Tuxedo Rental Rip-Off

My fiance and I were looking to rent tuxedos for our upcoming wedding. She had already found her dress and her bridesmaid's dresses at Lady Di's formal wear in Watertown, NY, so we thought we would get a better deal by renting our tuxes there too. When we started talking to the clerk there though, we found out that even though the women's formal wear shop and tux rental shop are in the same building, they are (supposedly) unrelated.

We decided that we would do business there anyway and found a tux we liked. In addition to the groom's tux, we were ordering 6 ushers tuxes, a tux for the father of the bride and 3 boys tuxes. The "deal" that was offered was that the groom's tux was free. After giving all of the names involved and getting the prices - which we thought sounded kind of steep - we were told we needed to pay $25.00 to hold the rental. I told them that my tux (the groom) was free and the response was that the $25.00 was for shoe rental??? We skeptically paid the $25.00 and left.

A short time later we went to a competitor's shop and saved over $200.00 on the total rental. When we returned to Lady Di's Tuxedos to get our money back, we were told that we could have store credit and no cash. This was "store policy". I asked to see the "policy" in writing and was told that it was not in writing, it was just "policy". I was unwilling to accept this and tried to reason with the store owner Kelly Shannon that if I had to sue her to get this I would, but that it would be very bad for business if this went public. She became irate and threatened that she was a para-legal and would be happy to go to court to prove her point. Needless to say we left without the cash and went to get the papers to file a small claim. However, before I even got home, this woman had called my place of employment and made a complaint to my bosses that I acted unprofessionally in my dealings with her!!! Whatever happened to the customer is always right??

Not only did Lady Di's Tuxedo Rentals in Watertown, New York steal my $25.00, they are charging exorbitant amounts for rentals of their product. Use another shop no matter what and for God's sake DON'T GIVE THEM ANY MONEY!!!!