was going to contact Mesa
about their mistakes, and [redacted] would reach out to [redacted] to set up a time for her
to come in to the store when she returned from her honeymoon.  Mrs. [redacted] was very much aware that we
would be reaching out to [redacted] to discuss the matter directly with her.One important note that Mrs.
[redacted] still fails to recognize:  we did
not “put [redacted] in this situation,” Mesa did, and we have attempted to offer
whatever support we can in helping [redacted] with Mesa.  Mrs. [redacted] somehow does not seem to understand
that Mesa Alterations is not affiliated with Serendipity.  Counter to what she says above, we are not
“contracted” with Mesa Alterations in any way. When she returned she took the dress on October 12, 2015 to show them
the problems AGAIN. They offered the following solution on a $2,789.75 dress.
Serendipity would provide [redacted] with a hair stylist, someone to do make-up, and a
photographer and [redacted] was to LEAVE the dress with them so they could work on it.
( Fortunately she didn't leave the dress.) Then [redacted] and her husband (in a suit)
could have their picture taken in the dress she was NOT able to wear. (is this
so she could place the picture in a prominent place of honor to remind her
daily that this is the dress she was not able to wear?) We were astounded with
this solution. A real insult to our intelligence. RESPONSE:This is simply not accurate.  First of all, my manager, [redacted] and I were
present for this meeting.  Again, Mrs.
[redacted] was not.  As such, Mrs. [redacted]
again has no first-hand knowledge of this interaction, nor what was said, despite
the fact that she portrays her false statements with absolute certainty.When [redacted] first came in, she
initially indicated that her intention was to resell the dress, at which point
we told her that we would have our seamstress correct Mesa’s mistakes to try to
get the gown to its original condition for her to resell it.  We of course wanted to know what had happened
with Mesa, which we discussed with [redacted] at length.  Never once did [redacted] ask for money back for her
dress, nor did she ever once suggest that Serendipity was in any way
responsible for Mesa’s mistakes or for [redacted] not wearing the dress at her wedding. Clearly we all felt absolutely terrible
for [redacted] given that she told us she did not wear her dress due to Mesa’s
alterations mistakes.  As such, during
the conversation, [redacted] asked [redacted] what else, if anything, we could do to help,
to which [redacted] replied that she just wanted “to wear her dress and feel
beautiful.” Because [redacted] indicated that the
thing she was most upset about was not being able to wear the dress how she
imagined it, we brainstormed what else we might be able to do to help.  Only at this point did [redacted] bring up that we
would try to help arrange for all of these things Mrs. [redacted] mentioned above and
to help [redacted] to find a wedding photographer to memori[redacted]ze her in the dress as
she envisioned it.  It was by no means an
insult to [redacted]’s intelligence – indeed, it was very much an idea that [redacted] was a
part of creating.  We all obviously knew that there
was nothing that could be done to make the wedding happen again, but we wanted
to offer this as a small consolation – if [redacted] wanted us to do so – which [redacted]
said at that time that she would love and seemed to make her very happy.  Our impression was that she was very excited
about this.Regarding Mrs. [redacted]’s
statement that we said that we would “work on it,” this is again not quite
accurate.  I said I would have our
seamstress correct the mistakes Mesa had made for [redacted] to resell it (complimentary
of course) – which then shifted, after talking with [redacted], to altering the dress for
her to have portraits.  This would typically
be anywhere from $400 to $600 in alterations charges.  This was not a trivial offer as Mrs. [redacted]
suggests.Finally, Mrs. [redacted] leaves out
the last thing we told [redacted] we would wholeheartedly do:  support any claim she made against Mesa for
the mistakes in her alterations – whether that be for the alterations fees, the
price of the dress, or both.  I do not
dispute, nor have we ever, that Mesa did not adequately perform the alterations
on [redacted]’s dress.  Helping her pursue a
bridal seamstress for damages is not something that we would do lightly, as the
bridal world is a very small community. 
However, we felt that Mesa had let [redacted] down, and we were prepared to do
anything we could to help her with Mesa. 
Frankly, we would have all testified in court in support of [redacted] if this
is what she wanted to do, and we told her as much in this meeting. When she left, [redacted] did indeed take
the dress – because she said she was going to go talk to Mesa about it, and she
would follow up with us as soon as she knew what we could do to help.  I do not know whether she took it to Mesa, but
this is how [redacted] left it with us.  We
offered to keep the dress at the store for her until such time that she was
going to take it to Mesa, but she elected to take it then, indicating that she
was going to be going to Mesa very soon (if not right then), and would later
bring it back.  We were of course not
going to begin alterations on the dress until the Mesa issue was resolved, as further
discussed below.Last, although Mrs. [redacted] asserts
that our offering to store the dress for [redacted] had some evil motive on our part, I
would think it should suggest the opposite:  counter to what Mrs. [redacted] asserts
throughout her complaint, the last thing we were attempting to do was “be
finished with” [redacted] after having sold her the dress or in any other way avoid
further involvement in the matter.   We
were in no way, shape or form trying to wash our hands of this situation, we
were trying to help [redacted] in any way we could.Under pressure and being intimated by being told that the owner is an
attorney [redacted] agreed and left the store but in no way was she going to go
through with that solution and no way does she ever want to put that dress on
again.Again, to re-iterate, Mrs.
[redacted] was not at this meeting with [redacted], so she again has zero first-hand
knowledge of anything that was said in the meeting.  And these accusations are again completely
false.  I have never attempted to
intimidate a customer with legal action of any kind, unlike Mrs. [redacted], who
threatened to sue virtually everyone she has spoken to at the store.In fact, I did not even mention
to [redacted] that I was an attorney during our conversation at the store.  This only came up in passing at the very end
of the conversation, after [redacted] had decided that she wanted us to re-alter the
dress and to help her to pursue Mesa.  When
discussing how next to proceed at the end of the meeting – having my seamstress
begin repairing the dress or taking it to Mesa first to address their mistakes
with them – I said that we should not do anything to fix the dress until the
Mesa situation was resolved because she needed to be able to establish what
mistakes they had made.  The dress was of
course the best evidence of Mesa’s mistakes.At this point, [redacted] made fun of
me for talking like an attorney – but by no means did either of us in any way
use it as intimidation.  Indeed, as I
said, this exchange took place after [redacted] had decided what she wanted to do – it
was not something that came up in an attempt to influence her decision.  And secondly, the comment only came up in the
context of my attempting to help [redacted] determine how best to pursue Mesa, not
trying to intimidate her with my being an attorney.  To say anything otherwise is completely false.
 When [redacted] left, she was actually very
happy, she thanked us, and she was even laughing with [redacted] about something
unrelated as she was leaving – not in any way intimidated, rushed or pressured
into leaving the store.Last, at the end of this
conversation, we asked [redacted] a question: 
Given that Mrs. [redacted] had been calling the store, did [redacted] want for us
to call Mrs. [redacted] back, or, rather, did [redacted] want to call Mrs. [redacted] and
let her know how she had chosen to proceed? 
We also specifically asked who [redacted] wanted to be the point of contact going
forward on this matter.  [redacted] very clearly
said that she would talk with Mrs. [redacted], we should communicate with [redacted]
directly, and we should not communicate with Mrs. [redacted] further on the matter. And the stress continues. I have called Serendipity and expressed my
astonishment and talked with the owner,[redacted] and the manager. The owner said
she would have her husband call me and discuss the situation . At that time I
asked her to leave my [redacted] out of it-- since it was my money. She did not want
to talk about it again with them. But none of that happened .The husband did
call her under the guise that it was the phone number he was given. And then
said to her "it must be your mother-in-law".RESPONSE:At this point, after our
conversation with [redacted], I very explicitly told my staff and [redacted] that [redacted] had
requested that we deal with only her on this matter, and not Mrs. [redacted].  I also told them, in the event that Mrs.
[redacted] called again, to let me know so that before calling Mrs. [redacted] back I
could reach out to [redacted] to see if anything had changed from our prior
conversation such that I should indeed communicate with Mrs. [redacted].Given that [redacted] is our customer,
not Mrs. [redacted]’s instruction not to deal with Mrs. [redacted] obviously takes
precedence over Mrs. [redacted]’s request that we not communicate with [redacted].  We therefore determined to respect [redacted]’s
wishes, which were clearly stated.  On
the contrary, if [redacted] had told me to contact Mrs. [redacted], I would have done so,
as I told [redacted] at the time.So, [redacted] did indeed call me at
the office to tell me that Mrs. [redacted] had called yet again after we had met
with [redacted].  At this point, I called
[redacted].  But I did not call [redacted] under “the
guise that it was the phone number I had been given” – we of course have our
customers’ phone numbers in our records. 
I called [redacted] to confirm whether she had changed her mind and wanted for
me to deal with Mrs. [redacted] given that she had previously told me not to, and
I very clearly communicated this to [redacted] as the reason for my call. The only confusion I had was due to not understanding why Mrs. [redacted] was continuing to call us when [redacted] had said she would tell her that [redacted] would be handling the matter going forward.I specifically said that Mrs.
[redacted] had called the store to let us know Mrs. [redacted] was unhappy with the
arrangement we had worked out with [redacted].  First,
I asked whether [redacted] was unhappy with the arrangement and whether I had missed
something in our previous conversation with respect to her not being
content/happy with what we had discussed. 
Second, I asked again whether [redacted] wanted me to deal with Mrs. [redacted] or
[redacted], either of which I explicitly said I was happy to do.[redacted] told me:  (1) that she remained happy with what we had discussed
and that I had not misinterpreted anything; (2) not to call Mrs. [redacted] back,
she just hadn’t had a chance yet to discuss it with her yet, and (3) that she
would call Mrs. [redacted] to tell her that she had asked me not to call Mrs.
[redacted] back and that [redacted] would handle it from there.   As such, I did not call Mrs. [redacted] back
after this conversation, as [redacted] very explicitly told me not to.  I then called Serendipity again and talked with [redacted] asking her what
happened and she said she was not in the room when her husband, [redacted] talked
with [redacted]. Reminding her that I asked them not to call her she could not tell me
why her husband had not called me.At this point, it was becoming
quite difficult to figure out what to do in this situation with Mrs. [redacted].  Again, we did not call Mrs. [redacted] because
[redacted] asked us not to.  [redacted] is an adult, and
there is no reason for me not to respect her clearly communicated wishes given
that she is our customer, and given that I very explicitly told her I was happy
to call Mrs. [redacted] back if she wanted me to. Plus, it was literally impossible
for me to deal with both of them given that [redacted] told us that she wanted for us
to do one thing – re-alter the dress, help arrange for new portraits, makeup,
hair, etc., and most importantly, help her to pursue Mesa.  While Mrs. [redacted] was asking for a refund of
the dress and Mesa’s alterations fees for damages we did not cause.  I could therefore not communicate with both
of them, and when both were telling us not to call the other one, we obviously
(and rightfully – from both a legal and ethical standpoint) determined to
follow the instructions of our customer. At this point, we determined not
to call [redacted] back yet again and ask yet again whether we should talk to Mrs.
[redacted].  I had confirmed this twice now,
and I did not want to continue to pester [redacted] with the same question, nor get
further involved with what appeared to be a disconnect between [redacted] and her new
mother-in-law. So we did not call Mrs. [redacted] back. Then I asked if she wanted me to proceed with my plans to contact Better
Business and the Attorney General and secure an attorney and she said sure.
They have been given ample time to remedy the situation and to date have done
nothing.It is true that Mrs. [redacted] did
continue to threaten my wife.  I figured
that, if Mrs. [redacted] had an attorney call us, made a complaint with the Revdex.com, or
otherwise continued to threaten and defame us, we would just have to deal with
it at that time. Mrs. [redacted]’s attorney called
the store several days later.  I called
him back the same day, and told him in detail what had happened.  I also explained the contract to him, the
fact we did not do the alterations, and the fact that we did not have a
contractual relationship with Mrs. [redacted], only [redacted].  I also told him that [redacted] had asked that we
deal with her, and that we were between a rock and a hard place with respect to
figuring out how to handle the situation. The attorney told me that he
would call Mrs. [redacted] and suggest that she should let [redacted] and Serendipity
resolve the matter.  As of now, several
weeks have passed, and I have not heard from the attorney again, nor from Mrs.
[redacted], until receiving this Revdex.com complaint.CONCLUSION:I hope it is obvious from the
length of this response that we do not take complaints such as this
lightly.  When we make mistakes, we take responsibility.  When we do not make mistakes but our brides
have been wronged in our estimation, we still try to help our brides in any way
we can, which we have offered to do for [redacted] in this situation.  When people call and get angry without
justification, we attempt to handle each situation as professionally as possible.  At this point, however, the situation with
Mrs. [redacted] has moved past the point of reason – particularly given that I do
not believe Mrs. [redacted] has even once called Mesa Alterations, yet continues
to harass us.As we have repeatedly attempted
to tell Mrs. [redacted], we simply cannot be held monetarily accountable for the
work of another business over which we have no control and with which we have no
contractual relationship.  Nor can we be
held liable for not having the ability to offer alterations to every one of our
brides, which is essentially what Mrs. [redacted] is asking to have happen.  It would be different if my seamstress performed
the alterations and made a mistake.  It
would be different if we told [redacted] we would perform the alterations and then
failed to do so.  It would be different
if Mesa was a contractor of ours, and we hired them to work on [redacted]’s dress on
our behalf (in which case we would have recourse to make a claim against the
contractor for anything we paid to our customer for the contractor’s mistakes).  There are many ways that this could have been
different and potentially been Serendipity’s fault, rather than Mesa’s.  However, none of those things are true.  Nevertheless, after all of this time, I am
not aware that a single call has been made to Mesa by Mrs. [redacted], despite my
store offering to help in any way possible in pursuing them, when Mrs. [redacted] knows
Mesa performed all of the alterations, and when we have no control over Mesa’s
services. Mrs. [redacted] wants us to refund
the full price of [redacted]’s dress, which was ordered exactly as [redacted] requested, in a
timely fashion, due to mistakes made by a business entirely separate from
us.  If this was how we operated, we
would not stay in business.  We have
offered to go above and beyond to help [redacted] in any way we can simply because we
truly feel terrible that she, our bride, was unable to wear her dress on her
wedding, regardless of whether we are to blame. Instead of recognizing this,
however, and letting us help how we can, including pursuing Mesa for the money
she now seeks from us, Mrs. [redacted] has chosen to repeatedly call, harass and
threaten my employees and my wife with false accusations and legal action.  Now she is attempting to disparage my
business and livelihood by defaming me, my store, my manager and my wife with
this complaint in a clear attempt to dishonestly damage our reputation and
extort a refund from us that we do not owe her.  We are not going to deal with
Mrs. [redacted] further on this matter.  We
are not going refund Mrs. [redacted] the price of [redacted]’s dress, and we are not
going to compensate Mrs. [redacted] for [redacted]’s alterations fees charged by Mesa.  At this point, if [redacted] would like for us to do
what we originally told her we would do, we remain willing to do so.