Complaint Review: Ayyawear - Internet

 All I wanted for my 29th birthday was a pair of Ayyawear boots! How lucky I felt when my mum and partner offered to buy them for me as a special gift. How disappointed we feel now after a 10 MONTH saga of frustration and increasing ridiculousness that is yet to be resolved! In early March 2015 we ordered the boots that I wanted via the official ayyawear website, payment of $400 US was made on my mothers credit card and sizing details were specified with detailed measurements based on the diagram from the site. Despite having specific measurements of my foot, I soon received a pair of size 39 boots, several sizes to big for my foot! Of course alarm bells were not yet ringing, but having anticipated receiving this gift for some time disappointment was strong in presence. Little did we know that this was only the beginning. I contacted ayyawear via email asking to exchange the boots for a suitable size, even sending the measurements again to be sure the correct size could be shipped. Time rolls by and a package arrives...excited again, we open the box to find a pair of boots in a totally different style and size 38, still significantly too big! We were all perplexed on how they could have possibly gotten this order wrong again the second time around! I emailed the owner of the business, Allister Greenbeirer, asking for the correct exchange, reiterating the style of boot that I ordered and again the correct measurements of my foot. Allister responded suggesting to organise my order to be custom made to my specific size. He advised that this would take 12 weeks for my order to be manufactured by their workshop in Indonesia. Still wanting the boots, and remaining hopeful and positive about receiving the correct ones I of course agreed to wait. Silly me should have just requested a refund there and then! A month and a half passes and this box arrives in the post...what do you know, another size 38! This was becoming the household joke! How does an operating business get a simple order so wrong so many times?? even after getting the boots custom made to my measurements!? I contacted Allister again, this time asking why I keep receiving big sizes when Iv sent my measurements several times. His response seemed to be silly in itself. He explained that they use standard size soles and the rest of the boot is custom made to size. But how does this make any sense when the first measurement they ask for is the length of the foot? If my foot is only 24cm in length, why would you think a size 38 or more would fit?? It's basic math not rocket science! Being a patient person I asked him to kindly have my boots made with a smaller sole, and suggested they use my foot length measurement as a reference when choosing the correct sole for my boots. Frustration was brewing by this point, another dragging 12 week wait. A couple of months passed and no news was heard, I emailed Allister for an update on my order, he excused himself with complaints of being short staffed and dealing with a back log of orders, but assured me my boots were on their way. Mid September I received an email notifying me that my order was ready to be shipped, but there was no shipping notification, no tracking number or details. Again, I emailed Allister to ask for a tracking number, but my order had not yet been shipped, and the reason as to why I received this email was not answered or the question about it even acknowledged. Apparently my order was on its way from the manufacturer in Indonesia to ayyawear base in the USA, and was being held awaiting clearance at customs. Apparently it remained there for another month, when I contacted them again wanting to know when they would be on their way to me! Apparently they are still there today, or at least I have not yet received any update on where my boots are! To add to my frustration, my emails after this point did not any response! Could ayyawear be ignoring my emails? Seriously!? Quickly losing confidence in the competence of Allister and his ayyawear team of employees, and getting increasingly desperate for answers, I decided to contact them on their Facebook business page in the hope of actually relieving a response. This worked...for a little while. Communication via Facebook was much easier from my perspective as I could see that my messages were delivered and read by someone on the other end. But this seemed to frustrate poor Allister, it became harder for him to avoid my questions and eventually complained that it was too hard to keep track of messages when half were via email and half were on Facebook. I clearly explained why I found it easier to communicate on Facebook simply because my emails were being ignored. But I agreed to take communication back to email as long as someone would respond! Since this agreement my messages to the Ayyawear Facebook page have been blocked! Yes, they have blocked me from contacting them on Facebook! How extremely unprofessional and disheartening to a PAYING CUSTOMER WHO JUST WANTS TO KNOW WHEN SHE WILL GET THE ITEM SHE PAID FOR!! this is infuriating given that my last email which was sent after agreeing to communicate via email has not been responded to in over a week!! Call this customer service?? I call this a scam! Ayyawear has not only ruined my birthday present, disappointed not only myself but my mother and partner who gifted me this headache, but taken out money and lead us on with seemingly no intention to fulfil my order! THIS IS THEFT! It's illegal and violates consumer rights! This is Auyawears last chance, if the email I sent today does not receive a response with a clear answer to my question, I will request a full refund, and if that is not received I will seek legal action! After looking for reviews on Ayyawear, and reading other customers experiences with them, I wished that I'd done more research before wanting to purchase anything from them. It seems I'm not the first person they have done this to, and surly, judging by the amount of bad reviews and complaints against ayyawear customer service and products, I doubt I will be the last!