Email to Pronuptia Stoke On Trent

Good Morning,
I just wanted to put into words how disappointed I was with one of your staff members yesterday, Saturday 13th January 2007. I had been shopping all day with my sister looking for a wedding dress for her big day in June. Me and my sister are about as close as a sister and brother can get and she wanted me with her to help choose that special dress.

Every shop that we went in helped create a wedding illusion in their own way. Some offered us ribbons to pop over dresses that my sister fell in love with and others offered their much needed guidance on what kind of things would suit her. We had a brilliant day, much contributed by the humour and expertise of the dress specialists.

When we arrived at Pronuptia, straight away I got excited. Out of all of the shops we had visited, you appeared to have the largest selection and I started getting stuck in, searching through that special dress that would bring me to tears and make my sisters wedding complete. It was when I was looking at a dress through one end of the shop that I was abruptly told by an elderly blonde lady that there were changing rooms, and to sit down. When I say she was rude, I mean rude to the point of attracting the attention of others nearby (one other male looking through dresses nonetheless!) who commented on her behaviour.

A few things that I should point out at this stage:-

1.) I am gay, I have about as much interest in your bridal rumps as your elderly blonde fitter does.
2.) I had no ideas that there were changing rooms BOTH sides of your shop and certainly did not see them when facing away from them looking through dresses.
3.) At 22 years of age, to be scolded and made to feel like either a pervert or 10 year old (I cant quite figure out which one she was getting at) I am absolutely appalled.
4.) There were other men in there, looking through dresses with their future brides/friends/SISTERS but perhaps because they were balding middle aged men, you thought them less of a threat to your brides??
5.) Why I was told to sit down and not able to even look through the wedding dresses that were in the middle of the two ridiculously placed changing rooms is beyond me. Other men were dotted about the shop.

In the end, my sister told me to “stand up and help me look for gods sake” as I was trying to point out dresses from sitting down. I did do but by then we were all too fuming and humiliated to give your staff and shop the time of day. On our way out a lady was walking up the stairs and my sister, who was now so upset she was verging on tears, told her that they should close off the dressing rooms if you do not want men in there. We were told that they would make an exception for me but it was too late, the damage had been done. She thought that this was the lady who had told me to sit down (and be a good boy) but it was not. I apologise to this lady because she got the brunt of our anger.

Many suggestions have gone through all of our minds as to why I was persecuted in this way right from the age I look (most say 24+ sadly..) right through to what I was wearing on the day. However, we come back to the same conclusion. Your sales assistant was the only one out of around 8 shops that we visited that gave us the attitude.

It is maybe silly how your staff and their rudeness very nearly ruined our day. But, to say that would be the understatement of the century. However, I want to point out that we did dare to go one more shop after we had been to Pronuptia. It is a shop in Newcastle called Confetti owned by twin ladies. We were offered an apology on entering because appointments should be made so that they could offer their undivided attention to us. However, they did tell us that we could browse and if an appointment was needed, we could make one. While my sister started looking for a dress, I was chatting away to them and they were telling me some background about themselves and their company. I felt at this point that a rapport had been built and virtually straight away we saw a beautiful dress. They had 3 different parties that were trying on outfits but they did tell us that my sister could try on a dress so that she could get an idea of what it would look like. During this time we were given undivided attention and she ended up trying on 2, 1 of which is perfect. We were offered more but we were pretty sure that the “chosen one” was unbeatable. My sisters friend, the maid of honour tried on 3 dresses. In all, we found a wedding dress, a maid of honour dress and a bridesmaid that we fell in love with. (I got the tears!!) They treated us all like one of the family and clearly knew what they were talking about. We are going shopping once again for the dresses through this week as we want to have covered every angle. However, unfortunately we will not be returning to Pronuptia.

I want to stress, and Im sure that my sister would agree that if we had seen the exact same dress at your shop with the attitude of the staff we encountered, I am pretty sure that my sister would have paid more for it from confetti purely based on the service that we experienced.

To give you an idea, my sister was given a 3000 pound limit for her bridal outfit, not including bridesmaids or the maid of honour. This is now money that will not pass your hands.

Please, please pass on my comments to those concerned and remind your staff that you are there to make someones special day. Not break it.

Kindest Regards
Adrian Williams