I ordered my dress from Francesca’s in June for my early January wedding in Colorado. Francesca wanted me to order a size up from my measurements but I insisted on buying the size the manufacturer’s chart said I should. They told me I would have a fabric swatch within 2-3 weeks (which I didn’t end up getting until Dec), the dress within 3-4 months, and that they would have no trouble shipping everything to me in Colorado with plenty of time for alterations.
In August I went back to look at veils and Francesca promised to check with the manufacturer to see if she could order matching lace from my gown so they or I could put together a custom, matching veil. Several weeks went by and I moved to Colorado but still hadn’t heard back on the lace so I started calling them. They always told me no one was currently in the shop who could help me and promised someone would call me back but never did. Another few weeks went by before Francesca finally left me a voicemail that she couldn’t order the matching lace.
As the end of October approached I started calling asking for the ship date on my dress. Again, every time I called they said the woman in charge of ordering wasn’t in and she would call me back, but she didn’t. I finally got an associate on the phone that laughed at me and told me that all dresses take 6 months for delivery, not the 3-4 I had been told when I ordered, and she also told me that no swatch had been ordered for me.
In mid November I finally got a ship date from them and they told me the only way for me to get the dress in hand sooner than 2 weeks before my wedding was for me to pay for them to overnight it to me. I finally got them to agree to eat the cost of the manufacturer overnighting the dress to them, and had my dad pick it up to then overnight it to me himself. In the meantime I finally got a swatch in the mail but it didn’t match my dress even though the accompanying letter claimed it was the same fabric.
I finally got my dress less than a month before my wedding date, with a real swatch of my dress but only after several dozen long distance phone calls, $250 for UPS overnight shipping, and more stress than any bride deserves to go through. And to top it all off, the dress was too long and more than a size too big. If I had gone with Francesca’s size recommendation I would have had to have the dress taken in 2 sizes instead of just one. I had the dress altered at a local shop that double checked whether matching lace could be ordered from the manufacturer. It turns out it could but at that point the rush ship date was only a week before my wedding so there wasn’t enough time. If Francesca had ordered the lace 4 months earlier when she said she would check on it, I bet I could have gotten matching lace with which to make my veil. I recommend going to Francesca’s only to try on dresses and ordering from a store that actually cares about customer service and honesty.
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