Complaint Review: Toms Shoes - Internet Internet

Tom Shoes is a company that sells simple, minimalist shoes to customers and their hook is that when you buy a pair, another pair is provided to a person in need. Typically I do not have this kind of money to spend on shoes (I'm frugal when it comes to fashion), but I had a small surplus and decided to treat myself and a friend, as it was for a good cause and I love the other pairs I had purchased a year or so before.

Initially I made my purchase on June 5th. It was after a recent move, my old address was still listed on my account. I have had issues with strangers opening my packages left at the door at my current address, so rather than go through the hassle of changing the address on my account, I had them delivered to my friend's work address, as half of it was a gift to him anyway and he is able to safely and securely receive packages there. I input his address into the shipping information on their order form, but a few days later when I received a shipping confirmation, they were sending it to the address on my account. UPS does not forward packages, but even if they did, I wouldn't want anything of value sent to my home address anyway. 

I received this information when I happened to be serving jury duty and was unable to wait on hold for their customer service to answer that day, so I sent a brief email to "[email protected]", as that was the email listed on their shipping receipt, from my cell phone, advising them what had happened. I didn't receive a response, so later in the afternoon I tried again on their website, explaining in detail what had happened and what address I needed it sent to. Still no response. I gave it time, as I'm sure they are a small, but busy company and actually, I used to handle shipping issues for a small eco ecommerce company fora living, so I understand how it can be, however after a week or two, my issue was still not addressed. Not even acknowledged.  In fact, someone had went in and "closed" my customer service inquiry.

I could tell from the tracking information UPS was holding my package, they just needed the company to call in and redirect the shipping. I sent another message advising I would be submitting a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. I work during their open hours, but on my break I waited on their "live chat" for a representative for 45 mins and no one showed. I tried calling, but their phone greeting was advising they were closed, though I was calling during regular business hours. On June 21st I submitted my complaint to BBB.

On July 5th (a full month after my initial purchase) I received a voicemail from someone named Tracy. I called back the 800# and advised I was returning her call and another woman advised she could help me. I went over what had happened and she seemed to have a hard time listening to what I was saying. I don't think it was a language barrier, I'm not sure what the problem was, but I found myself having to repeat everything several times. I didn't raise my voice, though I was/am pretty angry at this point, and maybe I should have, because being nice albeit clearly inconvenienced, is not getting me anywhere. She was asking if I wanted a refund and advised I would need to send the shoes back. Uhh, I don't HAVE them, hence the whole problem. When she finally kind of understood what was going on, she asked for the address I wanted them sent to. I reminded her that I've sent this address to them twice now, but gave it to her again over the phone, twice, very slowly, spelling everything out, as she was having a difficult time understanding. She repeated it back to me, at one point incorrectly, saying "Suite number 1-0-5" I stopped her and said "No, the suite number is "150, 1-5-0" and she said "oh yeah, that's what I meant. right." and repeated it back to me correctly. 

Three days later I get a call from Tracy again, advising UPS needed to know what suite number I needed it delivered to. It is so absurd, if I wasn't out the money, I would just give up at this point. This time she gave me an extension number, so I left her a message detailing the correct address, reiterating the suite number. I tried back a number of times, but continued to get her voicemail.

Yesterday my friend got a notice from UPS (delivered to his desk, strangely) advising UPS was not provided with a suite number, so they cannot deliver the package. For some reason they were able to get that notice to him, but not the package itself. They want us to drive out to their distribution center and pick it up, which at this time due to some health issues, I cannot do and his work hours would not allow him to make that trip during the week.

Lesson learned, next time I have $160 to burn, I'll buy some shoes from a reputable company and donate the rest to Unicef or something. This whole experience has taken up so much of my time and like I said before, I used to work in customer service for shipping issues. I know it can be a pain, but I cannot believe how blatantly this company has completely ignored me and I'm out over $160 because of it. Bummer, because while they aren't much to look at, they are really comfortable shoes and their "cause" is something nice to think about. Though, they seem to have a lot of trouble shipping domestically, I have no idea how they manage to ship internationally to the people who really need them.