Visited the London Heritage Farm for tea right after brunch at OEB with mum and the bridesmaids, with the excuse of checking out the venue, but mostly for the pastries. It was also Mother's Day weekend, so the tea room was quite busy, and we were lucky to be able to get a table. This is not a place for those who are in a rush to eat and get out, but it's a cozy spot to enjoy the heritage decor and chat.
We ordered the Afternoon Tea, which included the scones on the bottom layer of the tier, a bite size cheese cake, a shortbread cookie, and a very sweet brownie. The scones were warm and served with cream, butter, and strawberry jam, which was delicious. My favourite was the cheesecake, and I passed on the brownie (too sweet). I'm not a tea connoisseur, so I can only guess that they served us Orange Pekoe or English Breakfast.
We spent a good 2 hours at that little table, and then another hour afterwards wandering around the gardens outside. There are many wedding details to discuss, and an excessive amount of tasks remaining on the To Do list.
Where will the guests park?
Which direction will the bride come from?
What is the lighting situation once the sun sets?
Finally, how will Isabelle's Bridal learn that customer service is extremely important?
I picked up my wedding dress (still hard to believe it's actually in my closet right now) right before this tea break, and let me tell you, it was stressful. I had originally picked out this dress and paid the deposit at the beginning of August, more specifically Aug. 4th, 2018.
At that time, I was told the dress would arrive in 6 months, so I patiently waited for my phone to ring at the beginning of February 2019. February came and passed, and March was almost over when I gave up on waiting, and picked up the phone to follow up. When they answered the phone, the person who picked up had some difficulty finding the information for my dress and placed me on a brief hold. The person who continued the conversation was, I believe, one of the owners, as I recognized their voice from meeting them while visiting in August 2018. She told me that the dress was on its way, and that it usually takes about 6 to 8 months to arrive.
I was pretty sure she had originally mentioned 6 months, but no problem, perhaps I had misheard the lead time. There was still plenty of time, as the Isabelle's Bridal representative kindly reminded me, before my September wedding. I continued waiting, and life got busy in April with travelling and picking out caterers, bridesmaids dresses, decor, so I forgot about this whole ordeal.
I came back from Chicago, waited a week, and it was now the end of April, which would be 8 months from the original time of ordering. I called again.
This time, one of the owners picked up again (Basha or Kasha, I cannot recall their names now, but that was how she answered when she picked up the phone), and I asked once again for the status of my dress. The owner then curtly replied, "Please don't call us on a weekend, as we are very busy with fittings. We do not have time to check the status. Email us."
Click. She hung up.
I was quite surprised with this treatment. They seemed so sweet and polite and helpful in store, when I paid the first down payment, so this type of response came as a shock. I started assuming that perhaps they're going out of business, and that they would be running away with my $1000+ payment for the deposit, and that I would never receive the dress from them afterall! Why would they become so rude and defensive, when all I wanted to know was when the dress would actually arrive, so that I could plan accordingly for alterations and tailoring?
I refused to email them, and called back on a weekday at the end of April/beginning of May.
This time, another one of the owners picked up, and she told me that the dress had shipped and was on its way. She also said, "Please don't call us again, we'll let you know when it's here. You still have lots of time before your wedding in September. There's May, June, July, August, lots of time."
Well, they're not smart enough to figure out customer service, but at least they know the basics of counting and the months of the year.
Anyways, they finally called me a week after that, on the afternoon of May 8th, literally just as I was drafting an angry email to them to ask for another update. During this last phone call, I was told that I had 10 days to pay off the rest of the balance, and either I could book a time to come in, or give them my credit card information over the phone. I told them that I didn't have time to come in, the timing was just not the best, since I had travel plans coming up and other events on my calendar already. She snidely remarked, "Oh, but you were so eager to get the dress and called us about it so many times."
I asked to speak with their Accountants directly to ask for an extension of the payment period, after the owner mentioned that their Accounting team would be the ones who would need the payment within 10 days for the invoicing, but I was told that the accountants are unavailable for a phone conversation. Lying about the existence of an accounting team?
Luckily, I was able to squeeze in an appointment that weekend, right in between the OEB event and London Heritage Farm. The dress arrived in good condition, but I would not strongly advise to setay away from them. For all the future brides out there, don't let their cheap dresses and fake kindness trick you into buying one of their dresses. Once you pay that deposit, you're not even worth a few minutes for a courtesy phone call to inform you of any delays, and they don't even want to provide an update if you put in the effort to dial their number.
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