"HORN Brautmoden" wedding dress nightmare

Dear future brides,

First of all congratulations! buying your wedding dress SHOULD be one of the most pleasurable and exciting things to do when you decide to get married and I hope my tip off will help you make your search a nice one!...

I got engaged in October and sarted the search for 'the' dress very soon after (as you do). I looked in lots of shops at home but didn't find any that I really loved. I decided to make an appointment in a bridal shop in Munich and on my way there stumbled upon HORN Brautmoden on Sonnenstrasse. I went in for a quick look and found the dress of my dreams. The shop was empty and they seemed really nice and let me try it on and even gave me a glass of prosecco when I made the purchase. I knew straight away that was the dress for me so I offered to give a deposit. They told me I would have to pay the total amount (€1800) by December as they had to do the books before the new year. I though they might be spinning a line but I trusted them and paid the full amount by the end of December. She took the sample dress away but promised me mine would be made from scratch.

They told me it would take three months for the dress to arrive and took my measurements. Three and a half months later I heard nothing so I popped in and the woman who served me initially said "no no, four months. It will be here in a couple of weeks". Another month went by so I decided to pop in again to see what the storey was and when I entered the shop the assistant rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath to her colleague. She approaced me and said very impatiently "it's not here yet, come back in another few weeks". I felt very uncomfortable and they treated me as though I was imposing. I wouldn't have minded if they called to even once to let me know what was happening instead of me having to make my there each time. I called after almost 6 months and I made an appointment for the first fitting. I went with a friend who has older daughters of her own and we were both appalled by their behaviour. We arrived 10mins early and they told us we were late!!! The colleague looked at her watch and said " You people always come at the same time"...By "you people" I assume she meant foreigners. My assistant came over and told her it was OK but she seemed to be making code gestures to her when she thought we weren't looking. I got changed and to my horror, the dress was huge despite the fact she took all my measurements and it was stained and the bodice was bally (the way a jumper goes after too much wear). I wanted to throw up. I asked her if she was sure the dress is new and she got very stroppy. She then told me I was too small on top and ran off to get rubber boob inserts. I was quite miffed at this stage and refused to put them near me. The underwear I paid for was missing and they started checking the computer to see if I actually paid for them or not and didn't apologize when they discovered I had! We got out as quickly as we could and my pal agreed it was a shambles.

It got to me so much the next day, I went back to talk the whole thing over. I went in and eyes rolled again but I didn't care, I meant business this time! They ignored me and after 5mins my assistant came over and I demended to see the dress again in daylight. After much faffing around she brought the dress up and I pointed out all the marks and told her for that money it needs to be prefect, and that dress was by no means in decent condition let alone perfect! They were so rude and said "well we were stressed out yesterday and had a headache", that was MEANT to excuse them. I said it wasn't on and told them to have the dress ready as soon as possible so I could take it home. I was going to leave it hanging there but my colleague told me they let her try someone's dress after it was paid for and altered!! Can you imagine that?! I got the dress altered as best I knew they would do it and took it home to a professional to finish it off. All in all I'll spend over €2000 on a dress I now resent as a result of the stress the staff in HORN caused me. They may not think it's serious but it is. It's a lot of money and they know the brides are stuck because they already paid for the dress in advance.

Please be careful girls, try to just give a deposit instead of forking out the full amount or better still, find out the brand and try get it somewhere else. They won't tell you the makers but the label is inside the dress! Take a look and get outta there pronto!

P.S. I'm not the only one who had a similar experience in HORN!...

To make this long storey a bit shorter, when I went for the second fitting the dress was brand new compared to the dirty worn rag they tried to fob me off with the first time. They were still mean and I hated every minute of being there.

Did you have a German speaker along/Is your German good enough to deal with bitches like this?
TT should have a solidarity pool for such cases, I would join up immediately to prevent ex-pats from being ripped off and defrauded of their rights.
For future cases: Get any assurance they make in writing, take a witness (as you did second time around), get receipts.

Well I think you've done us all a favour by quoting this.

It is completely abnormal to pay the complete amount for anything (except maybe a big mac) until the product has been delivered, inspected, tested, and is pronounced satisfactory. No responsible business would ever ask for this, and claiming their accounting procedures makes it necessary is such bullshit. Are they a wedding dress shop or an accountancy firm?

EDIT Have you though of complaining directly to the head office? I assume you also tried to speak to the manager of the Munich shop, and did not get satisfaction?

Hello people!

Thanks for your feedback! It's nice to know other people get ripped off too, not that I would wish that on anyone. I have to say I think being a foreigner had a lot to do with it but the woman who "looked after" me was not a German national. I think she was Turkish or Persian. I tried to get in touch with the owner but no joy! I was going to send a registered letter but I was pretty sure she wouldn't get it and I think people should know exactly what they're like. A refund or apology now wouldn't cut it for me I'm afraid.

As for the other question..I can speak good German and had friends withme who are also fluent and that didn't help!

Cherryblossom.

Very sorry to read about your experience, having just gone through the whole wedding process I can imagine how upsetting it was.

I tried on some wedding dresses in Horn Brautmode last year, and wasn't impressed at all by their service. I think I had the same person as you cherryblossom. First they tried to convince me a particular dress is perfect, when I wasn't at all keen. Then when I said I'm not sure they tried the hard-sell, it was hard to get out of the shop and I was completely stressed by the experience.

At the time I thought it was me being over-sensitive. I put it down to me not being direct enough conflicting with their German directness. But after going to a few other places, I found a much more helpful (and honest!) salesperson in another bridal shop. The whole dress-picking was stressful enough, I wasn't able to handle a bullying salesperson on top of that.

Hope everything else went a bit better?

Funny, sounds similar to the runaround that my friend got who I went shopping with (see the other thread about wedding dress shops). No pressure to buy or anything, but big hassle in the end. The reason they want the money, as far as I have understood it is that they are declaring bankruptcy as my friend did receive a letter from their solicitors and when the dress wasn't delivered on time she communicated with the shop through the lawyer.

Hello again!

It's so nice to hear your feedback! I wouldn't wish that on anyone but it's kind of nice to know it's not just me this kind of thing happens to!...I suppose of that's the worst of it then I'm lucky!

All the wedding plans were smooth sailing, my mother did most of it that's why!ha!...the peperwork was a bit of a nightmare though. If anyone needs ANY advice on marrying in Ireland, I'm your woman! There's so much that you need but nobody tells you anything until a piece of paper is missing. There are two sides to marrying in a Catholic church in Ireland, there's the church end and the law end of things. It's best to do this stuff as soon as you can. I heard on the news that some couple left it a few weeks before the wedding and the marriage certificate office had no appointments left so they had to go to a highcourt judge to get it legalised before they could marry! Imagine THAT stress? THe dress wouldn't even matter then!haha!...

Here's a brief outline of what you need to do if you are planning to marry in a Catholic church in Ireland...

The law bit... You need to fill in a special form (call them and they will send it) and post it to the Births, Deaths, Marriages Office asking for a date to get the marriage license papers. This is a piece of paper that you have to sign in the church on the day to make it legal. This costs a very proud €150 (payable by credit card also) and you must go there with your future hubby/wife and sign it together on front of them. It's not so bad. The appointment itself only takes about 5 minutes but you only get 1 copy and it's an original so YOU CANNOT LOSE IT! They told me a horror storey about a girl who had to do without her make up on the day so she could get in there and get a duplicate. I'd rather not marry if it meant I couldn't wear make up!...anyway, do that as soon as you get engaged. They will post you a written confirmation with an appointment date within a few days...

Address:
Births, Deaths, Marriages
Lombard House
Lombard Street East
Dublin 2
Ireland

The second thing you need to do is get the church things sorted out. This is tricky as you must do a marriage pre course in the country where you reside. This panicked the life outta me because I don't go to mass...You need to write them a brief letter asking for 'permission' to marry in the Catholic church, yes you heard right, you need to ask permission but they never say no! It's just a repect thing I guess. That needs to be sent along with some papers which the priest here will give you when you do your precourse. Contact Father Bill in the English Speaking Catholic Mission on Landsberger Strasse. He's a wonderful man and a total lifesaver. He does these courses all the time! He'll help you with the paperwork and once that's done, you can send it to the Diocese in Ireland. They also usually require a letter of freedom and my advice is only tell them your hometown and Munich because you need one from every parish you lived in for 6 months or longer!!! That's the bit they don't tell you until you put your foot in it!haha!...Father Bill will also provide one of those for you. The priest here has to send it to the German Diocese, they stamp it, OK it and send it back to him. He will call you and you will post it to the Diocese in Ireland and that should be it!
Once they are satisfied, they will send the paperwork to your priest who will perform the ceremony and he should then contact you. I just sent mine this week so here's hoping it's all OK...

If you come from Dublin, send it to:
The Chancellery
Archbishop's House
Dublin 9
Ireland

There are separate ones for other counties so just google Catholic Diocese Ireland and you'll find it there. If that's all too confusing and too much to think about, feel free to Email me and I can go through it over the phone with you!

All the best people!

Cherryblossom

Thank goodness you have all that behind you. Now you have time to share your combined problems you didn't have when you were single.
Seriously, I wish you both happiness, friendship and eternal patience (until things really go too far).