Wedding Dress Try On Charge

If they include the £20 in the deposit then perhaps i wouldn't mind. It would mean that i'd be less reluctant to go to a variety of shops though if i had to pay out £20 each time.

mmm apparently its often the case that you pay to try on dresses over here in New Zealand. Haven't started dress shopping yet but will soon find out. I know the money often gets deducted if you but a dress but bummer if you don't end up wanting a dress from that shop!

I wouldn't pay - what happens if you don't like any of their dresses, or their customer service is bad and you don't want to shop there. You may have to go to another place and spend more money to try another load of dresses on.

With the nature of a lot of businesses you have to take the risk that someone may not go with you, but you have to be confident in your customer service and products that someone will choose you.

If it becomes the trend, perhaps the photographers will charge for their initial meeting 'just incase they don't book you' or the florists!

A lot of caterers even cook you a meal/nibbles for free - they are taking a bigger risk as they are actually spending money to win.

The bridal shops can do it as they know some of us will do anything for the perfect dress ? but I think it's wrong.

It is the case in a lot of bridal shops here in Belgium. I didn't have to pay anything, but I know of shops that charge. But if you decide to buy a dress with them they deduct that money from the price.

A few do this already

I was in a bridal shop in a well known shopping centre just north of the Dartford Tunnel and they wanted £50 just to try on some of their dresses!

yes, there is a certain designer here who charges £25 for a saturday. I thinks its a proper cheek, esp as the designer in question is humungoulsy (?sp) expensive

If thats the case I'm glad I took a chance on ebay.

I would imagine if this became the norm then more brides would be inclined to do the same. Pay to find out which dress they want then get it cheaper on ebay!!

I can kind of see why they are doing it but some of the places i went too the customer service was rubbish! One of them had 3 brides booked in and only two assistants and changing rooms! I liked the dresses their but was appauled at the customer service!

I thought the whole point of inital meetings and trying on dresses was to meet people to discuss things.......i would be in a state of shock if any of my suppliers had asked me to pay a fee to meet them before i had even got a quote!

Saying that i would have paid money to the shop i have ordered my dress from (well obviously i have) but they were the only shop which went the extra mile to help me find what i wanted rather than shunting me through the process!

I saw this on the news this morning - there is no way that I'd pay to try on a dress.

Penguin didn't I tell you my design meeting on Fri would cost you £20 ?.

If the shops are doing it so people don't just not turn up for appts then I can kind of see that point but then it would put a whole lot more people off booking an appt so just doesn't balance itself out imo. I certainly wouldn't pay and likewise wouldn't expect someone to pay to meet me to discuss jewellery.

Haha!!! Well I'd pay for quality you know.... ?

I wouldn't go if I had to pay. As long as nobody went to them they would stop. there is worse though. internet shopping is a tough competitor and its not the worst exemple i ve seen of shops charging to try stuff on(a shop in the south of France was charging for people trying on Birkenstocks then not buying!) but they need to find a long term solution ans charging people isn't one

what EXACTLY is the payment for?????? Thier opinion? wiping fingerprints off the hanger??? going 'ooooh' and 'ahhhh' at you??? Is it 20 bucks per frock???? or overall.

I'm appauled, as the news video said (and the reporter was v v bloody cheeky at the end of vid, taking the pee) would car showrooms charge a bloke for going for a spin in the car on a weekend, knowing full well he wasnt going to buy but 'think about it'? I think not.

a charge on top of my trainfare to get to these places would make me one very unhappy bride.

From memory when this was brought up before, HIBs explained that particularly for Saturday appointments, it does discourage no shows.

I think dress shop owners would also argue that you are paying for their time and expertise as they give you their individual attention, often closing the store to others while they do so - trying on dressees in a bridal shop cannot be compared to trying on dresses in a High Street store, in terms of how labour intensive it is for the owners.

On the flip side if you are an undecided bride it does rather force you down one route a bit quickly.

Do you think they could use my diplomacy skills in the UN? I heard they are a bit short.

If we had to pay for everyones attention i.e. venue meetings, florists, band, caterers, cake person etc a wedding would soon cost a heck of a lot more than it does already. You win some you lose some is my thought with my own business. I can spend hours emailing a customer about designs and then not get an order but the next order might be straight forward and only take a few mins to confirm.

ahh i suppose you're right there...... i forgot the charges were pertaining to saturdays only - thank goodness for school holidays! Oh and I was by no way means putting down the job of a bridal retailer in my previous post, I know they work very hard and that their Ooohs and ahhhs are also very much appreciated, for starters!

xx

Take card details on the phone at the time of booking, and explain that there will be a charge of £X for a 'no show' or late cancellation.

Take card details on the phone at the time of booking, and explain that there will be a charge of £X for a 'no show' or late cancellation.

Kerri I do understand what your saying but as a b2b i just wouldn't visit your shop if I had to pay (oh I am visiting your shop soon by the way ?). I went to 5 shops all with the intention of finding 'the one' but since there can only one 'the one' I would have paid £100 just to try dresses on which I just wouldn't have done as then my dress budget would have decreased. I don't really think there is an answer to be honest and like I said you win some you lose some and I think it's part of business. The same applies to most aspects of the wedding industry and I don't think dress shops are any different to florists or cake people etc as they all stand to have free time during the day if someone doesn't turn up.

The only kind of solution I see is to charge the people who don't turn up for appts but then it would still put people off having to give card details over the phone when they make the appt for this potential charge. With credit card scams being the way they are I wouldn't be prepared to do this either.

I find the idea of charging for the privilege of trying on a slightly bizarre one, from the point of view of doing it as a standard thing during your normal working week, even if it is just on Saturdays.

Whilst no-shows are REALLY REALLY frustrating (it annoys me no end when we've turned away umpteen people in the run up to a Saturday, only to have someone not turn up, when it's too late to offer the space to someone on a cancellation waiting list), I think a charge to try on dresses is really going to put brides off coming in the first place, especially if there are other shops locally that aren't charging - because you're going to try those first, aren't you?

I can understand a desire to charge for out-of-hours appointments, given that there are additional costs for the shop - wages, electricity etc. Often we get asked for out-of-hours appointments when actually there isn't really an urgent need (e.g. wedding not for 2 years and actually the bride can make it in on a Saturday in a few weeks time). So if we introduced a charge I think it would be to put people off asking for out-of-hours appointments in the first place!

Personally I'm not into anything that makes us unapproachable as a business. I don't like the idea that people must have an appointment just to cross the threshold, for example. Yep, they're going to need an appointment to try on, and they might have to be patient if they want to come in on a Saturday. But I want them to feel so good about coming to us that they're prepared to wait a few weeks if necessary. Personally I think introducing a charge would simply make us appear elitist, and money-grabbing. That's hardly the image we want to project.

A lot of businesses in the wedding industry have a reputation of being money-grabbing, and vastly overcharging for their services. And (not always, but) often it's completely unfair and unfounded. Most of the wedding industry colleagues I have are extremely hard working and not at all rich ?. But brides aren't to know that, and image is everything. Businesses of any kind have to project the right image if they want potential customers to think highly enough of them to buy from them.

That's my random thoughts for the evening ?

It's a shame that people are so rude as to not cancel if they can't make their appointment but charging is tantamount to penalising thos that do turn up because of those that don't. I wouldn't go to a shop that charges either. Like other suppliers, you just have to do your best to provide the product that a client is likely to want. We often organise viewings, which can be at someone elses wedding (with consent of course). We only allow two couples per function to limit intrusion. These viewings fill up fast and sometimes people don't turn up, You've arranged for other couples who wanted that one to attend later dates and sometimes they'll have seen another band before then, so booking lost. That's just the way it is sadly.

x

I can understand why they want to start charging, cancelleations etc, but in a very selfish way i'm just about to start looking for my dress and will be gutted if i have to pay for each shop i go too. I need to be quick me thinks and go find my dress before its in place. Even more of an excuse to play dress up!?

What I would add is please please remember that bridal shops are not all one big chain with the same rules. We're not like Marks and Spencer or Tesco!! Most are independent retailers. Just because a few shops are talking about charging for appointments does not mean that ALL bridal shops everywhere are going to be charging.

I didn't see the news coverage, but the impression that I have is that they've picked up on a story about a few shops in London, who are going to be charging on Saturdays and evenings or something?

It would put me right off if I had to pay for trying on dresses. I have tried on about 20 dresses and I am in no way wasting people's time...just want to be sure if spending over £1,000! I tried my best to find a dress at my local bridal shop just because they were sooooo lovely, but after about 12 dresses I had to face facts they didn't stock the designer that I really wanted.

I appreciate how frustrating it must be for 'no-shows' and I personally would be happy to pay a small deposit for security of showing up for an appointment (£5). But then I'm totally 'square' and never not call way in advance if I am going to cancel something.

I think you're normal MayDay! This reflects the vast majority of brides that we see I think. No-shows are a minority, definitely, at least with us.

And there's nothing wrong with wanting to be sure before you part with a large amount of money. I don't think people should be expected to make a decision on their first appointment either. Sometimes it takes a few appointments, but I don't regard that as time-wasting. I'd rather they were sure.

I made over 10 visits to various dress shops and tried on an average of 5 dresses in each so that would have set me back 5*10 = 50 dresses (god no wonder I was starting to hate them all!) 50 * £25 each = £1250. Plus the price of 'the one' and fittings and accessories that would have been over £2k! The same price as my wedding breakfast!

the reason why I tried so many dresses on was because I am a bit larger than the average sample size of 12 and not all the shops had bigger sizes to try on so I had to use my imagination of what it would look like in a bigger size.