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Ciera Bridal Cautionary Tale Columbus Ohio
Previous complaints which detail shipping problems are mild compared to the absolute nightmare that I had with Ciera Bridal, which ended with a credit card investigation of this company, a formal complaint with the Better Business Beareau and almost resulted in an ugly law suit.
I ordered a wedding gown from this company after speaking with Lisa in person and on line and attempting to verify the legitimacy and track record of this company both on and off line. After my order was placed, I was not able to make contact with A HUMAN about my order for weeks, and -- after some investigating -- began to discover that Lisa, from what I can tell, may be an American paid front for an overseas operation.
A few weeks after placing the order, then attempting to cancel it as my concerns mounted, I received a DHL package the size of a small grocery bag from China. Inside the bag was an ACTUALLY plastic CHINEESE grocery bag, in which was a balled up wedding gown. The dress was dirty and the zipper was ripped. I contacted my credit card company's fraud division and after a three way conversation with me and "Lisa" they too had concerns about the legitimacy of this company. I had asked Lisa SPECIFICALLY if the dress was made here by a privately owned company and she had told me that it was. I was given the run around for SEVERAL WEEKS about returning the dress and getting a refund. In the end, I was asked to return the dress to a PRIVATE RESIDENCE in China which was DIFFERENT from the address I had received it from (Lisa told me that she is African American and that Ciera Bridal was a local-Columbus black-owned business). Shipping the dress to China and providing visual evidence of the packaging, receipts and shipping costs to "Lisa", the credit card investigators and the Better Business Beareau caused expenses to mount -- expenses I never regained.
I continued to investigate this company for a potential law suit and discovered that there are in fact several China-based companies (including Dynasty Kids) wich appear to be using the "Lisa" as a front. If you even look, for example, at the grammatical structure (and technical mistakes) in "Lisa's" reply, you may note that they are probably not written by a native speaker (I am an English teacher). I am concerned that this is a front operation.
THis message details only the major points of this case, and leaves out additional grief caused by this company (including emails that were CLEARLY not written by a legitimate business, accusing me, the customer, of lying about the packaging, etc...).