Frew's Bridal — Local services in Alton

Absolutely FURIOUS with Frew’s Bridal in Alton, IL. So I won a $500 gift card to Frew’s from a bridal show a few weeks ago. I was super excited, but since I had already bought my wedding dress, I decided to have my bridesmaids buy their dresses there and I would get some accessories. So we made the trip, my two bridesmaids, my mom, and myself. First off, the girl in charge of our appointment might of well not have bothered. She was barely around at all, she never helped pick out dresses or give advice, she didn’t help my bridesmaids try on anything, all she did was bring us a color swatch when we asked for it. However, without her help, we picked out a dress, and I picked out some shoes (just so happened to find a pair I liked from the inventory of about 6 choices), and did not find a garter since they only had 2 in stock and looked like they were from 1978. I had them write down all my choices in my file and said I would come back another time to order everything since I had left my gift card at home and they insisted I had to have it in the flesh for them to use. That was fine though, I wanted to look at garters on their website to have them order one along with the bridesmaid dresses. So I came in TWO days later to order and it was a disaster from the start. The first lady that helped me couldn’t even find the bridesmaid dress in the computer system. Luckily, we found the dress on the rack and she was still not able to find it in the system so she was done for at that point. The next lady that “helped” me, Connie, must have been my mortal enemy in a past life because she instantly was snotty, rude, and disregarded everything I had to say. She said they would have to put the dress style in the system first and that they couldn’t do it tonight. No idea the logic behind that, the dress is not new from what I can tell. So I ask for the shoes in my size and Connie snottily makes the other lady go get them for me while she looks at my gift card. She then informs me that the gift card is for wedding dresses only, and I tell her that I already called the manager before this trip and she said I could use it for bridesmaid dresses, shoes, etc. She reluctantly agrees to this, but then happily she notices that on the gift card it says “IN STOCK ONLY”. So not only can I not get my bridesmaid dresses ordered and use the gift card, I also cannot order a garter from their website. I can only choose from the sweat stained and ripped dresses that a million other girls have tried on. Even then, what are the odds we find a dress I like, in the right size and the right color from the floor? Connie recommended I choose a wedding dress from the floor. I told her that I already had a wedding dress, and after a couple minutes of explaining that difficult fact, she recommended I buy a prom dress. I am a 26 year old tomboy- I don’t need a prom dress. Well she didn’t like that I shot down that great idea so her attitude deteriorated even more. I tell her screw it I will buy the only thing I want in stock, the shoes, so can she ring me up. She does, and then tells me what I owe for tax. So I have to pay tax on my own and its not included in the gift card. What’s the point of the gift card? Clearly, it was never meant to be actually used and because of all this dishonestly and poorly handled situation by even lousier employees I will NEVER go to Frew’s again and always discourage others from wasting...

I found my dream dress while on vacation in another state but decided to wait and try on more dresses locally once I got home before deciding. I looked around and realized Frews had the dress I originally tried on at a much cheaper price as well as other dresses I wanted to try so I made an appt. when I got to my appt I tried to check in at the desk, the First Lady that came up said she would be with me shortly and the second lady seen me and then walked away. After waiting there for over 15mins I decided to walk to the other side of the desk to the lady that had walked away and asked if she could check me i because my appt was getting ready to start. She apologized and checked me but told me that the saleswoman assigned to my appt was still busy with another bride so to just look around. When it was finally my turn to try on dresses the saleswoman handed me each dress and told me to slip it on unlike the other stores there they opened each dress up and help you get into them. During one dress change she actually walked out of my room and left the door wide open as I was changing that the salesman had to shut it for me so another bride could use the mirror in the hall. Once I was ready to purchase the dress I was measured with my clothes on which I though should have been with my clothes off as I would not be wearing clothes under my dress or that bra so I am praying the correct dress size was ordered as I won’t know until it comes in. Also the whole reason for some to Frews and not ordering my dress elsewhere was for the price and when I checked out the price given to me was more than the price at the other storeI had ordinally found the dress at. When I asked why this was, I was told it was because their online price was different than their in store price. Also the dress I purchased came with a special that stated free shoes & veil with purchased. I seen this online before coming to my appt. the saleswomen helping me NEVER mentioned this at all. I had to ask myself while checking out only to be told this is not the case as I would receive a $170 credit toward the purchase of these not them FREE and this info was not put on my receipt for future reference but only in their system. So not only did I end up paying more than I had originally bargained for, the customer service was not the best or helpful but I ordered a dress I am not even sure I was fitted correctly for and won’t know until 4-6 months right...

I was so excited to go to Frews and drove 2.5 hours after reading reviews and having one personal referral. I was ready for the best but I had a horrible experience at Frew's! The attendant helping me complained the whole time about the bride before me and how she tried on too many dresses. She also complained about how tired she was the entire time. I understand that she has a hard job, but she put me in a debbie downer mood from the beginning of the appointment. She told me to pull dresses that I liked and then chastised me for pulling more than the maximum (which she didn't mention.) I had found several styles on the website that I liked but they don't carry those in store so she didn't even look at what I had picked out. When trying on dresses I had to have my MOH come in and help me put the dresses on because the attendant would take them off the hanger and just hand them too me (while she complained). She paid no mind to my budget, I would ask how much a dress cost and she would say, "Oh I didn't even look." Or say, "Well it's only a couple hundred over." I had a tight but reasonable budget of $1,000 and she kept putting me in $1,500 dresses. I wasn't finding anything that I loved and she told me that I didn't have to "love" my dress I just needed to find something I liked. She was short with me and acted like I was being completely unreasonable, but I'm a super chill person. I should have asked for a manager in the middle of my appointment but I didn't. From reading all of the other reviews it sounds like I got a rare bad apple at this place, but it was enough for it to ruin my entire experience. I would never recommend them. I don't write bad reviews, but after the urging of my mom and the two bridesmaids who were with me, I decided to tell about my experience so maybe Frews can look into it or ward off a bad experience another...