Julia Roberts moment

[Gouldengirl9]

Dd is getting married at the end of September.
Today I went to a posh shop in our nearest city.
I'm the wrong side of 60. Only 5ft tall and a size 18 with a flabby belly. Plus I'm only just getting over breast cancer so boobs are lobsided.
DH was with me and we were both dressed in our minds well turned out.
DH stood to one side while I was looking through the dresses, when one of the assistants came over and the first words were that these dresses cost over £300 so if I want to look at the rails at the back they MIGHT be in my price range.
Fortunately DH overheard and is quicker than me gave a good reply.
He said 'my wife has £1000 to spend on an outfit for our daughters wedding and if your stock is only about £300 this is not the shop for her'.
We then left. He was only joking about the £1k. I wanted to go home as I was so upset but he persuaded me to carry on shopping.

After 3 other shops with nothing I liked I came across another posh shop and they couldn't have been more helpful. I chose a dress but parts of it were not working well with my body. They are going to alter it to fit just need to return in August.
And it cost £450 and that includes a hair accessory. Just bag and shoes to get.

Why that assistant was so rude I don't know. Thank goodness no one else was in the shop to hear her say that.

This!

Your DH ROCKS!

My pretty woman moment happened in Sydney, we were at the Sydney Tower fine dining restaurant. I didn't like anything on the main menu so asked if I could have a starter as a main, got sneered at. After 90 minutes asked where our mains were to be told "this is fine dining it takes as long as it takes" we ordered champagne after dessert to suddenly have the most chatty waiter who wanted to talk to us about the moon and the view. Sorry mate, you lost your tip hours ago!!!!

I got married aged 20, (am now 40) and was in London and had an appointment at a bridal shop. My mum had a hospital appointment so couldn’t attend, so I took my sister and sister in law. The shop assistant looked me up and down and told me that the dresses were more than I could afford.

I had an expensive dress from another store.

Absolutely agree with everyone here. We don't get to a ripe age unscathed, but she was vile and your husband is the new MN darling. I'm glad you found a nice outfit.

How rude of her. If you feel up to it I'm sure a nice honest Google review will prove most cleansing for you.

Not a Pretty Woman story as such, more a series of events. I dress v casually, as does my partner. Basically, I look underdressed for every occasion. My nails are never painted and my hair is always thrown up any old how.
It's always fun to watch salespeople first ignore us and then pander when they realise that we can actually afford to buy. I absolutely do choose shops based on previous service - I'd rather travel further for someone who can speak nicely to any of their customers rather than 10 minutes down the road to be spoken to like crap, or worse, ignored.

Your husband is a legend!

We were sofa shopping a few weeks before we got married. Salesman obviously made assumptions about couple in their early 20s/ the way we were dressed and started going on about how we should be looking at the sofas “designed for smaller spaces” 🤨

I wish I could’ve thought of something to say that didn’t make me sound totally up myself. There’s nothing wrong with a ‘small space’, but I wish I’d challenged him on the assumption.

Your husband is a total star, well done him. It’s similar to my wedding dress shopping experience many years ago when I was a size 16 (I’m bigger now). First shop the assistant looked me up and down and said “you won’t find anything here big enough for you”. I was devastated but didn’t show it. Fortunately we found a fabulous shop that actually made to measure, which is where my dress was ordered.

it’s also happened in a kitchen shop. DH and I, both in our slightly scruffy work clothes, in a Wickes showroom, when the assistant kept asking us our budget, clearly thinking we couldn’t afford one. We own a company with a 6 figure turnover, but have to say we don’t look it. Needless to say he didn’t get our business.

Name, shame & complain OP. Rude, judgemental member of staff.

DH & I had some House of Frazier vouchers as a wedding gift. We were about to start decorating our new house so were in joggers, t-shirts etc - not dirty or scruffy. As we were walking round we noticed members of staff looking over and (not so subtly) following us. We got to Haberdashery of all places and the woman shouted across the floor 'Can I help you? You seem to be lost. This is House of Frazier'. It dawned on me that the staff thought we were probably shoplifters as we weren't dressed 'properly'.

I wrote a letter of complaint and received more vouchers but I gave them to my parents & MIL as I was never setting foot in the place again.

What a silly saleswoman!!
She hasn’t learned that you can never gauge someone’s resources by their appearance. Well done to your DH.

Agreed. Name and shame the buggers.

Not exactly the same but I had some woman follow me and the children home (unbeknownst to me) and a few seconds later knock on my door.
We had an estate agent's 'sold' sign outside in the street
I opened it.
She asked to speak to the lady who owned the house.
I told her that I owned it, it was my house.
She had assumed I was the cleaner/housekeeper and said 'as your employers are moving will you come and work for my family?'

I love your husband!!!!

I had similar at an estate agents about 10 years ago. I was 24 and in my jeans when I popped in and asked for the details of a house I was interested in. The estate agent looked me up and down and said you do realise that property is xxxx amount and probably over your budget. He said it in a really patronising , sneering way.
I said, very calmly, that yes I did know how much it was, but as I was selling x property in the window, it was easily in my budget and while I was there can I speak to the manager as I was no longer wanting them to sell my property.
The look on their face was priceless.

I'm glad you've found your outfit and would definitely make a complaint.

Used to live in a v snobby area of London, in the days when we had two good salaries, no kids and plenty of disposable income (a long, long time ago!). DH wanted to buy a beautiful sculpture from a local gallery for my birthday. He went in to enquire about it early on a Saturday morning, wearing his running kit, which was definitely Not The Thing.. When he asked the price he was told, in a withering tone, “it’s very expensive”, as the woman stood by the open door waiting for him to leave.

We bought something “very expensive” from another shop, and when that first place went out of business we had a little high five. Some people are just fucking arseholes, no getting around it.

So glad you’ve got a great wingman, OP. Enjoy your lovely dress and your DD’s wedding.

A chap came round to quote for a kitchen in our newly knocked through room. I was in my horse mucking out gear. He looked me up and down and said “You do know our kitchens start at £20,000?”

I had the exact same thing happen. Such a prick, talked himself out of a sale. And he didn't even realise, he got distracted by my DH turning up in his Landrover. They had manly chat about Landies and then he left. I was seething.

My parents aren't short of a bob or two, but generally don't look it. They went to look for a new car, the salesperson sat them down and started trying to quiz them about their finances as "I need to work out what you can afford". They told her that they'd be the ones deciding what they could afford and went elsewhere....

I was once walking down Great Portland Street after work in what I thought was an alright outfit for work. Yes I was overweight.

I happened to walk passed Jeremy Kyle and he sneered at me. I said outloud “it’s ok, I’ve already got a job!” but I doubt he even heard me over the sound of his disdain.

I'm a similar sort of build to you and the downright snobby patronising nastiness of sales assistants over the years in experiences like yours have made me more and more reluctant to shop on the high street or even bank there if I can help it.

Your husband sounds fantastic and I am storing that response away for future reference. I'm so glad you did find a decent place in the end and I bet you will look fabulous and have a great day.

And if you did feel like warning off other customers, there's Trustpilot, Facebook, Google....just for starters.

Strange how the High Street is dying a death, eh!

I had an opposite situation where I served a lady when I was a student. I worked in a jewellery shop and spent time with a lady looking at some not too expensive earrings (£30 mark). I took my time with her and served her as I would anyone. She then said "ok I will take the earrings and there is a ring I'd like to buy" - she proceeded to then spend a large amount of money on a ring that she already had planned to buy when she walked through the door. She wanted the right person to serve her when buying that ring. That has always stuck with me in a good way. It was many years ago now.

Happened to Oprah Winfrey a few years ago checking out some ultra-expensive handbags in a Swiss store...

Good for you and your husband OP! Some people really shouldn't be working in retail!

I had a similar situation 2 years ago when DP and I wanted to put our house on the market. We met the potential estate agent at a viewing for a house we were considering buying.

He took one look at us, my DP tattoos, and where we said our house was (on a new build estate) and straight away started talking to us patronisingly about how we shouldn't get our hopes up about selling our house. Obviously assuming that what we had to sell wasn't much to write home about.

When he came round and noticed it had been upgraded by us to a very high spec including adding a loft conversion, his manner changed totally.

Needless to say we didn't list with him. Tosser

I walked into a TUI store (a few years ago) and started to look at the various brochures. An assistant walked up to me and said "the budget one is over here but the holidays in it are still ok". I suppose she was trying to be nice, but fucking hell, fancy judging how much money someone has to spend on something before they even utter a word about what they might want. My friend used to work in a building society and said you can always tell the millionaires as they walk in with holes in their clothes and use a carrier bag as a handbag

That reminds me of the line said by Jennifer Saunders in Absolutely Fabulous when she walks into an expensive gallery and is treated with disdain by some vacant Sloane Ranger sitting behind the desk. She turns to the posh gallery assistant and says “you can cut the attitude, you only work in a shop”.

Ah he deserves an extra snog for that quick response 😂😂 but def complain and make it clear how much you spent elsewhere

100% this.

I had it with a couple of bridal shops. Like somehow working in a wedding dress shop makes you elite compared to your customers?

They were the ones I didn't bother booking appointments in.

I was a size 14/16 when wedding dress shopping which in my 20s felt huge to me. And I definitely got worse treatment that I would have had I had a model figure.

How on Earth being overweight has any bearing on what someone has to spend on an outfit I'll never know.

Definitely complain OP. X