Believe it or not, we have the smartest, savviest, most delightful clients in the world.
We know this because despite of the (few) false/inaccurate reviews we’ve been left on our Google Plus and Yelp pages, these current and potential customers still come in droves to work with us. Seriously, we’re so fortunate!
What’s our secret? Well, the lies some customers and non-customers post online STINK but they’re no match to the exceptional word-of-mouth and praise we get almost daily. (Click here for more on how YOU can help us fight those stinky reviews.) Those good reviews–the ones that are both shared and not shared online–are awesome and help make our day.
We also take each review into consideration and carefully respond to it so that new potential clients are better aware. (Do note, however, that if we seem snarky in our replies, it’s because we’re not a faceless establishment; we’re real people who need to clarify some things and would rather do it using the same tone the original reviewer used. We’re not doormats :).)
Anyways, since those stinky reviews–and non-reviews–have only helped our business flourish, we’ve decided to highlight some of our favorites below for your perusal. ENJOY!
• One of our policies clearly states that we won’t keep a finished project for over six months. This lady got mad we didn’t keep it for the two+ years it took her to come to pick it up.
Bad experience! I was charged $200 to alter a dress – the dress was ruined Martha agreed that she made a mistake and offer to try and change the dress to make it work – tried to contact he to set that up and was never called back – then she lost or gave the dress away she wasn’t sure – but never contacted me – I should have read the reviews before I went to her with an expensive item
OUR RESPONSE:
Hi, —,
We tried to contact you but in two+ years, we never heard from you :(. We don’t keep finished projects for over six months, so with all due respect, our tailoring shop would never store them for two+ years. As far as we remember (and pardon our frankness), the quality of the dress you brought was rather poor, actually.
Though we love our business, we know that alterations ≠ something most people care a lot about so the “statute of limitations” on them is a few months at best. So we can’t recall how much we charged you.
In the end, the work was done and there weren’t any mistakes. You unfortunately never came back to pick it up in two years, so, as our policy states, we gave it away to charity. We strive to get 100% client satisfaction, so we sincerely wish you had told us how we could have made it up to you when you stopped by instead of posting a Yelp review where we can’t help besides posting a response. We’d have done our best to do just that. If there’s still something, please let us know asap.
PS- As our responses to them show, the negative reviews we get (incl. yours) contain several inaccuracies (or are written by non-customers and are thus 100% false), so we’re not sure what you mean by “I should have read the reviews before I went to her….”
PS2- Our FAQs explain our storage policy: http://altercreations.net/faqs
• Though this customer and her grandma were happy, her mom and aunt weren’t, so she gave us one star to show us the displeasure of the latter two
It seems like there is a common theme in reviewing Alter Creations. Similar to the first review, Martha quoted me $250 to alter a wedding dress at first. I acknowledge the fact that this was a VERY last minute request on my part, and appreciate that she was able to accommodate me only a couple of days before my wedding. However, one hour after my family and I left her shop, she called to tell me that the job would cost $400. We agreed on the higher price, but I was expecting that if she was going to charge these types of prices, the work would reflect that. Unfortunately, it did not. She did a nice job on the hemline, but the area around the zipper where she took in the dress was not well done. My mom and aunt have experience with cutting, sewing, and tailoring, and they were EXTREMELY displeased with the quality of craftsmanship. We expressed our displeasure with the result, but she still charged us the $400 for sub-par quality. We will have to alter that piece of the dress again, only now it’s after my wedding. I took a look at the website before I came in and saw there was a notice saying that the bad reviews were written by customers that Alter Creations has never worked with. That should have been a red flag, but I went ahead anyway. I can assure you that I had my wedding dress altered by Martha, and that the quality of her work did not reflect the price she charged us. As a customer, do yourself a favor and either hold them accountable for their work, or take your business elsewhere.
OUR RESPONSE:
Hi —,
As we’ve stated before, there is no common thread as most of these negative reviews have been written by non-customers. We have invoices and work orders that prove we’ve never worked with these people so please don’t say something that isn’t accurate. (Our actual customers love what we’ve been doing for them for 10+ years, so that warning on our website isn’t a “red flag”–it’s a fact.) We do appreciate you taking the time to leave us a review but we’d also like to clarify that you actually called us later to apologize for your mom’s behavior and dissatisfaction since 1) you told me from the get-go that the dress was poorly made and 2) you yourself were actually pleased with the end-result.
We’ve been known to work miracles (thanks for reminding clients that we do last-minute work!) but it’s very difficult for us to perfect something that wasn’t well-built from the beginning. That’s why I called you IMMEDIATELY after you left to revise the original estimate: After I more closely checked the quality of the dress, I decided it’d take a LOT more effort than expected so I called to give you the opportunity to take it elsewhere if you’d have liked. We also recall that you kept apologizing to us for your aunt and your mom behind their backs and that at some point, your grandma, who’s also sewing-savvy, actually said what I had done was perfect.
Since you were very happy with the dress after I finished working on it, we wish we’d have known about this seeming change of heart earlier so we could have remedied the situation. We apologize for what you feel now and also for not having declined this project; we did our best with what was available (which wasn’t much) and could have avoided the unfair negative review. Congrats on your wedding.
• This is our favorite inaccurate review so far. In it, she alleges our work wasn’t satisfactory even though she was beyond happy and was even photographed at her party wearing our projects and looking very merry
I would say “beware” of Martha. She is a very talented seamstress; however, she took advantage of me. I wanted her to change the sleeves of a dress. She said she would do it for $40. Then (as the deadline party date got closer) she said it would be $100. I said “ok” as long as the work is done correctly (she knew I had a deadline). I said “I’ll come back in so you can check the length of the dress sleeves before you sew them in”. She said “I know what you want – don’t worry you don’t have to come back and I don’t have time for you to come back”. So, I picked up the dress, paid her, took it home and tried it on: the sleeves are too way to loose and the dress will have to be altered again. Almost as if she deliberately made the sleeves too large – though I don’t know why she would do that. In addition, she did some work for me on a stole/wrap. Granted she didn’t have a pattern but it was pretty simple item of clothing to make and she charged me $300 (for two fabrics sewn together and about 24″ of a hand sewn hem (the rest with a machine). Again, I would have paid the $300 gladly if the stole was the dimensions we discussed; however, the stole was narrower and shorter than we agreed. I feel bad writing a negative review but I went to Martha because I didn’t want to drive to SLC. My mistake. Beware. She is a savvy business woman who is very clever and can smell when you have money. I will never go back to her…I’d drive 12 hours to another seamstress to avoid feeling like the fool she made out of me. Learn from my mistake – don’t trust her.
Our response:
Dear —,
Thank you for your review. We looked forward to replying to it so much, that we actually dedicated a whole page on our website to our response! That way we can give future readers a short link rather than writing a ton to explain why your (false) allegations were rather offensive. You may find our response here: http://altercreations.net/dear-lydia/
PS. Thank you for wearing that stole you mentioned (plus what we think is one of the dresses we made for you in the past) to your most recent party. You looked gorgeous in pictures!
• This customer wanted us to take his measurements for another tailor to make him a suit (which is something we don’t do because we don’t want to be held liable for another seamstress/tailor’s preferences)
Went into Alter Creations today to have a pair of pants hemmed and while I was there, I kindly asked if the employee could measure me for a suit as well, as my brothers wedding is coming up. Not only did the employee NEVER leave the back room to talk to me (she just shouted to me from back there) but she would not take simple measurements such as sleeve, neck, and inseam for me. I understand that this may not be a normal “service” for Alter Creations (even though they make CUSTOM CLOTHING), but I came in to get alteration work done and you lost my business because you would not help a customer with a simple task. As an individual who works in customer service for a large company, i suggest you evaluate some of the ways you conduct your business.
Our response:
Hi, —
Firstly, thanks you for your suggestion. Next time (if there’s one) we’ll invite you back so we can interact there. We were handling a very sensitive item of clothing that day, so we weren’t able to talk with you face-to-face as you wished. (Usually everyone comes back anyways, so we wondered why you hadn’t.)
Additionally, the reason why your request ≠ a normal service for us is because we only take measurements for custom clothing WE OURSELVES will make from scratch. We’re very precise with our measurements but don’t want to be held liable in case they don’t match what another tailor/designer desires. (Perhaps our website wasn’t clear re:this; we’ve improved that. [Thanks again!])
[His review actually led us to create this great resource for taking your own measurements.]
We regret having lost your business; that’s not fun. But we pride ourselves on our quality service and craftsmanship, so if you’re ever around and would like to give the top alterations shop in two counties a 2nd chance, just stop by; we’d love to work with ya!
• This guy has never been our customer yet still thought it appropriate to leave us a negative review
Unfortunately I also did not look at the reviews first. I took a pair of pants in to be adjusted, it was a difficult job as it was from size 42 to 36. The waist was right, but did not alter anything else so the pants looked literally like WWII pants. For that she charge somewhere in the $50-60 range. When I went back to Sarasota, a tailor there fixed the pants for $4 and they looked great. Overall, not impressed at the quality, prices or service received. I have no problem paying extra for quality and great service, but I got neither.
Our response:
Dear —,
Your situation sounds awful but we at Alter Creations have actually NEVER worked with you; we have no records of us serving you. It sounds like you went to another shop so we don’t understand why you gave US a false review :(. (By the way, we’d never alter a pair of pants from 42 to 36 in the first place because it’s impossible. Buying a new pair would be better.)
We’d be happy to serve you and provide you the exemplary service you deserve, and please remove this review if you can. To our future customers: This review isn’t for Alter Creations, where we strive to exceed our customers’ expectations, so please disregard it.
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