FAKE BUSINESS ALERT: Bridal Discounters aka Netbirde aka Rush's Bridal aka ?

Bridaldisounters.com ? Who are their? Are they being run out of the back of a car? Are they even in this country? Of course the million dollar question, are the gowns real?

Bridal Discounters is no better than a street vendor in Manhattan. They have done their best to hide their true identity by not posting their real company name on their website. We have found buried deep in their site the information below:

MAILING ADDRESS:
BridalDiscounters.Com
Attn: Andy or Tom
927 Nicollet Mall Minneapolis, MN 55402
Phone: 888-88GOWNS(46967)
e-mail: andy@bridaldiscounters.com
Fax #: 612-339-8000

The above information tells me that they are a shady operation. Andy or Tom? What is this?

Well, I know who they are. This is a yet again, another attempt by Netbride to hide their problems and complaints. Netbride is known for sending out bogus dresses to unsuspecting brides and bridesmaids.

By e-mail
customercare@netbride.com
By phone
866-NETBRIDE (866-638-2743)
By mail:
Netbride.com
927 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55402 USA

To further the truth, this is also known as RUSH's Bridal as www.rushs.com . Why so many names and why the fraud? Is this because after 50 years, Rush's bridal is known for deceptive practices?

Rush's Bridalwww.rushs.com
927 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55402-3288
(612) 343-9333

From Netbride to us: (With a little editing by yours truly.)

We are a family owned business that has been selling bridal gowns and accessories since 1948. (As Netbride.com?, I guess they invented the internet.)

We have over 50 years of experience in serving satisfied brides. (Same as above with a dot com?)

We brought our business to the Internet in 1995... which has allowed us to serve customers Worldwide (over 38 countries and growing). (Thought they were in business over 50 years as a dot com? Who are you?)

It Matters Who You Order Your Gowns From. (Really, then why do you hide your name?)

We own our own building debt-free, have never taken out bank loans to cover operating costs, have a AAA credit rating with Dun&Bradstreet , and AAA credit with all of our factory vendors. (Who are you trying to impress? Enron was also debt-free and AAA rated. As a matter of fact, so was Bernie Madoff's business)

Taking these things into account, you are as secure (if not more secure) ordering on the internet from us than buying from the shop in your town -- you could not be in better hands than you are with us. Speaking of secure, if you order on-line through our SECURE SERVER, your credit card information is safe. (I would believe this if we knew who you were.)

How We Can Quote Such Good Prices/Where We Get Our Gowns: (By knocking them off in China)

We can give such good prices because we sell our gowns all over the world, and make up for the prices with volume. (Dont forget that we also knock them off.)

We also have extremely low overhead (no high rent or large staff), and do not have to pay sales commissions to our consultants. (That is because we work out of our home.)

We place most of our orders directly with the factory-designer through our bridal shop; (In China with our designers who make knockoff dresses)

we place some of our orders by networking with other bridal shops. (This is against the rules of the real designers and manufacturers. Its called Transhipping in the bridal world)

One thing you can count on: you get the gown you want, brand new, made by the factory-designer you ordered. We guarantee this. (And you wont get your money back if you are not happy)

Our Guarantee:
You will receive the gown you order (Even if it is not what you want)
, brand new from the (Our fraudulant) designer. All gowns are shipped insured. Our company stands behind our guarantee. (Or you can complain, but you will still be stuck with a crappy dress)

Would you feel comfortable ordering anything from a moving name target of a business? What guarantee do you have from what company? If you buy from one, do they stand behind the other company name? What if you have a problem? Who do you call? Ghostbusters?

My question to Andy Rush is, "What next, Bridal Smugglers?"

Cutting tags out of the back of Wedding Gowns and Dresses

Hello again. Here is one from my personal file on wedding salons cutting tags out the back of bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses and wedding dresses. If you ever walk into a bridal store that does this, turn around and RUN. If they are going to hide the truth about who makes the dress, what else are they going to hide.

Follow my logic. Would you go and buy a car without knowing who makes it? Would go buy some new shoes without knowing the designer? How about a handbag or diamond ring?

Now I use these examples for a reason to make a point. You need to know the manufacturer of an automobile to know the exact specifications so you make a proper choice for a need. With shoes, you want to go with something you know that fits based on past experience. You pay for the quality you want in the shoes. If you were in a third world country, you would not care who made them. A handbag is typically a status symbol and you want to wear it for the name and pay for the name. If not, you can go to Walmart and get generic "A" purse for $10. You rarely know who makes a diamond ring, but it had quality testing done on it to know what you are getting. You know the 3 C's for diamonds.

Why do I tell you all this? Well, a wedding gown hits all of these issues before you can make an educated decision. You need to know the quality of the gown based on reviews of other who have bought from this designer. You need to verify the fit even before alterations and to make sure it will not fall apart due to bad construction. If you are going to pay over $1000, you may want the status of telling your friends that this is a Vera Wang gown. Finally, there is no quality testing of wedding dresses like in diamonds.

Bridal stores will give you all kinds of policy reasons for cutting out the tags. This is never encouraged by the designer. Designers spend thousands of dollars advertising their gowns in Brides, the Knot and other magazines to get the word out on their designs. This is all undone with a simple clip of the tag in the back of a dress. Why?

Reason 1: (Not as bad as you may think, but still wrong)

Many wedding salons that do this practice are frustrated with the interenet and their competition beating them out on price. They feel that if the bride loves the dress, they will pay anything for it and should not shop it around. This was not a problem before the information age and bridal salons are upset to not make the profits they did before. On a counter note, this is why so many of them are going out of business. The more informed the customer gets, the more they will go for the same prodcut at the lower price.

Reason 2: (Very bad and its very wrong)

The old bait and switch. You don't know what you are looking at it may be a fake. I have seen this more than you can believe in bridal salons in strip centers. Just about any store with no real name and just BRIDAL over the door falls into this category. No name, no tag, no sale.

As a final note, some bridal salons have made a bad enough image to chase brides to the internet and David's Bridal leaving the good stores to suffer the wrath. Know what you are looking at before you buy.