Rivonia Bride&co

The standard excuse isn't cutting it after my horrible experience. I do someone should personally apologize and take responsibility it is to easy to just brush it over instead of taking steps to ensure another bride doesn't have the same horrible experience as me.

I was a happy, satisfied bride when I walked out of Bride & Co Durban. Bride & Co Rivonia however has turned my experience around and given me the worst experience of my life because they turned something that should be the best experience of your life(after all you are preparing to marry your favorite person) into a very upsetting situation.

I bought my dress in Bride & Co Durban with my future Sister in law and Mother in law and I had the best experience and day of my life. My dress was transferred to Bride & Co Rivonia however and since then the service is absolutely HORRIBLE. I made an appointment with the manager of the store(Lucy) for the 14th of April 2018 to alter my dress(after she told me she cannot confirm my dress will be ready in time as it is too short notice), my future mother in law phoned her as well to confirm and she had said all is booked and well.

Monday 9 April 2018 I phone in to confirm my appointment for the alteration and they tell me no booking was made for my alteration after myself and my mother in law confirmed with Lucy. The Ladies I spoke to Jessica&Pinky&(another I cannot remember the name of) helped me out and made the booking as arranged with Lucy previously that she neglected to make according to them(according to your MD the booking was made by Lucy as per my phone call - 19/04/2018).

I went for the alterations on the 14th of April 2018, but the lady never gave me a date to return for my next booking my entourage can also not remember her giving me an appointment date. She only said either this Thursday or the next she will let me know. Needless to say I phoned on 16,17 & 18 April numerous times and every time I want to talk to Ava(the contact person I was given by Rivonia) they tell me she will phone me back which still hasn’t happened.(The MD just informed me she is the consultant and not a seamstress but she is the one that I was told will handle my dress)

Phoned this morning(19/04/2018) Ava is not available and all the managers is in a meeting so I cannot be helped and the lady I spoke to said I should call back.

I called back and spoke to Lucy, Lucy was extremely rude over the phone and then I insisted on speaking to someone on a higher level. The MD Lee-Ann and I spoke and I explained the situation.

The MD Lee-Ann just keeps on covering her staff and telling me they are head office and blames it on the Durban Branch as she says I didn’t have a consultant in their store so my dress is not a priority as they cannot assign a consultant to my dress to see that everything goes off smoothly as I didn’t purchase it from their branch. She also says alteration times are 6 to 8 weeks and not 3 weeks but the lady that saw me on Saturday said 3 weeks is not a rush job and therefore she won’t charge me an emergency fee so I do not understand why the MD and Lee-Ann is blaming the time frame in which the dress arrived and in which we are altering the dress as you provide a rush job service under 3 weeks so why is my dress which isn’t even a rush job a problem according to them? The MD is just as rude as Lee-Ann and they have 100 excuses but no apology or solutions.

I still have to supply material for the straps to be made and a bra to insert on the dress which I do not know when I can bring it in as I haven’t received any contact from their side, the lady said she will let me know what days they are working so that I can bring it directly to her as I do not want anything to get lost via someone else.

Then it shouldn’t matter where I bought my dress as I paid my dress in full on the same day and I should not be punished because I wasn’t selective with the branch from which I purchased my dress. This is totally unacceptable that they use that excuse it is the worst excuse I have ever heard and so unprofessional. This is a horrible excuse as I am still a client and I still deserve a good experience with finding, altering and receiving my wedding dress before my special day. This is causing a lot of stress for me and my wedding is 5 May 2018.

I would like something to be done regarding this situation and experience received from Bride & Co Rivonia as I wouldn’t want any other bride to go through the same experience as I did as it is such an unnecessary situation so close to ones wedding day and completely unnecessary to put a bride through the stress and tears so shortly before her wedding day. The experience and answer I received was so mind blowing that I will post my experience on social media as I do feel other Brides should be warned.

I will never in my life recommend Rivonia Bride & Co to anyone. It is also mind blowing to me that they are the Head Office for Bride & Co, Durban would have been a much better choice for a Head Office because they care about their clients and wouldn’t care if the dress want bought from them directly.

On a positive note Compliments to Bride & Co Durban for assisting me in transferring the dress to Parkview who will now be assisting me, I hope my experience will be better with Parkview. I am so happy that I purchased my dress from Durban’s branch and not Rivonia. I wish I stayed closer to continue my experience with them.