Moments To Cherish Bridals

Review: My friend had a wedding scheduled for June 28, 2014. She had purchased her wedding gown from Moments to Cherish and also had chosen her bridesmaid dress from that store as well. As a bridesmaid, we were suppose to call Moments to Cherish with our measurements and order the dresses via phone (because 3 out of 4 of us were from out of town). I called in my measurements on July 26th, 2013. From my previous experience from working in a bridal store, when a customer called with measurements, you usually took payment then. When I offered to pay, the lady working told me she wouldn't need a payment until all of the other girls had called in with their measurements. She said when that happened, she would call us back. Early December of 2013, none of us had received a phone call and we were 6 months from the wedding date. Our bride had called Moments to Cherish and asked about the status of the dresses. The lady on the phone had informed her that "they don't like calling customers and asking for money", so it was our responsibility to call in with credit card information. After the bride relayed that message to us, we all immediately called so we could get these dresses ordered. After another week, our bride had called back to Moments to Cherish numerous times and the dresses still had not been ordered. They gave reasons such as they lost their ordering book, they didn't have everyone's payment, they were remodeling and couldn't find the correct paperwork, etc. I called another bridal store as plan B, to see if ordering these dresses was a possibility with the time limit we had. They explained to us that it was a possibility to order these dresses but we only had until Jan. 11 because this line of dresses was being discontinued. If all of this wasn't enough to deal with, our bride and her fiance called off the wedding due to a personal matter. So now she is mentally drained, trying to fix the loose ends with her vendors. Moments to Cherish has taken our payment for these dresses that have NOT been ordered and we no longer need and refuses to return our calls/emails to refund our money.Desired Settlement: There are four bridesmaids that had money taken out of their accounts to pay for these bridesmaid dresses that were never ordered and we would like a full refund of the $182.57. I don't know how the other girls paid, but mine was paid with a credit card that I want put back on that same credit card.

Business

Response:

I am really confused why this has been taken to the Revdex.com, when this woman has not even given me a chance to respond to this. The bride has called 1 time asking whether or not the bridesmaid dress orders were placed, the general manager, Deidre told me she told the bride that we were still waiting on measurements and payments from the bridesmaids to order the dresses. She told the bride that we do not call the bridesmaids for payments until it gets closer to the order date needed so that we do not end up harassing the bridesmaids and give them an adequate time to come up with the payments on their own. Then the bride called while we were closed and in the middle of remodeling, asking what the status of the order was. When she called, one of my employees answered and was in the middle of moving things for our remodeling and didn't know where I had tucked the order book away so she told the bride that we were remodeling and closed and that the book was tucked away at the moment and she would get back to the bride when she dug it out. Then the bride called back later that day asking if we found the book yet, and we said "Yes". Then she asked if we had ordered the dresses yet, and we said due to remodeling and being closed we didn't order them yet but still had a few weeks to place the order and we would place them right away. Then the bride asked to cancel the order because she was canceling her wedding. All of our receipts state "All sales are final". I told the bride I would try to work something out for her, but normally we do not do refunds because our policy is that all sales are final. I told her that we have already paid for sales tax on the dresses and that it is already in our book keeping and that I would have to figure out how to go about this because this is the first situation something like this has come up. I told her to give me a few weeks to figure it out and then I would contact her bridesmaids to let them know what the next step is. As of right now I am still trying to figure out how to go about this, because I am sympathetic to the situation, but it is also breaking our policy, and as a small business, I cannot afford to absorb the sales tax that has already been processed, and I am unsure how to fix this in our book keeping system. Our contract does state "If the wedding/occasion is canceled with-in 3 days of the date of purchase, there will be a 10% handling fee of the retail price. If canceled/postponed after 3 days there will be no refunds and any balance due will be paid in full and the item will be picked up immediately". 1 out of the 4 bridesmaids signed this contract, the others did not because they purchased over the phone and were unable to come in and sign the contract. The bride also signed the contract and was aware of this. Going forward, we will ensure that in the future we will send out electronic contracts to be signed if they cannot come in and sign the contract.

We do not order dresses until we receive everyone of the bridal parties down payments and measurements to ensure that the bridesmaid dresses are cut from the same bolt of fabric to make sure they all match. The bride was made aware of this on two different occasions. The last payment was received 12/13/13. We were then waiting on measurements and payment for a [redacted], to then find out that the bride had incorrectly documented [redacted] as [redacted]. We were unaware that it was the same person. The bride called 12/17/13. I feel we are being more than generous and accommodating for trying to work something out with them and going beyond what our contract states. With being closed for the holidays, and remodeling I have not gotten a chance to get back to them or figure out how to go about this. I also didn't want to bother the bride during the holidays. I expressed all of this to the bride when we spoke. We have not received any further calls from the bride, and we have not received any calls about the matter from [redacted]. It is frustrating that this is coming from a third party individual who hasn't been involved in the conversations and is stating "facts" based on hearsay. We received this email from [redacted] at 8:59am this morning. We do not open until 11am. It is very frustrating to get a notice that we have had a complaint when she has not made any effort besides this email to communicate it to us, along with not giving us adequate time to get back to her. This is the email we received:

"On Monday, December 30, 2013 8:59 AM, "[redacted] wrote:

Name : [redacted]

Phone : ###-###-####

Email : [redacted]

Address :

City : [redacted]

State : **

Zip_Code : [redacted]

Comments : Hello,

I am contacting you on behalf of [redacted]. I would call to settle this matter, but for some reason your staff members have a hard time remembering to return calls. [redacted] has recently went through a tough decision to cancel her wedding. She is trying to tie up loose ends with her vendors. We ordered bridesmaid dresses through your store and from the beginning it has been nothing but an absolute nightmare. Your staff and store is the most unorganized business I've ever had contact with. [redacted] has contacted us numerous times telling us that your staff has lost an order, or lost your ordering book, or mis-placed it due to remodeling. We wanted these bridesmaid dresses ordered months ago and you still haven't placed them. Since you haven't placed our order, I am expecting a full return of the price paid for our dresses and that includes tax. [redacted] is mentally exhausted so as her friend, myself and the previous bridesmaids will handle this matter until it is solved. Even though there isn't a wedding in the future, it's sad how this is the way you treat your customers. I'm very well connected to bridal and event planning in [redacted], and your business will be brought to our event planners meetings and will not come highly recommended. I will be expecting a phone call today from your store so we can go about the next steps as to returning the money back to the other bridesmaids and myself. "

Because of the confusion from the bride registering [redacted] and [redacted], who are apparently the same person, and followed by us being unsure if the girl writing this is complaint is the same bridesmaid because we have a "[redacted]" not a [redacted] that the bride had registered as a bridesmaid.

Frankly, I feel bullied, attacked and harassed, as a small business owner due to the fact that she hasn't given me a chance to talk to her before filing a complaint based on hearsay and come to a resolution when I am more than willing to work something out even though it goes completely against my policies which the bride was well aware of since she bought her wedding dress here and had the conversation with me. The bride didn't seem to have any issues with my store or customer service when I talked to her. Due to the harassment and bad reputation that [redacted] has been threatening my business with, it further complicates things to ask for refunds for people who's names are not documented correctly by the bride. This raises a lot of red flags. Please contact me if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,

Moments to Cherish Bridals & Etc LLC

###-###-####[redacted]

Consumer

Response:

The information was given to me immediately after [redacted] was in contact with the store. You have to understand that a bride that is trying to do things by a deadline, is a lot of pressure and stress. I find it odd that they don't ask for payment until the deadline. As a bridesmaid you know that you are expected to pay for these dresses and by a certain time. I've dealt with many other bridal stores and payment is asked for upfront when measurements are given. Again, this is their policy and not mine but for future transactions I'd highly recommend that you don't wait until the deadline to "harass bridesmaids" for payments when clearly that is the nature of your business. You sell dresses and people buy them from you. They are expecting to give you money, not wait until you ask for it. Second, if there was a mix-up of names it should have been communicated better on your part. Obviously payment of these dresses wasn't an issue because you had no problem receiving money yet you were unsure of who was even listed in the wedding party. I am not a third party. There are two parties with the bridal store (seller) as being one party and me (buyer) as being the other. I have just as much right as [redacted] does to contact the business when again, I have purchased a product and it is not being delivered. I have asked for one of two things, the dress I originally intended to order or my money back. As seeing as I didn't sign a contract or receive a receipt which has the contract listed there as well, your policy means absolutely nothing to me. Your contract is void because you didn't uphold your end of the sale and again your "no refunds/no returns" policy means nothing to me.