House of Brides was founded in Cicero, Illinois, in 1929. The company sells wedding dresses, as well as other types of dresses, shoes, and accessories.
Today, House of Brides has 5 locations. Doing business under the names House of Brides Couture in Chicago, Schaumburg Wedding Center, Inc., House of Brides Couture in Schaumburg,The House of Brides, Inc., House of Brides in Glen Ellyn, Orland Park Wedding Center, Inc., House of Brides Couture in Orland Park, Florida. The company also has an extensive eCommerce website called House of Brides World’s Largest “One-line” Wedding Store, AKA, HouseofBrides.com.
The company offers bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses, mother’s dresses, headpieces/veils, as well as shoes and accessories, such as belts, coats, ring pillows, and more. Company headquarters are located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
House of BridesHouse of Brides was founded in Cicero, Illinois, in 1929. The company sells wedding dresses, as well as other types of dresses, shoes, and accessories.
Today, House of Brides has 5 locations. Doing business under the names House of Brides Couture in Chicago, Schaumburg Wedding Center, Inc., House of Brides Couture in Schaumburg,The House of Brides, Inc., House of Brides in Glen Ellyn, Orland Park Wedding Center, Inc., House of Brides Couture in Orland Park, Florida. The company also has an extensive eCommerce website called House of Brides World’s Largest “One-line” Wedding Store, AKA, HouseofBrides.com.
The company offers bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses, mother’s dresses, headpieces/veils, as well as shoes and accessories, such as belts, coats, ring pillows, and more. Company headquarters are located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Absolutely disgusted with the Schaumburg store. Went in to get bridesmaid dresses. Saw a dress tried it in was alone with my niece wasn’t sure was given all these discounts told I had to pay for the whole dress. Wasn’t sure as my family wasn’t with put 200.00 on the dress. Went back with my family they didn’t like it so told them I wanted to put the money towards my daughter bridesmaid dress was told I could not. I said you didn’t order the dress. Was told it was for the person lady’s time. Wth! Do you not pay your people that is my job. Now they lost my business of the bridesmaid dress. Do not buy from these scam artist.
Orland park store, Maryann and manger Joann……I am extremely pissed at the way my daughter was treated! Body shaming a young lady is just horrible!! Things like well it’s the back fat, and you do plan on losing some weight before the wedding right? Then to call and call and not get the manager nor a call back. This was back in July, now fast forward to September and my daughter still doesn’t want to shop for a dress! Down right Ignorant and rude.
November 12, 2019
This letter is a copy of one I will be handing to Orland Park Wedding Center manager, Joanne. A copy of this letter is also being mailed to your Corporate office in Glen Ellyn.
Dear Joanne,
Despite what you may want to believe neither Gabriella or her family made ANY mistakes in the selection and purchase of Gabby’s wedding gown. Your store, however, made several. And as the manager, it is now upon you to “own ” these mistakes.
First of all, the dress Gabby ordered was promised to her on a certain date; October 19, 2019. That did not happen. FAILURE!
Next, the dress which finally did arrive 2 weeks later, was the WRONG dress. FAILURE!
Then, with the wrong dress, your store tried to pass it off as the right dress and made your seamstress begin the work of making alterations on the wrong dress. All the while, Gabby was claiming to you that the dress was not the dress she had ordered. She was told by the store that “sometimes designers make changes to their designs.” This would be laughable if it were not so tragic. Your claim of trying to make a “positive” experience for every bride is false, hypocritical and only sounds good to you. HUGE FAILURE!
Finally, after sending you personal photos 2 days later, pointing out the differences in the dress you tried to tell Gabby was the right dress and photos of the dress that Gabby had chosen way back in June, and after much unnecessary stress to the bride and her family, your store was able to produce the correct style of the $1,200.00 dress ordered originally. Of course, it was the wrong color than was originally promised. We were told that the dress was no longer made in ivory, though you could not tell us when you received this information. When the order was placed in June, ivory was available. But I suppose, at this point, we as a bride and her family realized that our hopes and our expectations for what we had ordered and paid for in full, were far, far too high. MASSIVE FAILURE!
And so here we are. Gabby does have a dress to wear on HER VERY IMPORTANT DAY. So the “positive” outcome that you claim to value so much is “sort of” there. I know for a fact that the tears which were shed by the bride-to-be were in no way “positive” throughout this process.
I point out these failures so that I may now offer your store a bit of advice:
*Buy a digital camera for the store. Please take photos of soon-to-be brides when they have decided to purchase THE dress. Save those photos so that you can compare the dress chosen with the dress received by the store. If they do not match, please save stress on your prospective brides by not trying to sell them the wrong dress and making them endure a fitting of the wrong dress. And perhaps use that camera, if allowed, to take photos of orders as they are placed showing the date ordered. This will prove to your customers that the order was placed in a timely manner.
Finally, you as the manager, should have learned or perhaps you need to remind yourself, that “the customer is usually, if not always right.” Customers are not trying to “get a free wedding gown” as you claimed, just as business managers are not trying to rip-off their customers. Customer satisfaction is an earned reward for a job well done. It isn’t earned by having a customer settle for what they received in place of what they ordered and wanted. This whole process and experience with your House of Brides store in Orland Park, Illinois, has left us with a very sour and bitter taste in our hearts. I don’t believe either party deserves any “positive feelings” after this fiasco.
Most sincerely,
The family of
Gabriella Calderone
And a post script especially for you Joanne: You should never, ever be overheard in your store calling any of your customers “CRAZY” as you did on Monday evening November 11, 2019. So very unprofessional.
I am experiencing the same thing currently with my wedding dress order. Seeing the date of this comment and knowing that Joanne is still there managing and providing a horrible customer service experience saddens me. When my dress wasn’t back as promised she said “I don’t know why you’re so upset, the dress is coming.” That was over a month ago and the dress still has not arrived.
I have had one of the most frustrating weeks dealing with Jennifer, manager at the Glen Ellyn store. My daughters dress was bustled by placing loops in the layer of lace on the train which were visible to anyone looking at the dress. She was told numerous times that it would be fixed so the loops did not show when it was not bustled. Sales person, Nancy, would not let her try on the dress or look at the “fixed” train but told us that it looked perfect when we picked it up on September 5th. I called on the 6th and spoke with Jennifer and we returned the dress to the store to be fixed once again. In the days since, we have been told it was fixed, that it could not be fixed, that they were looking at options – none of which were true. Last Friday, the 22nd, I decided to have it shipped to me in Charleston, SC to be looked at for possible solutions as the wedding is October 21st and we were getting no where with Jennifer. I have spoken with the store several times this week trying to get it shipped. Jennifer has been telling me since Monday that it would be shipped and arrive before my Friday appointment here in Charleston. Wednesday I received the shipping number – after several calls to the store. Online tracking showed that the label had been created but the dress had not been received by the postal service. On Thursday I left several message for Jennifer over the coarse of the day with no return calls from her. I finally talked with her last night right before closing – because I called again – and we had a heated conversation re the whereabouts of the dress. She had my messages all day that the dress was not at the postal service and had done nothing about finding the dress or calling me with a report. She promised to call me today as soon as she located the dress. Wells, it is almost 4:00 here in Charleston and I have not heard word one from her. I have checked the tracking number and know that it is on its way to me as it was accepted at the postal service last night. I can understand mistakes. I can understand that some errors – like poor alterations – cannot be corrected. But I cannot understand a manager lying and having such poor customer service especially in the wedding industry.
I would like to compliment Lauren. She has taken several of my calls the last two weeks and has been very helpful and shown appropriate concern. I wish I could say the same for Jennifer. I am extremely disappointed in her lack of customer service and uncaring attitude!!