No Refund Yet For Bride Whose Dress Was Destroyed In Fire
OAK LAWN, Ill. (CBS) - Imagine heading down the aisle without the wedding dress of your dreams. It happened to several Chicago-area brides when Eva's Bridal burned down in November.
One bride says it happened just two weeks before her wedding. Deanne Kulis says the store told her she'd get her money back. But a month later, and there's still no cash.
Kulis turned to CBS 2's Pamela Jones for help.
Kulis' wedding woes began when the store where she ordered her dress on 95th and Cicero went up in flames.
"I stayed up all night watching the news and actually it was on CBS that I saw the hotline. And I called there," Kulis said.
She says the owner told her the dress she bought was burned in the fire. It was the gown Kulis said she'd dreamed about.
"It was definitely very devastating when it happened because I had been hoping that this was the dress. And on my last visit there, I had started seeing myself walk down the aisle and I was very excited for it," Kulis said.
She says the store's owner originally told her she'd get a refund for the dress through an insurance company. But Kulis says the store won't return her e-mails now.
"When I asked for more specifics on the insurance company, that's when she started backpedaling and saying that she was not going to be submitting my information anymore," said Kulis.
CBS 2 spoke with the owner of Eva's Bridal over the phone. She told us, "every customer with a legitimate claim should get a refund."
"I'm upset at the lack of response from her," said Kulis.
The December bride ended up buying another white gown with sparkle and beadwork from Priscilla's Bridal. That store altered her dress just in time for her wedding in Florida.
It's a day Kulis says will hold some bitterness until she gets her money back.
"I'm out $1,900. That's just my dress and the alterations," she said. "That does not include the shoes, the veil. But I'm not asking for that. All I want is the dress cost and alterations."
The owner of Eva's says she hasn't received the payout from her insurance company yet. But she wants to continue to work with the brides. She says refunds could take a couple of months.
