Hi Folks.  Well basically my research needs are for some contacts,
some direction and even some advice.  On the eve of my best friends
wedding..his fiance' got her dress back from Saks 5th ave (SF store)
with a lipstick stain on the bottom of the dress.  After talking with
several ladies at the store they informed her that they would "send it
down to dry cleaning" and she would have it back in a matter of
moments.  After several "moments" the same lady cam back and informed
her that the dress would not be ready for at least another couple of
hours.  She and her mother left the store.  They then called Saks back
via the phone approximately 3 hours later, only to be put off again
with promises of a return call with the status of the dress.  After
the last call to Saks a lady from Saks said, "your dress cannot be
cleaned and you can come down to the store and pick ANY dress in here
for free."

2 hours later Saks called her at home and then changed their story
that she could now "come pick a dress of equal or lesser value".  This
is all occuring Thursday, October 17th. The leave for the wedding
location today, Friday, October 18th!  As you can imagine this is
extremely poor customer service and if she wasn't under enough stress
as it is.

So what I would like is this;

1> Information on the who's who to contact at Sak's regarding their
extremely poor service and someone to explain why their offer for
compensation changed.

2> Any people/person/Organization that has a little leverage to get
this heard. I have a sneaking suspicion that because the dress was
only $300 she is getting the run around.

3> Suggestions for next course of action.

My buddy is stressed out to the hill and wants his soon-to-be wife to
have this remedied. I got until 6pm TONIGHT to have something done.

Please Help!

I am not a research person for google.  I have, however, owned a
retail clothing store and ran into similar problems. You can always
call and complain to the manager of the store. But you have little
power other than to never shop at the store again. That does not help
your current situation.

If you have the dress and it still has the stain- There are several
options-

1.  I would ask Saks to call the cleaners the store uses and request
that the cleaners do a rush on this dress-get that commitment and walk
the dress into the cleaners-have them commit to a time they will have
the dress for you as early as possible on the 18th.

2. Pick up the dress from Saks. Call one of the top Wedding gown
salons and tell them your problem and ask them the name and number of
the cleaners they use for their gowns. Or get in the phone book and
find a cleaners that advertises cleaning wedding gowns. call them tell
them your problems ask it you can walk the gown in and wait for it or
at the very least have them commit to an early morning pickup time on
the 18th. If the wedding site is in another location find the best
cleaners in that location (call a shop that sells wedding dresses in
the area and find out what cleaners they recommend.)Walk the dress in
and get a commitment about whether it can be cleaned and when you can
have it-if you can wait all the better.

If she purchased her dress on sale, she has no recourse that will
satisfy her because at this point, its really mucked up her wedding
plans. Stores believe they have already lost money on a marked down
item and they will usually put little labor intensive effort into
those items-no matter what a salesperson may have promised (sometimes
in order to make the sale).

I also suspect the first call she got from Saks personnel saying she
could come in and pick out anything (no price limit)came as a result
of someone reporting that a bride was angry that her gown wasn't ready
and the person in charge assumed it was a wedding gown purchased at
full price. When the person learned  it was a sale item, they amended
the offer to another dress for the $300. I suspect the cheapest gown
at Saks is in the $1000 range on up to $10k and they were not about to
give her that much of a buy up.

Do you have a written contact stating time garment would be ready? Was
she paying for the cleaning or was the store offering it as a
courtesy?

The other reality is that even with the best intention stuff happens!

Oops, didn't realize you were in SF. I had my big tragedy with my
daughter's wedding gown there. Is the wedding in Northern CA-may be
able to help, carmel tahoe, napa, sausalito?

As of 20 minutes ago, and threat of a Sak's "sucks" site, she was not
only reimbursed for the damaged dress they tried to hide, but also
paid for her NEW dress and alterations from another store.  Thanks for
your feedback!