I searched high and low all over the country for a Rina De Montella dress in a size 8. None of their dealer stores had one and the lead time to order was going to be too long. I called 12 Rina dealers from accross the country to no avail and this was a $1600 dress so they were defintely motivated to find it to sell. \r
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Desperate to make something happen, I thought if I called a high volume shop in NYC (close to fashion central) I might have a shot if I could find a Rina dealer that had a closer relationship with the factory rep.\r
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I called Lestan's and got Eva on the line (I am from the Midwest) and she was very helpful. No, Lestan's did not have the dress in stock; however, she made the effort, called her contacts and found the dress! \r
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THEN, I read some of the Citysearch ratings and I got the crap scared out of me WOW some of them are so negative. I called Eva back WORRIED that I had just given my credit card info to a blackhole. She sympathized, was not offended at all and immediately got me on the phone with her Rina factory representative to assure me that I had no fears. \r
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That felt better, but I had still had doubts because of all these negative reports and the fact that all the other factory stores couldn't get me a size 8 when they called Rina HQ. Was I being had? Nonetheless, I rationalized (having dealt with the public before) that on a site like this for every very motivated bad experience poster their are easily 1000 very happy endings that do not get reported. \r
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Short story shorter: Rina rep got the dress to Eva within two days. Eva got the dress to me within a week from my first call to her! The service was fantastic the communication was outstanding and the new dress that could not be had by anyone else across the country from LA-Chicago-PA-AZ to finally and thankfully, I called Lestan's where it was found and will be worn at my son's wedding.\r
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Thank you very much Eva for doing the impossible and making it so easy for me. You ever need anything in my neck of the woods - please call, I owe ya one! \r
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Pros: Did what they said they could do when no one else could!
Cons: Negative ratings here scared me...but for no reason
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