White's Boots
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Cheers MM, I certainly will in future as I know first hand what good people my stateside brethren are.
One of my next moves (if I get a poor or no response) was to actually tell the guy that I am extremely active in many online menswear communities, and have absolutely no issue with giving vivid details of their service, and after service to the wider community. I don't think that retailers and craftsmen should ever underestimate the power of the internet to positively or negatively effect their trade.
We are the angry mob
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I am at the point where I might just put them on ebay, and buy a new pair. This pair appears to be cursed.
I think that is a great idea. You can always put them up for the price you want. If they don't sell, oh well.
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They have replied, direct from the managing director of the company. The my original message, and the reply are as follows…
_This was my message, sent yesterday.
Hi Peter,
I received my Whites boots back today, and while I am happy with the quality of the work carried out, it is definitely not what I asked for. As you will see in the email below I specified either a Vibram Composition Half Sole, or a Vibram Mini Lug sole, what you have actually fitted is a full Vibram Lug sole, not a mini lug sole.
I'm sorry, but bearing in mind that yours is a well respected shoe repair company I would expect you to either know the difference, or at least ask if you were unsure (typing either into Google shows a miriad of pictures). The sole fitted is a completely different profile to what I wanted, and nothing like any of the pictures which I sent to you both by email, and hard copy. In fact, the sole currently on my boots is exactly the sale style of sole as I sent them to you with.
Please advise me as soon as possible how we can rectify this situation, I firmly believe that by providing the exact names of the soles which I was willing to use, and proving pictures of the exact boots fitted with the soles I asked for, that I would indeed receive what I had asked for. The charge of £140 (including delivery) to not receive what I had hoped for is extremely disappointing to say the least.
I await your response on how we should proceed to resolve this, may I suggest either a complete rework free of charge, or a full refund to allow me to get the work carried out elsewhere.
Thanks
G Smith_
And the reply….
_Dear Mr Smith
Thank you for your helpful reply. I am sorry for the disappointment with the boots. Please can you return them so that we can fit the correct soles.
Yours sincerely
Peter Schweiger
Managing consultant_Do I trust them?
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I have agreed for them to do the rework, and sent the following details…
_Hi Peter,
Just a last couple of details.
Obviously, I expect that I will be refunded the costs of returned shipment, as it is no fault of mine that the boots have had to be returned. You can refund directly to the credit card details of mine which you have please, the cost of postage will be marked on the returned package for your attention. I also do not expect to be charged to have them returned to me.
Also, if you use the Vibram composition half sole to resole the boots, please stitch the half sole into position using the outer row of stitching on the welt, rather than just glue it. I was unable to ascertain whether or not the heel had been replaced by nail or again simply glue. Once again, please ensure that it is not just glued into position, this has been an expensive and time consuming repair already, and these boots see daily wear, I would hate to have to get in contact again in a few weeks time if the resole shows signs of coming apart. Without wishing to be too harsh, my local cobbler could glue a sole into position for me for less than £30, I came to your company as I wanted, and expected a quality job making of my expensive, hand made boots. I have been charged for quality, and I expect quality.
I apologise if my tone seems curt, but I need to be clear what I expect from my returned boots. I trust that they will be given urgent attention, rather than the standard lead time for repairs?
Yours Sincerely
G Smith_
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Well done mega!
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will share, but not today…
or just lets doing one in a brief way.
Imagine the following, years ago a very nice rocket is doing plenty of business with someone in the UK over the mail. In a timeframe of lets say a year, he sent boxes of stuff to that guy and get some good money from him for the goods after. But at one point this fellow came to the conclusion that it might be a smart move to just recieve the goods without actual paying for them. So he came up with excuses, bad economy, sickness... bla bla bla... to avoid sending his payments. Till to the point that rocket and a friend packed some stuff, jumped into a plane and a few hours later were standing in front of the door of this fine man. After some "knock knock" the door opened, told the fellow who actual just facing him and for what reason... guy turned into the most ashen-faced human I have ever seen and starting to wimp around. As I would be a scary person. Anyway, after some words guy payed his bills plus something extra and rocket + mate board relaxed the back flight the next morning.....
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so lets see if they are able to learn… what I hope
** Note to self - Do not feck with Mega
if you starting to fear from Mega's letter, better not mess with me
…might tell you some stories next time we meet.....
.....I haven't started to get nasty yet, this is still a polite discussion between a disappointed customer, and a disappointing retailer.
Should my disappointment grow, or even worse be repeated, then I will be travelling to London to register my annoyance in person. It's been a while since I visited the capital
Your story is great Rocket, and I fully understand why you would go to such extreme measures, here's my story.
A few years ago I used to buy and sell 80's toys on eBay, mainly Transformers (hence my user name). A guy who lived in Texas got the idea of ripping me off for around $500, by accepting my payment, and sending me no goods. I went through all the usual Paypal and eBay complaint procedure, which back then took around 4 times longer than it does now, but got no joy as he had mailed basically an empty box to me via tracked delivery. So, I got his address and phone number through eBay (I don't know if they still do that?) and called him up, he hung up on me several times, so I called his local Police department and filed a complaint for fraud. Apparently, and I guess some of our US members will understand this better than me, as I was a foreigner filing a complaint it could not be dealt with at a local (Sheriff) level, so I was given a number to call for a different Police department (?!?!). Anyway, they paid him a visit and must have scared him pretty well as the full amount of money was back in my account pretty quickly after their visiting him.
I think the moral to the story is that extreme assholes require extreme measures, and sometimes the principle is worth more than the money. To make it clear, I was perfectly prepared to get on a plane and personally visit this idiot where he slept.
Mini claimed that I have anger issues
