Brides Of Florida Screwed over blown off a few of the reasons why it's not worth going for the bargain when planning a wedding!! Miami Florida

The search for the perfect wedding dress can be a hassle but once found the search for the perfect PRICE can be just as much of a hassle.

In January I found the perfect wedding dress designed by Maggie Sottero. The first bridal salon was charging $1700 for the dress. As we all know, weddings are quite expensive; therefore I decided to call around for prices.

One day I called Brides of Florida in Miami which was closer to home. Upon speaking to the owner, she told me that the dress would only be $1000. My response was "really?!" Her's was "how much do you love me now?" (laughter) She then proceeded to inform me of her payment options; which are quite convenient in all honesty.

I should have paid the extra $700 because I what I ended up getting was $700 less in service if not more.

A couple of weeks later I went to the salon; along with all of my bridesmaids; chose the 4 month payment plan, and ordered my dress. The girls ordered theirs as well.

She told us all that our dresses would be in at the end of May, beginning of June.

Unfortunately, not all of us are rich and quite often have to plan a wedding on a tight budget. Because of this I had to call and rearrange two of my payments due to difficulties. The owner stated that she had no problem with this and that it would be ok.

Even though the payments were moved she was still paid every month as agreed. I was always in contact with her and she never had to chase me down.

On the last month; April; the last payment was scheduled to be withdrawn on April 5. The owner decided to run the payment on April 3; without notifying me: and resulting in an overdraft of my account of $280.

I called her and stated that she would have to refund me the fees as that was not the scheduled date and she did not call me to tell me that she would be doing it earlier.

Point blank, she won't reimburse me for her mistake. In fact she stated that she would charge me late fees for the other 2 payments if I was going to ask her for a refund.

Nothing was signed that penalties would be assessed should a payment be late. In addition, it was put in writing that the payment was to be run on April 5th.

In March I told her that my mother was flying in on May 20 and that she would like to see my dress. The owner stated that she may not be able to have my dress but that she would order a sample since she didn't have one in the store anyway and have it in so that I could try it on for my mother.

I called her several times after to make sure that a sample would be here in time and she blew me off saying "yeah, yeah,yeah...don't worry about it".

Then I called her the week my mother was to arrive and she said that she did not have the dress nor a sample but that she had an applique and that would be enough. AN APPLIQUE! What was I supposed to do with that?!

Just today I called her to find out when the dresses would be in since this is the timeframe she gave us. She tells me the bridesmaids dresses would not be in until SEPTEMBER!

She then proceeds to say that they were ordered late because I kept changing the color. The conversations regarding color change would go as follows; (me) "have you ordered the dresses yet?", (owner) "no I haven't.", (me) "then can you please order them in this color?", (owner) "ok, no problem mama."

This happened twice and the last time was in March of 08'.

Today my bridesmaid calls to ensure that the dresses will be in in September since that is cutting it close. The owner states that I called last month to change the color and that was the reason that they were ordered late.

Just this past weekend she confirmed the color with me which is aubergine. I have a receipt for my cousins bridesmaid dress, dated 3/21/08 in which she wrote that the color was AUBERGINE.

My dress won't be in until the end of this month or the beginning of July.

I am completely disgusted with her! Forget being a bride, as a customer I don't feel that it is my responsibility to keep after the bridal salon and make sure that they are doing their job.

We are spending about $2,300 with Brides of Florida, not including the $280 that she won't reimburse me, and I feel as though she is doing whatever she wants rather than what I request.

That may not be a lot of money to some but we are in a recession! Be considerate.

If you are going to require your client to provide a deposit, provide them with the service they are requesting.

Anyone knows that in the wedding industry, you have to cater to the client as plans are made well in advance. A client needs to feel secure, knowing that the vendor is on top of the situation.

To top it all off, if a bride is receiving extremely poor service and everything is verbal then we have no recourse. We are stuck paying her for poor service since deposits are non-refundable.

We ordered the dresses early so that there would not be any issues since we all lead busy lives. Now that backfired and I am so afraid that the girl's dresses won't be in on time. We have to pay for this fear.

There should be something that we can do about this. I will never recommend Brides of Florida to another bride.

Irratefl
Miami, Florida
U.S.A.