La Belle Elaine's Bridal

09/19/11

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER

by Lee Q at Citysearch

I know this review is long, but I hope that shows you how strong I feel that La Belle Elaine’s customer service was poor. If you don’t have time to read the whole review, here is the general reason I suggest not using them: the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE that I have ever experienced in my life due to their unorganized staff. I have never in my life had to deal with such incompetence and utter lack of respect for customers.

I went to La Belle Elaine’s to rent suits for the groom and groomsmen in my September wedding. In working with Lindsay, the primary contact for suit rentals at La Belle Elaine’s, I was at first very happy with the service that was provided. It was only after we signed up to rent from them that the customer service became so poor.

All of the groomsmen called or came in to give their measurements and each one had a different issue with the staff. The staff was unorganized and often could not even find our order information to be able to record the measurements. The staff did not know how to properly communicate with each other and that made it very difficult to work with them.

When confirming the final order with Lindsay a few weeks prior to the wedding, Lindsay emailed copies of order forms to me for approval that had incorrect information on them. She assured me that the whole order was correct in the computer system even if the order form she sent me was wrong. This is where I made the mistake of trusting her. When we showed a few days prior to the wedding to try on the suits, they were ALL wrong. Half of the pants had been hemmed to be capri pants or shorts and the other half had the wrong waist and/or jacket measurements. All but the groom’s suit had bow ties instead of the regular ties I had originally requested. Instead of apologizing for the errors and being eager to fix them, Lindsay and the staff suggested the blame was with me and with other staff not being able to read their hand writing.

Now the day of the wedding arrives. I have been assured by La Belle Elaine’s that all is in order and that we now have everything corrected. I am getting my hair done, when La Belle Elaine’s calls me. They say that they may not have given the vest and tie to one of my groomsmen. They don’t even know their own inventory and what they let out the door. Now it is my job to try to track it down for them on my wedding day. After many phone calls, I figure out that one of the groomsmen is missing these items. The groomsmen have to make an emergency trip to La Belle Elaine’s to get it. Later on in the day, I find out that the groom is actually also missing items from his order too. This could all be forgiven, except for the final straw. I find out that night, that La Belle Elaine’s called one of the groomsmen the day of the wedding to demand that he pay overnight shipping fees that instant for the suit rental that had to be overnighted because of their mistakes. This call could not have waited a few days after all that they had done wrong?

I have never in my life had to deal with such incompetence and utter lack of respect for customers. The entire bridal party agreed that the wedding was great except for every single person’s interactions with La Belle Elaine’s. If you are thinking of using them for suit rentals, save yourself the stress and rent from somewhere else.

02/17/11

Bad experience!!!

by jacks mom at Citysearch

I was really looking forward to this day, picking out the dress for one of the most important days of my life. I would never buy my gown there or recommend anyone else to either. The gown I tried on was ripped, stretched, filthy and did not even resemble the couture gown I had tried on in another store. Another gown was stained all over the train and I was shocked that they would even have these samples for a bride to try on. The service was unprofessional, the staff did not even leave the room when I was getting undressed, and that made me very uncomfortable. This was not the general practice in any other bridal store I've been to and not acceptable. I left the store in shock that a bridal store in downtown Seattle would have such poor service and product.

09/11/10

Great Experience!

by ScottandLaura at Citysearch

I loved this dress shop! I did not expect to find a dress within my price range here (I first went mainly just to try on swanky gowns and check out the runway), but ended up finding a gorgeous dress I could afford! Stacy was amazingly helpful from start to finish: she didn't try to pressure me into more expensive dresses, she was patient, and she didn't act patronizing just because my budget wasn't enormous. And she really knows her stuff when it comes to bridal gowns and the whole fitting process. I was charged only once for two rounds of alterations and in the end absolutely loved my dress! Thank you La Belle Elaine's!

08/31/10

Dishonest sales practices and Overcharging for services

by MrsBBB at Citysearch

I made the mistake of purchasing my wedding dress at La Belle Elaine's and would warn other brides against doing the same.

As several others have reported in their reviews, I was quoted one price for the alterations by the sales person while I was purchasing the dress - only to discover at my second fitting that the cost was going to be double what was quoted.

At that point I was only a couple weeks from my wedding day and didn't have time to find another place to get the remaining alterations done, so I was forced to continue working with La Belle Elaine's.

The management gave me a slight discount which didn't come close to making up the difference, and then treated me rudely and dismissively in my remaining dealings with them.

Despite several attempts on my part, the manager never gave any resolution for the fact that I had been misled by the sales person and didn't seem at all surprised by it. Having read the other reviews here and on other sites it seems obvious that this is a common practice at this business.

Because I had purchased a sample dress, there was an implication by the manager that I had been given more of a discount than I was, and I definitely felt I was unimportant to the business because I hadn't bought a more expensive dress.

Even after multiple cleanings the dress was covered in stains when I picked it up and the alterations were done very poorly.

Your wedding dress is likely to be the most expensive and most important item of clothing you will ever buy. Comparable businesses in Seattle don't have post, after post on review sites from unhappy customers with stories of bad alterations and being ripped off. I wish that I had read the reviews before I went shopping!

05/10/10

wedding dress

by SydneyL at Citysearch

I have looked forward to trying on wedding dresses just about since I could breathe! And I have dreamed and imagined the moment in which I actually found my dress…the one that makes you feel like the most beautiful woman on the planet! Well, throughout my twenties I was blessed to be in three of my close friends weddings and both of my sisters’ weddings. The saying ‘always a bridesmaid and never a bride’ rang true with me. But even though I wasn’t trying on the wedding dress I still loved going to help them find their perfect dress. Then finally my boyfriend, who I have to say is my match made in heaven gave me the green light to go buy MY wedding dress! It was the day I had been dreaming of. I couldn’t believe it was really happening, I was the bride, my friends were helping me pick out the dress! The day had come! Three of my best girlfriends came with me to La Belle Elaine’s, one even brought bubbly! We picked out seven or eight dresses. At La Belle Elaine’s they have this amazing catwalk for the brides…it even has lights coming up out of it and mirrors EVERYWHERE! Lindsay Ogaard was my saleslady (AMAZING GAL)! She brought me into one of the dressing rooms…oh, btw we had a 6:00 appointment and had the place to ourselves! So she brought me into the dressing room. We tried on the first one. OMG, I hated it! I felt like the marshmallow man in Ghostbusters! It was not good but I still did the catwalk! (If you’re like me and know you’ll never be a supermodel…just go walk the catwalk at La Belle Elaine’s, it fulfilled my desire to be a model plus I got to go have happy hour!) Okay, so I tried on the next dress…again marshmallow man walking through the city being chased by guys in funny suits! I was getting so sad. This day that I had been waiting for my entire life, the day I was suppose to look the most beautiful was turning into the day I was feeling fatter than I did after spending two weeks in France where all I did was eat cheese and drink wine. The third dress I tried on was finally okay…it was a bit Sex and the City…a bit Sarah Jessica Parker. I was feeling better. The hope of finding that dress was returning. Lindsay hung the dress on the “maybe” hook and we tried on the next dress. This dress was beautiful. I went out to the catwalk…my girlfriends seemed to really like it. The dream was sort of coming true, but it wasn’t exactly like I had envisioned it. Lindsay and I went back to the dressing room and I tried on the next dress. Lindsay got the dress up around me and was beginning to get the big clamps on and the moment arrived! I screamed! “The dress! The dress! It’s the dress!” My heart was pounding out of my chest, I was smiling ear to ear, I didn’t even feel like my feet were touching the ground! I floated out to the catwalk…my friends were wide-eyed…they had heard the screams! They stood up, lifted their glasses of champagne…it was the dress, it was the moment, I was the beautiful bride! My dream was no longer a dream, it was reality, it was everything and more…I finally was living the moment of being the most beautiful bride! I am so thankful to Lindsay and La Belle Elaine’s for helping me make my wedding dress shopping dream come true!

• Pros: great dresses, amazing staff
• Cons: NONE