Hi All,
Had to share my experience as I'm so angry!
After a long search for Bridesmaid's dresses, I picked 2 ballgown style ones from David's Bridal in Stratford and was really happy with the service and price of £140 per dress.
We went in yesterday, all excited to see the dresses and have the alterations done and ended up leaving nearly in tears. It started when they had no record of my appointment, I had my 2 bridesmaids with me, one of whom lives in Scotland and is only over for a couple of days so I was panicking that they wouldn't be able to see me. They fitted me in which was fair enough but the service was very cold and you could tell they thought it was my mistake. They pinned the dresses up - both dresses needed the hems taking up and a small amount at the shoulders as well as tightening round the bust. Going by the price breakdowns on the wall I was expecting around £50 per dress. When the seamstress bought the invoices out I nearly fainted - £79 for one dress and £97 for the other! I was really shocked and very politely told her that it couldn't be correct and could she check it. Well, she started angrily muttering under her breath, snatched the tickets off me and stormed off. She then returned and said she'd spoken to the manager and "the price is the price" I asked to speak to someone myself. Again, I explained that the price was a lot more than I had expected going by their own price charts and the response was along the lines of "if you don't like it, don't have it done" they even suggested that I leave off some of the work to make it cheaper which would have just left the dresses looking terrible. I ended up paying for one (I had no choice due to time restrictions) and taking the other away to get done elsewhere.
Now I appreciate that they have a pricing structure but they were just so rude about the whole thing and I can't believe that they can justify those prices. I've had the one I took away looked at by an independent seamstress and she said there's no way it's an £80 job.
A word of warning - expect bad service and extortionate alteration prices, I would recommend just buying the dresses from there and planning to get them altered elsewhere. Or even better, avoid altogether
It's a shame as I was raving about them before this happened but they've completely ruined it. I'm also nervous as the seamstress was so angry about me complaining that I'm worried she'll do a bad job out of spite - she was that unpleasant about it.
Robbing cowboys.
Rant over 
