I went to Berketex in Manchester Arndale in February with two of my bridesmaids to try on dresses. The second dress I tried on I fell in love with and whilst it was £600 over my budget I felt this was ‘the one’.
Obviously me being a good size 18 with a G cup bra this size 14 sample that I tried on was made to fit on me by the very experienced Lana. The dress I chose had a corset type bodice on top; I asked again and again if I went ahead and ordered it that the one I received would fit my properly; any girl with a big chest would have the same concerns; I was assured that this is why they take my measurements so that the dress would fit me perfectly. I was also warned not to lose weight as the dress could only be altered in by up to one size. I decided on the same day to buy the dress; this was only the second ever wedding dress I tried but thanks to Lana’s persuasion and the offer of a ‘that day only’ discount I went for it paying out £1325 for my dress.
Over the weekend I thought more about the warning not to lose weight and I decided on the Monday to go back and order everything two inches smaller – thank goodness I did!!!
I was told that my dress would be ready 8 weeks before the wedding and I phoned the shop with 6 weeks to go having not heard anything.
They told me that it would be ready with 4 weeks to go – I expressed concern at this and was told that it was only for a ‘pick up’ and that I would not need alterations and not to worry.
When it was down to 3 weeks to go and still no dress I was really worried and phoned the shop a few times; I was asked to come in the same week for my fitting. Starting to get stressed to say the least.
I went to the shop for the first fitting; bearing in mind my measurements had been taken and I ordered the smaller size i was confident it would fit. Lana the original sales lady did the fitting. The dress DID NOT FIT AT ALL on the bodice; it was gaping so much i could put both of my hands down the front and this was when it was tied to the very tightest at the back. I was gutted but Lana assured me that it would be altered to fit me ‘perfectly; I then had to pay an additional £180 for these alterations!!!
The following week – 2 weeks to wedding – I returned for the fitting to be met by a completely new lady; Lana was nowhere to be seen. We got the dress on and I explained my concerns about it being SO ill fitting; this lady explained that she had never seen me in the dress so didn’t know what the original fit was. I stated that when i ordered it i was assured that it would fit me perfectly. She told me in no uncertain terms that this would not be the case as all dresses are made in a standard C cup!!!!!
I was furious to say the least and really upset. I was NEVER told this when I tried on the dress as clearly taking a G cup I NEVER would have bought it!!!! I believe I was completely missold this dress just so the shop could make a sale. I was devastated. The alterer told me she would do her best to make it fit as best she could but that it WOULD NOT fit me 100%
When i left the shop in tears I phoned Berketex head office explained what had happened and was told they would ring back. In the meantime I posted what had happened on the hitched.co.uk website.
After 3 hours and no call back – 2 weeks before my wedding!!! I phoned head office again and they said they would chase it. The alterer then phoned me from the shop and said she promised it would fit me okay. She then phoned back later to ask me to remove my comments from the website; I said I would when i collected the dress and was happy with it.
Turns out Berketex and Hitched.co.uk have a better relationship than most as they removed my forum altogether and when i queried this i was told by Hitched.co.uk that their suppliers and advertisers were very important to them and detrimental reviews would be removed!!!!! What happened to free speech??
The following week – 1 week to the wedding I went back to the Berketex shop to be met by yet another lady i had never seen before who was quiet snappy and stated she had also never seen the dress on me and couldn’t comment on the fit. We put it on and whilst it definitely fit alot better than it had it still didn’t fit even remotely properly or comfortably. At this stage I had no choice though but to take the dress.
On my wedding day I wore a £1325 dress that should have been perfect; Instead i had two big air pockets where my G cup boobs should have tried to fit into the C cup that was boned into the bodice. This in turn pushed my boobs down towards my waist ruining the corset affect and making it impossible to sit for any length of time and impossible to eat......
Thanks to Berketex my day was ruined in more ways than one and i would discourage any bride from shopping in there. You pay that much for a dress you want the best; what I got was so far from the best it’s unreal and I got to pay an additional £180 for the pleasure. DO NOT SHOP HERE!