Carriageandcastles Reviews 7

I spent £650 on a bespoke Communion dress at Carriages and Castles, Glasgow, and it has been the most distressing retail experience I have ever encountered.
My 9-year-old daughter was measured in-store for a size 12. However, the dress that arrived was a size 10. When I brought this clear sizing error to their attention, the company refused to take any responsibility or offer support with alterations. Instead, I was sent home with a dress that did not fit, forcing me to pay an additional £50 for urgent alterations elsewhere just to ensure my daughter has a dress for her special day.
Most appalling was the conduct of the staff member on the floor. Rather than acknowledging the sizing mistake, she made slanderous and derogatory remarks regarding my daughter's weight and height to justify the poor fit. To make such comments to a 9-year-old child is a staggering failure of professional conduct and basic decency.
For a shop that brands itself on "magical memories," they provided nothing but stress and a total lack of accountability. If you are looking for a reliable business that treats children with respect and honors its measurements, I strongly suggest you look elsewhere.

DAMAGED DRESS

So, I chose carriage & castles for my daughter’s holy communion dress. We had looked at the selection online and my daughter found a dress that she loved. After contacting the shop we were told that they had a couple of sizes left in stock. The member of staff I spoke with on the phone was lovely and both sizes were put away until the next day and an appointment was made for my daughter to try on the dresses. When we arrived at the shop we were met by the manager Fiona, the appointment felt very rushed. When my daughter asked to try on other dresses, Fiona brought one other dress that was a size too small and was not style she was looking for, for her to try. She was not asked if she wanted to look around at any other dresses. Anyway, she ended up loving the original dress that she had picked online and it fitted perfectly. We paid a 50% deposit and told the dress would be all steamed and they would call when it was ready to pick up. My partner then took my daughter to pick up her dress the following week. They were shown a quick glimpse of the dress to make sure it was the correct dress. It then had a plastic bag placed over the top and was put inside a dress bag. My partner was told to take the dress out of the plastic bag when he got it home. The dress was dropped at my mums house for storage. She removed the dress from the zip bag and removed the plastic bag and she noticed there was a catch on the side of the skirt of the dress. She called me immediately and I contacted the store. I was asked to send pictures for the manager to have a look. 5 days later Fiona contacted me and said that this was not on the dress when it left the store and said it looked like it had been caught in the zip. Basically blaming us for the damage which is totally UNTRUE! The only place this could have happened is in store as this catch was already on the dress when it was removed from the protective bag! After a few messages back and forth and me asking for the returns policy and being completely ignored… Fiona recommended a seamstress for me to have the dress fixed … at my own cost! They are completely denying any liability even though I know for a fact the damage happened in store!

Please if you are buying a dress or awaiting arrival of a dress from this store make sure you check it all over before you leave!! As they will deny liability/blame you for any damage on the dress!

We were planning a trip back to the store to buy accessories for my daughter but we will now be going elsewhere and advising others to do so too!

The level of customer service I have received from Fiona has been very poor! Her attitude has quite frankly been disgusting, dismissive and extremely unprofessional! She has also said that she has tried to call me and leave messages which I haven’t received. I will be writing a letter of complaint and exercising my right to a refund/repair under the consumer rights act 2015.

I came in today with my mam & daughter for my daughters communion dress, we were greeted by Danielle and she was absolutely lovely! Couldn’t recommend this shop any more she was so helpful and just so lovely to deal with she made us feel right at ease and we bought a beautiful dress from her, all the dresses was gorgeous and over all it was such a great experience for us thanks to Danielle!

A huge thank you to audrey from the dublin store for the best experience for my daughters communion dress she was so helpfull and honest nothing was a problem she gave her so much time and made the hole experience a day to remember for us I will recommend all family and friends to shop anything communion or christening as we felt so welcome thanks again audrey

Thank you to Audrey from the Dublin branch for helping us choose our daughters dress. From the moment we walked on she was attentive and helpful, putting our daughter first and making her feel special. I would highly recommend anyone to their store

Thanks so much to Audrey in the Dublin branch for helping us pick the perfect dress for our daughter Saoirse, Audrey was absolutely amazing at helping us choose the prefect dress for our princess, I would highly recommend carriage and castles and of course Audrey

This company is an absolute joke, placed order on an item and paid delivery stating 1-2days and its now 5days later and I am still waiting and upon trying to contact this retailer to enquire my order and I get no reply so I take to their social media to no surprise, no reply again I am currently contacting trading standards as they have taken the money and not delivered or replying to emails/ social media and clearly are misleading customers on lead times for products, and I will be spreading my online experince with other parents and event planners as I have a wide circle due to my work role, but I will refrain from this store from now on and I suggest everyone else to refrain too as they will let you order and not notify you that the item wasn't in stock when you ordered and then they tell you it is awaiting dispatch and and I missed one phone call due to work yesterday and they cancelled my order and stated the item isn't in stock and they tried to contact me and refund process has started so now a child's day is ruined because this company doesn't care about customer service as once they have your cash you just need to hope there is no issues because they won't let you know and will ruin someone else's day