Never again will I or my friends bother walking into Debra Dee's on 11th Avenue in Regina.

The wedding is September 24, 2011, and on April 1st we were set to purchase the bridesmaids' dresses. An employee first told us that our dresses would NOT arrive in time for the wedding, and she suggested we pay the $40/dress rush fee, which, of course, we did. She told us all that they would arrive in 3-4 weeks giving us plenty of time for alterations. The fifth week, the bride called the store, spoke to the same girl who sold us the dresses, and she said, "Oh, no, Bill Levkoff takes two months plus 10 days to ship, so you will have them by June 10th for sure."

The week after the 10th, the bride called again, spoke to the same girl, and she said she would have her manager look into the whereabouts of the dresses and return the bride's call. The following day, the manager called and left a voicemail saying that "Bill Levkoff dresses ordered on rush take three months to arrive."

After the thirdrd month, the dresses were in, and we went to pay the remaining balance (1/2 the cost of each dress). We requested our rush fee back because we were lied to three times, and we felt as though we waited the normal amount of time to receive the dresses. The employee helping us told us that she was not surprised that the girl told us that, that she had done it before. She told us that, "Not only were her time limits completely wrong, but she never should have charged you the rush fee to begin with because dresses come in regularly within four months." We had a full month and 24 days on top of the four months. The employee got on the phone with her manager, told her the situation, and we heard the employee say, "I'm not surprised she told them that," and told the manager that we were wanting our money back for the rush. She got off the phone with the manager and said the manager refuses to return the fees. She also told us that if we were going to continue to pursue to get our money back for the rush fee that they would not let us take the dresses, that we'd have to wait until August 1st because that's normally when the dresses come in. Further, she made the comment that the manager did not want to deal with this or speak with us further because she was having supper with her son on her day off. (Great management!) We left the dresses knowing that the bride's mother was going to phone the manager the following week since she lives out of town.

The following week, the bride's mother phoned the manager, and she told her that the girl who told us that no longer works there, but they still refused to refund the money. The bride's mother asked to speak to the owner, who works out of Saskatoon, and the manager said that she would have the owner phone her.

The owner has never made the effort to contact either the bride or the bride's mother.

So, finally, I (one of the bridesmaids) went to pick up the dresses, already knowing the rush fees were lost. While preparing to pay, the same employee (the second one who was on the phone with the manager) tells me that it seems as though I also owe for two rushes still. I KNOW the bride paid for all four rush fees the first day, so I refused. She proceeded to show me the receipts (which were a huge mess), and I ended up having to take one invoice and line by line show her the math indicating that we had paid for all four rush fees. She tried putting the blame back onto the initial employee (who has done this before). I told her that they KNEW we were coming to get these dresses and pay our full amount that they should have been prepared with all of their invoices.

I asked for the initial employee's first name. She said it doesn't matter because she is no longer employed with Debra Dee's. I said, then it shouldn't matter if I have her name for documentation purposes. She refused.
I then asked for the owner's name. She hesitated, but provided it to me. I asked for a work number I could reach her at, and she said no. She did say she works in Saskatoon. I said to her, "You can't give me the Saskatoon store phone number? She said, "No." After realizing I wasn't leaving without contact info, she handed me a business card which had the address and phone numbers! I asked why she couldn't have given this info to me when I first asked, and she said, "I can't verbally tell you or write it down, but I can give you a card."

All I have to say is never again. Lesson learned.

The whole store not only is aware their employees charge rush fees when not required, but lies and gives customers the runaround about shipping time

They refuse to provide information to clients.

They have a lack of accountability and point fingers at anyone else around them.

They have ZERO customer service.

The manager doesn't deal with "issues" on her day off.

The owner has no accountability in following up or speaking to the customers.

The employees seem to have no knowledge of their practice in invoicing and are extremely unorganized.

If I wasn't paying attention, I would have ended up paying another $80 on top of it all for what she said were "remaining rush fees."

Head up to all future customers of Debra Dee's. Not a place you want to do business. Newline and NWL can sell the same dresses and are a MILLION times better to deal with. Never again.