Complaint Review: dressale.com

On October 20, 2011, I placed a custom order on-line with dressale.com. I ordered a two-piece conventional bridesmaid dress in the color royal blue. Within 24 hours of submitting my order, a rep. from the company (Dori) emailed me to ask me for my shoulder, muffs, and upper arm size, and enclosed an attachment of a video tutorial indicating how to measure each.

After I submitted this info., a company rep. contacted me via phone to inform me about an approximate date by which to expect my dress to be delivered. Originally, she told me that I would recieve my dress by November 14th, but I actually received it 2 weeks early (November 3). So far, the company had surpassed my expectations customer service wise, but all of that changed once I opened the package and tried on my dress.

The measurements on the top piece were perfect. It fit me like a glove, and the color of the dress was lovely. These are the only compliments that I can offer the company, because from here on out my experience with the company has been a nightmare (to say the least). Despite the great fit of the top, my husband pointed out a permanent crease near the seam of the left sleeve.

Then, when I attempted to try on the skirt, I was horrified to find that the inner lining was sewn over the zipper. Needless to say, I emailed the company immediately informing them about the problems that I had with the dress. I got a response back that day telling me that they got my complaint and (that I quote) "It is a pity you are not satisfied with the dresses we prepared for you."

And instructed me to send them pictures of the dress, so that they could make an accurate determination about what to do next. My husband took 3 pictures of the dress via camera phone: one of the crease in the top, one of the skirt right side out, and one of the skirt turned inside out (both of the skirt photos showed that the zipper had been sewn on improperly).

Not long after that email, another rep. emails me with this comment: "Dear Customer, It is a pity that you are not satisfied with the dress. Consider the shipping fee is high, could you plz consider our suggestion, how about go to local tailors to alter the dress, as compensation, we will give you $20 discount or a shawl of free for your next shopping, plz conisder. You can see that our dresses are in good handcraft. Best wishes, stacy"

I emailed her back explaining that they had already messed up the $100 dress that I ordered from them and that I just wanted them to fix their mistake, because I would not be a repeat customer. Then Betty emailed me upon reviewing my pictures with this response:

"Hi, I'm sorry, I just checked the pictures you sent us. You know we are custom made company, there will exist a little flaw on it since all the dresses are made by hand. But after I checked, I think that the problem you pointed out is not big. For the zipper, it is hidden, you should zipper it carefully and softly.

For this dress, I think it is not too expensive, if you really want to send the dress back to us, you still need to spend the extra money for shipping which we don't afford since the shipping cost is for delievery company, not for us, please understand.

Actually, I really hope we can find a best way to solve it. Now we are willing to make the compensation for you, why don't you accept it? Or you can take the dress to the local store to fix, we will afford the partial cost, i think that will be better for each other and save more time, sincerly hope you can reconsider about it, thanks.

best wishes, betty"

After reading this letter, I was pretty certain that this company does not have a legitimate quality control department because if they had my dress never would have been sent out to me in that way, and there is no way that a competent quality control person would write me giving me the advice that this woman gave to me. I was so angry that I allowed myself a day to calm down and clear my head before responding to the latest email.

I told the lady how disatisfied I was with the customer service and that it was not fair of her to blame a mistake that they made on their customer and that I would be going to a local seamstress to fix their mistake and that I would be sending the bill to them.

Maria responded via emal:

Hi,

Thank you for your reply and your understanding. Pls go to the local shop to have it fixed and then provide us a pic of the reciept so we can offer you the partial of the fixed fee. Hope you can understand.

Maria

best wishes

I emailed her back warning her not to mistake my frustration for understanding, because I don't understand how a professional dress company can make the careless mistakes that their company made on my dress and how quality control could miss such a huge blunder. And asked her what percentage are they offering to pay, because partial payment could mean anything.

The woman quickly emailed me back apologizing for the misunderstanding, and explaining that upon recieving the photo of the reciept they would have to get permission from their manager and at that point I would be informed about what they are willing to pay.

This company must really mistake their customers for idiots! After this experince and reading all of the reviews concerning this company, there is no doubt in my mind that this company simply does not care about the quality of their product or their customers, and they are not ashamed of earning a living ripping-off their customers. I only wish I had known about this website prior to ordering anything from these swindlers.

For your own good, do not do any business with this company. They are fraudulent and give this type of business a bad name.