Audrey's Mother of the Bride Dress arrived sticking out of box exposed to elements on my front porch. I was charged 20% restocking fee of $45.80 for returning it, plus S&H fees totaling $27.80 for a dress I don't own. Internet

Just to alert anybody that when you are ordering a dress for anything as important as your daughter's wedding, on-line ordering is not the way to go as too many problems can occur with fitting, shipping, not seeing the dress in person, etc.  It's far better to go to a bridal shop and be properly fitted for such a special occasion and know what you are buying before you pay for it.

I am amazed at the similarities in Carni's story and my own!  However, I see that Carni at least received a full refund for her dress and I did not.

I ordered a dress on-line from Audrey's for my daughter's wedding because I liked the picture of the dress that I saw on-line and read some positive testimonials.  When the dress arrived, it was in a plastic bag inside a small cardboard box (no other packing of any sort) with one strip of cellophane tape up and down the main seams on the top and bottom of the box and no extra tape around the side seams of the box.  I paid $229 for the dress plus $14.00 S&H and the dress was hanging out of the box on my front porch as some of the tape had worked its way loose and the dress was extremely wrinkled from being stuffed in the box.  I was told that this has never happened to any other customer in the 7 years they have been in business and they cannot be held responsible for what happens to the package once it leaves them.  True, but they can be more careful when taping boxes shut or packing the dress.  If nothing else, I hope they will be more careful when taping boxes for other customers in the future. 

Also the dress did not fit properly (tight in the bust) and was far too long.  I had sent my measurements and ordered a size 16 (just like Carni) according to their on-line dress charts, plus I had received a call when I first ordered the dress on 1/29/11 from a woman who confirmed my measurements over the phone.  She also informed me that my shipment would be delayed for at least a month as the factory would be closed down during the month of January and I would receive the dress during the first week in March.  My daughter's wedding is in April so I eagerly awaited my dress.  I didn't realize until after the fact that the dress was not being made in Texas, but was made in and shipped from China.

Audrey's did offer to "discount the dress so I could be happier with the price needed for alterations" although no mention was made as to what the actual discounted amount would be.  I didn't want to do this since my daughter's wedding was only a month away at this point and the S&H involved with sending the dress back and forth to be altered and also not knowing if it would fit properly when received back was making me a nervous wreck.  I thought they might at least make an exception due to my distress and not charge me the 20% restocking fee that is stated in their policy. 

Long story short, the wedding was a month away, I had no dress for my daughter's wedding, and since I returned the dress, I was charged a 20% restocking fee plus the postage to ship it back to them.  I paid $229 for the dress, $14.00 S&H for delivery and $13.80 to return the dress, for a total of $256.80.  I was refunded $183.20 so I'm out $73.60 and no dress.  They received the dress back on 3/17/11 and my refund of $183.20 was issued 9 days later after they had checked it over and I got another email telling me that the dress should have fit me (as if I hadn't had enough aggravation, out $73.60 and no dress for my daughter's wedding).  I badly needed this refund to go towards the cost of the other dress I've had to purchase as I'm not made out of money.

Happy ending....I went to a local bridal shop and explained my situation, they helped me find a dress off the rack which is beautiful (size 14 by the way).  They also helped me pick out shoes, a purse, a hair pin, jewelry, underwear, and are pressing the dress.  Moral of the story?  What was I thinking?  When it comes to ordering the right dress for such an important occasion as your only daughter's wedding, for goodness sake, get your dress locally from a bridal shop that deals with these things and will see that you are properly fitted and save yourself the aggravation of ordering on-line and taking the chance that the dress isn't going to fit or that you may end up paying extra money in S&H that you can never get back.  You cannot take a chance in buying an on-line dress that may or may not fit.  Different manufacturers size dresses differently.