Apr 20, 2010

Yari's Story

I was just forwarded an e-mail from a thoughtful friend (thanks @AlejRocha!) that made me wanna puke! It's unbelievable how many wedding-related businesses in Miami have such horrific customer service. I've come across a few...but nothing like this! This is a letter written by the bridesmaids of a newlywed (her wedding was just this past Saturday!) to express the grief she went through with her wedding dress. Something that is supposed to feel like a dream, turned into a nightmare for her. It's a little long, but hang in there--there is a happy ending, sort of.

"We are writing you this story to inform you of a shocking event that occurred at a Miami bridal couture boutique known as Ever After. The injustice this bride had to face was not right and someone needs to be held accountable.

Yarima or Yari, as family and friends know her, was engaged to be married on April 17, 2010. When the moment came to plan for her wedding she knew she better be meticulous as she and her fiancĂ© were paying for the bulk of the preparations. However her mother insisted on buying Yari her wedding dress, as she had spent years saving for this. Yari shopped around for dresses, keeping in mind her mother’s budget. She came across a very well known bridal boutique Ever After in a bridal magazine “The Knot”. Considering it is well known, she never would have guessed how she would be treated. She found a dress at the store that was her mother’s favorite but it was over her mother’s budget so Yari wasn’t so sure. The ladies at the boutique urged her to buy the dress saying, “It is YOUR dress, meant just for you”. She was told if she wanted the dress, she would only be able to buy it at the advertised price that day only, if not the price would be raised. Having just a few minutes to think about it, she finally succumbed to the pressure, fearing that she would lose the dress. Her mother paid 80% of the deposit and signed a non-refundable contract in English, a language she does not speak.

Two days later, Yari called the store and said she wasn’t sure if that was “her dress” and that she wanted to keep looking. The owner of the store, Camile Thierry, said the order had already been placed with Vera Wang and production of the dress had began and there was no way to cancel the order. Doubting that all this could have happened in a matter of hours, Yarima called Vera Wang in New York to confirm the story. Unfortunately, they were not able to give her any details as there loyalty belonged to their vendor.

Because of all the confusion with the dress, one of the employees, Alex, at Ever After promised Yari that she would do all the alterations of the dress for free, along with giving her the veil. The dress Yari bought was strapless, and according to the Church’s rules, she was not allowed to wear a strapless gown. Therefore, they also promised to make a Bolero jacket for the dress for free, if Yari provided the laced fabric.

Nine months later, the dress arrived and Yari began the process of being fitted to the dress. She found a beautiful, pricey, laced fabric for the Bolero Jacket. The seamstresses at Ever After cut down the middle of the lace and sewed it unevenly down the center of her chest. Yari was unhappy and emotional with the outcome. The employees tried to convince her that it looked “perfect” (we have pictures to prove that it wasn’t). When they “fixed” it, they cut out the prettiest part of the lace. Here she was, two days before the wedding, and six alterations into the dress, hurt by the destruction of the lace and by the poor quality of work. There was nothing she could do at this point so she accepted it for what it was. There were more alterations that needed to be done so they told her to return the next day, or the day before the wedding, to pick up the dress.

Yari was so discouraged that she sent her mother to pick it up. When her mom arrived to the store around 2:00pm, the owner, Camile, told her that she was not made aware that they had promised her all the added accessories as inclusive in the price of the gown, which was already $7300 and paid for in full. Her employee had done something very wrong and would pay the consequences by “losing her job”. They wanted to charge an additional $1500 for the alterations and veil, and another $1500 for the construction of the jacket. They had never received a bill or invoice for any further charges. Camile held the dress HOSTAGE and refused to even let them see it until they paid the extra $3000, along with signing a waiver that they would not sue her. After hours of begging to Camile, Yari’s mother pleaded with them, telling them that she was a hard working woman and had saved for this dress as a present for Yari who was paying for her own wedding. Yari’s mom was kicked out of the store and locked out.

Left with no choice, Yari’s mom finally agreed to make the payment. The wedding was in less than 24 hours. However, this was still not enough. Camile said they had to sign the waiver. Her mom refused to do so. Camile said she would rather give them a full refund for the dress than to actually give them the dress. This continued for a painful and emotional FOUR hours. Finally, at 6:00 pm, Yari called her mom and told her to get the refund and to walk away from the Vera Wang dress. She wanted nothing to do with a dress that now signified to her hatred, disgust and negativity. She would rather walk down the isle in a pair of jeans then to be married in that gown. Camile then issued her mother a refund receipt. At 6:00pm, Yari found herself hours from her wedding with no wedding dress.

Phone calls were made and by miracle of God we were able to get a hold of the owner of Chic Parisien, another bridal couture store in Miami, Fl. They willingly and immediately came to our rescue with no questions asked. They heard a bride was in desperate need and within minutes opened their doors. We have the owner to thank, Catherine Fox Milian, and the sales woman, Keidy Agudo Ehret, who was an angel sent from God. By 10pm she had purchased another dress. It was a Rosa Clara gown from the latest Spring 10 collection. That same night Camile began sending Yari texts saying: “this was all a big misunderstanding”. Yari responded by telling her that she already accepted her offer of refund as evidenced by the receipt and to please stop harassing her. Camile then replied with: “Come get your dress as the refund is not valid.” At this point Yari’s mother checked the receipt and realized that the “refund” that was issued was a fake! It did not match any of the numbers to her credit cards, and the receipt read “offline”. Yari had nothing but negative feelings associated with the Vera Wang dress and picking it up was simply not an option after what Camile had put her and her family through. At this point we were all just trying to move forward from the emotional stress and trying to regain any sense of happiness for her wedding was just hours away.

At 9:00 in the morning, Yari’s WEDDING DAY the drama continued. Camile and Alex, the employee who had made the promise to make jacket and alterations for free, continued to harass Yari’s mom and sister. Phone call after phone call, explaining that Yari had to have her dress and she was on her way to drop it off at there house. She showed, banging on the door, while Yari’s seven year old nephew cried in fear. Since they were acting as no one was home, Camile ran to the neighbors houses and knocked on their doors trying to get them to sign a waiver saying that they accepted the dress “as is”. The neighbors refused. She then left the dress on their doorstep and took pictures of their home and of the dress in front of the door for which we can only assume would be used as proof that the delivery was made. She then went to the McDonalds across the street and waited for them to come out. Camile sent Yari a text that read, word for word, as follows: “I dropped off your items at your home at xxxx SW xx St. in the garment bag pocket is your receipt for your full refund for the items received. Best wishes on your wedding day”. Later that day, the neighbor ended up picking up the package for them. He checked in the front pocket to find that there was a contract stating that the package was delivered and the garment was accepted as is, there was no refund receipt as Camile had texted. Yari’s mom called the credit card company throughout the day. No credit was ever issued.

At 3:00 pm, Yari went to Chic Parisien for her first and final dress fitting for her gown that she had chosen just hours before. Thanks to the seamstress, Sira, who did a brilliant job, the dress fit her like a glove. Chic Parisien saved the day!!!!!

In the four hours Yari’s mom spent at the store, Camile mention that “Yari started all this” when she called Vera Wang to verify the dress order. This leads us to ask questions such as, was this planned? How can it be that the very owner of the store did not know what was going on? How can it be that after SIX dress fittings, no one ever mentioned to her a “balance on the account”, gave her an invoice for the Bolero jacket, and conveniently waited until the day before the wedding to mention an extra cost even though she had received invoices for the dress? Why was she so persistent about Yari’s mom signing a waiver to not sue the store? It appears she obviously knew from the beginning she was doing something very wrong. If the employee had done something “so wrong as to promise them free items” then why was she in the car with her the next morning delivery the garment? Why did Camile take pictures of the dress being delivered? It leads us to believe she never had any intentions of refunding them the money and wanted proof that the item that was purchased was given to her at the very end.

Now that it is all said and done and it is obvious that the bride’s mother lost $7300 plus the material of the laced fabric bought for the jacket, who is to be held accountable for all this?

The bridesmaids of the wedding have gotten together and are writing you this letter. We are a respectable group of professional woman in our community (in our late 20s, early 30s) and are really questioning how this organization can just buy their reputation when they are deceiving, and extorting from their clients. Yari is so overwhelmed with grief over this and has decided to move past it. But we cannot do the same. We have shared Yari’s story on Facebook and were shocked to hear how many other brides had had bad experiences with Ever After and Camile. We have made it our mission to let you know the truth behind the woman of Ever After.

We feel that every bride should hear this story so as to make an informed decision as to what they have at risk before purchasing a dress from this store. We promise you here that we will make sure this story reaches the masses.

What was meant to be the most beautiful day of a bride’s life was haunted with a cloud of ugliness and evil. The wedding turned out gorgeous and the bride was stunning in her Rosa Clara gown that has been blasted all over the Internet and Facebook. Many have reacted strongly to this story already because others have had bad experiences at this store as well. If no one ever takes a stand, injustices such as this will never be put to a stop. It is unclear at this point if Yari will ever receive her refund as promised.

Please do what you wish with this story. This is all a firsthand account. None of it is rumored, or hearsay. We wish we had it on videotape as proof but unfortunately only the store has the video cameras and I doubt they’ll be willing to hand it over. We do have proof of the fake refund receipts, and text messages sent, and pictures of the Vera Wang dress as well as the jacket that was butchered during its production. We can go into more details about how the owner and the employees of the store treated their paying customer, especially during that four hour ordeal. We can also give you in more detail the events that took place on the wedding morning. We tried to keep the story as brief as we could but there are many more details that we would be willing to go into if you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

We sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking the time to read this."

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting- wouldn't wish this on anyone!! Hope the word gets around about Ever After's shady customer service.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can not wait to share my story with everyone! I look forward to my wedding day, can not wait for the love of my life to see me as I walk down the aisle. He will be amazed at my gown as well as my Bridesmaid Dresses!

    ReplyDelete

Pretty please leave me a comment! It makes me feel good :)