Mar 07
29
Kenneth Cole Shoes SUCK!!!
At the risk of this blog just becoming my own personal complaining forum, I wanted to share the hassle I am having with a pair of Kenneth Cole shoes my wife purchased for me a couple of months ago. My wife bought these for me from Dillard’s in January because they were on clearance (she paid about $40 for the shoes that were originally $175) and we always have trouble finding shoes for me at a good price (I wear a size 13). This particular style had a buckle on each shoe.
I wore these shoes for about a month when the buckle on one of the shoes just broke off on the first day of a weeklong business trip to Denver. While I don’t expect the shoes to be indestructible, I don’t expect pieces to start breaking off in the first month of wear either. I call the Kenneth Cole headquarters to find out how I can get a replacement pair since these were obvious defects. After calling the first time and being put on hold for 15 minutes before they just hung up on me, the rep I talked to the second time said that I would need to ship the shoes back to them registered mail, return receipt requested at my expense. Seeing as the shoes weigh 3lb 4oz without any outside packaging, my cost to ship would be at least $13.08. If they inspect the shoes and find them to be defective (and who is to say that they will make an honest assessment), they would repair the shoes and return them in 4-6 weeks. If not, then they would then contact me to arrange payment for the repairs. Finding it unacceptable to have to pay more money to have them repair their defective product, I asked if there were any other options. The rep indicated that I could also return the shoes to a Kenneth Cole retail store and they could return the shoes on my behalf for a fee of about $7.
I wasn’t happy with either option, so I decided to try and return the shoes to Dillard’s. Unfortunately by the time I got back from my trip, the 30 day return period at Dillard’s had expired, so I couldn’t get anything back from them. So I then went to the Kenneth Cole store in the Houston Galleria to have them return the shoes for me. Unfortunately I got a different story at the store, as I was told that corporate was no longer allowing the stores to return items to them. The only option they could offer was to have a local shoe repair shop they used look at the shoes and provide an estimate of what the repair would cost. I would be responsible for the cost of the repair, even though it was their product that was defective.
So at this point I still have a pair of broken shoes and no way of returning or repairing them without being out even more money. I don’t know what to do about these shoes, but I will certainly never buy another Kenneth Cole product again!
