My best friend booked an appointment at The Bridal Atelier on a Monday at 1pm. We arrived at 12:50pm.
It was clichéd from the get go. Talking to us in a high pitched tone, asking all the contrived questions. Nothing natural or personal or special about the service. I mean, we were excited, trying on wedding dresses is a pretty big moment. It's meant to be fun. We had each taken a day off work to do this.
We were given time to look on the racks and then point out what she wanted to try on. I picked one dress up and was told not to touch it, she would come back and get a different dress each time.
I could go on and on about the service, but what was the worst, was that after my friend tried on about 5 dresses, all of which looked amazing on her, I said oh maybe we should try on another strapless seeing as it's the one that's been the most flattering.
"Sorry ladies, (while tapping her wrist) time's UP"
she said in a whiny condescending tone.
then , from the front of the shop, came a screeching loud (Prue and Trude) voice from a woman sitting behind the desk who had not said a peep, not even a hello from when we walked in.... "you've actually been here an hour and ten minutes"
Well we hadn't actually. It was now 1:45pm. So we came early, so in total, 55 minutes. but only 45 minutes of our actual allotted appointment.
She said there were other appointments arriving. We were all so shocked and my friend was scuttled into the change room and stripped off so fast and handed a list of her favourite 3 dresses. there was no talking to us about how we buy something, what the next step is, nothing.
I was so angry and shocked at the service that we couldn't wait to get outside.
I walked back 20 minutes later to look in the store and of course, there was nobody in there, both girls behind the desk, no appointment had arrived.
Turned out, after googling, that the awful woman at the desk that told us about our " hour and ten minute annoyingness" was the owner of the store!!!! so there was clearly no point in even complaining to her about the service.
All of their dresses are available online. But we wanted to go to a store, and were willing to pay that bit more, to get amazing service and the perfect fit. She will now be going direct to those brands.
Bricks and Mortar Retail is tough these days, I know because I work in retail so I know the importance of offering service that goes above and beyond for my customers.
What an absolute shame that this business, full of dreams for its clients, couldn't offer anything more. read more
