A few weeks ago, I bought a pair of Tony Bianco Palais shoes in red suede on sale in a small country town for $75. I was quite impressed with the style, and went looking on line to see what other colours they came in. I found that they also came in a nice purple suede that I was really keen on, and a dark chocolate brown kid leather that would work well with some of my Autumn (redheaded colouring) outfits.
After some googling, I discovered that Wanted Shoes (the Australian one, which I think is unrelated to the USA one) had the brown on sale for $80, so I went to their Kotara store on Saturday to ask about them. The shop assistant said that they could order them in for me to look at to see if I liked the colour, and I wouldn't need to leave a deposit. The implication seemed to be that if I didn't like the colour, I wouldn't be obliged to buy them.
I went back to the store on Thursday afternoon to have a look at the shoes. The sales assistant clearly had the attitude that, since I had ordered them, I was there to buy the shoes, not look at them. In fact, the sales assistant lifted the lid off the box only long enough to be able to confirm that they were the right style and colour. She also advised that the price had been further reduced from $80 to $50 but did not indicate why.
When I got home, I took the shoes out of the box and was shocked to discover that the shoes are quite obviously badly shop soiled, having numerous scratches and scuffs, particularly on the right shoe that had obviously been on display and still had a large price label stuck inside.
I am appalled at the behaviour of the sales staff. While the shoes were discounted, at no time was it suggested that the shoes were marked or damaged in any way. As I had purchased the same shoes in red suede for $75 elsewhere a few weeks earlier, I assumed that it was simply a clearance on a slow moving colour.
While my wife is fairly confident that the marks can be polished out using a rejuvenating shoe polish, I am extremely disappointed with the experience of purchasing shoes from Wanted Shoes.
I've sent a message to the customer service link on their web site, and so far I've had an automated response containing what I sent them. I'll be interested to see what their response is.
Sorry to hear that, hope it works out in your favor.
ReplyDeleteGiven that I got the automated response, I know they got my email. After waiting for weeks, I'm very disappointed to note that Wanted Shoes didn't reply to my email.
ReplyDeleteI spent about 45 minutes polishing the shoes a day or 2 after I posted this blog post, and most of the scratches are near enough to gone. There is a scratch near the back of one and several down the heel of the other that didn't polish out but they're not as visible as they were.