Lasting Impressions Formal Wear — Local services in Columbus

I’m not one to usually write a review, and will gladly remove this post, but hope that with this post the owner will become aware of the experience that was had on 11:29:23.

I had called the store prior in the day to see if an appointment was needed and was told there was no need for an appointment.

My husband and I had a black tie event coming up, and I thought it would be fun to get a new dress for the occasion. I called my husband prior and asked him to go with me, and thought how much fun it would be to have a “Pretty Woman” moment trying on dresses, and having him pick out his favorite.

We walked into the store, and the two young ladies working were on their cell phones texting away engaging with each other in conversation.

They asked us if we were looking for anything in particular, and with excitement I shared we had a fun black tie event and were looking for something festive for the holiday.

The young lady told us “well unfortunately we cater to pageant and prom dresses and we don’t have what you are looking for.”

With out stating the obvious I kindly said well “ I’m in need of a dress, and you seem to have plenty of them.”

Walker, my husband wanted to start with the black dresses to which they both informed us we could see the store was color coded and the black dresses were over to the side.

We made our way throughout the entire store with no offer of help, the girls continued on about their conversation playing on their phones. Knowing the workforce we are dealing with today it honestly didn’t bother me a bit.

I found a gorgeous dress with a stunning massive bow on the back like a beautifully wrapped gift. I loved it, and immediately took it off the rack and told the young lady that I would like to try it on.

She told me it was a Couture dress and that typically dresses such as this one required an appointment to try on. Mind you that there was not a soul in the store but myself with Walker and the two employees. I paused, and she continued without hesitation that a dress like this one would typically cost 2,000.

At this point I felt the need to help educate the young employee. I told her price is the last thing you should ever mention in a sale, and that because of how she made me feel I wanted nothing to do with the dress.

I quickly realized I had my own “Pretty Woman” moment but not the moment anyone would ever want to experience. They made it clear we weren’t welcomed from the very first step into the store.

I’m not ashamed to admit my husband has bought me gowns from traveling far exceeding their couture line. He is a giver and spoils me far more than I deserve. Now granted at that point in life we didn’t have kids and perhaps spent freely, but it’s simply the principle.

People will never forget how you...

I had a good experience until I was ready to check out. We arrived at the store around 2:30 and they closed at 5:00.After trying on several different dresses, we decided on one. I took the dress to the counter and the young lady asked for my information during that time I asked about repairs for the dress because it did have a few holes and patches of sequins that were missing. The lady entering my information in the computer asked the other lady if she wanted to look at the dress with me to see what needed repaired, the lady proceeded to shake her head no (WOW) I thought at first she was only kidding but her attitude did not reflect she was. I was then told that they were booked and it would be better if I could find another place to do the repairs and they could give me 20% off the price of the dress. The lady that didn't want to look the dress over calls another employee over to see if she can fix the holes and spots of sequins missing. I asked the employee if she would have enough time to get it fixed and she said "well I mean I can work on it during my shift!" I wasn't asking her to do anything outside her shift (geez). While we are discussing repairs and everything the young lady taking my information told me that someone else at my daughters school had the same dress but in a different color. She told my daughter that she could still get the dress if she wanted to but she was just letting her know that someone else had one just like it. At this time it was approaching 5:00, my daughter had another dress that she wanted to try on again to make sure she was totally happy with since someone else already had the other one, as we were walking to get the dress a worker comes up and says sorry we are closing. I told my daughter to go ahead and try the dress on (5 mins max) she wasn't totally happy with it so we decided to wait since we had no more time to try on dresses. Overall, I totally get that you don't want to work past closing time but come on 5 min? to make a $600.00 sale? And you cant put a price tag on great customer service. They made my daughter and I feel like they couldn't care less if they sold us the dress or not. I have heard good and bad things about this store but I try to always give the benefit of the doubt. This is my daughters senior prom and choosing the perfect dress may not be important to that group of ladies but it is to me and my daughter. I pray that every girl that steps in that store has an awesome experience and doesn't leave feeling unimportant...

Update: The owner responded that someone (staff) helped us the entire time and that the staff was told by us that we were "just looking". The owner may have mistaken us for other customers. This was NOT us. I stand behind my assessment that the staff were "somewhat helpful". Our interaction with the staff included being met at the door, handed a number with an explaination of how the number works, taking 2 dresses from my arms to hang near the dressing room and opening a dressing room door. That was all. The service was fine! No complaints, thus, "somewhat helpful", but nothing over the top. In otherwards, the bare minimum. That is OK. Again, No complaint there! But, lets not act like the staff was over attentive in helping us find a dress. That did not happen. We looked thru the racks on our own.

Here is my original critique: Would have loved to buy my daughter one of these beautiful dresses and I was prepared to pay, knowing they are expensive but EXQUISITE dresses. If you are a size 6 or 8 you are in luck and you will find MANY, MANY, gorgeous dresses that will work for you. If you are a size 14, as in our case, you will be lucky to find a couple of dresses. We found 2 size 14's!! I could sense the sadness in my daughter, that she would not be finding a prom dress here. She is a bigger girl and there just wasn't a selection here for girls of her size. She tried a few 12's, hoping they would work. They did not. It was also not much fun searching thru all of the colors to find that hopeful size 14 dress that we needed. They are arranged by color not size. I don't understand, nor do I like this arrangement, because size is a MUST, but color can be more optional or a choice. So, one is destined to look thru many beautiful dresses without much luck if you are bigger. I feel really bad for the girls that are bigger than a 14....you will be mostly out of luck here. And if these dresses "go quickly" as was previously stated by management, then I would say that obviously there is a need for these bigger sizes...and why not make more of them available then, knowing that is the case.(??) We left empty handed, and had to go somewhere else. At a different store, we found a dress in her size, in about 30 min., they actually had numerous bigger girl sizes. Sorry to say, there isn't much reason for us to go back to Lasting Impressions, unless we order online from them. I did feel the staff here were...