Complaint Review: Lissa Marie House of Designs Bridal Boutique and Alterations - Mentor Ohio

Lissa Marie Davis Krueger-Kvarda owns the often renamed and recently relocated Lissa Marie, House of Designs Bridal Boutique and Alterations (previously named Creations Unlimited among many other iterations). 

I cannot speak to the quality of Ms. Davis Krueger-Kvarda's alteration work or clothing store product quality. My complaint is based on her threats (verbal as well as in writing) to sue clients who are unhappy should those clients take their objective experiences to consumer review forums including facebook, yelp, TheKnot, WeddingWire, etc. 

I did not realize prior to my first experience with Ms. Davis Krueger-Kvarda that the handful of positive ratings online were all posted within a few years (odd for a business with ~25 years of service). I decided, based on the handful of positive reviews, to drop into the shop to look for a mother-of-the-bride dress. I should have realized that the recency of the online presence vs the actual age of the operation is a red flag indicating an attempt to hide previous reviews on previously used pages, many with former (thusly difficult to trace) business names.

I was shocked at what I witnessed upon my walk up to the shop. I could hear a woman (who I later identified to be the owner) yelling a monlogue of disorganized threats at a couple I assume were her (former) clients. I hesitated to enter the store, given her tone, at which point the door flew open and Ms Krueger-Kvarda, whose photo I recognized from her facebook page, yelled "And if I see you posting negatively about me on social media I'LL SUE YOU". The clearly shaken couple said nothing, I said nothing to them, and none of us said anything back to her. We just hustled in separate ways.

Obviously shocked at what I'd seen, I looked into the shop further, and located pages of negative reviews with first hand experiences that have been "hidden" from review sites (thus making it dificult for me to have known about Ms. Krueger-Kvarda's behavior prior to my attempted visit).

Lissa Marie Davis Krueger-Kvarda posted seemingly personally penned cease and desist notes in response to negative reviewers. These notes have clauses in what appears to be a violation of the first ammendment as well as the FTC's Consumer Review Fairness Act. (Example in Ms Krueger's 2017 response to Kristen M here - points 3 and 4 in her "cease and desist" letter).

I highly recommend potential clients beware of bringing business to this shop for fear of infringement on their freedom of speech and apparently frequent intimidation tactics used to manicure a deceptive online persona. 

I wish I knew what this couple had done that caused this response from her, but it truly doesn't matter after seeing that this tactic is one she also employes regularly with others in writing online as well (example referenced at link above).  This is clearly a habitual behavior for her that she wouldn't need to employ if she truly had nothing objectively wrong to keep away from the public eye.

Do not bring your business to Lissa Marie, House of Designs Bridal Boutique formerly in Willoughby, Ohio, now in Mentor, Ohio. Instead of professionally rectifying whatever the point of contention is,  the owner will instead spend her energy silencing clients into submission. No dress is worth that.