I am getting married in the Raleigh area (I live near Philadelphia) and while on one visit ""home"" went to Victorian Rose with my mom to try on dresses. This was the first place I went to try on dresses and while I knew that my experience wasn't wonderful, I didn't quite get how bad it was until I had gone to other bridal salons. \r
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My initial impressions on the phone and welcomed in the door were fine. Unfortunately, the consultant (possibly owner? manager?) is ill and not mobile. She apologized for not helping me into the gowns, but sat outside the room to clip the dress. While I feel terrible faulting someone for not doing something that they are truly unable to do, I do not feel terrible being frustrated at the fact that there were at least 2 other able bodied women working in the store at the time. Obviously one would need to stay at the front desk and phones. Even if the other woman had another task, why would you not provide someone to help brides in and out of gowns? Or maybe offer this information when a customer calls for an appt? **as an aside, I'll note that the samples were fairly badly beaten up.... probably because so many women are left to their own devices inside dressing rooms and aren't skilled at tunneling through layers of tulle and tafetta. **\r
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Victorian Rose only has sample sizes and I fall outside that range.However, with some help into the gown by an experienced sales person, this doesn't have to be a major problem (I'm around a 16-18 in bridal sizes) for me. After getting stuck and frustrated with 2 or 3 dresses I decided I was done. The consultant basically sent me to David's Bridal, clearly not caring about her sale. I went to 5 other salons since (most in the Philadelphia area) and not one left me to put the dress on by myself. \r
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I was very disappointed and even more so after actually experiencing customer service at a bridal salon (even David's Bridal! (although on a weekday, midday)).
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