They ruin your dress a week before wedding ..

I was hesitant to use Bride & Co in the first place, however thought I would give them the benefit of doubt and try to look for a wedding dress. Initially I was helped and luckily only tried on one dress and knew that was the one. I paid in full on the spot and was told to come fit on the 13th of August. The fitting went well and was told it is going to the drycleaners and I can collect Thursday 18 Aug. On Thursday I received a call that there was a delay at the dry cleaners, I said no problem will fetch on Saturday. Trusting that all was perfect I collected on Saturday morning only checking that the dress was indeed clean. When I fitted it later that after noon, to my shock the dress had shrunk. Immediately I took it back and was advised that that was indeed the case and must have been the drycleaners, they will try and fix it. It took 2 hours in store to try and find a solution keeping in mind that my wedding is the 26th of Aug(the following Saturday) First solution - They will try and strech the dress on a maniquin.. I said thats not an option Second solution - They have contacted the Nelspruit branch which has a different size that was in the back (good condition - however no one to varify if it would also need drycleaning) that they can overnight on Monday to arrive on Tuesday. This will also not work, all trust already gone in Bride & Co I am not willing to take that risk. Also we are leaving the next morning Wednesday for Wilderness where the wedding is taking place.

This was their way of " fixing the problem"... I advised that I need the dress this weekend and would need to look for an alternative dress. I tried on a R9000 dress and asked if there is a difference in cost surely they would need to settle. Lamees the office manager advised she will then obtain authorization. Already being late for our prewedding party we left the store not knowing what to do.

The next day we returned at 12:00 to look for a new dress, this would be the only solution that would see me have a dress that weekend that could be altered in time. Worst experience ever ! Except for the casual assistant who was helping me (she has much better customer service s****s than Lamees or any of the other managers we dealt with)

A similar dress was found to my original and the difference in price was R963.00. Lamees refused to pay in the difference in fare even though Bride & Co original ruined the original dress. Still offering the replacement from Nelspruit as their solution. How can you expect someone to trust the new dress condition?? and take that risk 5 days before the wedding!! after 3hours calling the rivonia branch speaking to Kim and Charlene ... back and forth. Tony the CFO doesnt take calls... only via email. Surely this is an emergency situation that we did not create - Bride & Co did!!

After trying on 9 other dresses without a price difference, we were depleted... missing a wine tasting with our family the Sunday afternoon. This has now taken 2 days out of the weekend before our wedding. We ended up paying the difference just to get out of there and actually have a dress.

I have never felt so unhelped and unsimpatized with! We want to take this further, if Tony values any customer she would give us a call, a refund at least would be in order. Since not even the accessorizes I originally ordered for the dress now match the new one..

Tony if you could contact us it would at least show there is hope for this company, at this stage I have my doubts. Bride & Co canal walk has all our details, just speak to Lamees, she knows us well.