Brides Take Caution
Readers note: This is a special post concerning a specific issue that needed to be brought to the attention of brides. This blog isn’t about weddings, it’s about finding vintage items. Visit my other posts (to the right and below) for regular posting.
1/8/13 Update: Rose Tree has deleted their reviews and comments section from their Facebook page. Please visit Yelp to add your story and review.
The Rose Tree Bridal Boutique, located in Ceredo, West Virginia, was completely dishonest in our transactions with them during the fall of 2013. Purchasing a wedding dress and accessories from Rose Tree resulted in having to spend nearly $1,000 to fix its mistakes. The Rose Tree claimed it was ordering a Size 0 for my wedding (in a dress we later found out isn’t made in a Size 0).
After a late arrival (and being charged for rush shipping) the dress did not fit, and it became very clear that they had taken the floor-model Size 10 dress and altered it. The dress had to undergo $630 in alterations to be wearable. The veil came with a hole in it, and we were sold a used floor-model belt and headband for full price. We have discussed the situation with the personnel, but they refuse to refund any money because we did not take the dress back to them immediately. But why would we? We knew they were being dishonest about the dress the whole time.
I am providing specific details below. Do yourself a favor and do not do business with this boutique.
Costs:
• We paid $308.00 for the dress and now have a $639.00 alterations fee plus a $26.50 rush charge
• We paid $480.00 for a veil that had a hole in it and ended up with a $280.00 veil because we couldn’t get the veil we ordered (they reimbursed us $200.00 but not without prodding).
• We paid $306.00 for a used belt with a set missing that had been used on the floor. The Dressmaker’s Closet altered and repaired the belt.
• We paid $352.00 for a headband that had makeup all over it because it had been used on the floor. The Dressmaker’s Closet altered and repaired the belt.
September 10, 2013:
We visited the Rose Tree to shop for a wedding dress. I found a dress in the store but it was a Size 10. Amy, the assistant, took clips and fitted and pulled the dress to show me what it would look like if it were a smaller dress. I was measured, and a Size 0 was ordered. We were told the dress would be in by October 10, 2013. They said they would call when the dress came in.
October 15, 2013:
Days after the dress was supposed to be in, and still no calls, we were getting worried about the dress coming in on time, so my mom and I emailed a couple bridal companies that carry the dress and inquired about it. Our first question was, “Does it come in a size 0?” Their reply was, “This dress only comes in a 2” (red flag). We asked Rose Tree about this, and the saleswoman said she didn’t know the specifics of the order but that I would probably get a Size 2 and they would have to alter it.
October 21, 2013:
The dress arrived, 11 days late.
October 22, 2013:
My mom went to pick up the dress while I was out of town. They brought the dress up front and hung it up in a clear bag, not an actual manufactured bag from company. Everything was there except for the veil. The cashier told my mom the veil was at the alterations shop (red flag: this meant they were giving us a floor-model for full price). She was told we had to pay a rush shipping charge on the dress. She brought the dress home and inspected the dress, there were loose threads between the tulle and lining. A day later, I arrived back in town and tried on the dress. It did not fit like a Size 0 or 2…it did not fit at all.
October 27, 2013:
Due to our time constraint and lack of trust with Rose Tree, we took the dress to a reputable seamstress in Charleston. Julie Wirts, owner of The Dressmaker’s Closet, told us that there were obvious signs this was a Size 10 cut down. The “1” on the Size “10” tag was cut off to appear as a Size 0. The “1” was erased from the paper tag hanging off the dress to look the same way. The entire bodice of the dress had to be refitted with new fabric. Additionally, the belt was missing a jewel, and the headpiece was stained with makeup from people trying it on in the store.
The bustline of the dress was obviously a Size 10, not a Size 0.
The waist had been altered to a 24-inch waist, but the back was left as a Size 10. It was clear this was not a manufactured Size 0.
The “1” from the “10” was scratched off the ticket to make it appear as if this were a Size 0.
The back and shoulders were huge. All this fabric had to replaced with new fabric.
This is honestly the most bizarre part of it all: They literally cut the “1” out of the Size “10” and left the “0.”
November 6, 2013:
I received the veil via UPS. There was hot glue visible on the comb area, the length was wrong and there was a huge hole in it.
November 7, 2013:
The next morning we went to talk to the manager (Debbie) of Rose Tree. We showed her the veil with the hole in it and said we wanted our money back. She asked if we wanted to look at the veils that they had in the store. We found a veil similar to the style of the original veil. She steamed the new veil in the back and brought it out to us. I asked her how much the veil was, and she said, “I don’t know, I threw the tag away.” I said, “The one I brought back was $480.00, and I need to know how much this one is.” She came back and the veil was only $280.00. I told her I wanted my account credited for that amount. We then told her we have bigger problems and proceeded to tell her about the dress.
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All this is to say: think twice about giving business to this boutique. My experience with them caused alot of unnecessary frustration. We lost alot of money in this process and we don’t want you to do the same.
If you have had a similar experience with Rose Tree please rate them on Facebook, Yelp and help spread the word.
Thanks so much to Julie at Dressmaker’s Closet for fixing this mess (this is not the first, Rose Tree dress she has had to repair). I don’t know what we would have done without you. Wedding-day photos by Rachel Rowland.
This is my personal account with the boutique.
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TAKE ACTION
After posting this, I was shocked by the number of people who also experienced issues and commented on my Facebook post. PLEASE share your experiences below and on the following pages:
Wedding Wire (Rose Tree reviews page)
Rose Tree’s on Facebook (they have removed their reviews section due to the overwhelming amount of posts)
WV Weddings (to alert other brides)
Rose Tree on Yelp (all negative reviews are hidden here)
UPDATE:
Rose Tree responded to our complaint to Better Business Bureau with misinformation.
Please read and share.
I had similar problems with The Rose Tree. They tried to sell me the one off the rack when I originally ordered for a 10% discount, but I said something like, “no, I want to pay more to have a new one that is my own.”
I went to pick up my “brand new” dress and it was dirty and had a few damaged spots it in. It was quite obvious that they had let someone wear the dress in a bridal expo or had tried to give me the one off the shelf and pass it off as new. They offered to have it dry-cleaned, but I refused that because my “brand new” dress should not need to be dry-cleaned. They took no responsibility for why it was dirty and claimed “we would never let another person wear it in a show or even let them try on your dress.” They blamed the manufacturer for shipping problems. We called the manufacturer to let them know they were being blamed for sending a bad dress. I pulled some lawyer lingo out on them and told them I better have a new dress within 4 weeks…I got it. Alterations were going to be rushed, so I did not let them do alterations.
Thank god I had my mom and sister there when I tried it on before taking it out of the store because I was so excited to see it again that I might not have ever noticed the defects.
I was happy with my dress in the end, but I always let everyone know the problems that I had with them.
I am so glad you’re sharing, Elaine! Honestly, I was so exhausted/frustrated/angry that I didn’t even feel like complaining after my experience. My mom, aunt and myself headed to The RoseTree early Spring 2013 (My wedding date was May 7). I knew the exact dress I wanted … Watters “Posey.” The sales lady was very rude the instant we walked in … as if she had no time for someone who didn’t want a traditional wedding gown. This instantly upset me, but my mom calmed me down and on her OWN, had to find something similar for me to try on (please keep in mind we had called several weeks in advance to schedule an appointment and ask if they had the dress, we were told no).
I measured at a size 4 and was told the dress would arrive in roughly a month. Well, just like you, Elaine, that date came and went. My mom and I called every day for two weeks … finally (roughly a month and a half AFTER the scheduled arrival date) the dress came in. When I arrived, I noticed instantly the dress a) looked HUGE and b) had the wrong color sash. Yep – they ordered me a size 10 and the wrong sash color.
I also had purchased a veil there and asked them to clean it up … they did nothing to it and charged me extra money to do so. After that, I packed up the dress, paid my balance and left. I had a gut feeling things wouldn’t get any better. Also, as I was walking out, what did I find on a rack? The Watters Posey dress! They had a sample all along.
I took the dress and veil to Julie at the Dressmaker’s Closet and being the amazing seamstress she is … she fixed it. She also made me a new sash.
While my story isn’t quite as bad as yours, I would never wish it upon anyone. It was stressful and expensive and time consuming. Never, ever, ever go to The RoseTree!
I turned them in to the attorney generals office over a year ago for a situation I had w them just trying to purchase a bridesmaids dress. I think they knowingly tried to overcharge me. The AGs office pursued it but I’m not sure what ever came of it. You should sue them Elaine. No one deserves such a negative cloud over their wedding. I think you would definitely have a case against them. They shouldn’t be in business! Thanks for sharing
I did report them to the Attorney General’s office in WV and was told that nothing could be done since I got my merchandise. They measured my daughter and ordered the size she needed. When the dress came in, wrong size, did not fit her–was told we could not cancel because they ordered it in. They assured it could be altered to fix without any problems. It was too small so it had to be made larger. They made a mess out of it. I have never seen such poor alterations. I took pictures of it so everyone could see the mess. Co-workers were shocked of the mess it was. We had to pay for the alterations, the mistake they made by ordering the wrong size, and yet made it look terrible. They even had put an hole in the sheer part of the dress. They treated us like dirt and said nothing could be done. Apparently they have done this before and went down this road before. They should be put of of business. My daughter did not get to go to the prom because the gown looked terrible and was actually coming apart. Her father did take it back and got some money back but the we lost over 150.00 on it. I guess we were lucky to get what got. I warn anyone….I’ve heard too many cases of dissatisfied customers.
I hope that the young woman who posted this files a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started). It is important to leave honest reviews online, but this forces business to respond.
My friend just found them…it seems they already have a “F” rating but are not responding. http://www.bbb.org/canton/Business-Reviews/womens-apparel-retail/the-rosetree-boutique-inc-in-ceredo-wv-5001955#reasonrating
I hate the Rose Tree. They did a lot of shady stuff when I was getting married too.
This is such a horrible story, although I can’t say I’m surprised. Luckily I had already found a wedding dress elsewhere, but ordered my bridesmaids dresses from here. Two of my bridesmaids went to the boutique to look at dresses. Our first issue was when we asked about the champagne party discount.. The store had signs posted that if you wanted did a champagne party, each bridesmaid would get a discount. We asked if we could participate but that we don’t drink alcohol. The woman helping us was very rude and told us we could not do it unless we had scheduled it beforehand, no big deal. (although I was later told by another employee that was not true and that everyone would receive the discount, which I’m not sure they did). We ended up finding a dress that had a white sash with it, but I wanted 2 coral and 6 teal. The woman helping us said it came in those colors and to tell the woman at the register. When we got to the register we were told it would probably be $70 for each sash, but they would call me Monday to let me know. Surprise, I never got a call. (I ended up using ribbon from Michaels for sashes and that worked fine). When my mom called the store about ordering the dress for my sister, they gave her the style number and it was a completely different dress.. Not even a bridal dress, but a horrible patchwork casual dress. Needless to say, I panicked. The woman my mom talked to said she would figure out what was going on and would call right back. She didn’t call back and didn’t answer when my mom called. Finally I was told that the dress they had on file was the correct dress, but that the style numbers on their website were different and that’s why we were seeing a different dress online. When asked what they would do if the dresses we saw online we accidentally ordered, I didn’t get a direct response. I had several bridesmaids from out of state who were going to get fitted elsewhere and calling the shop to give their measurements. One of them called and could get no help at all, they wouldn’t tell her the price she was being charged and also said it was a handmade dress (not true.) In the meantime I had another issue, which I can’t even remember now because I had so many problems with them, but I know I had to call several times and get hateful(which I hate) and ended up driving down there to talk to someone in person. We were told that the dresses would be in the first of may and I would get a call.. Of course, no call came. I called and called getting a different response from each person. Finally, one of my bridesmaids was told her dress was in. She was driving in town from Cleveland to get it. A few minutes later another bridesmaid called me and said she was told the dresses were actually not in. I called and pretended to be a bridesmaid and was told they were in. When I called as myself, I was told they were not in. I went off on the lady and told her that they needed to get on the same page and that I had people driving in from out of state to get the dress who were already halfway in town. Finally, the dresses came in a week before the wedding June 15th. One of bridesmaids dresses was the wrong size and had to get alterations.. She ended up getting the dress the day before the wedding and it still wasn’t the right size. My problems with them weren’t nearly as crazy as yours (cutting off the 1 from the 10, who does that?!), but I would tell anyone planning to go there to run in the opposite direction. At the same time I was losing diamonds left and right from my engagement ring from Kay’s and was fighting with them (but that’s a different story. Ps future brides, don’t get your ring at Kay’s) Needless to say I had a lot of unnecessary stress over things that should not been an issue. I got onto every website I could find and bashed both places. Luckily, my wedding day was absolutely perfect (besides the fact that my ring was missing a diamond at the time) but no bride should have to deal with such horrible businesses when planning their wedding.
Their beautiful products are misleading because their owners and employees are TERRIBLE! I purchased a $400 formal gown completely made of sequins, it needed minor alterations. The gown was altered by the Rose Tree and when I tried it back on the sequins on the back of the dress had fallen off! They told me I would have to pay an additional fee to re-sew the sequins! They also told my mom that she would need to leave the room when I tried the dress on because they didn’t want her opinion to influence my decision! EXCUSE ME? I don’t even window shop there anymore. I tell everyone I know not to shop there.
I will never shop at the Rose Tree again. They tried to charge me for alterations I had declined to get on my daughter’s prom dress and hadn’t signed for. I only signed for it to be taken in on the sides. The dress also had blood on it and reeked of cigarettes when it came back from alterations. The sales girl was rude and very unprofessional. I had to threaten to call the police before the sales girl finally took the charges off of my bill. On another occasion, we ordered bra cups to be sown into dress. When my daughter went in to try the dress on, both bra cups were uneven. When I complained about this and said I wasn’t paying for such shoddy work, the sales girl said the wouldn’t charge me for it, but would have to cut them out. Like I would let a 16 year old take scissors to a dress I had paid a lot for! They are the worst place to do business with. We have since given all of our business to Lara’s and each experience was pleasant.
I love Lara’s. I work out of town and had to come in for my friends wedding. The dress fit the first time I tried it, but months later I tried it the day before the wedding and it was way too big. They were great! They had the alteraions done PERFECTLY the next morning by 8. Would def deal with them over The Rose Tree!
I had a similar issue with Kay’s. The diamond came out of my ring a week before my wedding (Saturday night.) I found the diamond and still had it, but it wasn’t where it was suppose to be! I called Kay’s customer service and asked if there was anyway they could get it fixed in time. I was told that it I would have to take it to the nearest store and it would take one to two months for it to be reset. I could also call the local store and get the name of a local jeweler who maybe able to reset it but that would pretty much void my warranty. Well I was at the store as soon as they opened they next morning. I talked to to different managers. I explained what happened and that I had exactly a week from that day till my wedding, and when I called customer service they said two months. They both kinda gave me a strange look, one made a phone call. Then they both signed off on a rush order for no charge. I had my ring back fully fixed by Friday morning. And haven’t had a problem with it sense.
I had a nightmare with mine. My husband had bought be a pretty pricey ring that he picked out on his own, a Neil Lane vintage inspired ring. I loved it. Several weeks after having the ring, I noticed a diamond missing, so I took it in and they sent it off for repair. At the time I didn’t think much of it. They had the ring for a month, and when I got it back I figured it would be fine and it was just a fluke. Nope. A week later another missing. Went thru the same process. This happened three more times. One time, it was gone by the time I got home. My husband and I were spending our days off at the local store, not where we wanted to be. They told me the best solution was to pick out a new ring similar. I was heatrborken, I loved my ring, especially since my husband picked it out on his own. They found a ring similar, but was more expensive because it came with the band. We had the center stone removed from the old ring because we had already had the stone, and had it set in the new ring. I was told this ring was much better quality and I was guaranteed no problems. Surprise, I lost two diamonds. By this point, I was fed up and said I wanted my money back to go elsewhere. Obviously if it has happened to two different rings, something is wrong with their merchandise. I was told ridiculous stories about why this happened, that it was my fault (how, exactly?), that is was just bad luck (Um, I don’t think so) and various other crazy excuses. We called customer service, talked to the highest person up and still couldn’t get it resolved. They wanted to order me a new one, but we had done that already. I didn’t want to spend every say off for the rest of my life in the jewelry store. After researchong online, I found that this happens frequently, and unfortunately nothing can be done. I decided to let them order me a new one, and they PROMISED it would be in for my wedding. The closer it got to my wedding, the more nervous I got. I called the woman I was dealing with several times and never got a call back. My new ring never came in, so I had to get married with diamonds missing from my ring. When the photographers Tom picture, they had to try to get shots that didn’t show the missing diamonds. My new ring eventually came in and I have had no problems with this one, but I am still very unsatisfied with the merchandise and the way I was treated.
Rose Tree caused much problems with not only my dress but my bridesmaids. Never never give them buisness….
Sue them. I did and won!!!!
We went to Rosetree for my daughter’s prom dress last year…. The dress she picked out looked great on her but needed altered. My problem with them was the fact that they automatically take you ( in the dress) straight back to be fitted for alterations…. They do not discuss cost. When asked I basically was told not a lot. When picking up her dress I was shocked to see a 126.00 alteration bill added to the cost of the dress. Since this was 2 weeks til prom and you’ve already paid on it… You are “stuck” paying the extra fee or be out the money you’ve already paid. I also had a friend with us the day we tried the dress on… She was done the same way when she went to pick up her daughter’s dress …. A HUGE alteration bill! This year we will be buying a MUCH cheaper dress online in a closer size to what she wears and have it altered locally for about 600.00 or more cheaper than Rosetree!
My daughter had the same problem we ordered though a size bigger dress and my daughter lost 25 pds before the wedding and the dress was too small.We had to go back to the store 4 times before the dress was ready 3 days before the wedding. Luckily we bought our veil at Nandells.we had to drive 11/2 hrs both ways. It was rediculous. We waited 3 hrs for our dress to show up from the seamstress . They even had the nerve to charge over 100 dollars for alterations after all the time and gas we had to use when the dress was promised 3 weeks earlier. We will never recommend them .
It’s really terrible that the most wonderful day of your life can be turned into such hassle by careless and rude treatment from a company like this. I purchased my wedding dress from The Rose Tree and didn’t have problems with it at that point other than the staff was very rude. I then made an appointment for my bridesmaids to go there and try on dresses for my wedding. They put my 6 bridesmaids in the very back of the store in what seemed to be a closet and/or loading door area for trucks to bring shipments into because even though we had an appointment, they had no dressing rooms for us. On top of jamming all 6 of my ladies into this unacceptable area for trying on dresses, the staff kept going in and out of the area AND opening the door to the outside of the building while my bridesmaids were dressing and undressing! We finally reached the breaking point and my mother told them that it was unacceptable for our appointment to be going this way. They were extremely rude and not helpful at all. When my mom complained about it they offered us champagne to try and make up for it. We ended up declining and leaving to purchase the dresses elsewhere. Had I not already purchased my gown I would not have given them any of my business. It’s sad how rude people are in a business that should be so fun and happy for brides and their wedding parties.
I am so sorry for your frustration…but I am so glad I am not the only one who was scammed by this place! They ruined my bridesmaid dresses…not one, but ALL of them. I ordered chocolate brown and they came in burnt orange. Every single one of them had serious alteration errors. When I went there to discuss the issue, they basically called me a liar and refused to help me. So, two weeks before my wedding, I’m buying new flowers and decorations to fit this color into my wedding that I hadn’t planned for. Oh, and not to mention, they shoved my gown (that I paid for them to steam) back in the garment bag, thus re-wrinkling it- and the netting underneath was ripped to shreds.
This place is absolutely shameless. Once they get your money, they don’t care what happens to you. Any time a soon-to-be-bride asks my advice while planning their wedding, the first thing I say is avoid Rose Tree. It’s a shame they cause so much stress for brides over something that should be so exciting and joyous.
Nonetheless, your gown was beautiful. Here’s to hoping Rose Tree gets the negative publicity they deserve!
I also had a terrible experience at Rosetree, here is the review I gave them on weddingwirecom:DO NOT USE THIS SHOP. I ordered my bridesmaids dresses from here bc it was close to my matron of honor and 1 other bridesmaid and we were all able to go with my mother to try on dresses. This shop is in WV and I live in MD. Ordering the dresses was easy, it was the service AFTER we had paid that was the problem. I was given an estimated date, all the dresses were a month late or more, with the last two arriving 2 weeks before the wedding. All girls needed alterations and when I complained about this, I was told ” the girls can just come in and we’ll get them altered in an hour”. This is after telling them multiple times that these girls do not live anywhere near the shop and their dresses must be shipped to them after arriving at the shop. Everytime I called to find out if the dresses were in, I would speak to someone different and get a different story. Once a sales girl simply lied to me and told me the dresses were in, and when 1 of my bridesmaid’s mothers came to pick up said dress, it was not there. It was not the fact the dresses were late, I understand that things happen (customs, etc). It is the way the problem was handled. Every time I talked to someone, I was talked down to like some crazy bridezilla because I thought it was not a reasonable period of time for a dress to be over a month late. It makes me think they did not order the dresses when they said they did. And if they DID, then they should have initiated contact with the designer THEMSELVES, not me. After several requests, they were finally able to get me a shipping number..magically one day I got one after complaining to the general manager. When they finally did arrive, the manager left me a hurried, unintelligible voicemail, and then I had to call back a final time to confirm yes they did have the dresses. The girls that work and run this shop are not organized in any way. Planning a wedding is stressful enough, brides do not need the added distress that this shop will inevitably bring them.
Yes yes. Finally the truth is coming out about this horrid place. I got married in 2006 and fell in love with a dress there. I didn’t have the money to put down on a dress that day (was just kind of playing with trying things on). I told them I would come back on Friday. I was excited and wanted to show my friends but of course I wasn’t allowed to take pictures while I tried it on. My Mom called and ask them the designer because we wanted to see if we could find a picture of it online. Mom was accused of trying to “find the dress cheaper somewhere else” and talked to very nasty by the staff. I was so shocked I never went back. My love for the dress didn’t matter at that point. I ended up at the yellow brick road and treated like a queen from the moment I walked in. Dress (plus size) had to be ordered from China in my size and came in a month early. I heard they aren’t doing bridal anymore. It’s unfortunate. They could take a lot of the Rosetrees clients. I have a friend who’s mother had dementia and bought a mink coat at the Rosetree. When the friend tried to return it and explained about her mother they were nasty and said no returns on mink. Never ever use the Rose tree!
I am currently dealing with a similar situation. I’ll be a bridesmaid in an April wedding. My dress is too small. I was measured wrong and they will not fix it. I have found a reputable seamstress in Kenova and am hoping she will be able to fix it. I was able to choose between a 2 and 4. Thankfully I chose the 4 because it needs to be taken out two inches!
I used them for my wedding and they ordered a size8 when I needed a 4. I had about 3 inches taken off each side…I didn’t use their alteration service, thank goodness. Then they ordered the wrong sizes for all my bridesmaids and they had to end up getting their dresses altered there. They didn’t take enough in on one, made one way too short and she had to wear flats (and it was still way too short for that), one they didn’t take enough length off. I dealt with one nice person, but the rest were generally unhelpful, stuck up, and rude. I deter all my friends from going there.
I was measured for a dress incorrectly. They ordered it too small and it had to be taken out (and I actually lost some weight after being fitted). There were threads hanging everywhere and it was so messed up on the inside. It puckered and looked horrible. I had to still pay for it or they would not give me the dress. I was glad I was not the bride. Her dress was late, the bridesmaids dresses were the wrong color, the flower girl dress was the wrong one, and more. They were not understanding or nice about what they did. I would never use them for my wedding.
I had a horrible experience as well. My wedding was August of 2012. I went in Summer of 2011 and had my initial try on party with my bridesmaids. I had made an appointment at the bridal fair at the Huntington mall. We walked in and our reservations were no where to be found. When they were finally found the lady that was supposed to be helping us was pre-occupied with a walk in and had her on the main floor. She took one look at me (I’m plus size, but no where near not being able to find a dress) and she just said “oh, well you may have luck. If not we can hang the dress overtop of you like a paperdoll.” I was appalled. She then went back to the walk in and was picking out dresses for her left and right (she was very thin btw) at the point almost crying, my mom and I grabbed a few dresses and went to my dressing room. We went with a strapless Alfred Angelo with a corset back, a line. Fitted perfectly in floor model and was the dress I wanted. I told the lady that I wanted that exact dress with the corset back and in that size. She still measured me. They ordered my dress 6 sizes too big when the dress came in. It had to be altered three times. When we ordered my bridesmaids dresses, Rosetree “lost” records of payments we had made on dresses and charged fees higher than the dresses themselves. My parents drove from Charleston to deal with that mess. I called the BBB and the attorney general but nothing was done. Rosetree won. Flash forward to Sept 2012- I received a 100.00 charge to my credit card from rose tree out of the blue. I called and talked with Debbie- she said it was for “alterations” I said to her “how interesting that you are charging my card for services not rendered- none of my brides maids dresses were altered and mine was paid in full.” She proceeded to argue with me over this saying “well too bad it’s on your account” she called back later that afternoon to say that it was indeed their error and they had charged another wedding’s alterations to my credit card. I asked her for a written approval of the transaction being cancelled and was told “it will be on your credit card statement. We can’t do a recipet for that.” I haven’t even mentioned in addition to the dress being huge it was the WRONG DRESS and they wouldn’t do anything about it, even though the order numbers didn’t even match. DO NOT USE THEM!!!!!
I had not one, but TWO terrible eexperiences at Rose Tree.
The first time I had purchased a dress and jewelry from them for a dance. When my mom went to pick up the dress, they had swapped out my jewelry and they had attached an $80 shawl that we DID NOT order. But told us that if we didnt pay for the shawl they would not give me the dress.
The second time was as a bridesmaid. I encouraged the bride to look elsewhere. But she claimed to have found a good deal on a style she liked for the bride’s maids. Long story short – we all ended up with sizes we didn’t order and we all paid different prices for our identical dress.
I will never, ever give them another red cent and will will continue to tell how terrible my experiences with them have been.
Man! And I thought I was the only one who had HUGE issues with then regarding my wedding dress! I had an awful experience from the get go- they only let me try on a certain amount of dresses (even though there were more that I wanted to try). Luckily I found my dress the second or third choice. It was a lace dress that had to be ordered and by the time it arrived at the store (3 weeks late and 2 sizes too big) there were holes and rips in the lace of the “brand new” dress that they had ordered “just for me”. I decided to go forward with alterations and was so upset throughout the whole appointment as the seamstress basically told me everything I was needed altered was impossible (saying that the dress couldn’t be made smaller and I would just have to make the bigger size work!) we left the dress with them and asked that nothing be done to it and we would find another seamstress. When my mom went back to pick it up, more holes in addition to the others and it wasn’t even on a hanger in a garmet bag! It was hanging on what looked like a wire stick. I was devastated and decided to stop even trying to deal with them after many phone calls and boutique associates “not being able to find my information or my order details”. Luckily I was able to find an amazing seamstress who worked out of her home and was able to fix EVERYTHING about my dress-even the details Rose Tree was claiming couldn’t be fixed. I will be okay never stepping foot in there again nor will I recommend it to anyone!!
I found your blog post through a friend. I’m so sorry about your experience at this boutique and I’m glad to hear that someone was able to rescue the dress. I can’t imagine the stress that you must have been under. Preparing for a wedding is stressful enough, but to have problems with everything related to your ensemble just isn’t fair. I’m not from Charleston, but it drives me crazy that businesses can get away with this kind of thing. I hope that people continue to share their poor experiences and report them to the better business bureau. As a small business owner, it makes me sick when others to do not take pride in their work and allow things like this to happen. I’m sorry for your horrible experience, but thank you for sharing it and imploring people to leave feedback. Your wedding photos are gorgeous and you look so glamorous in the dress.
They sold me a 580 dollar prom dress last year with missing feathers told me they were going to order a new one. Then told me it could not be ordered but they would fix it at their cost and I could pick it up in one week. The seamstress then calls my house at 10 o’clock at night to tell me that the “Hobby Lobby” did not have the exact same color red feathers or the same type”. I was infuriated. Called and talked to the owner and she was mad at the seamstress. Assured me that the feathers would be ordered directly from Mac Duggal which is the kind of dress I purchased. Almost two months later , the Friday before prom we got a call that our dress was ready. (I had called ever day since the day it was supposed to be ready) The feathers were obviously different in size , color and style. Too late for us to do anything about it. DO NOT GO TO THE ROSETREE !
I had an issue with this boutique when I was prom dress shopping. My dress was huge (even after they “altered” it, had diamonds missing, and loose threads. My earrings had a diamond missing and I demanded they fix it. They called 2 weeks later and I went to pick them up. They were NOT fixed! I hope everyone else sees these comments and saves themselves the time and money.
I not only purchased my wedding gown but also a bridesmaids dress for a friends wedding 2 weeks later from Rose Tree. I was measured every inch an paid the ridiculous prices for both to fit but both were to big. My option of course was to pay more for more alterations which would include another trip there when I live in Charleston or bring home an find someone else. I did make the decision to have altered in Charleston after all who is to say they get it right the second time if they didnt the first!
I was married in 2009 and the they were the only one in the area that could order from the company I found my dress from. They were horrible in the Huntington WV office. They quoted me a price, but when it came time to pay the remaining balance they charged me almost $800.00 more. I even had the paper they gave me, but it was a lost cause. They kept telling me different days when my dress would be in and it was almost the last minute.. I dealt with the Parkersburg WV as I found some shoes. They were wonderful and totally opposite from the other business. I wish I would have driven up there. Knowing what I know bow..I will never deal with the Huntington one again after rverything they did to me..please be careful!
So what do these reviews of a bridal store have to do with vintage/frugal living which is what this website is described as being about?
This is the only review of a bridal store. I am sharing because this is my blog and my outlet to warn people about this. All other posts are about vintage finds.
Why does it matter if this doesn’t pertain to vintage/frugal living? It’s her blog, I’m pretty sure she can post whatever she wants. There is no law stating otherwise.
I agree!! they truly are the rudest store I have ever dealt with !I will never never shop there again!!
I went to the Rose Tree in January of 2013. I found a beautiful couture gown but it was dirty on the bottom and had beads missing. They said they would order the dress in a size larger. I also purchased shoes, handbag, earrings, necklace, and undergarments. I paid 1/2 down. The lady said it would be in the first part of April, in plenty of time for my prom in May.
When i got home the evening after “ordering” the dress i found on the internet it was last season’s dress. I called first thing the next day and they said they would check to make sure they could get the dress. They called back and said no problem.
I started calling after April 1 to find out the status of the dress. Each time i would call i would be given the run around or told it would be shipped in the next few days. On Monday of, April 24 i started calling three times a day. Finally a few days after I was told the dress had just come in. As soon as i entered the girl said “…do you want to go ahead and take it with you?…” I said no i want to try it on.
I went into dressing room and called my mom into the room while in tears. The dress was four sizes smaller than i had ordered. It did not have any tags on it and the dress looked limp as if it had been cleaned. When I complained the sales clerk had the nerve to say “…you’ve gained weight, you need spanx…” I said no i had lost 10 pounds over the past few months. They finally went and got another dress by the same designer in the size we ordered and it was falling off of me. I went nuts and told them I was going to call my attorney. Within two minutes they said they would refund my money. When they went to refund my money they “forgot” to refund for all the accessories. They had to go back in and do the refund.
The more I looked at the dress I finally realized it was the dress i had tried on in January that was dirty with beads falling off, only it had been cleaned. The next day I found the number of the designer and called. His receptionist confirmed the dress was last year’s design and only one had been shipped this year, in late March and had been received but not in West Virginia.
When I called and confronted them they said i could have any dress in the store at 20% off, the end of prom season with all dresses being picked over.
I would not advise anyone to go to this store!!!
My daughter failed tell everything. She cancelled her 18th birthday party so she could look for a dress, prom was a week away. We went to numerous stores. At such a late date she had to buy off the rack. She was devastated and disappointed. The owner of Barbie’s was wonderful, but she could not find a dress. After going to shops in Charleston, Huntington, Ashland, Lexington, Georgetown, KY, Winchester, Ashland, we went to Clarksburg,WV.
She found a beautiful dress at Oliverio’s. They were exceptional. When they heard her story they automatically gave her special attention. To my surprise when I went to pay they had discounted the dress.
Never would I recommend Rose Tree. They are terrible.
I would recommend Oliverio’s, Barbie’s, Miss Priss in Lexington, and Lara’s in Ashland. They are all customer friendly and go out of their way to help. They are not dishonest or rude like the people at the Rose Tree!
For one thing I don’t even understand how they haven’t been shut down!! Second, I also had a horrible experience with them. I just started my search for my wedding dress and always wanted to go there because I’d seen their window displays since I was 15 and couldn’t wait. I’m a plus size girl and from the minute I walked in the door I was made to feel so incredibly fat. Eben though I found dresses in the size I would need the woman who was with me refused to let me try them. She just had to hold them in front of me. Then a friend who was with me was going to take a picture so I could show my mom and she basically scolded me like I was a child that we could not take pictures inside the shop because “they had exclusive designs”. I’m honestly glad they treated me so horribly!! I left and will never go there for anything ever again!! I got a way more gorgeous dress at a way better price at another boutique.
Oh I will never again shop there. I went there in ’07 to find a prom dress & I fell in love with my dress. After I tried it on the woman took my measurements & let me know that they would have to order my size. When it finally arrived I tried it on & it was to big in the chest. I go to the woman for alterations & she puts all of the pins in the top of it. Well I get it back a few weeks later and nothing was done to te top of it, but they took the hips in. I could barely get the dress on. It gets sent back for alterations again & all try did was sew breast cups in the top of it, so it ended up being to big at prom. Fast forward to 2011. I decided to go there to get my wedding dress because a friend of the family worked there. I found my dress & she ordered it two sizes smaller than what I measures because I had been working out. Of course it was late & when it finally comes in it is way to big. After alterations it’s still to big, but I didn’t have time for anything else because it was only a couple of days before my wedding. Also I ordered my dress in white & it came in ivory. I let that go because I actually ended up liking the ivory. She opens up my veil and it’s white, so se said I’ll order a new one in ivory. Well that never happened. When I picked everything up, I had to deal with a different sales associate. She was very rude when I asked why my veil was still white. I just let it go, but to this day, I tell anyone who is dress shopping not to go there.
I had a horrible experience with this shop! The bridesmaid dresses did not fit any of my 5 bridesmaids. they measured the girls and told two people who clearly could not be the same size that they measured the same size! one of my bridesmaids questioned them because she had just had a baby and told the woman that the size she said is what she wore in high school prom. one other bridesmaid received a dresses that was way to big for her. We had to alter every dress from there. Some of the dresses we had to use scraps from the ones already fitted to make them bigger…. this place needs shut down. i called them and told them what happened and they offered to alter them i told them no you have already caused enough problems because my wedding was only a few days away and i didn’t know if 2 of my bridesmaid dresses were going to fit…. Thank goodness i did not order my wedding dress of these so called business people
I SEE MUCH HAS NOT CHANGED WITH THEM. I STILL REMEMBER HOW THEY DID ME DURING MY PROM THEY COULDNT FIND MY DRESS I HAD IN LAYAWAY IN 1989. YES THAT LONG AGO. I HAVE NEVER LET MY DAUGHTERS SHOP THERE AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS!
I had almost the exact thing happen to me at Rose Tree. I went in, found the dress of my dreams but wanted to make some changes to change the back of the dress. The floor model was a 10 & I needed a six to make these changes work. They “ordered” the dress. It kept being “delayed” and when it “finally came in” it had stains and was CLEARLY the floor model with the tag cut out. I think they delayed it so that I couldn’t do anything about it, but my mom and demanded that they had better order the right size and overnight it immediately. It eventually “came in” correctly but I honestly don’t know if they cleaned it, altered it at their cost to a size six and put a size 6 tag in it but it was right the second time. We then paid to have it altered in the back to remove the zipper and change it to a lace up like we’d originally planned and it was perfect and beautiful. In the end I was happy with the result but I’ll never buy anything there again. I’ll only “use” them to window shop and buy it elsewhere online if I can’t find it in another local store. I also went back later with a friend to window shop for her wedding and they were rude in general and basically acted arrogant like that they were better than all of us. She did not buy anything there and said that she would not ever.
Several years ago a friend of mine ( a senior at our local high school) came to me three days before her prom. Her dress from the Rose Tree (purchased for $900) had benn supposedly altered to fit her! It was a beaded gown and the princess seams in the front had been left with the beads sticking out like gun barrels! The neckline hadn’t been touched and remained too big, the hem had been shortened, removing the special beaded trim around the hemline and slit that attracted my friend to the dress in the first place! There weren’t enough beads left for me to rebead the hemline! All these alterations were not included in the price of the dress…so she had another alteration fee from me to fix their (Rose Tree) mess! A few years later I went with another friend to the Rose Tree where she had ordered a dress to make sure the alterations on her dress were done right! They were but while we were there we ran into 6 prom goers there to pick up their dresses for a prom that night. None of the dresses had come in…talk about upset!!!!!
If you made these purchases on your credit card, call your credit card company to dispute the transactions. The credit card company is required to fight the transaction as long as you have not paid the credit card bill in full yet. Some credit card companies will still dispute the transaction even if you have paid your full credit card account balance.
I think together you all should take them to court!
I had purchased my bridesmaids dresses and a junior bridesmaid dress from Rosé Tree. We ordered the dressed in January my wedding was in June. The dress I wanted was one they had in the store so the one of my girls even tried it on. The lady that worked at the store took the dress to get the style number. They ordered the wrong bridesmaids dresses but the correct junior bridesmaid dress. So my girls had different dresses once we realized what had happened it was to late to order the correct dress and they didn’t offer to pay rush shipping and handling. They did give a discount but with their prices it was still an expensive dress. I would NEVER recommend them to anyone for your wedding, they just add more stress!!
I had 10 bridesmaids. I bought my dress, veil, jewelry, and all bridesmaids dresses at the Rose Tree bringing them in a mega amount of cash. Everything was fine until a year later when my debit card was charged for the price of a bridesmaid’s dress. They did not call me prior to the charge, which was quite substantial, and I was fortunate to have had the money in my account to cover it. When I called the store to inquire about the charge, nobody could tell me why. Finally, after several days, the manager/owner called to inform me that one of the dresses was never paid off. Well, it is company policy that every dress be paid before it leaves the store. I reminded her of this and she said it was their staff’s mistake , but they didn’t discover it until a year later. A YEAR LATER! I was furious, but when I called the bridesmaid that had supposedly not paid, I was even more furious, as she had receipts to prove she paid! I called the store back and demanded to see my sales agreement, but they were unable to provide the paperwork. I told her that I was calling my bank to dispute the charge and I would contact a lawyer if she ever pulled another stunt like that on me again. I reported them to the BBB. I don’t recommend anyone do business with them.
The first thing I noticed was how rude & snooty the workers were. Didn’t greet us, didn’t show any interest in us until we had to speak to them. Really ladies?! You sale dresses to a community, it’s not like Jessica Alba is going to shop there for her red carpet gown! We left on our own until we found a couple styles of dresses we liked. That day, early January, we ordered the bridesmaids dresses & the flower girl dress. We put half down on the orders & pay the remaining balance when they came in….. The bridesmaids dresses arrived & on 2 of the dresses there was an additional fee of 50-75$ because it was larger than a size 11. They did NOT communicate this to my girls when they ordered the dress. They also ordered a size too small in a dress & guess what the reply to that was? “Quit drinking pop & exercise everyday you should be able to fit in it” anyone in their right mind would not say that to any female. So my girls were out money because of this stores mistake. Or actually I’m convinced they do these things on purpose to charge extra money….. Lets move onto my flower girls dress…. I had called & called for months wanting to know the status on the dress. No one could give me an answer. I called a week before My wedding ( we ordered all the dresses early January, my wedding was end of May) & told them I wanted a refund because the dress still is not in. So the owner calls me back 15 minutes saying the dress I ordered was in. So we went to pick it up. NOT the dress I ordered & not even the color I ordered. I said I wanted my money back. They of course wouldn’t do that. But how are you to take my money & give me something I didn’t order. To me that’s theft. We went round & round at this point. I didn’t get a refund & I didn’t get the dress I originally paid for, so with it being a week before my wedding I had to settle with a dress they had in the store. This was by far the worst customer service I have ever had. I will not walk a foot in that store nor will I recommend it to anyone… I normally warn them off! Shoulda stuck with David’s in Charleston where I got my wedding dress! They were amazing compared to this shit hole!!
This is all sounding like a reoccurring theme! I had the same problems with this lousy place! Thank goodness I didn’t order a wedding dress from here…I looked, but they didn’t have what I was looking for, and I’m glad they didn’t! Speaking of…my experience in-store wasn’t so great either, the sales clerk acted like she had more important things to do rather than dealing with me, it just wasn’t a pleasant experience for a bride. My bridesmaids dresses had to be ordered because they were all different styles, but I wanted them in the same color. Every single one of them were charged with a rush fee, which they didn’t tell them up front. They didn’t come in when they were supposed to. And we got the run around every time we called to check on them. We also could never get anyone to return our calls. My mom also ordered her dress from there…they lady measuring obviously measured wrong and when the dress finally came in it was too small (we couldn’t even zip it up). With hardly anytime before the wedding she took the dress elsewhere to get it let out…our seamstress was excellent and the dress looked great, but we had to pay higher seamstress fees to get it fixed so quickly because the dress came in so late. Do yourself a favor and NEVER step foot in this horrid place.
My experience was not the greatest with them either in two different situations. I went in to the RoseTree in the huntington mall and the girls there told my aunt becuase I was in trying on prom dresses and the explicitly told her we could not afford to by a dress there. The reason for their assumption I believe was because I was wearing sweets and a plain t-shirt and so was my aunt but who would go dress shopping wearing a nice outfit that’s hard to take on and off all the time. We left and I did end up buying a dress from RoseTree but the one on ceredo which the lady we had was okay. However I went to RoseTree in ceredo again with my cousin to look for wedding dresses and the people were extremely ride told us you absolutely had to have an appointment to try on dresses saying they were “busy” there was maybe four groups of people in there and one was just browsing and the other two were taken by workers. So needless to say they need to work on their customer service a LOT.
I had a horrible experience with them as well. I ordered a formal gown from them a few years ago that turned out to be a nightmare. I found a gown that I loved on a website, we went to the store and they had the same gown in a different color. They told me that I could try that gown on and they would measure me so they could order the right size and color I wanted. I measured a size 6 and ordered the dress In a size 6 in the color yellow. The dress did not come in when we were told it would, instead we went to pick it up a week before the event that I had ordered it for. I went to try the dress on in the store and it was falling off of me, instead of ordering the size that I asked for they ordered a size 10 then preceded to tell me that sometimes they run small so that was why they ordered it so much larger. I was ready to cry we had paid over 500$ for the dress. The store then told us that they would do the alterations for free an I could pick it up in two days. They said that they only fold the material back and do not cut it off in case there is a problem. Against our better judgment we let them alter the dress. When I went back to pick up the dress they had altered it smaller than what they had measured and charged us for altering it before they let us take the dress. We were so fed up with them an it was too late to replace it. A friend of my moms told us to bring her the dress and she would try to fix it. When she started her alterations she informed us that they had cut the material off. She had very little she could salvage and had to add some beads where they had cut them off. I wore the dress and could hardly breath during the event. I jokingly told my date that if I passed out he could unzip me and I would be fine. We complained and told the store that we were very unhappy with the situation and thought we should be compensated in some way. They argued and refused to do anything about the incident. I will never buy anything from them again and I am glad to know that we aren’t the only people who had an awful experience there.
I am not shocked at all to see all of the bad experiences associated with Rose Tree. The staff are rude & if you don’t ‘look the part’ to be able to afford their clothing/dresses they don’t have the time of days for you. In high school I resorted I shopping there because my grandmother & the ORIGINAL owner (the mother/grandmother of a couple of the current employees) were best friends, so my mother knew a couple of the ladies. Initially they were friendly to us because we had a connection to one of the ladies, but the younger girls who worked there were wry rude to me as I could not fit into any of their model sizes they ha in the floor. But as any insecure high school teen, I wanted a dress from Rose Tree where I window shopped and saw some of the most beautiful dresses. I was asked to be on their Prom Expo only to feel like I was included to fulfill their ‘larger size’ category. I went back a couple months later to look for my own prom dress to be completely ignored from all employees- I was devastated. My mother, love her heart, calmed me & bit her lip & we continued to persue the dress I loved. They have horrible customer service & do anything to cover their butts. I am so glad their reputation has diminished & hope others will read these comments to realize they are fake, ruthless women who just want your money!
I worked at Rose Tree for three weeks, and I can assure you that all of these horrible business practices and more take place at the shop. While working at the Ceredo location, I was told to organize the jewelry drawers by color, and while doing so, I discovered three pairs of identical jewelry (same brand) with three entirely different prices. The first pair, which still had the suggested retail sticker on it, read $7.99. The second pair, missing the retail sticker, was priced at $42–handwritten on the back. As for the third, handwritten $70. When I showed the manager, she ripped the sticker off of the first pair and told me to mark everything up to the highest price: $70. I was instructed to do this if the situation ever arose again. You better believe they do this to more than just the jewelry.
Not only does Rose Tree mistreat customers, but the employees are almost daily threatened by Debbie that she will withhold all of our earned commission if we do anything wrong–not cleaning out the fitting room immediately after a customer has left, for instance.
I’ve been preaching for over a year how awful the management at this boutique is. While it’s unfortunate that there have been so many terrible experiences at Rose Tree, I’m at least thankful that all of these complaints have finally been organized into one place.
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing this. Thanks to everyone else too. I was a bit concerned to post this but I am VERY glad I did now.
I’ve made several purchases from Rose Tree for many years and the irony is approx. 3 yrs. ago I bought rolling luggage from them and when I was putting it into my car I opened it up and it had 4 purses inside of it and being an honest person I immediately went back into the mall to return them and told the sales rep. what had happened, she thanked me for returning them but her response was odd and she said that the luggage was sent to their store from the one in Ceredo and that the sales staff from that store had put them in the luggage. After hearing about ALL of these nightmares others have endured I won’t be shopping there anymore!
We had a very bad experience with this store also. I found them to be rude and very shady
Horrible business…won’t ever buy there again!
I worked for many dress boutique for 2 years and loved the customer service I could offer. I will say this first and foremost but am not reflecting on this young lady, by any means. There are some customers, as we all know, who expect something for nothing. I do not feel this is the case for her, not when she was already dropping these amounts of money for the items she expected to receive. When it comes to what you want, you will pay the ultimate price, no matter what. I would as well! Given the customers I dealt with at the wedding/prom store I worked at, we would hear HORROR stories about the Rose Tree. I never dreamed of some things people would tell me, but learned real quick they had to be telling me the truth. If we couldn’t get something we told the customer instantly and tried everything under the sun to help them find something they were happy with. I will add we were not always magic makers and there were times people would leave and we couldn’t help them. That comes with any business. Some would come in and have a certain designer or style in mind and maybe we didn’t carry them, but we never altered a dress to fit them (or in this case, not) without letting them know. There are usually additional charges for alterations so we made them aware and they would be fitted, not guessed at on sizing and fitting. If we had a dress we couldn’t order a new one and it was damaged we offered a discounted rate and fixed what we could, but kept very open communication with our customers. I will say, THIS NEVER HAPPENED AT BARBIE’S FORMALS! We were not perfect but customers are appreciated for their business and you get what you are purchasing or communicate with changes that arise. We had an orange prom dress a girl wanted, size 8 and she needed a size 2. We called the company to order it gig her, while she is in the store still, and they told us they no longer made that dress in orange and all they had in stock was size 8, same thing we had. Mind you that we order directly from the company, no middle man. So she called RT and they told her they could order her a size 2. She goes down and pays her money, a couple weeks went by and she talked badly about us because we “lied” to her. Well after a month and had not received her dress or call, she contacts them. Come to find out she was done the same as this girl, except they intentionally ordered the 8, and then altered it, and it didn’t fit her right, didn’t have a tag at all, and charged her alteration fees she didn’t expect for a dress that looked horrible. This story is no surprise to me personally because this is what we always heard from customers about RT. I always suggest going to see Barbie’s Formals. I no longer working there but she is honest to her customers..
I don’t have a horrible story..but just wanted to thank Elaine for posting this. I’ll be starting the bridal dress hunt soon and this cautionary tale really is helpful. Thanks from future brides!
I have several daughters and have gone to this shop since the mid nineties looking for prom, wedding or homecoming dresses. We have always been treated rudely. In the beginning, my daughters wanted to look for a dress there. But now the younger girls know the Rose Trees reputation and will not even consider walking in the store. I am so glad that these stories are being posted. Maybe their business will be hurt like many of these families were that made a purchase from them.
I cannot express how happy I am to see people spreading the word about this place!! in 2011, we went to RoseTree to purchase a prom dress for my daughter. We found a beautiful dress, but it was a size 16. Instead of offering to order it in a size 10, they insisted they would alter the dress they had in stock. The sales clerk also convinced us to buy the dress by telling us that they were having a President’s Day sale and we were guaranteed at least a 10% discount. She proceeded to pin the dress with safety pins (that should have been a clue.) When we went to pay for the dress, we were told that instead of a discount on the dress, we would receive a pair of earrings valued at $40. Since my daughter was already in love with the dress and it was her first formal, I overlooked that, as well.
We went to pick up the dress a few weeks later and they told us when we arrived that they would have to re-pin the dress because the original salesgirl had not done it correctly.
When we finally did pick up the altered dress, we were told it would be $175 for alterations. At the time we purchased the dress, we were told $25- $30. I argued with the store manager until we agreed on $75, which was still a rip-off. I called the main store and spoke with the manager to register a complaint a few weeks later because the more I thought about it, the madder I became – she told me I should have called her at the time because there was nothing she could do about it now. NEVER EVER EVER shop here!!!!!
We purchased a sequined prom dress from them. They insisted on ordering a much larger size than I needed because I was busty. When it came in, the dress literally fell off of me. They sent it to alterations. It came back with a large bulge at the bottom of the zipper in the back, right at my bottom, and the sequins were zig-zagged on half of the dress and straight on the rest (how it was supposed to be). Luckily, my mom had saved the receipt where we insisted on a smaller dress size and paid with a visa. They refused to refund any portion of the now ruined dress and tried to charge us almost $300 in alterations. My mom contracted Visa and Visa refunded her money. We then went to Barbies formals in Milton, WV where we were treated great. We found a dress off of the rack received a discount, and received it back from alterations two days early!
I also had a horrible experience with them as well. Let’s say I was not a very happy camper when my dress came in,and that was in 2006. I will never go back there or send them another customer(or should i say victim).
I had the same issue with them before. My sister was getting married and I and the other bridesmaids needed a dress. I am “plus sized” and heard that Rosetree carried that size I needed (16) I called the office and made an appointment and was excited to be looking for my dress. We got there to the store 15 mins before my appointment and thought I could look around for a little bit. I walked in with my mother who was going to be helping me buy the dress… The women that greeted me had red hair and was rude. She looked at my sister who is a size 10. Asked what she could help her with. I chimed in and said I’m looking for a bridesmaids dresses, she goes what size are you or do you know, to which I reply I am a size 16 oh um well you can look let me know if you find anything. I said do you all have a set area for that size she goes no it’s all over, she pulls three dresses from a rack ugly as can be and she goes here these come in your size. I look at them and said those are so ugly no that won’t work. She goes well with your size we don’t have much.
She walked away from use to help a girl who was a size 4-5 and was pulling dresses left and right for her and helping her every way she can. I’m veriy nice, but when you walk away from helping me to another customer without being polite about it, I’m nit to nice. I looked at her and said since you do t seem to be willing to help me, I’ll be taking my money elsewhere. She looked at me and goes ok bye. Like she didn’t even want to deal with me.
We ended up at David’s bridal is Charlestown WV and walked in without an appointment and got a women to help me within 5 mins, we showed her a dress that I found online and she found it within mins. She stuck with me and even gave me a better deal on a dress than what Rosetree would/could have ever done. We told her what happened she said that we were about the 100th person in the last three days to.tell.her that, that was plus sized. Fostered wants skinny people.and when they see that you ‘re anything larger than a 10 they don’t want to deal with you.. I have posted my story everywhere for people to see.
I also had many problems with my brides maid dresses !! They are terrible and will never receive my business again!! Also from a girl that use to work there said if you do not pay your bill on time they will take your card and do it their selves… terrible business
This link is all over my Facebook newsfeed, and each link is followed by a lengthy list of comments of horror stories. Here’s mine.
(1) My friend Rachel was getting married in October, I believe in 2006 We went there to browse, apparently in the middle of Prom season. We asked a clerk about wedding gowns. She rolled her eyes and said “Uh, it’s PROM season? Wedding gowns are in the back. NOT a priority right now?”
(2) they’ve fat-shamed several of my friends. There is a huge, huge difference between telling someone a gown doesn’t work for them and making them feel like crap about their bodies. You have to pretty much go out of your way to do that. They did. Several times.
(3) They made some incredibly nasty homophobic remarks to a local drag queen who went in to buy a dress there a few years ago.
I can’t thank you enough for sharing your story. I am downright giddy that karma is biting them in the ass right now.
Everyone I know has a RoseTree horror story, dating back as far as I can remember. How they stay in business boggles my mind.
All I can say is WOW! I had very similar experiences but with my jr. brides maides dresses. I had all the dresses picked out prior to going to the shop and had magazines with me. I was told there would b no problem ordering the dresses for preteens and placed our orders as well as our deposits on each (3) one. About 3 wks later I received a call from the store that they couldn’t get the dresses that small and I could come pick out another style, but I also could not receive my deposit back. Well wrong move Rose Tree, my future bro-in-law is an attorney and the money for two of the dresses was his. I immediately left the store (in tears) and called him to explain the situation. After a couple more visits to the store, doing what my bro-in-law had told me didn’t work he called and got the job done.
Thankfully my dress, veil and bridesmaids dresses were fine when they finally came in. Needless to say we got them and never looked back. I took them to a seamstress I’d known for many years for all alterations on them.
This was all back in late 2004, I can’t believe this is still going on today. AND they have since expanded to the Huntington Mall! How are they still in business, but more importantly, how is that woman able to open her shop and treat ppl like this daily?!? Her karma is coming!!!
I’m a wedding photographer in West Virginia and have had dozens (literally DOZENS) of past brides tell me stories just like the ones I’m reading here. It breaks my heart!
Some ways to help others avoid the headache and heartache you may have experienced –
1) Register formal complaints with the Better Business Bureau.
2) Leave ratings and detailed reviews (just copy and paste your comments from here!) on their facebook business page – https://www.facebook.com/rosetreeboutique .
3) Copy and paste your review to Weddingwire – http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/the-rose-tree-boutique-ceredo/eb06b5ea8fce5777.html .
4) Leave reviews on their Ceredo listing (For those of you with experiences at the Ceredo location) – http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-rose-tree-boutique-ceredo ..
Inform other people of your experience! As a businessperson who values that people would want to give me money for my services & products, it’s incredibly frustrating and depressing to me that such slimy businesses exist. If they don’t have customers, they won’t exist anymore.
But my heart really does hurt for everyone here who had to deal with this stress. Thank you, Elaine, for posting this!!! I hope this post (along with the reviews that people are inspired to write now) helps to prevent other girls from similar experiences!
Thanks Emily! I have done many of these but will do the two other
I was a bridesmaid in a wedding in Sept of 2012. We did the champagne party, and half of us didn’t get discounts as advertised because we couldn’t pay in full that day. That should have been the first red flag.
As we tried on the dresses, two of us were ostracized for being overweight and didn’t even get to try on anything at all, which was disappointing. Then, when we got the dresses (two months late), the size that had fit me in the store was suddenly three sizes too big. Fortunately, I had several pairs of socks to stuff in the bust to make my friends laugh. I went with a different seamstress than what the store had offered because I had heard tales.
Thankfully, the bride’s mom is a spitfire and most of the crap that happened to her was worked out — she had the dress altered by the RoseTree and when she went to try it on two weeks before the wedding, it was too small. Awful. But she had someone else fix it.
I can only echo what everyone else is saying – don’t shop at RoseTree.
I took my daughter into the Rosetree to look at a couple dresses (she was 6 and thought they were very pretty in the window) and the sales girl visibly rolled her eyes at me. Needless to say, we will never step foot in there again.
I’m so sorry for what you had to go through, but had to tell you what a Beautifull bride you were !
Let me tell you about my awful experiences with them!
1st time- I had a prom dress on layaway and they call me the week of prom and tell me that my dress is in (though it was suppose to already have been on there) so after going there and demanding they tell me what happened. They told me that someone came in and wanted that exact dress in the same size, so they just sold mine and ordered me a new one. Which doesn’t sound like a big deal but one thing they did to get business is, if you buy from them they record what dresses have been bought for which schools so the same dress doesn’t show up at your same dance. And BAM the person who bought my dress, was at MY prom!
2nd time, my sister had a wedding dress she was paying for and her wedding was called off and one of the consultants told her she would be able to get the money back that she had paid minus a stocking fee and when she went to take care of it, that same consultant told her she never said that (and my sister had it in writing) so the manager said it wasn’t in that consultants handwriting so my sister had to pay for the dress and take it home if it had been worn or not. No alterations had been done or anything!
And 3rd when my sister got married and we ordered bridesmaid dresses (though I was NOT happy about it) I flew from Oklahoma to be there to be measured, not to mentioned that I had just had a baby (he was 4 months old) and when my dress arrives they had put me down as a size 4 not 14 and then told me it was my fault that the dress didn’t fit!
It is one of the worse businesses I have EVER dealt with! I will NEVER go there if it were the only place to buy dresses!! Awful!
And not to mention the bridesmaid dress that was too small, had to be cut off at the bottom and sewn a panel in the back of the dress so it would fit, being that it was the week of the wedding!
I’ve never purchased anything in Rosetree but have gone into the one at the mall a couple of times. They have some nice things, however most of their inventory looks as if it’s been around for a while and definitely way overpriced!
I went there in 2010 for a prom dress…absolutely terrible experience. I found a dress I liked there, but the dress they had on the floor was size 14. I’m a size 0, so they told us they could order the dress for us in my size. First, the dress was late…VERY LATE. Eventually, we received a letter (in the mail, which seemed odd) saying that the dress was in. So we went to Ceredo to pick it up, only to wait over an hour for them to tell us it must have been a mistake, as the dress was not in. They offered free alterations to make up for us driving 2 hours for nothing. Two weeks later (and barely over a week away from my prom), they called saying the dress was in again. We drove back to Ceredo, and I tried the dress on to be altered–I’m short to begin with, so I always have to have hems taken up. The dress didn’t look or feel right to be a 0, and then they tried to charge us for the alterations and called my mom a liar when she tried to remind them that we’d been told we would get free alterations. We took the dress with us to a different seamstress, and she told us that the dress had been altered previously; there was no way this dress was a 0–it had been sized down from at least a size 10. The whole experience was awful, and I tell everyone not to go there.
And on top of all that, they had actually tried to convince me beforehand not to order the dress in my size, because they could alter the floor model to fit me. Again, I’m a ZERO. The floor model was a FOURTEEN. That big of a difference can’t be altered and leave the dress still looking good! So in the end that’s exactly what they did anyway, regardless of my telling them that I wanted a 0 ordered.
When I was going to my first prom, I was so excited….until I went to The Rose Tree. The salesgirl (and I use that term loosely) asked me what I was looking for. I had a good idea but told her I preferred a black dress or a unique style, but didn’t want red or yellow. Everything she showed me were in those colors- and she was incredibly pushy. I found a black dress I wanted to try on… She proceeded to tell me how cheap I would look in black. Now, this was not a cheap dress and my grandmother was with me. After arguing with this girl- I tried on the dress and when I came out, she told me and my grandmother that I looked like a streetwalker and needed one of the dresses she selected. We walked out and have never darkened the door again.
When I was 14, I was a bridesmaid in my cousin’s wedding, and we all ordered our dresses from the rose tree. All of the bridesmaids were supposed to wear sheer shaws that came with the dresses. After the dresses were picked up and we went through everything, I realized I didn’t have a shaw. The rose tree claimed that “I was too young & probably just misplaced it”… And that was the extent of their help. We didn’t wear the shaws. 2 years later, I went to order a prom dress, and after I said my name, they came out of the back with the shaw to that bridesmaids dress with my name attached to it! Too late!!
I actually got asked to leave and they threatened to call the cops when I very calmly pointed out how they had overcharged my sister for her bridesmaid dresses, and that they were all the wrong sizes with the wrong tags. One girl that was a size 0 had a dress that I swear could have been used to cover a 1970s Lincoln Continental. I took it upon myself to share my story with everyone in the store prior to leaving. But now I can honestly say I’ve been thrown out of nicer places. Sorry about your experience, but this has happened for years there.
Hi, I just read through all the comments and I think someone should really look into setting up a class action lawsuit against the Rose Tree. Make a Facebook page or something to get the word out. Put an add in the Herald-Dispatch. Lawyer up! Selling a used dress as new is totally illegal and the cut tags are just plain fraudulent. So is charging a bank or credit card without authorization.
I remember I went there in 1999 looking for a dress to wear to my Senior Prom. They had me trying on dresses 10 sizes too big and told me they could take them it. My mom taught me how to sew and she gave me a funny look, so we ended up going to another shop in Milton (Barbies?). I found a dress with a rip in it at that shop and they not only gave us a discount but also found the dye lot number and ordered the fabric at cost from the manufacturer so my mom could replace the panel herself. If that place is still around then go there!
I have sent a link to the this story to WSAZ to see if they will do a investigation report into this. I agree that they need to start being held liable for the wrong they are doing! I am going to ask my friend that is a lawyer and see if he thinks a suit can be filed.
I had a horrible experience this past summer and I am amazed they have any business at all. I actually posted about it on my FB page in July and I also got multiple comments about similar experiences. The DISHONESTY was the most shocking part to me as well. Their BBB rating should be a blatant/obvious sign for people to stay away from this place.
I worked there briefly and they were just as horrid to work for as they are to their customers. We had to lie and tell every girl that she looked beautiful in every dress that she tried on regardless if it looked absolutely awful or not. Even if the customer asked your opinion you were still to tell them that it looked great. I just felt awful about doing that, especially to do it to the girls that were in there shopping alone and really relied on the sales personals opinions. They didn’t care as long as you sold something. It wasn’t about making the commission off of the dress (it was mostly only like $2.00 anyway), we obeyed because we were trying to avoid getting in trouble, dogged or belittled if someone overheard you giving your opinion. I am not shocked that they mess up the alterations at all. It happened a lot. It was “NEVER” their mistake either, and the CUSTOMER always paid for the fix. I was 18 years old, my very first job with no sewing experience and was MADE to pin customers dresses/outfits up for alterations although I begged for someone that knew what they were doing to do it. You were belittled if you asked for help and told that you should know how to pin despite never ever ever being trained on it. So if you do have alterations done there make sure you ask for the person that does their alterations to come in and personally pin you. This way, they should also be able to give you a commitment on what the alterations will cost because the person doing them is right there. If they are not willing I would definitely shop elsewhere or get the alterations done somewhere else. I can guarantee that you will find much better customer service at other boutiques in the area that you won’t feel pressured to buy from. I personally found my wedding dress at RT. They were having a sale so I went ahead and decided to buy it (it was supposed to be $200-$300 off the price.) When I went to the register to pay for it she said, “we can’t give you the discount on that dress because the designer doesn’t allow us to sell it any cheaper.” I was previously told that I was for sure getting a discount on that dress. Hence, I told them to keep it. When I got home I called 4 different boutiques all saying that they would honor that cheaper price for the dress. My point, they lured me in, offering a great price and when I fell in love and committed to that dress, they pulled the deal out from under my feet hoping I would buy it anyway. I do not know anywhere that makes you have a champagne party in order to get a discount off your bridesmaids dresses. EVERY other place automatically gives the BM’s and FG’s a discount as long as the bride gets her dress from them. I definitely would only use Rose Tree as a last resort.
I will NEVER go back to rose tree. Their prices are very overrated and ridiculous. I got a bridesmaid dress from there an put half the money down when I ordered it. I thought I just paid the balance off when I picked up the dress, not knowing that they were charging me every month for not making a payment. No one ever told me or called me to let me know I need I make a payment n interest was being added to my bill. On top of that I had to have the dress altered an it cost me an extra 150.00!! I have never in my life paid that much for alterations. I didn’t pay close to that to have my wedding dress altered. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone!
I would not recommend the Rose Tree to anyone. I went just after Christmas 2 years ago to pick out bridesmaids dresses with a friend who was getting married, along with some of the other bridesmaids. The associates were no where to be seen for most of the time we were there. After about 3 hours, we finally decided on a perfect dress. The sales woman told us only one person needed to order to get some sort of discount. That’s what we did because we had over a year before the wedding to order and some of us were concerned about weight loss/gain since it was so far off. We were assured that wasn’t an issue and as long as we ordered 6 months in advance it would be fine. The woman took one girl’s measurements and rang up the order. During this, the mother of the bride was looking at a catalog, wanting to have a picture of the dress to show off. It was a new catalog and we couldn’t find the dress in it. Turns out, the dress we picked had been discontinued. The sales woman almost let us leave the store having picked out a dress that we would not have been able to order when we came back. She looked it up on the computer and said “oh, yeah, it’s being discontinued.” She hadn’t even bothered to check before we decided on it, knowing it would be another 4-5 months before most of us ordered our dresses. So, we spent another hour choosing between the other dresses we’d liked. After making a second choice, we made sure the woman checked if it would remain available, despite her snippy attitude about it. Fast forward 6 months to time to order, I had to wait close to 20 minutes for someone to pay attention and come to measure me and let me order my dress. Two months later (after I’ve made my payments for the dress) I get a phone call saying “We just wanted to make sure all of the girls had ordered their dresses because prices sometimes go up this time of year.” I, of course, was confused, as I had already ordered and paid. It took several phone calls back and forth between the store, me and the bride-to-be for them to figure out the dress had been ordered but was under the wrong name. Seemingly everything was fine then. Unfortunately, the couple broke up several months before the wedding. As the dresses were no longer needed, we didn’t really pay attention to the fact that we’d never gotten a phone call about our dresses having arrived at the store. That is until Christmas rolled around again and the date the wedding was supposed to happen was coming up. We never did get a call from the store. The would-have-been bride finally drove the 35 minutes to the store to collect all the dresses herself. They are unprofessional and just flat out rude and condescending. Save your time and sanity and go somewhere else.
I had went to the rose tree to find a flower girl dress, they wanted me to pay full price for this flower girl dress that had make up on it and I stated that there was no why and the sales lady told me all I had to do was take it home and wash the spots out of it. There was also dirt around the neck of the dress and the told me that would come out as well. I ask the lady if they could just order me the dress and she was trying to tell me it would cost extra also a rush delivery charge. My husband was even upset about it and said that there was no way
I spoke with a girl that had worked at Rose Tree and she informed me that their balloon sale is a joke. There is a percentage off inside when you pick a balloon – but – they advertise there is anywhere from 10 to ( I thinkit was) 30 or 40 % off but she said they were all 10%. They were also told to tell whoever they were waiting on that they had just had a customer that popped a balloon with one of the maximum discounts in it. All untrue!
I agree this is a horrible business. I don’t want to get into a long story because even after almost 4 years I still get very angry talking about it. We pretty much went through everything that others have complained of in these posts. Unknown floor models being drastically resized by someone who should not be allowed to touch scissors or a sewing machine, rude employees, lying employees, …he list goes on. There were bridesmaids trying to fix alterations themselves the night before the wedding! I don’t know how these people are still in business! Spread the word people!
I had bought my dress back in 2012 and it was suppose to come with a trip to Hawaii and I paid over $2000 just for my dress and another $300 for my veil. Guess what? I never got the trip so i called and they said it was to late they couldn’t do anything about it. I was told I had three years to take the trip but I really only had 1. Very dissatisfied with this company.
This is OLD OLD NEWSabout this shop. So sad people use them to shop at special times in life to have them give such poor service!!!!! Pray for all the shady people that put $$$$ above people’s feelings! Go to AG they will take care of them.
I went to the rosetree and had the worst experience ever! The sales associate was extremely rude from the start. I found a dress that I tried on (it was ok but it wasn’t what I wanted) when I came out in it she immediately started to pressure me into buying the dress. The dress was 4 sizes to small and it was discontinued. She then told me that it wouldn’t be hard to alter it to fit. She kept trying to pressure me and tried to get me to put money down. I went back into the dressing room changed and my friend and I walked out! I will NEVER go there again!
My daughter was an employee (for a very short time) They were trained to do anything to make a sell. If they did not they were belittled and yelled at by the owner Debbie, and commissions taken. Also a few girls were set up on many occasions to take the fall for someone with sticky fingers who is probably still a manager. Young girls who get threatened by the owner & their commissions taken away, and then fired for not doing the bad business practice they are ordered to do. All of the tag cutting and altering size 10 to a 0 is absolutely true. They have to do anything to make a sale. If they don’t she will find ways to get rid of them. This is not idle statements but facts. This place needs shut down & the owner prosecuted for decieving the consumer. I have been waiting for someone to bring this to light. And to you Debbie (Miss RoseTree) I hope that you do time in a Federal “prison” as you once threatened employees with.
And not your “local-ocal” jail as you called it. As you once said you would be ashamed to be parent of one of the girls that worked there…. You should be ashamed and leave town before you threaten or come across the wrong Mother or Father of a young girl.
My MIL went with me to get my gown and the put us in the back, I had a picture of what I wanted. They had the dress in blue but I wanted it in red and refused white so they ordered it and it came in way to big. I’m not sure what size it was but it wasn’t a 10 in big busted and that thing fell off, we also paid a huge change to have my dress altered. Everything was ok because I was pregnant (unexpectedly) and my waist had grown so the worst for but the to was still big so that and the length were altered. Featured to my wedding day we realized the tulle under the gown was to long and my dad tried to fix it well the stitch feel out poor guy and I almost fell down the aisle. Thank God I had a hair tie around my wrist I just bucked up the tulle and tired it and it was fine but really! I could have fallen and hurt my baby not to mention the alliteration issues and price!
My typos are terrible sorry everyone.
Why are these people still in business?
I have 3 daughters and we have bought several dresses there for pageants and my oldest daughter got her wedding dress there. Our first bridal experience with my oldest went fairly smoothly. My second daughter went there to try on gowns for her wedding and told the sales clerk exactly what she did NOT want but every dress she brought out was exactly what she did NOT want. She brought her one of the ugliest dresses in the store to try on and insisted it was the dress we buy, even putting it on hold so we could give her a deposit!!! Lucky for us the sales clerk had to leave the fitting area for a few minutes so my daughter quickly changed and we left the store. However, the next day she called me and wanted to know when we were going up pay for it! As for pageant gowns, my third daughter would go in to try on a dress and generally needed a size 10-12 but the sales clerks would only bring her a size 2 or 4 to try and insisted these were best for her and they would order it in. What’s wrong with letting a girl try on her own size? They kept saying they didn’t carry very many “plus size” dresses….really??? We have not purchased anything from then for 2 years now and it’s totally their loss because I own a national pageant system and recommend clothing for hundreds of girls! You can see how desperate the sales clerks are for getting bonuses. Too bad they aren’t being taught good, useful techniques they can use to better themselves and prepare themselves to work in a better environment.
I posted earlier but wanted to add that one day we were there trying on dresses and I saw a man going into a bridal dressing room with his fiancé . I could hear noises coming from the dressing room so I contacted a sales clerk. She walked over and listened. She said “They are having sex. Happens all the time!” I almost threw up!! They came out of the room about ten minutes later, hung up the dress on a hook and left. The sales clerk did not reprimand them at all. Sick that they condoned this knowing people would be walking barefoot into those dressing rooms!
Did they take down the option of rating them on their fb page? I was enjoying watching their stars rapidly decrease.
They did…
Interesting.. with all the bad stories, if you got to “Yelp” only one review and it is a 5 star. I think maybe Yelp is not to be trusted either? or the store paid for a “scrubber” service that takes off bad reviews from the internet.
John all of our 1 star (0 star) reviews are hidden. Click the link below and see this: http://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_reviews/XxqxxPzDLIey1VgX8_7JbA The reviews are “not recommended.”
I went there because they has a dress in the window I liked. I thought I’d try it on then price shop. They cut out tags so I couldn’t write down the name and style number of the manufacturer. For such a shady place it’s hard to believe they are still in business!
This is a common practice. Why? Because the store pays for the roof, electric, employees, and all other overhead to help you. Then you want to go somewhere else for cheap. Not really fair.
This blog discussion is not about the price of a gown. I could have paid $1,000 for a gown if I wanted to. It’s about fraudulent business practices. Lying about ordering dresses and then cutting out the tags (leaving evidence behind) is fraud. Every legitimate business pays for the things you listed above.
There are a fair number of you that have responded to the blog post with negative experiences at Rose Tree. Imagine the number there must be out there that aren’t seeing this post. You should all band together and file a class action lawsuit against them. This would surely get the attention that they definitely need. I live out of town and would not know the local “word on the street” about these folks. When visiting friends in Huntington, I have browsed through the store on occasion looking at dresses for my daughter’s prom. I am so glad that I never purchased anything from them. It would have been devastating if I had made the purchase and then discovered the issues. I live 4 hours away so it would not have been feasible to deal with the issues. Best of luck to all of you.
1. Ladies, I am very sorry that everyone or your friends or loved ones had the unfortunate misfortune to be cheeated and mistreated by the unscrupulous scoundrels at Rosetree. Thank you for sharing your stories so that others do not have to suffer at their greedy hands.
2. Rosetree needs to either a) be sold and put under new management or b) be put out of business PERMANENTLY. Fraud, theft, embezzlement, breach of public trust, and poor customer service is never acceptable, nor should it be condoned.
4. To everyone who has posted on here, post a link of this page on your Facebook page and reference Rosetree or link back to Rosetree’s Facebook page. Do the same on Weddingwire, it seems to be a more trusted ratings site, and WV Wedding’s magazine’s FB page to warn and reach out to as many brides as possible. Also share the link to this blog post on all of your friends and family members’ facebook page and ask them to share it with all of their friends and family members’. It seems you have momentum, keep up the pressure to effectuate change and make a difference. The more people share this story and tell their personal story, the less likely that anyone will make the mistake of Ever.Setting.Foot in that store again!
5. Elaine, please call the Charleston Gazette, Charleston Daily Mail, and WSAZ, and every other news outlet to do an investigative piece on this fraudulent place. They will have to do very little to find sources and leads to confirm their investigative report. You have done 90% of the work for them by sharing your story!
Thank you again for sharing your very personal story. You are so beautiful and look absolutely stunning on your wedding day. Congratulations!
ps/ Elaine, please add the link to Rosetree’s WeddingWire rating site and WV Weddings magazine’s Facebook site so that people can quickly get onto those sites to share their story, and because YELP clearly can bought to only share positive reviews about a business.
Brides & Citizens, UNIT! We are not going to take it anymore.
Thank you all for sharing your experiences. Please help spread your message onto the following sites, as well as your own Twitter and Facebook pages:
WEDDING WIRE: http://www.weddingwire.com/reviews/the-rose-tree-boutique-ceredo/eb06b5ea8fce5777.html
Rose Tree on Facebok: https://www.facebook.com/rosetreeboutique?ref=br_tf (They have removed their reviews section due to the overwhelming amount of posts)
WV WEDDINGS: https://www.facebook.com/wvweddings
YELP: http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-rose-tree-boutique-ceredo
(all negative YELP reviews are hidden here: http://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_reviews/XxqxxPzDLIey1VgX8_7JbA
This company was also out of Parkersburg, WV and many similar stories in of which was my sister in law. Sounds like there could be a class action.
I bought a few dresses from Rose Tree when I was in high school, but purchased the majority of my formal dresses from Lara’s (with positive experiences). Back in 2008, I was one of two bridesmaids in my best friend’s destination wedding. I haven’t lived in the area since 2001, but was visiting from out of town, so went to Rose Tree with the bride, tried on dresses, had them to write down the dress size & color, and paid for it. They told me they would wait to order until the other bridesmaid went in, so they could ship together. The other bridesmaid ordered her dress shortly after me and we thought everything was fine. A few months later, I picked my dress up and had it altered elsewhere. On the day of the wedding, I was finally with the other bridesmaid and we noticed that our dresses were two completely different colors of purple! Since it was an hour before the wedding, we had to “go with it.” The M-O-B called Rose Tree to inform them of the mistake and their reply was, “Oh, they must have been on different dye lots.” I have been in several other weddings (including my own) and it has NEVER been a practice to order bridesmaid dresses at different times, for this exact reason. Generally all bridesmaids are supposed to be fitted and provide their measurements by a certain date, pay a deposit minimum and all of the dresses are ordered at the SAME TIME, to prevent them all being different colors and to provide that they are shipped and arrive at the same time. I would be LIVID if they claimed to order me a new dress, yet tried to give me one that was used AND modified AND falsely sized without being upfront about it. Nobody deserves to be treated in the way that each of you have been treated, as many of your posts definitely show instances of deceptive business practices and fraudulent misbehavior. I hope that these shady business practices are brought to light before other young ladies’ hopes and dreams for the “perfect dress” are ruined. I am so sorry to hear of each of your nightmare stories; especially considering that bridal, bridesmaids, and flower girls’ dress shopping should be a fun, exciting experience! Elaine, despite your nightmare experience, you were a BEAUTIFUL bride… Congratulations on a lifetime of love & happiness!!
I had an awful experience too! My dress was extremely late. My alterations were not how they should have been. My bustle fell apart and wasnt done correctly. They also didnt have it steamed and ready for pick up the day before my wedding! They tried to tell me i didnt have an apt for it to be steamed but when they got their schedule book ou it was cleary written in the book. They had to try to steam it with me waiting at the store and i ende up late to my own rehearsal. Dress still wrinkled and not prepped. Not a profressional store and would not recommend to anyone! nandels is a way better business to go to!
To let everyone know, even though they have taken down the review section on their FB page you can comment under any picture they have posted. I am going to post a the link to this page under a few photos. If everyone does it at least the message will spread. I’m sure they will block me & my comments but I do not care. I say bring it Debbie to someone who isn’t afraid to stand up to you.
It makes me very sad to hear these stories. No bride should have these problems.
But no wedding gown is made by the designer in a month. Maybe for a huge rush order fee. If a new gown is ordered, I recommend at least 6 months.
Wish I could recommend a bridal place in WV but I only know Destiny’s Bride, Scottsdale, AZ. Can be found on facebook.
I was going to go there, even had a consultation. The worker was nice to me and horribly rude to a co-worker right in front of me. I’ve heard so many awful things about this place, so I ended up going somewhere else and I’m really glad I did!
They have a bridal boutique Facebook page that you can still rate and review. It’s not easy to find, but maybe we can get some reviews up on here!
Facebook.com/rosetreebridalboutique
(I hope that works, my phone wouldn’t let me paste the link. You can find it if you go back to December’s posts on their page.)
Now they have blocked all comments. On there whole FB page. Pretty funny I think. I shall see what I can do on twitter!
OMG I can’t believe the lies they are responding to you with! I can’t even believe a business would argue back and forth with a customer like that. Although from the horrible people at the Rose Tree, nothing should surprise me. Elaine, good for you for not backing down! You really should go to the local news with this story, like someone else posted earlier, they would have no problem finding other stories. I’m sure if this story was aired on the news, even more people would come forward.
I clicked on your updated post. I saw where you have an audio recording. Smart move. Keep it. It is not the only audio recording that is out there. Keep lying Rose Tree. It is perfectly legal to record a conversation as long as one person in the conversation knows they are being recorded. Don’t let up on them. The things they do to good people keeps getting swept under the rug. Anyone reading this, drive the extra miles. Fly if you have to fly, find your wedding dress, prom dress anywhere but here. You are getting floor sample, altered, dirty merchandise. At double the price.
I had several bad experiences with the Rose Tree that started as soon as we decided which dress to buy. Misty, our assistant was great with helping us to pick a dress. She was patient and helpful and wonderful during our first fitting. Misty told us we would receive $200 off the dress and 1/2 off the veil if we purchased the same day. When we went to the register, they rang the dress up at full price. When we asked why we didn’t receive the discount, they said we had to ask for it. The girl was rude, but re-did our order for a discount. We purchased my dress in February and my wedding was September. After much struggle over the phone to try to get a new dress instead of the stained dress on the floor, they finally told me my delivery date would be mid July. My dress did not arrive until Mid August.
In the meantime, we took my sister there for her maid of honor dress fitting. We requested Misty, but she did not help us. Actually, she acted like she didn’t know us. The girl that did help us was not very helpful. It was a completely different experience. When we purchased my sister’s dress, they were very unhelpful and made us feel uncomfortable about the delivery dates. My sister’s dress was scheduled to be in by the end of May (two weeks from the time we ordered it). Her dress came in a week after mine.
The fitting was with a sales associate, not the seamstress. They told us they would fix it one way, but when we went back to pick up the dresses, my sister’s dress was not there and mine was a MESS!!!! I decided to take my dress from them and take it to The Dressmaker’s Closet in Charleston. It cost me $600 to fix it; half the price of my dress. Not to mention I had to pay for Rose Tree to mess it up. They also messed up my sister’s dress and we had no time to fix it before my wedding. They were horrible to us. They treated us very badly and were rude and acted like we were out of line for being upset about their quality of service.
If Julie had not helped us, I don’t know what we would have done. I wish I had taken my dress to her to start with.
STAY AWAY FROM THE ROSE TREE!!! I know there are not many options out there, but DON’T GO THERE!!!
I’m so glad you found the Dressmaker’s Closet! Your dress turned out beautifully thanks to them and you looked great in it! I had heard about Rosetree and was warned before I did any trying on of gowns. I went to Nandels of Eleanor and there were wonderful. Would highly recommend them as well! I understand the frustration with fittings though. I went through several and didn’t have my dress until the week of my wedding (june 2013) even though i ordered it the first week of january that same year. But it was nothing due to their fault, it was just alterations to make it fit me but had so much beading and detail it took a long time. anywho, i’m glad it worked out for you in the end but sooo sorry about your experience there!
But you were a beautiful bride!! 
Here’s some justice for you…
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x1313365448/Dress-shop-owner-charged-with-fraud
I don’t know if you saw this or not: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/x1313365448/Dress-shop-owner-charged-with-fraud
I would encourage your readers who have had similar experiences to contact the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department: (304) 272-6378 or the West Virginia State Police. The criminal cases are going forward and it is important for the judge to know how widespread these issues are.