Are 98% of bridal consultants rude, or do I just have "kick me" on my back?

*checks your back* Nope, Nothin', What's up?

Why don't you tell us exactly what the problem is.. maybe we can offer more insight/solutions?

Oh no, not again! I lucked out. THe consultant I had an appointment with at Alfred Angelo was not only polite and helpful, but she was also a "bigger" gal. I was so darn happy that she was both. This older shaplier bride wouldn't have felt comfortable with a slender youngster. Seriously, she spent 2 hours with me.

Oh no! What now... who do I need to go shank?

Hmm... where's Analy, she can maybe make you a shank while she's getting mine ready

Just going to play devils advocate here. I'm guessing that when "Say Yes To The Dress" aired, the expectations for bridal consultants have changed, or more-so, the expectations for the experience have changed. I am in no way saying that people shouldn't be treated with respect, courtesy and kindness.

Mine was just a complete idiot...the alterations guy actually closed the sale....GEEZ

LOL @ Mrs Crumpet!

I'm just saying that I'm kind, respectful and courteous to them, and over the phone most of these consultants I'm speaking with are acting rude, snooty and disrespectful. I found one shop I just love, I was just there to check their hours for a future appointment, and she brought me in and spent a whole hour chatting with me. But these other women, I'm just asking if they have a certain style# in stock and she is going on in a ~~RUDE~~ tone about how no, they don't, but they have 3,000 Maggie dresses and 2,000 Alfred dresses. I wanted to tell her where she could put those 5,000 dresses!

Ugh, I hate rude CS people. I work CS and I can't stand the tone I hear from some of my co-workers. There is a nice way to tell someone that something isn't available.

Yep! I spent 10 years in CS, and bad CS pisses off us CS people, but RUDE CS just infuriates us!

Now I need to put DOWN the chocolate! lol

I think one thing to remember is that these are not really customer service people, but rather consultants that work on commission. Time is money to them, and they will want to spend as little of it as possible with you before closing a sale.

IDK about her tone, but adding that the store has a great selection of designer dresses would be potentially helpful to most people, especially since Maggie has a lot of similar styles.

Moral: cut them a little slack. You never know how their day is going. Working with the public is tough. Working with brides is tougher.

Didn't have that problem Ran. I in to a pushy sales lady once, but if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have found my gorgeous dress. Hope your venture gets better; what a lot of those associates fail to remember is that our purchases help to pay their salary. I wouldn't give any of them my time or money if they were rude to me. There are tooooo many beautiful wedding dresses in stores and on the internet for anyone to have to put up with rude sales people or sales consultants. Good luck with your shopping, enjoy every second of it!

Ugh, some of the ones I seen were, one of them couldn't speak English which isn't too uncommon here considering we're bilingual, but French wasn't her first language either so it was very hard to understand her... She was also rude... It ticks me off to when they like EVERYTHING on you... its like yeah.. mhmm... I'm onto you... All you want is my money.

I gotta differ with you a bit Analy. In the field of customer survice, no one reserves the right to take a bad day out on a potential customer. At the end of the day, they chose their job and if working with the public is too hard for them, they should seek work else where.

Granted some customers and brides can be hard to deal with, but one thing has nothing to do with the other.The next potential customer should not have to bare the brunt of the employees frustrations with someone else, ever. Especially if they're working on commission. Those employees should be the nicest of all...I'm just saying.

I think for the first time ever, I have to slightly disagree with Analy. Yes, time is money. But they won't be making any money if they're rude to their customers who actually care about customer service. Even if the customer is there for 20 minutes, if they decide to not buy a dress because the consultant is rude (which happened in one case with me), that's 20 minutes of commission she lost out on. She could have made money in that 20 minutes, but didn't because of rudeness.

Also- I'm a firm believer that no matter what kind of day you're having, you should never show it at work. Especially not when you have customers. One customer should not affect how the next customer is treated.

I only found nice consultants at two of the six bridal shops in town, to answer the question lol.

I'm not saying it's ok to be rude...but I would lose patience with someone on the phone checking style numbers when I could be helping people in the store. Make an appointment. Just sayin, especially since this is rant 2 about this today...

I also think that a lot is lost in translation on the phone and in email. You could think that she has a "tone" when she doesn't. Like I said, it's best to go in, or check style numbers online.

One of mine was so sweet and helpful, discussing possible alterations to the dresses, bringing me everything I might possibly want to see, and bringing me dresses with features I admitted I didn't like (pickups, tulle skirts) because I wanted to make sure I tried on a good selection. And then we decided to scale back the wedding, meaning I couldn't buy the one I had picked out with her, and I felt like I had lost a friend. I also realized that I was back to the pushy saleslady at Davids. Grrr.....

I wasn't gonna say anything, because, well, I'm biased.. But I do have to agree with Analy. Working with brides is TOUGH. I'm a bridal consultant at a small bridal shop.. I'm always nice and courteous, and I hate it when people have bad experiences elsewhere because its not necessary. But.. Five minutes before you talked to them, they could've had a bridesmaid-zilla who decided the bridesmaids dresses that the bride picked out are hideous and they are no longer paying for it. Or a wedding was canceled, which is a very big deal when dresses are already ordered.. She shouldn't have taken her bad day out on you, though.

A customer in the store or on the phone is still a customer. They should maybe have to wait to get help a while longer than a customer that's actually in the store, but their needs should be met as well. There are customers out there that can't drive, don't have internet access or many other reasons that keep them from going into the store at whatever given time. I can honestly say that if I call a store for infomation, I expect the same respect and regard that I should get had I come in person.

You should always demand respect, form any business transaction. But I would not expect the same level of attentiveness or customer service. Respect is foremost followed of course by courtesy.

I understand that point, but I was calling a shop 120 miles away - I'm not going to just make an appointment to see what they have 120 miles away. I didn't think that taking 3 minutes for me over the phone was a terrible thing. And if it is - then I don't want to go there anyway.