AVOID THIS PLACE LIKE THE PLAGUE
Took my gorgeous hush puppy heels in for a simple repair-both heels (little ends at the end) had come off after 20 years of minimal use. I only wear them for interviews. When I took them in, the guy on the counter didn't even say hello, I gave him more customer service! He very quickly told me it would cost £15.95 and when I asked him to please take care of my shoes, they are my interview shoes, he says to me 'You'll get the same sloppy service all the other customers get' I should have taken my shoes and ran right then! I think they call this humour. I said to not joke, he was laughing and said 'Your shoes are in good hands, this is what we do', he proceeded to take my details and took my payment which I thought was odd considering he hadn't done anything yet.
When I went to collect them the next day (today) a different male member of staff was there, he presented my shoes and proudly said he had just finished them this morning. The heel tips were not done to a clean finish and when I pointed this out he said he would just sort it for me. When I inspected both shoes with particular attention to the wooden heels (what makes the shoes so beautiful) I noticed they weren't smooth and had some strange coating on them and you couldn't see the wood design and when I pointed this out the staff member said they had been spray painted and that he could easily wipe this off. I said fine and he said give me an hour.
When I returned he had wiped the horrendous rough paint off and also a lot of the wooden design with it with new damage now! I told him he had damaged and ruined my shoes. He tried to blame someone else, saying he didn't see the shoes when I brought them in yesterday and said someone else would have spray painted them to which I asked why would you spray paint shoes when you see this beautiful design and nothing needed doing to the wooden heel. He said it's just a repair they are not making a brand new shoe. I said yes exactly and it's only the tip that needed putting on/replacing so the heels themselves should not have been touched at all. He told me they spray paint all shoes. Why on God's Green earth would you spray paint shoes?!! And does this mean all the shoes they 'repair' have this awful finish and damage? When I also pointed out the heel tip itself-the bit they have replaced is not a great finish he told me it was done by hand not machine. I said that's no excuse, people can craft things very well by hand actually. He then tried to tell me my shoes are old, the heel doesn't matter, no one will see it, when I walk outside with them after five minutes they will get dirty and dusty and just kept asking me what I wanted him to do. I told him a blind man could see they aren't right and he said he isn't a blind man. When I told him I had photos of them and they were not like that when I dropped them off he demanded to see the photos as though I was lying and as though he would see something and be able to prove me wrong and snivel his way out of doing a bad job. He didn't say anything upon seeing the photos. He said it was a repair and that if I took my phone to a shop to have the screen replaced it wouldn't be a brand new phone. And I said no but the brand new screen wouldn't come with a crack in it. He just said he was there to help offered to spray paint them again(!) and make them shiny and smooth and when I said no he got annoyed and kept asking what he wanted me to do that he couldn't do magic. When I said no that he was very rude and you don't talk like that to someone, he then told me he wasn't being rude and that he even had witnesses and then got the other two female customers involved and asked them both if he had been rude. One lady stood on the counter said nothing and I told him to leave her alone and that she wouldn't come back after this. The lady behind me shook her head in agreement with him. I apologised to them both for taking up time and said if this happened to them they would have conplained and spoken up too. I told him he should replace my shoes but as they were 20 years old this was not possible so at the very least I would expect a refund. He then said finally a solution which is all I wanted, all I was asking for instead of this long conversation. He proceeded to ask me for the card which I paid for and spoke to sweetly to me and told me to have a nice day.
As the business who has caused more damage they should be the ones to be offering a refund, offering a replacement, neither of these options were given. Instead of being helpful he was just rude and getting more frustrated when him and his colleagues had caused more damage! I don't think either of them are suited to customer facing roles and they don't know what they are doing and have no skills in the services they are offering. Good luck when karma comes round to you! read more
