Reader Emily doesn’t want the dress she was pressured into getting at David’s Bridal, but when she tried to cancel the order, they won’t let her. It’s only been 72 hours and she hasn’t received the dress yet, but all David’s Bridal will give her is an in-store exchange.
Emily says:
On Wednesday, I got bullied into buying a dress that I liked but couldn’t really afford. I should have stayed firm, but I caved, and now I find myself in this situation. Even though David’s employees claim that you can walk away with any dress in the store, they told me I had to special order the dress I wanted and it would take up to 6 weeks to come in.
It’s been 72 hours of thinking on it, and I absolutely have to cancel the order. Since I haven’t actually received the dress, I called to see if they would cancel the order and refund the money. The employee said that all sales are final, but that doesn’t seem right since I haven’t yet received any merchandise. At this point, they have my money AND they have my dress order, but refuse to help a girl out. According to her, once it is in the computer, there is nothing anyone can do. Like she can’t pick up a telephone and call the distributor (or, tell the truth that they probably haven’t begun processing the order yet at all).
They try to justify it by saying that I have “special ordered” something, so they wouldn’t be able to sell it to anyone else. I ordered the dress, but there’s nothing “special” about it. I tried the same dress/same (average) size/same color on in-store, and they would certainly be able to sell it someone else (provided they didn’t force that customer to special order it as well).
The best they could offer me was an in-store exchange for the SAME amount. They do not issue store credit. They refuse to refund money. In order for me to get a cheaper dress, I would have to wrangle all my bridesmaids to try on dresses on the same day, and order them all on the same day as part of the same transaction to equal the original total. (Thus forcing the girls to get their dresses at this hateful place also.)
I’m considering contacting Visa to do a chargeback, but if the David’s policy is “All Sales are Final” – will they be able to do anything?
…I am planning to meet in person with a manager tomorrow, but for now I have only heard bad things.
There is a fundamental irrational policy problem at this store that is not adequately explained when you purchase from them. Have you heard any positive news of people getting money back from this outrageous company?
Any suggestions?
Emily, when we first read your story, we wondered if the Mail and Telephone order rule that states that orders can be canceled before they are shipped would apply to you, but it doesn’t look like it does. (Any lawyers out there want to explain this law?)
We looked at Visa’s merchant agreement found a section on merchant agreement violation disputes that says Visa will help mediate conflict over the following issue:
“The merchant has failed to properly disclose their return policy to the cardholder at the time of the transaction.”
Since the store did not explain that you couldn’t cancel before the order shipped, you could argue that the store did not properly disclose this policy to you.
This type of dispute isn’t a chargeback, you’d be disputing that David’s Bridal violated their Visa merchant agreement by misleading you about the return policy. If you’d like to read about how Visa deals with these disputes, click here (PDF). (Read the section “When Chargeback Rights Do Not Apply”)
Anyone have any luck canceling an order at David’s Bridal?
(Photo: foundphotoslj )
UPDATE: Emily was contacted by David’s Bridal about this story and they worked out compromise:
I spoke to the person at David’s, and she put me in touch with a CSR who after a little phone tag confirmed that they can do a partial refund if no merchandise has been received.
I already have an appointment to go back tonight – and they will theoretically now be able to refund the difference in what I purchase tonight from the original.
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AVOID David’s Bridal AT ALL COSTS. They are a true nightmare to do business with.
Send something in writing NOW reiterating that you have cancelled the order (i.e., put it in the letter that you have ALREADY cancelled the order, by X conversation at [time] on [date]). I would mail or fax it, but also hand-deliver a copy to the store because time is of the essence. Then refuse to pick up the dress, and demand your money back. If they refuse, sue in small claims court.
There’s a contract law principle here — mitigation of damages. I.e., once DB knew you were going to breach, they cannot collect any damages for any work done on the dress past that time.
Here’s the thing – this is your wedding. Why did you let someone bully you into something you didn’t want or couldn’t afford? To me, it seems like this is an expensive lesson in learning how to stand up for yourself.
To those of you who ask how this woman could be bullied into buying a dress, I must ask: are all of you male?
It’s a valid question. In tux rental/purchase, it’s pretty cut and dry.
With wedding dresses, the emotions are beyond overwhelming and stress is at such a level that I can easily see a very strong, ball-busting woman giving in to pushy salespeople. And the bridal industry knows this too and preys upon it. Sorry guys, but I just don’t think you really get how incredibly overwhelming all the wedding stuff is for a bride.
@Ms. Pants: Seriously. I do have sympathy for the OP because I certainly felt a lot of pressure when I first started my wedding planning. I just made certain that I had a good idea of what I could absolutely afford. It helped that I had a friend who kept hammering that into me while we were there, reminding me of what I wanted vs. what the sales people kept telling me I wanted.
@IHaveAFreezeRay and @shortcake: Would you believe I’ve never even been married myself?
Having been at the side of a few friends at bridal stores, I’ve seen the pressure they’ve been taught to dish out. Further, watching the TLC show “Say Yes to the Dress” about Kleinfeld just proves to me that the industry is rife with just plain icky people.
It also convinced me that if I ever do get hitched, I’m going the quickie-elopement route, to which my father gleefully exclaimed, “I’ll give you $25,000 to do that!!!”
@Ms. Pants: I’d agree that in general the wedding industry is full of people that know full well how to take advantage of emotional brides (since we all know the grooms couldn’t give a hoot if they had to choose if the chair covers are turquoise or aqua). I’m still trying to figure out how those photographers, when using digital cameras, insist on charging $300-$500 for their ‘digital negatives’. I didn’t realize that DVD media had gotten so expensive! I should tell these photographers were to get cheaper media so they can save some money.
@satoru: That is ridiculous too…the photographer I used did no such nonsense, and gave us the original files as part of the deal.
@Ms. Pants: I agree with you that bullying is pretty common. As a bride planning a wedding, I am very active in several online wedding communities and similar situations have come up there. However, overwhelmingly, the bullying and pushy people are family and friends, even though they have good intentions. They convince the bride the dress is perfect, even if she isn’t so in love with it, and she trusts them instead of herself. Then she freaks out after getting home. I am very curious to find out whether the bullying came from the consultant or someone the bride actually knew.
@Ms. Pants: I’ve seen bridal shops and I can tell you that the way they operate really depends on how much you’re spending. If you’re going to a low end shop like David Bridal’s, they’re full of incompetent idiots who couldn’t find their way out of a shoe box. Only those people with semi-intelligence will actually use the hard sell.
If you go to a high end shop, like Prisilla’s you’re in for what is far worse psychologically. Being a dude I wasn’t obviously allowed inside, but I waited in the lobby and overheard most of the discussions. Their sales people are slick, and I’m sure they could sell a freezer to an Eskimo in Alaska. But they’re into the soft sell. They can immediately evaluate a group of women, and identify who is the weakest link, who holds decision power, and who holds the cash. Then they deftly play them all against each other, in order to ensure they buy the most expensive dress they can pull out from the racks. They will NEVER hard sell you, pressure you into buying, etc. But they prey on your emotions. For example, for one group I saw, it was obvious that the bride was the decision maker, but the mom held the purse strings. You can’t make the hard sell against the girl, because the mom will balk at the cost. You can’t harp on the mom, because ultimately the mom has no emotional investment on the dress. But if you can get the bride to convince the mom to pay, then the sales lady wins, but isn’t ‘the bad guy’. The women are convinced they bought the right dress, despite the fact that the sales lady ultimately made the decision for them (the most expensive one at that). Mind you it wasn’t easy for the sales lady and it obviously took her an hour of cajoling, talking, lying, suggesting, etc to get the sale.
@satoru: That’s a brilliant assessment of the industry! And very indicative of the predatory nature, in my opinion. (Also, it plays into Dane Cook’s theory of how women are mental terrorists. I personally think that’s so true….)
I had a job where I was trained to pick out the cash-holders and such as well. I’m very good at it which would be handy if I had no conscious, but I unfortunately have one. (Which is also why I decided against being a lawyer–the area I’d excel in is criminal defense a la Johnny Cochran. See previous re: conscious.)
@Ms. Pants: I am a woman, and I know that my wedding is something I’ve been thinking about for years and years, and for that reason exactly, no one is going to push me into something I don’t want without me putting up a fight – especially when it comes down to what I’m wearing!
@recordstorefan: I’ve seen that there are 2 kinds of brides that are able to stick to their guns for weddings and neither really is optimal. Your typical Bride-zilla is doing a “This wedding is for me” mentality. Thus they already have a super clear idea of what they want and hell or high water it’s going to happen.
The other extreme is the “The wedding is to please parents/inlaws/grandparents/etc” kind of mentality. In this case you’re constantly weaving competing requirements into your wedding in order to please everyone. My friend did this as she had converted to Judaism for the inlaws, because only children of Jewish mothers are Jewish by default. So she went totally bonkers getting an authentic Jewish wedding going and making sure her inlaws were totally wowed by it. That was one crazy wedding let me tell you.
@satoru: My wedding was this way as well. I didn’t really care, as to me it was a hugely overpriced one day party and complete waste of money, but my wife was insistant that we do it to please everyone else. Of course, she ended up having a horrible time and wishing we had spent the money on a house like I wanted. *sigh*
People advising the OP that she can cancel the order because the “sale” hasn’t technically taken place (because she hasn’t gotten the dress) are off base – By that theory, it would mean any special order can be cancelled, even weeks after being placed, simply because the item isn’t tangible. Doesn’t work that way.
Yes, DB has a crappy policy, but it seems very clear. Agreeing with some others, seems your best bet is to re-sell the dress on craigslist. Or if you really do love it, just wear it & enjoy your big day!
@hillsrovey: I think the best compromise at this point would either to recoup the money through my idea, which was to get the bridesmaids together, have them buy their dresses at DB through the credit, and pay the OP in cash. Or, the OP can keep the dress and buy a different one in the meantime (if she wasn’t absolutely strapped for cash, or needed the money back to buy another dress), and sell it on Craig’s List – she might lose money anyway, because she wouldn’t be able to sell it for exactly the same price as she got it at DB – anyone with half a brain could look it up on the DB website and see that it was the same price.
IMO, the dress is very important, but not because it should be absolutely perfect. It should be important because it should make the bride feel good about herself, and she should be happy about it. This dress obviously isn’t fulfilling her happy quota. But keeping the focus on the overall is more important than that. I hope the OP doesn’t decide to cut corners in some of the areas that will matter more in the long run, like photography or venue.
I will say one thing to the OP. Most wedding businesses rely on the fact that brides are generally going insane during the wedding process. Also they rely on the fact that most brides don’t want to confrontational about their wedding either. Thus even though they have ‘no refund’ deposits and such, they usually are surprised if you push back on them. If you threaten a charge back then they might be inclined to give you some leeway on what they can give you. If you gave them cash, your options are a bit limited though.
Sales receipts from DB clearly state that all sales are final. It’s part of the sales contract, and company policy requires sales consultants to explain this to every bride. Of course this doesn’t prevent lots of brides from trying to get a refund anyway, or claiming they “weren’t told” about the policy. Most store managers will (reluctantly) give an in-store credit if pressured.
(In other words, I seriously doubt that the return policy was “not adequately explained” to this bride before she signed the sales slip.)
I don’t understand how the OP is blaming the store?
She ordered a dress (bullied? c’mon!) from a store where she was clearly notified that all sales were final.
What else would ‘all sales are final’ mean?
@Ms. Pants: I am a lawyer and have a “conscience.”
Ladies, please, why do you feel the need to be herded into the ‘bridal’ industry as soon as the ring lands on your finger? I know plenty of people who got married without even considering, or by rejecting, big bridal factories. I did.
There are many online sources – just google “plus size bridal.” Bridal sizes are weird (just another issue to dealwith in the industry) and you will need to alter them on your own.
Ung, DB sucks. They had our bridesmaids dresses in 2 weeks early, but didn’t tell us. Nevermind that the wedding would have been 1 week after the dresses were due to arrive and would still need to be altered, which takes about a week. We only found out about it because we went in for another reason and specifically asked.
Also, their accessories are VERY overpriced. Shoes, tiaras, gloves, etc can be had for FAR less at other stores.
You should be able to find out if the dress has been “made” yet. If not, you should be able to cancel it, even if you have to pay some sort of restocking fee.
I’ve been in two weddings as a bridesmaid fairly recently and both weddings dealt with David’s. The David’s in my area has a big sign on the counter that all sales are final and if I remember correctly it also says it on the receipt somewhere. I know other bridal stores won’t even give you a store credit if you somehow don’t want or need your dress. She may be out of luck, but there is always Ebay! There is a possibility of recooperating most of the money if she sells it there. Selling it for a little less money then what she bought it for is better then being totally out all of the cash.
I
do have to share this though, I bought a dress for one of the weddings and then discovered when going to pick up the dress for the other wedding that the first dress was on sale for $20 less, a week later. I talked with the manager and they agreed to refund the difference and ran it all through in a matter of minutes. So, not all David’s are horribly bad all the time.
Two stories:
1. When I got married, I went to an independent, locally-owned shop, which also did the alterations. When I went to pick up my dress, the owner was chatting on the phone with a friend, and wouldn’t make eye contact with me for about fifteen minutes. When she finally got off her call, we explained we were there to pick up my dress (wedding was the next day). Instead of getting it for us, she told us it was at the dry cleaners a few shops down, and we should go pick it up from there. Great service! Fast-forward to the wedding day: after getting dressed, my sister notices that my hem is weird in front. She goes to inspect and realizes that the seam at the waist is being held up by straight pins! They never finished the alterations! Once back from our honeymoon, I go to discuss the situation with the shop owner, who insists that it’s not her problem once the dress leaves the store, and it’s my fault for not having inspected every seam before taking it home.
2. Recently, went with a friend to go wedding dress shopping. We stopped by a David’s Bridal just to check it out (this was in So Cal). No one was around when we walked in, so we started browsing the racks ourselves. Out of nowhere, a screeching harridan of a salesperson appears, and starts berating us for touching the dresses! We stammer that no one was there to help us, and we just wanted to look around, and she goes on and on about how were getting the dresses dirty, and no one is allowed to touch them, and we have to sign up for “an appointment”, which just meant putting our names on a piece of paper before she would help us.
Moral of both stories: wedding dress shopping is terrible. The customer service is terrible. If at all possible, where your mother’s dress!
In the meantime, by all means contact Visa!
Wedding shop ladies can be scary. My sister had a lot of fun telling people to get lost. It started polite and ended in her leaving the store because it was so bad. The woman even went as far as telling my sister what she “really wanted” [really ugly]. I was helping her plan so I got the “joy” of going to all these stores with her.
Never ever put money down on something you are unsure of. Remember if you’re still looking you can always sleep on it and order the next day or even a few days after even your wedding dress can wait for you to be sure. It isn’t like it is the last one on the rack (aside from the fact you should be ordering it 6 months to a year prior anyway). I’ve done this with some of the bigger purchases and saved myself some hassle.
If it doesn’t work out the woman in the story can always ebay it or something. That still shouldn’t have to happen, unless there was a blatant sign that said ALL SALES FINAL. My understanding has always been once you prepay an order with a company that goes out of normal procedure to do it, you’re probably stuck with it I have noticed this isn’t always so, but it is a good rule of caution.
@Jamesgreene: Phew, don’t even get me started on wedding dress ladies.. I am a very odd size (4’6″ tall and really thin) so I had my dress custom made.. but I did go around shopping with my maid of honor at the local dress stores.. and this one store we went to a lady kept badgering me to buy a “wedding” dress there that was actually a flower girl dress. I kept telling her I already had my dress but she would not take no for an answer. We left, and bought her dress somewhere else.
I got my dress at David’s Bridal and had a great experience. The dress I originally wanted looked like crap on me so the sales lady and I went thru dozens of dresses trying to find the right one. While I was looking at the other side of the store, she calls over to see one. At first I was skeptical but after trying it on, it proved to be perfect. I really think its all in how the management motivates the employees because this store was wonderful.
I used to work for one of the largest retail financing companies in the country, and they financed David’s Bridal at one point in time – then finally terminated the financing agreement with them due to excessive amount of disputes. Granted, many of the disputes filed were similar to those of the OPs situation (and were always denied because of the all sales final policy), but the majority came from prebilling (i.e. charging for merchandise they never delivered) and quality.
David’s Bridal is a horrible company, and honestly only stay in business because they can market to the bride who has her party all over the country and can’t afford to get them all together before hand to try on dresses locally. I don’t know how many friends I have tried to warn about using them, and each time have had to bit my tongue from telling them “told you so”…
Either use the credit for the bridal party dresses or sell the dress on Craigslist or eBay. A Visa chargeback will most likely be a waste of time because Visa will never make a ruling on “he said she said”, which is what this will come down to. David’s Bridal has a large staff just to handle chargebacks, so they are not threatened in the least by one – they are SOP I think
Sorry to hear about the situation. I really don’t mean to blame the OP, and if it were my business, I’d certainly work with the customer regardless of policies. However… buyers remorse is not grounds to break a contract. Hopefully it will be a good learning experience, and just a minor dark spot on an otherwise successful wedding and marriage. Best of luck.
Weird… my wife must have purchased and returned half a dozen dressed from David’s Bridal before she was happy.
Am I the only person in the universe who had a great experience with David’s?
I’m plus-sized, so I really enjoyed being able to try on off the rack. This is much better than trying to squeeze into the size 3 most stores have on rack and try to “imagine” how the dress would look — and since once you order you own the dress, anyone who doesn’t fit into their samples is screwed if the dress comes in and looks wrong on their frame.
My sales lady was not high pressure and since I had a lot of friends with me and told her I was more or less fine on my own, she left me alone unless I asked for help.
I tried on 6 dresses and then told her I’d come back the next day with my mom to pick from 3 of them. I was given no attitude about this.
They were way helpful with my bridesmaid’s dresses as well.
They wrote me thank you notes and I don’t know about anyone else, but I didn’t get put on any mailing lists.
The only thing that IS bad about DB is their alterations costs. I think I laughed at their alterations lady. Then again, that is pretty well-known.
As for the no returns issue, that’s standard operating procedure at every bridal store I’ve ever been to.
You must be one of the only that had a good experience, as I’ve heard many bad. My wife was one of them. In short, they yelled at her for ‘waiting too long’ to pick a dress. Apparently 6 months before a wedding it too late. They made snide remarks about every dress she chose that wasn’t over $1000. Then, when she ordered brides maids dresses, they gave one of her bridemaids a size 11 when she ordered a size 2. When she went back into the store, they took her dress back, and said they ordered a new one. After much stalling, one week before the wedding the said they ‘lost’ (which means sold) the dress she ordered, and didn’t have the old one anymore. Now all they had was a size 14. In addition, they refused to do anything about it, and chraged us, CHARGED US for alterations on their screw ups.
After the wedding, I called and raised a fit. Basically, the only response I got was ‘F U’. I hope that place, and all the conniving wenches that work their fall into the pits of hell and never return,
I bought my gown from DB and was pressured into buying a size that wasn’t quite right. The high-pressure saleswoman assured me that it could be altered. Later, when I decided that I wanted a different size, I could not exchange the dress. I ended up going to a different DB and *buying* the other size.
I would never go to DB again.
In the same way I learned how to walk, and learned not to throw things at people, I learned at an early age the way stores work. It’s pretty intuitive to me that when you buy something, the store doesn’t want you to bring it back. Just like it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that soft drinks and food aren’t welcome in a dress shop, either. The whole point of a store existing is for it to make money.
Another thing I learned by the time I could read was that stores post little signs all over the place with their policies on them. As a shopper, I make it a point to look for signs like that and read them. If you don’t, you’re an idiot.
In addition, “special order” doesn’t necessarily mean “custom.” It just means that your dress is not cut until it’s ordered. Once it is ordered, the factory starts cutting fabric, and then you’re locked into the purchase because the store buying the gown for you is locked in.
Finally, how can someone “bully” another person into buying something? Have a backbone. If you buy something you can’t afford, it’s your own fault, period.
I have purchased my gown and all of my 8 bridesmais and flower girls dress from Davids Bridal and let me tell you I recieved great service from there Philadelphia store and I did have issuse out the wazo, and they do have a store policy of all sales are final but have you tried speaking with one of the managers there they are so willing to do what ever it takes to make your day perfect and make you happy they will. So maybe we need to remember that these ladies work with hundreds of brides each week and are more than willing to go out of their way to help and not walk in with a I am not going to get what I want but kindness killed the cat.
They do have a no return policy in the fitting rooms and at each counter and you do sign your reciept that also states that the return policy but like I said try speaking with a manager and explain the situtation chances are you will be happy with the results. The staff there is honest if they can get something for you they will. Sorry you had a bad experience at DB but the girls at the Philly store on Roosovelt Blvd are the greatest
Mariospants, almost all designers manufacture their dresses in China. That’s why they take 4-6 months to be delivered. Very few have dresses made because it’s ridiculously expensive. Alterations can be done locally, but that’s about it. And the biggest reason most people go to a place like David’s is because the whole industry is so good at jacking up prices they can’t afford anything else.
contact your states attorney general’s office. I fianlly got a refund after three years of persistant complaining.
I will never do business with DB, they are not considerate of peoples situations,especially in matters of wedding issues and changes of heart.
I have recently had a similar experience at this hellhole. I’ve searched high and low for an email for the CEO Robert Huth. Has anyone with issues regarding DB found an email for this fellow?
does anyone have corporate contact info for David’s Bridal, one of my bridesmaids is now pregnant and they are not working with her at all
I am having a similar issue with Davids Bridal. I was hustled into ordering a dress for one of my bridesmaids b/c they said that insist that people buy the dress if they think that they will want it later. I didnt know, but it concerned me so i went ahead and placed the order. Later on, I registered the rest of my bridesmaids online for another dress (the original dress was for a junior bridesmaid). Nothing was said about the status of the dresses…I assumed everything was fine. The next day one of my bridesmaids tried to order the dress and it had been discontinued for over a week. Why didn’t they tell me that while I was registering? Besides that, at the time of the sale DB did not say that it was a final purchase. I’ve talked to people at the store and they will not give me my money back and said that the sale was final. I hope I have as good of luck as you did Emily….