I had the misfortune of purchasing my dress at La Belle Elaines and have regretted it immensely. I was quoted one price for the alterations when I purchased the dress, after talking with the sales person about exactly what I would need done, and then charged twice as much once they were completed. The dress came back stained, damaged and the alterations were done horribly so the dress no longer fit well and didn't look good at all on my wedding day. The manager of the store was completely unhelpful, rude and confrontational when I tried to deal with the issues.
Even though I purchased my dress months in advance, there was no time to get anything fixed by the time the alterations were done and I just had to live with it. I don't like to even look at the photos of the wedding, because the dress looked so horrible.
I've read several similar stories online. It appears it's the standard for their staff to intentionally mislead customers and not stand by the alterations done there.
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