So today, armed with advice from previous and current wedding planners, I took myself, my trusty mother and my newly acquired wholesale shopper card to my new favourite place, Country Baskets.
We had an idea in our heads of what we were after so we did try to stick to our plan of action as much as possible. But when you're in a place like that, you simply can't not stray from your shopping list. It's like an Aladdin's cave of goodies. It has every kind of artificial flower under the sun - so much so that at one point I considered cancelling my florist and buying everything they had in Country Baskets. Thankfully, I didn't follow through on that - I can't imagine my mum & soon-to-be mother-in-law would appreciate a thank you gift of artificial blooms in a wicker basket, no matter how pretty they may be.
Anyway, after a lot of oohing and aahing and 'oh my god look they have these!' we finally dragged ourselves down to the glassware aisle to stock up on fishbowls for the piece de resistance. Only we didn't quite come away with that. Instead we discovered rectangular cubes that slightly curve inwards on each side (if that makes the slightest bit of sense) that are going to look HASHTAG amazeballs with flower heads (artificial naturally), tea lights and crystals all up in there.
Actually reading that description back sounds a bit My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding like... I swear that's NOT how it's going to look. I'm not planning on stitching a diamante cat to my wedding dress, I promise.
Within an hour I had spent £95 and had all the materials required to deck out all 10 tables at the wedding - that's not bad going and heaps less than I would have spent had I just decided to get my florist to do it all. Stress over *smiley face*
However, you know what they say about one door closing and another door opening? As I managed to delete one stressful thing from my to do list, another reared its ugly head almost immediately.
A few weeks ago I had my first bit of drama since I got engaged and started planning our wedding. Considering it's been almost a year, that's quite impressive. I had to return the four bridesmaid dresses that I bought in November. At the time when everyone tried them on, it was hard to tell how they really looked because none of the sizes available to try were really appropriate. Note to retailers, having 'sample' sizes of 6 and 20 hanging on your rails doesn't really suit the masses.
So a few weeks ago when the dresses did come out for a fitting I can safely say it wasn't good. There was no question about it, they couldn't be worn. So I faced the challenge of trying to persuade BHS, where I had bought the dresses, to accept them back and give me a credit note in exchange. I certainly wasn't going to try to get my money refunded to me because I was well outside of the 28 day return period.
In order to do this, I had to call BHS's 'customer service' hotline. Basically you're playing call centre roulette because you just don't know what you're going to get on the other end of the line. After being 'number one in the queue' for 30 minutes (Kudos on the 0845 number by the way) I finally got to speak to an actual human being. Except she wasn't an actual human being at all. She was a cold, heartless, robotic beeeyotch who a) wouldn't give me her name, b) told me she was 'not willing to help' me - 'AT ALL' and c) actually hung up on me when I asked if I could speak to her supervisor.
Cue red mist.
Naturally I called back - knowing I would instantly recognise her voice if she was unfortunate enough to pick up the phone to me again. Luckily for her, someone else got to my call first. And she was exceptionally helpful - told me that I could absolutely return the dresses because they're among the most popular stock and are still for sale both online and in-stores, and would be for the foreseeable future. She explained that she couldn't give me a money refund but would be delighted to give me a credit note for the outstanding amount.
Perfect.
Except this is BHS we're dealing with and it would appear that NOTHING is ever simple with BHS. In fact, as I'm writing this, I'm seriously considering a strongly worded letter of complaint to Sir Philip Green himself.
I was asked to send the dresses back by special delivery, and that I would also be refunded for that cost. I did so the next day. They even called me to confirm the dresses had been delivered and told me how much, including the delivery cost, I was due to get back on my credit note. With that in mind, I took my bridesmaids back to BHS in Glasgow where they all tried on a different style of dress, which they all loved and looked fabulous in. As soon as my credit note arrived, I would buy the new dresses.
But my credit note never arrived.
After two weeks I called BHS to find out what had happened. I was told that 'an administration error' meant the credit note had been overlooked and had not been sent out to me (which, by the way, I was clearly aware of) - I was told that someone would call me the following day to 'discuss' this.
THREE days later "Phil" (I presume not SIR Phil) from BHS called me in regards to my 'inquiry about returning some dresses' (straight away I knew we weren't going to get along). After explaining things to him (and name dropping the very helpful girl I had spoken to two weeks previously) he said he would 'have to look into things to make sure that this is OK to do'.
Cue red mist. Again.
So it had been 17 days - BHS had not only my money, but my dresses. I was £500 down with nothing to show for it. Apart from a few grey hairs and potential high blood pressure.
Today, four weeks since making my original phone call, and 27 days after returning the dresses, I finally spoke to someone who told me that they had just refunded the money back to my card, which would show up on next month's statement. This, naturally, works out better for me as it means I no longer have to buy my replacement bridesmaid dresses from BHS. In fact I'll NEVER buy anything from BHS ever again thanks to their delightful customer service. However, it begs the question - if I just got told today they had 'just decided' to refund the money to me, it means for four weeks my emails and requests for information were ignored. There was never any movement to process a credit voucher for me - it's almost like they thought if they ignored me, I would just go away.
It took me four weeks, countless phone calls and emails, to get to this point. My stress levels, as a result of this alone, have been sky high. I was passed from piller to post, my emails were ignored, I was on hold for, at times, 50 minutes before I could speak to someone (remember, 0845 number) and I even TWEETED the company (still waiting for a reply FYI) - I will never use the services of this company ever again.
Part of me knows I'm cutting off my nose to spite my own face. I love the dresses the girls tried on when we went shopping a few weeks ago. They looked stunning in them and they're great value for money. I know that now I need to round up my busy bridesmaids again, one of whom is trying to plan her own wedding too, and drag them around the shops in Glasgow looking for replacement dresses. I'm well aware that I'm putting myself under pressure because I get married in just over four months. But I am determined that BHS is not getting my money - so what's a girl to do??
Anyone know of any amazing bridesmaid dress shops in Glasgow and/or Edinburgh??? Answers on a postcard...or below ;-)
As always, watch this space.
Nice article..
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