The following is our response to a customer’s review on our Google page. We’ve included said review at the bottom of our comments for future readers’ reference. Thanks :)!
Dear Lydia,
We’ve stumbled across your review when checking our online presence and we’d be lying if we said we weren’t offended by your interpretation of your most recent experience at the shop.
Firstly, we’d like to let others know that we made two simpler floor-length gowns for you last year that you LOVED (in fact, you may have been wearing one of them at that party), so we’re a tad confused and saddened by how you’re describing this project (which you were actually happy to pay for).
Having said this, we’d like to clarify a few things:
THE DRESS
You wanted us to make the same exact dress and stole that Kim Novak wore on “Vertigo,” something that’d cost $400. (This is a VERY complex design,and like you said, we didn’t have a pattern!)
When you drew the dress you wanted, which reminded us of a bondage-type dress, we didn’t feel confident since we didn’t know how to make it seem as slimming as you desired.
We know you know the previous dresses we made for you WERE gorgeous and that you were expecting to look the same way in this one as you did in them, but please understand that the new one would have had to take into account the few extra pounds you had gained since then.
You’re a beautifully curvaceous woman and we not only work with ALL kinds of customers, but we also LOVE working with them all. Our concern was that we didn’t want to disappoint the expectations you had based on your other gowns.
We immediately noticed you became very UPSET at us not being able to make this dress, which we thought was rather odd. In the end, instead of making that dress from scratch, we both settled on adapting another one of yours plus designing the stole from the movie.
The dress you brought in later on had (no offense) rather awful and very weak straps. Therefore, I replaced them by hand into much classier, stronger sleeves. We both agreed on the price together beforehand on the SAME day, Ms. Accorti, so we don’t understand where the misunderstanding arose. We’d never charge $40 for making brand new sleeves, so we don’t know where you got that figure, either.
THE STOLE/WRAP
We made the exact same wrap you requested (only ours ended up being a few inches away from the floor (24in. x 118in. total) again BY HAND. We actually thought this was a fun project and we thank you for the opportunity of expanding our own fashion horizons.
In any case, this piece is not made by just sewing two pieces of fabric together, as you allege. Instead, it was something that took us almost two days to finish as we were trying our best to replicate the one in the movie. Savvy fashionistas know this DOESN’T just entail sewing two pieces of fabric together; it requires much, much more.
We’re aware that you’re not a designer/seamstress, so we’re not trying to make you feel bad in any way. But please don’t pretend to know how we built this very complex wrap. In short, it’s made 90% by hand! Understand that a child may be able to sew two pieces of fabric together on a sewing machine. (In fact, both my daughter and I learned to sew as kids.) But your stole was made with a technique known as “Combined,” by which the stitches must be blind so that it all looks like just one piece of fabric.
SOME CLOSING COMMENTS
We believe what you stated about our alleged abilities to “smell money” is completely harsh, uncalled for, and UNTRUTHFUL. We actually don’t know our customers personally (we don’t even live in Park City): We don’t know where they reside; we don’t care about what they wear or drive; we don’t know how much they make, etc.
We only go above and beyond to do as good a job as they’ve hired us to do. As our FAQs state, we have never, do not, and will never discriminate based on perceived income or price.
Judging by the pictures of your party (great blog, by the way!), you seemed pretty happy with the stole we gladly made for you. And we could be wrong but that dress sure looks a lot like one of the gowns we made last year :).
Lastly, “Beware of Martha” implies we’re in the business of threatening our customers, which we’re not. They all love us! Please look into your heart and think about what you say.
BEFORE WE FORGET: THE GLOVES WE DIDN’T MAKE
By the way, we’re only including this last portion to further attest to the fact that we don’t in fact “smell money.”
In order to complete such an iconic look, you asked if we could also make you the same gloves Ms. Novak wore in the movie. At one point, you even said, “I will pay you whatever you want!” But like we explained, we didn’t have enough time, and I didn’t want to disappoint you. If I were able to “smell money,” as you allege, I’d have indeed charged you hundreds of dollars, wouldn’t I?
DEAR LYDIA,
We sincerely regret how you interpreted your experience and wish we could at some point work together again.
(Although it’d be way nice and courteous,) you don’t have to remove your Google review if you don’t want to, as we’ve already added a response to it. But please next time contact us (or any business you wish to review) in advance to solve any unsettled issues.
Have a great rest of your day and thank you for your business.
— — —
Lydia’s Original Review:
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.
— — —
Lydia’s Blog (where she talks about her look for the party):
— — — — —
APRIL 2014 UPDATE
Since posting that nasty review, Lydia was so kind (*sarcasm*) to leave us another equally (actually, worse) review on Yelp. Below you’ll see our response followed by her actual review.
Dear Lydia, thank you for your review. For starters (*and this is very important*), 100% of what you stated is FALSE: For example, we don’t accept AMEX; we never raised the prices we BOTH had originally agreed on the first time you came; you never showed up three times for this project (you came to drop the material off and pick your items up. You were VERY happy with them!); and, according to our invoices, you’ve been to the shop at least five times–not just the two that you mentioned. (Sounds like you’ve been a fan for years!)
Instead of listing the other ways your comments are slanderous, we actually dedicated a whole page on our website to our response. That way we can more effectively explain why your (false and mean-spirited) allegations are rather offensive. You may find our response here: HTTP://ALTERCREATIONS.NET/DEAR-LYDIA . There, you’ll all also see your own blog post about how happy you were with the stole we made for you.
By this point, we’re also wondering whether you’re both lying and trying to be funny on purpose. But at the same time, we ask you to please stop. Your comments classify as slander (you should look that up, just in case, as it’s very serious).
Please don’t attack ME personally or keep trying to hurt me or my business. We have hundreds of clients; they all are big fans: Most of them have been coming and bringing their friends and relatives since we opened in 2004. Therefore, one (or more) false review(s) do(es)n’t harm our business in the slightest (we’ll keep growing regardless of whether you want us to), but we still wanted to ask you to cease and desist as these lies and this behavior are uncalled for, disrespectful, and make YOU look bad. (We thought you said you were honorable.)
PS. Thank you for wearing the stole you mentioned (plus what we think is one of the dresses we made for you in the past) to your most recent party. We saw that on your blog and you looked gorgeous! (You’re welcome.)
PS2. Congrats on your new car. I hadn’t noticed since I CAN’T see clients’ vehicles from where I work.
PS3. I thought you’d like to know that our tenth anniversary is coming up in June an we’re having several promotions, including some FREE alterations. Feel free to come then; we figured you’d like that.
[We messaged her privately on Yelp and will also be contacting the company to get this taken care of.]
— — —
Her Original Yelp “Review”:
Often times I encounter a business where I am dissatisfied. It happens. I usually don’t write a review that is negative. However, I must review this business.
I think Martha is a talented seamstress; however, I wouldn’t trust her again with any work (ever). (This is my second experience with Martha and I should have known better but I didn’t want to drive to SLC.)
I spent some time with her to have a custom made dress and stole (or wrap). I had photo’s and she was enthusiastic and optimistic that she could do the work. 5 days later she said she couldn’t do the work. (ok…now I’ve lost 5 days to look for someone else). But this was not the problem.
My dissatisfaction stems from the work she did for me.
Since we were running out of time (2 weeks) we agreed she would alter another dress, instead of making a custom dress and she would still make the stole to the agreed upon width and length.
However, at this point her prices went up super high. Since I was running out of time, I agreed. I said “I’ll pay, as long as it is exactly what we agreed upon”. She said “ok”. I trusted her. (I’m sure she saw the make of my new car outside and she decided I could afford it.)
When I suggested that I come in for another fitting, to make sure the sleeve alterations on the dress were perfect, she said “there is no need for you to do that and I don’t have time”. Ok.
Two weeks later, I went to pick up the dress and the stole. The sleeves were completely wrong (way too big and I will have to have them fixed somewhere else) and the stole was smaller than we agreed and it looked cheaply made – so cheap that I was embarrassed to wear it. She charged me $100 to redo the small sleeves on the dress and $300 for a cheap, smaller than we agreed upon stole. (This was after her initial price of $40 for the sleeves and $100 for the stole.) This whole experience was so disappointing.
I understand that a business person needs to make a profit. However, I could not be more unhappy with her work. She gives the impression she will work with you but she won’t.
Beware. You think that if you pay a lot you will get a quality product but not with this lady. She baited and switched me and was nasty about it so that I would just leave the store. (Seriously, I was afraid to say anything to her as she started complaining that the stole was so difficult and that it took so much time.) Yeah, right. If that’s true how come you couldn’t say all that without the bad attitude. (I would have still paid you.)
I suspect she knows which customers are nice people who will just pay and walk away. (thank goodness for YELP).
I seriously considered calling AMEX to have them remove her payment but I won’t (because that is not honorable and I don’t do things like that).
I honestly think this lady enjoyed making me feel like a fool. Use this business at your own risk. If you are a nice person, you will likely be taken advantage of.
You have been warned.
— — — — —