Woodland Tailoring — Local services in Kentwood

Called to set up an appointment to have 2 dresses altered for a wedding. We arrived on time to our appointment & waited 25 minutes for someone to help us because a walk in customer was taking up time.

We were gracious & flexible, but should have known better...

One dress needed a very minor adjustment at the waist to be taken in.

The other dress needed a minor adjustment in the 1 shoulder (it was a strapless dress with 1 shoulder chiffon overlay that was slightly too long & would have fallen off the shoulder. So it was more for comfort than structure.)

Prior to the appointment we asked if the dresses could be altered in time & were assured that there would be NO issue.

We did the fitting & put on all the paperwork that the dresses were needed by 3pm on a Friday in 3 1/2 weeks.

Again assured - no problem. Alterations never take longer than 2 weeks & since they weren't busy, it'd probably be done in a week.

Ok - great!

4:30 on the day of pickup I arrived & waited 25 minutes for them to locate the dresses.

They hadn't even been started yet!!!!

Internally I was panicked!

I was told I could pick the dresses up after noon the next day.

I calmly explained that the wedding was at 11am & noon obviously wouldn't work.

I was told I could pick the dresses up at 10am.

I explained that we would be traveling to get hair & makeup done 15 miles in the opposite direction & the wedding was 10 miles south of that location - so nowhere near the shop.

They tried and tried to get me to agree to pick up the dresses in the morning, but it just wasn't possible.

I asked why they had the dresses for nearly a month, promised to have the alterations done & hadn't been started? I got a few lame excuses that made zero sense & didn't matter!

What was I going to do at 5pm on Friday night 18 hours from a wedding?

Finally they said that they would do the alterations right then & deliver the dresses to our hotel (we were heading to get mani pedis & wouldn't be available for hours).

Gave them the name and address of the hotel and said a thank you as I left.

Later I get call after call that they can't find the hotel & no one is at the hotel to deliver to and on and on... making mani pedis stressful!!!

I finally got the driver to the hotel (which was straight west of the shop by a couple miles & is a well known established hotel in the area). I also got him to leave the dresses at the front desk.

Problem solved - or so we thought!!!

The next day as the girls are getting dressed after hair & makeup - the dress that needed MINOR taking in at the waist now had a completely destroyed zipper.

We tried absolutely everything we could to get that zipper up!!!! 6 different people, including people who do tons of sewing - couldn't get this zipper to budge! It was all wavy and impossibly destroyed!

Where do you find a seamstress in the middle of a rural area 45 minutes before the ceremony that's 30 minutes away?

The dress was on my 13 year old daughter who was incredibly self conscious and now the entire side of her waist to chest was wide open.

The temporary solution we could do was to safety pin the entire 13" of zipper closed & take allnpictures with that side of her to the back of the church.

So we started the ceremony nearly an hour late because we tried unsuccessfully to get the dress fixed. So that was more stress on top of an already bad situation.

Yes - she walked down the aisle with the side of her dress blown out and skin exposed!

We did pictures and she wasn't comfortable at all.

Then we had reservations for the reception & had to head over there so we could hit the First Communion Mass at 5:30pm.

We finally stopped at the store to pick up needle & thread to whip stitch her in to the dress & give her some sort of comfort other than constantly popping safety pins that poked her & exposed skin.

I called Woodland Monday morning to explain the fiasco & got the run around yet again & never received a call from anyone to apologize, offer a refund of alteration fees, or offer compensation for destroying a...

Nothing but frustration and stress. I don't haphazardly post negative reviews of companies, but this is worth telling. Go somewhere where the quality control and customer service is better.

Woodland Tailoring did nothing to my suit and I found this out on the morning of the wedding. It was a blank suit - the pants had 2 extra feet of fabric on the end, the waist was too large, and the coat wasn't touched (also too large - was supposed to have been altered weeks prior). None of what I was told would be done to the suit was done, and when I called to complain, I didn't even receive an apology.

The details: I live out of town and needed to get fitted for a suit for my brother's wedding (I was the best man). I made a special trip to Woodland Tailoring to get fitted for the suit several weeks before the wedding, and the person who helped me took my measurements and told me the suit could be done within an hour or so. I needed to get back on the road so I asked if my brother, who lives locally just a few miles away, could pick up my suit for me once it is ready. They told me yes that's fine, and that it would be altered and ready for him to pick up the next day, and my shirt would be nicely pressed and ready for the wedding. Just to be sure, my brother waited a few days and then picked up the suit. I arrived back in town the night before the wedding. My brother brought the suit to me the morning of the wedding, where all the groomsmen were getting ready, and nothing had been done to it - it was a blank, unaltered suit. I immediately called the store, and the person never even apologized for such an oversight. They told me to bring it in and they'd get it altered as fast as they could. So I drove 20 minutes to the store (this was 3 hours before the wedding). They altered the pants, but didn't have time to do anything to the coat. I just had to make do with what I had for the wedding, as I was late and very stressed. They offered a few bucks in gas money "for my troubles" and said I could pick out a couple ties or a belt. That wasn't something I was interested in, nor something I could even concentrate on as I was extremely stressed with making it to the wedding on time. Because of Woodland Tailoring, I missed pictures getting ready with my brother/best man, and barely made it to the ceremony on time.

Once the dust had settled, I followed up a few weeks after the wedding, stating that I was very displeased with such an oversight that caused so much stress the morning of the wedding. I was left with a suit jacket that was too large since there wasn't time to alter it during the "emergency morning-of alteration." I asked for a refund, stating that I would gladly return the suit, since I have no use for it being unaltered, and that I believed this was only fair, given the stress they caused the morning of the wedding. I never even received a response.

I recommending choosing another place for your wedding suits - a place with better customer care and...

I have purchased several tuxedos from this business. I always thought they had excellent service. Recently, I realized it's actually EXCELLENT service. Long story short, I was showing my dog over the weekend, and I accidentally forgot my blue tuxedo (also purchased from Woodland Tailoring) at the dry cleaner and yes, they were closed. I literally rushed over to the Woodland Tailoring business - thankful for their longer hours - and I explained to the gentleman at the front that I needed a tuxedo and was open to recommendations. He looked at me and said "Let me see what we can do." After about 10 minutes, he presented me with the tuxedo pictured, and I knew it would be a classic yet stylish choice to show my dog in. I quickly tried it on. He offered to have it tailored for me and ready for me THE NEXT DAY. I don't know if that was favor from God or him being nice - either way - the tuxedo fit me like a glove when I got it home... it fit the occasion, and the judge even commented that I was dressed sharply and appropriately for the trial. I am already looking forward to working with Woodland Tailor for my next tuxedo! Thank you sooooo much Gentlemen!!! You helped me more than you know. These are photos from...