Dude, Where's My Tux?

I picked up my tuxedo today, and it looks good. Pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. This marks a nominally satisfactory end to a generally unsatisfactory experience.

Way back in January, when we more or less knew we'd be getting married but I hadn't actually asked yet, Nancy went to a few bridal shows. At one of these shows, she saw a great deal on tuxedo rentals from The Men’s Wearhouse. So she put down a deposit. At that time, we thought we'd probably be getting married on April 22nd, so that was the date she put down.

When we went in to the Sandy, Utah location order the tuxedoes in March, we told the lady there that we needed to change the date to the 21st. She said that was no problem, she'd take care of it.

But she didn't. We found out a couple of weeks later when people were starting to go in for measurements that the event date still showed as the 22nd. So Nancy called to ask them to change it. When I found out a few days later that it still hadn't been changed, I called them myself. The lady I talked to apologized and said she'd take care of it.

Then, near the end of March, I went in for my measurements at the Layton, Utah store. And I found out that the date still hadn't been changed. So I asked the lady in Layton to do it, and she actually did. Problem solved.

Or so I thought. I got a phone call during training a few days later, which I obviously couldn't answer at the time. When I checked my messages later that night, it was one of the ladies from the Sandy store. She said, in not so many words, "We noticed that someone in the Layton store changed your event date. We didn't hear anything about it from you, so we've changed it back." Grrrr.

I called the Sandy store the next morning and asked to speak with the store manager. I explained to her the mess about the date change, and she put me on hold while she "went to a phone near the computer". So I waited for about five minutes. Then she came back on the line, except that it wasn't her. She'd passed me off to someone else, allegedly because the other girl had 'more experience' with tuxedo rentals. It bothered me that the store manager didn’t feel competent enough to handle the situation herself, especially after I’d specifically asked for her. Anyhow, the other girl said she'd call ‘the hub’ and make sure all the dates were changed. Then she called me back half an hour later and said it was done. She read me all the names and dates, and they were all correct.

Just to be sure, I called back a few days later just to make sure everything was still okay. It was. Problem solved.

But that’s not the end of the story. Yesterday as I was talking to Nancy, she asked me to call about the tuxedoes. It seems that her sister-in-law had called about her husband's and sons' tuxes and had been told they were being sent to Colorado.

Okay, here's the deal: one of the reasons we chose TMW was so that family and friends all over the country could go somewhere locally, get fitted, and pick up the tuxes wherever was most convenient. The future brother-in-law and nephews in question live in Texas. They were fitted in Texas and told the people there they would pick up their tuxes in Utah.

Assumption: If the groom is fitted in Utah and arranges to pick up his tuxedo in Utah, it seems likely the wedding is taking place in what state? Say it with me: Utah. Question: If the event is taking place in Utah and some of the participants are fitted in Texas, where will they be most likely to pick up the tuxedoes? In Texas or in Utah, right? What possible reason could there be to send those tuxes to Colorado?

So I called the Sandy store this morning to confirm what was scheduled to go where. They weren't open yet, so I left them a rather direct message and told them to call me back to discuss what was going on. They never did. Instead, I ended up going in to the Sugarhouse store, which is where I'd arranged to have my tuxedo delivered, to pick it up and see where everything was going.

The good news: Everybody's tuxes were now available for pickup at their respective correct locations. The bad news: Except mine. My tux wasn't in Sugarhouse. They'd sent it to West Jordan for no reason any of them seemed able to explain. Okay, so at least they got the state right. But to get to that store took half an hour each direction. I really have better things to do with that kind of time right now.

In the end, Men’s Wearhouse got all of our tuxedoes where and when they needed to be. They even gave me back the deposit from the bridal show today. Still, given all the difficulties we faced - all of which could have been avoided if the employees had just been paying attention - I can't really give them a good review.

So if you have an upcoming event and are in need of formal men's attire, let me wholeheartedly recommend that you go somewhere other than The Men’s Wearhouse. If you go there expecting all the wonderful things they talk about in their commercials, you're going to be disappointed.

I guarantee it.