Pins and Needles Alterations

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/01) */
The customer came in with the dress to be altered. She requested cups be added to the bodice and the center front in that area be sewn together. These two charges alone would have been $20 for the cups and $6.00 for sewing the center front. The...

hem of the dress is a very difficult hem constructed from a crinkle chiffon. It has 8 seams running through the length of it, 6 of which bisect the actual hemline and have a long drape inserted in them. This requires all 6 of those seams to be opened, the drape removed and shortened accordingly, reinserted back into the seam and then the rest of the hem to be shortened to coordinate with the length of the drapes and the length of the the lining. Normally we charge $.30 per inch for each inch of hem in the outer layer, and $.20 per inch for the lining layer. In this case, that added up to $14.40 for the lining, $28.00 for the hem, and $42.00 for hemming the drapes, plus an additional $36.00 for taking apart the 6 seams and resewing them afterwards. The total then for the hem would have been $120.40. But as I explained to the customer, we also keep track of the time it takes to do difficult hems like hers and the actual time spent was 1.75 hrs, which we charged out at our normal custom sewing rate of $55.00 per hour. That cost was $96.25. We always give the customer the benefit in these cases so we dropped the $.25 and charged her $96.00 for her hem instead of $120.40. So her total bill was $122.00 plus $9.00 tax plus our credit card recovery fee of $4.93 (figured at 3% of the total and allowed by the state of Minnesota) which brought her total to $134.93. I understand that the customer requested an estimate for the cost. That was unavailable at the time due to the fact that she waited to ask for the estimate until the dress was pinned, making it impossible for my employee to do an accurate measurement of all the parts without removing all the pins to measure the dress. However, as my employee remembers after all this time, the customer did not make it clear that she did not want the work done until she had an accurate estimate of what it would cost. She expressed to me on the phone that she had a family member that would have done the work for her, but I doubt very much whether many home sewers would have wanted to take on such a difficult and specific hem construction. In fact, we really had no way of knowing how much the hem would actually cost until we did the work since this is far from a normal style of hemline. I did apologize to the customer for the surprise in her bill, but also explained that to run a business there are many costs involved and if I hope to pay my skilled employees that are very hard to find in this day a living wage even equal to someone working a fast food job, I have to charge a minimum amount for work done. When I finished my conversation with the customer she had settled down from her original angry tone and seemed to accept my explanation. She never suggested a specific discount, but I don't believe one was really justified either. She has a friend who is also in the same wedding so had the same hem done. Her cost was $121.66 because we did not add cups to hers or sew the center front seam, but shortened the straps instead, making hers a lesser cost. She compared what she thought her friend said hers cost, and reported it to me at $20.00. I believe she misunderstood what her friend said because no reasonable person would actually think you can get formal wear work done for $20.00. Our intention is never to misrepresent ourselves or our work or to hide costs from our customers. We always strive to do the very best work for each customer but there is inevitably one in several hundred who doesn't have any idea what is involved in the work we do and their only experience is that a family member once did it for free. We are sorry for that misconception, but we cannot run a business nor hope to pay employees if we are do all our work at a deeply discounted price. The attached photos show the front of the dress at the hem and one individual seam with it's drape extended to try to show what it is actually like.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/09/01) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I am not happy with the response and the overcharge. How dare her state my family member would not be able to do just as good of work as she has done just because its not her profession. One of the other bridesmaids had her dress altered the exact same way in St. Clair for $35. This company is ripping people off. I am not ok with what I paid and will continue to fight for a refund. Especially considering the other bridesmaid that had the same issue was waived of all costs for her dress because of this issue. If you go on Yelp there is another customer who was misquoted as well and came to pick up her dress with a surprise $131 fee that she was not told of. This is a pattern of the company to not tell people what the charge is and then surprise them with an outrageous bill.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/02) */
It appears clear to me that what happened here is that one of three bridesmaids found a shop which charges far below the market value of what is considered appropriate by the other shops in the area. When the other two discovered this fact they conspired to strong arm me into accepting whatever they, the customer, deemed an appropriate price for work they have no concept on how to do or how long it takes. The second bridesmaid she refers to came in and basically, but not in these words as I did not record the conversation, told me that she wanted her alterations to cost $40 because that's what she claimed I said. She then proceeded to quote other prices I supposedly told her which have never been prices we charge for anything relating to formal wear alterations. Whenever I tried to refute what she said, telling her, "No, $30.00 has never been the price for cups so why would I tell you that?" She repeatedly talked over what I was saying in a louder voice, in front of the other customers who were standing there. When I asked her to please allow me to finish answering her claims, she continued to speak over my words, eventually causing a scene. She kept repeating and eventually pleading for me to accept the $40.00 which I flatly refused because it was never a price that I spoke of, nor offered as a suggested price. I have been doing this for more than 20 years, 15 of them as the owner and I know I have never agreed to $40 for shortening shoulders and completing a difficult hem. She was clearly picking numbers that she believed she heard out of parts of our original conversation which took place on August 4, 2015. Since that conversation I have done work on possibly 30 other bridesmaid dresses and had conversations with all of them. None of them have filed grievances with either us or you, the Revdex.com for the simple reason that we do excellent work and the rest of these women are open to paying a reasonable price. I refused payment from the second bridesmaid on principal. She basically came in and told me that she wasn't going to pay more than $40.00, that she knew her friend had filed a grievance and if I didn't do what she said, she would make it very unpleasant for me. I told her I would not make a deal for her work, I did not appreciate being treated in this manner and sent her away, refusing to be bribed and threatened. I feel that this is also what the first customer is doing. I find it unfortunate that she and other unhappy customers are the only ones with a loud voice. The hundreds of happy brides and bridesmaids I work for don't say anything independently in public forums except for the fact that we, as a business were voted "#1 Alterations Business 2015 in Mankato, MN" by readers of our local "Mankato Magazine". I also feel it is inappropriate for you to let the complainant point out our unhappy review on another site for people to see, when I am not supposed to identify her in any way. The only unhappy reviews we have are from customers with unrealistic expectations of cost for the work done. Never has anyone said we do bad work, only that they don't think they should have to pay for it, or more accurately that they should be allowed to set the price. There are not many stores in this country where bartering a price for services rendered is a practice. These customers who complain after getting their final bill usually don't give any impression of having a financial restriction before the work is done. I do, however in this case read that she says she asked my employee after all the fabric and drapes of her dress were pinned together how much it would cost. To which my employee honestly answered that she had no idea at this point. As I stated earlier, if she knew she had financial constraints she should have said at that time that she did not want the work to be done until she had an accurate quote of the cost. Which brings up another point...they all ask for an estimate, which means an educated guess, but they consider any dollar figure they may have heard in any part of the conversation to be set in stone as the final price. But they expect me, as a business owner to remember every word of every conversation I have with every customer in the event that they want to come back and accuse me of something I may or may not have said weeks later. We do have a policy relating to this, that we always strive to write down on the order card any price estimate or quote we have given to any customer. This is due as a response to situations like this and since being implemented we have had no other problems until now. No prices were written on either of these cards, suggesting to me that neither of these women gave the impression at the time of their fitting that price was an issue, just that they wanted their work done and done correctly, which it was. It was never my intention to insult the sewing ability of this customers' family member, but I can't help but wonder if money is tight for her, why she didn't ask this person first? I feel that the wording this customer is using by implying that we are "ripping people off" by intentionally hiding costs is completely unfounded and she is just mad because she didn't find the inexpensive place first like her friend did. It is my opinion that the wording she is using is slanderous and should not be allowed. She ordered work to be done. She did not make it clear that she absolutely needed a final price before it was completed. She got her work done in a timely and professional manner. Now she feels she should not have to pay for it.