Taylor’s Alterations

2 not-​so-​nice experiences:
Most recently, my husband and I dropped off a leather corset a few days ago to be repaired; some stitching had come loose around one of the hooks, nothing major. Mrs. Taylor gave us a verbal quote of $ 15-​$ 20. Keep in mind that I bought the corset for a whopping $ 60 on eBay last year for Halloween — we’re *not* talking about intricate custom-​fitted leather armor, here. But $ 15-​$ 20 seemed reasonable, so we agreed.
But when my husband came back to pick up the repaired corset, she charged him $ 30 not including tax. He confronted her about the upcharge, and her response with a dismissive shrug was, «Well, it was harder than I thought it would be.» And she had our phone number but didn’t bother to call us and let us know. To me, that’s just lazy and inconsiderate, all around bad business. Moral of the story, get a written quote on stuff like this before agreeing to have the work done, just as you would with any repair work.
That was the final strike for me, but there was another experience a few years ago that left a bad taste in my mouth initially. I brought my wedding dress to her to have it altered. My dress had a gathered cascade of lace at the lower back, somewhat resembling a bustle. This was how the dress was designed, and as some other brides out there know, this is not an unusual feature for a wedding dress to have.
Apparently Mrs. Taylor had never seen a wedding dress with any lace in the back before, because as I was explaining to her that I needed the dress taken in (it was just a sizing issue, not a repair issue), she looked at the dress with a scowl on her face and said, «What’s wrong with the back??» I was so taken aback that I didn’t know what to say for a couple seconds. Really, an experienced taylor that doesn’t know about frilly lace on wedding dresses? Say it isn’t so! Not to mention that it’s really rather insulting to point out what’s «wrong» with a bride’s wedding dress to begin with. The alteration of the dress turned out fine, but her snooty attitude was not.