Complaint Review: House Of Brides

November 2009 my bride's maid ordered her dress through the House of Brides in Orland park, Il.  We were told that the dress would take up to 16 weeks to be done and arrive at the HOB location for pick up.  My wedding was May 14, 2010.  We had plenty of time according to HOB.

In April 2010 my sister in law (Bride's maid) started to call HOB daily to get an update on her dress's arrival.  She was told several times that the dress was "En Route" and that she'd get a phone call with tracking information as soon as HOB had obtained it.  Days passed, several more phone calls back and forth and never any reasonable answer with "when" the dress would arrive and/or "where" the dress was and no one ever had any tracking information!

On May 3, 2010 I called the HOB to inquire about this dress as my wedding was now only a week away and we still had no answers.  The manager of HOB in Orland, Debbie Santiago (spelling of last name unsure) informed me that the dress was not being "released from the vendor". I asked "why?" and was told that she could not give me that information.  I then asked for the contact name and # for the General Manager of the HOB, I was told the GM was unreachable by the "public" that she only had a personal phone # and could only be contacted by HOB employees so I asked Debbie to please get a msg to the GM "Mrs. B." on my behalf.  Through my own resources I later obtained Mrs. B's personal cell phone # myself and have called her several several times.  To date - Mrs. B has never returned any of my calls.

During yet another frustrating conversation with Debbie, I asked for the contact info for the vendor so that I may get a more informative answer to which Debbie told me no she "could not give me any other information".  And at the end of a very long and frustrating phone call where in Debbie had no concerns for my wedding day I was left with still no answers.

Another day passed, more phone calls were made by me to the HOB looking for a tracking # or shipping confirmation for this dress as I was told by Debbie that the vendor should be releasing it within the next day.  Debbie still had no answers and was very uncooperative.  There was a point where Debbie thought my frustration was comical because as I was crying and explaining that my wedding is next week and we need to know how to get that dress here in time, she was laughing out loud!

My sister in law called the Channel 2 news station in chicago. The news crew met us outside of the HOB to do an investigative story. They accompanied my sister in law into the HOB store and were told by Debbie that HOB will not guarantee the dress would arrive in time for my wedding. Channel 2 news is still investigating as they've found many more complaints and plan to do an entire story on HOB in the near future. 

A very frustrated sister in law and bride to be googled searched the vendor and contacted them personally.  We were told that they would not release any shipment for the HOB until the bill was paid!  Meaning, HOB never paid the vendor and the vendor had an entire shipment, not just our dress, but many others that they would not release.

A happy ending to my story is that the dress miraculously arrived shortly after the Channel 2 news crew showed up!  My wedding went off without a hitch no thanks to the HOB and their very uncooperative and uncaring manager Debbie!