White Rose Bridals, Lichfield www.whiterosebridals.co.uk

In response to the previous review.

With regards to your balance payment, as a business we do sometimes have to make some difficult decisions that do not always sit comfortably with customers, however we as owners do have to look at the bigger picture especially when we have over 200 customers per year to look after.

We always request - as per the terms and conditions of your order that your balance is paid within 7-10 days of your dress arriving. we understood that you were not local and therefore your were given 3.5 weeks to pay, we weresorry that you had to cancel your appointment, and sorry you felt pressured into paying, but non payment can cause all sorts of rolling consequences - you don't pay us, we can't pay our suppliers and future customers dresses can be delayed, and this, is why we could not give you any longer and had to insist on payment. Again, I am sorry if this offended you, but please try and look at it from our perspective.

Secondly, regarding your fault on your dress, under NO circumstances would we or do we ever accept a dress that is faulty. There was NO fault on your dress it is an indentation on the fabric, because of the quality of your material this can sometimes happen. There was no fault in the material whatsoever and your comment is incorrect!

Upon final collection of your dress, the indentation was pointed out again by yourself and your friends. There were many opinions and suggestions happening on what you should and should not do, everyone in the room had an opinion, and like we said on the day, it was somewhat forgotten that YOU are the most important person, the bride. Due to this mayhem I don't think you fully understood our final procedures.

We do ask customers to collect their dresses after their final fitting, and then we like to have your dress back as near to the wedding as possible to do the final preparations.

We made arrangements for you to collect your dress the following week.. Upon checking our current stock levels we felt we were in a position to keep your dress until your wedding, therefore trying to ensure that all your requirements were met - and I agree in hindsight it seemed silly to collect one week to bring it back the next, especially when you are not local but again we always have to look at the bigger picture and it was far easier to discuss things on the phone with you in a one - one conversation.

At final preparation stage the indentation mark would have been addressed, - because the natural fibres of the material have relaxed ( not damamged) then if final steaming etc is done too early the mark can easily re-appear, and therefore - final preparations need to be done as close to the wedding as possible. It was never ever the case that we refused to do this as you insinuate in your review.

I appreciate your comments on communication issues and I will defiantly ensure that procedures are put into place to improve this, so thank you for this constructive feedback.

I am aware we were constantly compared to other bridal shops, especially as your friend has recently purchase another bridal shop over the road from us, however, our commitment is to our customers and our brides, and we do not compare or follow other shops procedures only our own.

Thank you once again for taking the time to offer this feedback, I hope you had a great honeymoon and would like to wish you every happiness in the future.

White Rose of Lichfield Bridal shop; I purchased my wedding dress Auguest 2009 for my wedding this year. I found the shop via searching for a particular dress. The shop on the initial was great, service was fairly ok and they fit the price within my budget £1000 so still not really cheap!

Once choosing a dress and 50% of the payment had been made the after service was extremely disappointing. Once you bought your dress care stops!

My dress came 2 months early & days before christmas, I was hounded for the remainder of the money follwoing its arrival. As i lived some 80miles away (bought dress due to location of family & wedding) they expected me to pay the remainder 50% over the phone...which I did not want to unitl i saw the dress, which thought was reasonable. They were extremley pressuring. On fittins (this lady was independant of the shop & very good)a fault was found on the dress, which i was assued would be sorted out but on final fitting I was pressuresed to sign for the dress and take it home some 3 weeks before my wedding. I did not want to do this because of fault & also I was told I would hve a freshly steamed dress for the wedding. It was a very hard slog & unconfortable conversations for me not to take my dress & the fault to be fixed. The managers were not great communicators and very reactionary! They eventlually agreed to fix the fault in material but i was still to collect my dress 2 weeks before the wedding, then bring it back the day before and have it steemed, they werent even going to do that and claimed it was steamed but yet it was totally disgraceful. They point blank refused to store my dress until the day or so before the wedding (only 2 extra weeks) I checked with friends who had bought wedding dresses from other stores & normal practice is to collect you dress the day or so before the wedding, not the case with White Rose. It was only after going home they called me back up to say they woudl keep the dress, fix the fault & i was to collect the day before, finally i got common sens. But on the day before the wedding when collecting my dress the managers / owners werentevent there to ensureI was happy with the dress? There was no care at all.

There were many smaller issues I had with them but their lack of communication, and as a result I bought my bridesmaids dresses, vail, shoes, tiara from another fantstic shop who had great customer service.

There web site does not allow you to put honest feedback just the solected posiitves ones which I feel is slightly misleading.