@asi2001:
1) All the fabrics we use here are 60″ wide, except for some special lace fabrics, otherwise the fabrics would not be wide enough for the minimum number of seams like the original. We do not know how much the customer should declare the package for when sending it to us. We informed the customer that we had other customers sent packages to us in the past and declared very low value. We had no idea where to find a customs broker and we had to rely on Fedex. Fedex got a broker for this shipment and it took a long time for them to process the paper work required to give us the fabrics. We did our part in signing the contract and paying the broker as soon as the broker was assigned, and we had the dress design ready to go as soon as the fabrics arrived.
2) The design our ruching special had to go by was the photo below, and we followed that design the best we could. The ruching style is “messy” in the photos, and replicated that style religiously. We found out later that the customer does not like messy ruching, and she wants very neat ruching, but the design she provided had messy ruching. Without any additional instructions, our job was to replicate according to the photos customer provided.

3) Here is a comparison photo for the missing pleat area. It was in the mid-production photos and in the finished photos. No, we did not complain that the customer was asking too much when the customer pointed out every little mistake.

4) We didn’t feel that we didn’t have enough time to do the beaded sash. We completed it within 12 days and the customer cancelled right then. That’s it. If the customer wanted us to revise it, just say so please. And yes, we can get it revised correctly, if the customer let us.
5) No, what you have said is not true according to my email log. Before I asked about to start the veil on April 28, there was no mention to start the veil from the customer. And there were design changes made to the veil between Mar 6-8.
I don’t think we do sloppy work, otherwise some bridal shops wouldn’t pass along our dresses as the original designer gowns (this is what I have heard from various internet sources). And we never do bad work and hope that the customer wouldn’t notice, otherwise there wouldn’t have been 7 photo sessions for this order already.
I understand about the customer service part – I was an IT support manager for several US fortunate 500 companies for about 15 years before I started doing this. So I know how good service should be done. And I agree, JBS’ current customer service is lower than those fortunate 500 companies, but it is so for several reasons:
– Our company is in a different industry with very time-sensitive projects,
– A lot of customers coming to us have overly high expectations (and right now I am trying to control that),
– The work we do is very difficult, we replicate complex designs by looking at photos only and often have to work many ambigous customizations to the design,
– Doing remote IT support is much easier than doing dress replication remotely,
– People in China are used to much lower expectations, and most Chinese seamstresses are not fond of serving customers who have high expectations (most of them tend to come from North America).
– We could use more support from the Chinese seamstresses to provide better replication results, but the people have better options and they will go to other bridal workshops and work with less stress if we pressure them too much for perfection. A lot of times I wish I could give what the customers demand, but I have to turn some requests down because it would just be too much for the people to handle here.
So I hope that people now understand that we are nowhere near perfect, and brides who have a lot expectations should stay away from us, please. Thank you.