I have never experienced a business interaction with a con-artist until I stepped foot into Fara Bridal. Before I tell my story, I would like to state my history of purchasing dresses. I average about 6-7 weddings a year and I buy a different dress for each wedding. I have never had any problems or incurred any issues when purchasing dresses in the past. I walked into Fara Bridal on E. Post Road in White Plains on Thursday, May 22, 2008 and tried on a dress in a size 0. It was too small and didn't zip up all the way, leaving about an inch and a half open. The owner, Cynthia, came into the dressing room and zipped up the dress all the way with force, squeezing me into it. She said, "Ok, so it's zipped now." I said, "Yea, but it's still too small and I can't breath. Can I order in a size 2?" She said, "Yea, yea ok I will order it in a size 2." I told her I needed it for the Saturday of the following week and asked if the dress will get there before that and in enough time to hem it. She replied with "yes,yes." I was told the dress will be delivered by Thursday in the afternoon. On Thursday morning I called the shop to ask what time they were expecting their delivery. The girl who answered the phone asked for my information and said that there were no orders under my name nor my dress. She put me on hold and went to go ask the owner, and then she told me that the dress should arrive by 4. I went in and the moment I unzipped the dress I noticed it had wear marks. There were sweat stains on the inside front, beads were missing, the bottom was dirty, and the size tag was missing. When the owner came by, I told her that the dress had obviously been worn before. She said, "Well I don't know, this is how they sent me the dress. I'll call them up and find out what's going on." I said," I'm not paying full price for a dress that has been worn before." She said," It hasn't been worn, maybe tried on. We can dry clean it here and fix the beads on it." I told her that I needed it hemmed and I planned on taking it somewhere else because they charge $60 for a hem and I get it done for half of that somewhere else. She said she would do the hem for $30 and give me 10% off the dress, but also said, "I'm giving you 10% off, but I'm not sure if the manufacturer will give me 10, they'll probably give me 5%." Since I needed the dress and didn't have time to shop around for another, I accepted the offer. When I asked her why the size tag was missing, her answer was "I don't know." So, I asked the sales rep if I could see the size 0 I originally tried on, she said, "all those dresses are gone, we sold them all." On Friday, I went to try it on again, and the front of the dress where it was dirty was now wet and the zipper was messed up. The seamstress came to look at it and she said, "Oh yea, I can fix that. I have to take out the whole zipper and put it back on." "How long is that going to take?" -Me "10 minutes." -Seamstress. I wait about 15 minutes. Try the dress on again and this time it's wrinkled. Now they have to steam it. Wait another 10 minutes. At this point, I have already been in the shop for an hour for what was supposed to be just a pick up. I stop the owner and start asking questions:
Me: I don't understand why a brand new dress has this many problems. This should not be happening, if in fact, it is a brand new dress, which is what I'm paying for.
Cynthia: It is a new dress, I ordered it. Zippers on dresses are broken all the time, we usually have to send them back and it takes weeks to get a new one, so you're lucky we can fix it here.
Me: What about the dress being dirty, the messed up and missing beads, and why on earth was the size tag taken out? The string that was cut is still there but the tag is missing.
Cynthia: I don't know.
Me: I am getting ripped off. This is such a rip-off. I even missed another appointment I had scheduled, but whose problem is that? That's my problem now that I have to deal with because I was here getting scammed.
Sales Rep: Do you want to call them and tell them you're going to be late?
Me: No, I already called a half hour ago to tell them I'm late because I'm stuck in a store ripping me off by selling me a used dress.
Cynthia: The dress is not used. I don't know why you think you are getting ripped off. I gave you 10% off and I did the hem for $30.
Then Cynthia pretended like she was hanging up with a call and she went to the back room and stayed there. The coward left me with the sales rep while she hid. She altered a dress from the rack, took the size tag off and tried to pass it off as a brand new dress she ordered. She charged me full price and a $20 delivery cost. $20 to have the dress she never ordered delivered. read more