Don't be Fooled by first impressions

We decided to use Losners to supply my daughters wedding dress, 4 bridesmaid's dresses and 2 flower girl dresses due to the fact that they were extremely friendly, helpful, caring, nothing was too much trouble or a problem and above all they price matched on all the dresses. With all this attention and the thought that it would be far easier to get all of the dresses from the same place which was really appealing we decided that this was the right store for us. On placing the order they cracked open a bottle of sparkly wine to celebrate the forthcoming marriage and made a point of telling us that everything was about the bride and her being looked after and happy. We were made to feel like royalty and we definitely felt that we had made the right choice of store. We soon discovered that all of the above went out of the window once they had your money (half of the entire order) and they really did not care. On attending for our first fitting there was a massive argument going on in Losners as a bride to be and her mother were distraught as the bridal dress was not ready nor were the bridesmaid's dresses and her wedding was just 2 days later! She told them that they had ruined her entire wedding. We found this really upsetting and as we proceeded into the changing rooms we found that our entire order had been messed up and every dress was ordered in the incorrect sizes and lengths. As much as you can take in and let out dresses to a certain extent you can not add on inches to the length. We were asked to wait in the reception area whilst they tried to sort the problem out where yet another person was bitterly irate about their dress and shouting loudly. After a while they agreed that it was their error and advised us that a replacement wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses in correct sizes and material to make the extra length dress (as out of stock at supplier) were on there way from the manufacturers and would be with them in 4 days and that not to worry as everything would be sorted out. Another appointment was arranged for the entire bridal party (7 people) for the following week. The day before that fitting we received a phone call from the Manager (Marilyn) at Losners to tell us that they were cancelling our entire order and refunding our money as no one wanted to deal with us due to our complaint regarding their mess up on the sizes of our dresses. After an hour on the phone they agreed to continue with our order providing we made no comments or complaints about any of the dresses. I can not begin to tell you how upsetting and distressing this phone call was with just 2 weeks and 2 days to the wedding we had no option but to agree to this outrageous request and felt like we were being blackmailed. On attending this fitting the following day we found that the brides dress fitted perfectly apart from the bust area which was massive and as they had no fillets they could not even pin around this area but promised it would be correct at the final fitting the following week, they pinned the hem up so it was just touching the floor with the bridal shoes on. We were told that the material to replace the extra long bridesmaid dress was out of stock so no new dress could be made and to compensate for a dress swinging around the ankles on this bridesmaid they offered to take the other 3 dresses up so that all 4 would match as if one misfit wasn't bad enough! Alfred Angelo manufacturer advised us that they had plenty of material in stock. The replacement flower girl dress had not arrived and so yet another visit for fittings had to be slotted into a busy working schedule. On the fitting for the flower girls we found that there were massive alterations to be done and although the label now showed the correct age the dress appeared to have not improved in its fitting. Now that we have had time to examine everything more closely we have found that they had lied to us as the dresses were the original sizes altered accordingly and sizing labels had been changed accordingly as the stitching was different. The end result was that the wedding dress around the bust area and gaped open when sitting down and was too short in length which we were told by a professional dressmaker that when they took the bust area in drastically it bought up the length of the dress hence making it then too short. One bridesmaids dress was swinging around her ankles and she had her bust falling out at the top due to an incorrect size being ordered. Another was so tight due to them having let it out to its maximum that she could not move and 2 others were still too big and constantly falling down. The flower girl dresses were still not correct but what could we expect when one of them had been taken down 2 age sizes and the length was entirely wrong. When first looking for dresses we had thought about buying from China on the internet where copies of dresses are made for a tenth of the price. However the idea of something going drastically wrong as stated on the manufactures websites was enough to put us off after all who wants to receive a dress that needs drastic alterations to it or almost needs to be remade? That is exactly what happened to us having used an authorised dealer at full costs! We should have hedged our bets and chosen the option to buy from abroad. We have since and tried at the time to complain to the manufacturers Maggie Sottero and Alfred Angelo about the disgraceful service and changing of their labels which we believe is fraudulent and Maggie Sottero have not responded after 1 month and Alfred Angelo want nothing to do with it and say to take it up directly with their supplier. I can not begin to tell you how much stress this caused as in the last 2 weeks there are so many other things that need to be done and one would assume that the bride and bridesmaid dresses were not amongst them. Having now looked at various feedback sites we can see that in most instances the feedback is negative! If only we had looked at these previously we probably would have made a different decision.

Rosanna Clancy - 18/10/2009 | report this review