The Dress Saga: How to make money from a sarcastic letter

When the chips are down, always remember that it never hurts to write a letter.

Never was this clearer to me than on August 11, when my girlfriend triumphantly called me on the phone and told me that she had gotten a refund on her bridesmaid's dress.

For those of you who don't know, the "Dress Saga," as we call it, began back in May when my girlfriend received her mermaid-colored bridesmaid dress from David's Bridal. To start things off, it was the wrong size. Apparently the floor model was stretched or something like that. So, the shop offered to alter the dress for free. They butchered the alterations, however, replacing the zipper with loops that required a ribbon to lace up the dress. The loops went down far too low, making it a little inappropriate, especially for a wedding. It also had a sash.

In short, David's Bridal decided to make things as complicated as possible. They refused to do any more free alterations on the dress, leaving my girlfriend and her mother to do the necessary alterations themselves. David's Bridal never informed anybody regarding the alterations they were going to do, and the person handling the alterations didn't make things any easier.

That'll teach 'em for wanting stuff done right the first time.

We had the idea of writing a letter shortly thereafter. I put it off for awhile, and we actually tossed around the idea of hacking the dress to shreds with a pirate sword. When I actually did write a letter, my girlfriend decided to hold onto the dress for a little while longer, just in case we caught somebody's attention.

In the letter, we included the above information and more, with a lot more details and quite a bit of sarcasm thrown in. I wrote the early draft, my girlfriend's mother added in some clothing details that my male mind couldn't grasp, and her dad threw in a little extra helping of sarcasm, just for good measure.

My girlfriend addressed the letter to the David's Bridal president and CEO, and waited fro a reply. She later reported that she did receive a reply. Long story short, David's Bridal gave her a full refund (168.98), plus about a dollar because sales tax has gone up since then. It doesn't hurt make a little on the side.

The moral of the story is: write a letter. These companies know better than anyone that word of mouth can be a business killer. Trust me, a full refund isn't going to keep anybody quiet after this experience, but some extra cash isn't bad.

So, write a letter. You might even make some money.