Gene’s Costumes

There was a really nice lady that assisted me with shoulder length grey-​blonde hair and an orange sweater on 10/30/14;the three stars are for her :) ! All the new costumes I tried on had some sort of hole or staining issue (deduct one point), the customer in the fitting room next door had the same issue. The suit I wanted was a green poison ivy bodysuit but some work was needed in regards to sewing a hole in the back up. I saw some of there hand sewn work that they say takes «5 minutes» and wasn’t all that impressed. I asked that they use the sewing machine instead, I have an event to go to this evening and the last thing I needed was a split body suit allowing the world to see my «goodies».The owner was not the nicest (deduct one point) and said «no, it’ll take to long. we can only hand sew today». I reminded her that I was paying full price for the costume ($ 60) so requesting I receive a quality product should not be out of the question, that’s when my costume went bye bye and came back looking good 10 – 15 min later. The owner needs an attitude adjustment, I’ll come back again though if in a real crunch where another option isn’t available.

Friendly staff. A very wide selection given the size of the store. I was able to find what I want to be Baron Samedi.

The response from Gene’s to my initial review is not accurate. I did NOT refuse an offer to use the costume for another date. I was told I could use «a» costume on another date, and I did not say I would or wouldn’t. Also, my original comment acknowledged their no-​refund policy, just as it acknowledged their ability to be flexible. Judging by the other reviews of Gene’s, my bad experience with them is typical. But I thank them for opening the opportunity to reinforce it.

***I meant to post this directly after halloween! This post is regarding Oct/​Nov 2011)
I had been renting costumes from these people since I was in high school and many of my classmates and friends upon recommendation too.
I will never go here again. My boyfriend at the time is active duty military. I work in Forensics and Volunteer EMS. We live in Alexandria. We had called three times to confirm with them we were a couple days late due to crazy work schedules. I was assaulted on the 7^th while on a call. I had bruises all over my neck and sutures. I walked in with him, we had attempted to return it the Saturday prior and they closed at 4. We were in Frederick MD dealing with his truck there’s no way we could have made it back. I work 24 hour shifts and he works a lot too. I was assaulted that Monday, spent the night in the hospital and we were finally able to return it today. The short blond woman could have cared less about the tons of money I had spent there prior, the assault or our jobs, his duty to the country and my duty to save people’s lives as well as the justice my forensics work brings to people. She also could have cared less about my assault or the fact we are both broke. She charged us a $ 31.00 late fee. Halloween is over, it’s not like anyone was trying to rent the costume, there was more than one of the same costume and a younger male who had been working there assured me that we would not be charged a late fee. The costume was overpriced for what it was to begin with. I remember when I rented a costume years before it was a mess. I had to sew holes and fix cracks etc. They are overpriced for the «convienece» they provide in having an admittedly varied assortment of costumes to rent or to buy… but their mascot costumes are worn down, their regular costumes are falling apart. I had to fix the one we rented this past Halloween…
I’m just done. It’s not worth it to deal with rude uncaring people. Especially when one employee says that we wouldn’t be charged and we arrive and are charged.