Most young people in Victoria, BC, Canada will not shop at the downtown Sterling Shoes, mainly because of the attitude and behavior of the manager.
I purchased a pair of Guess sandals at Sterling shoes last summer. I tried them on in the store and they felt good. The salesgirl said they looked like a good fit. I bought them for full price (around $80) and took them home. I wore them around the house for about five hours, as a test, before wearing them outside.
After wearing these shoes on concrete for less than ten minutes, I realized the straps that wrapped around my ankle were made from leather too thin and stiff to support my feet. They were literally cutting into my ankles, causing both bleeding and bruising. The next morning I put on some different shoes and went back to Sterling, with the shoes in their original box and my receipt.
I approached the salesgirl and explained my problem. She told me that I was probably wearing them too tight, and that I should try loosening the straps. If that didn't work, I should come back. So I loosened the straps and wore them for the rest of the day. It didn't help at all. Now, fourteen months later, I still have scars on my ankles from wearing these shoes for all of fifteen hours.
The salesgirl told me to return to the store if the shoes still hurt, so that's what I did. The same girl (actually an Asian woman in her early 30s, usually dressed in very cheap looking bar-style clothes with reddish streaks in her frizzy hair) was working. I said her solution hadn't worked, and that my ankles hurt a lot. I said that I would like to exchange the shoes for something with a sturdier ankle support that wouldn't dig into my skin and cause bleeding and bruising.
She told me there was nothing she could do because I had worn them onto the street (the second time I wore them on the street it was at HER recommendation, PLUS she had told me to return if loosening them didn't help- why tell me to return if there's nothing she can do when I return?).
I asked to speak to her manager, and she told me SHE was the manager! I asked to discuss different options, such as exchanges, returns or store credits. She told me there was NOTHING she could do for it. Having worked in fashion retail myself (including covering shifts in the shoe department of a high-class department store), I KNOW that if shoes cut into someone's ankles so badly they bleed that the manufacturer will reimburse the stores for the cost of the returned shoes, since they are considered defective.
Since the manager would not offer me a solution, I asked for the contact information of her superior. She told me that she was the last word for Sterling Shoes. Pressing her, I managed to get the pager number for the regional sales representative, but I was told by the manager that "she never answers her pager anyways" (which was true). At that time, Sterling Shoes didn't have a website and I couldn't find any more contact information, so I gave up. I tried contacting Guess' customer service department, but they didn't respond to any of my queries either.
Even funnier is the fact that this winter I pulled the shoes out of their box and decided to risk wearing them out to the bar. The ankle strap broke on the way home from the club- on the THIRD occasion I wore those shoes.
Many of my friends have shared similar stories, such as shoes by Roberto Vianni, their house brand, breaking before they were even worn outside the house. As well, most of us have had numerous problems trying to return the faulty merchandise. We all pledge NEVER to shop there again!
Carly
Victoria, British Columbia
Canada
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