Gamberdella Inc

My future daughter-in-law and I had an appointment here to try on bridal gowns. Staff was young and trendy at the time, which I hadn't expected for the ""preppy"" Towson of my past. We were put into a rather spartan room and then asked what price range and style she was interested in seeing. Her price range was above $5,000, but she wasn't ready to be too specific on style. They will not let the customers look at their dresses personally. They bring out their selections, one at a time. Even though she said she was not fond of a lot of beading that seemed to go over their heads and that type of gown was brought out. Once they heard the higher price range, the more expensive gowns were all we were shown. It was extremely frustrating to wait for them to select a gown from their ""hidden"" back room, especially with their inability to comprehend your desires. We had just left another bridal salon in Pikesville when we had a wonderful experience, but had come here because of recommendations and to see a particular designer's gowns. Also, I have been a gift shop owner for over 20 year, understand customer service and was definitely not impressed.\r \r To make matters worse, they had her standing on a teetering platform. If she stepped outside of the very center, the platform began to flip over....law suit waiting to happen! Evidently this shop has been around for quite awhile and the owner has been selected as the ""Best of Baltimore"" in regard to bridal salons, but I would never recommend it to anyone. Pros: Designer selection Cons: Poor customer service, parking, facilities, safety issues, unable to personally select gown more

Having grown up in the Towson area, I thought I'd give Gamberdella's a try. I mainly went there because I was interested in some Watters gowns and the Watters site said G's had the full line of gowns. They were friendly on the phone and were able to make an appointment for me later that day.\r \r However, when I arrived, I found they had none of the Watters gowns I was looking for. And when they discovered I was looking for dresses in the $1000 range, the attendant pretty much lost all interest in me, even though there was no one else in the store. She did bring me about 5 dresses that were in my range, but after doing so, she simply left the dressing room and I never saw her again. I proceeded to try on some bridesmaids dresses I found that were available in ivory and I picked out about 3 I really liked. However, there was no one there to notify of this, so my friend and I simply left.\r \r No idea how these people stay in business. I was really offended at how second class I was treated. I also didn't like that their sample sizes are all 8 and 10, which I guess means they cater to the negative size 2 bony-assed private school types. Pros: same day appt, allowed me to bring a camera to photograph myself in the gowns Cons: don't work well with low budget, sizes really small, you can't look at what they have--they just bring it to you more