My 11 year old New Balance sneakers were getting a bit long in the tooth and starting to come apart. Some contact cement glued the sole toe cap back on before it pulled the whole sole off. I decided it was time to replace them. I went to Amazon.com, since .uk and .fr didn't have the style I wanted and ordered a pair from Amazon seller, Shape Yourself. I paid full retail for them but since I had a gift card it wasn't all that painful. When they arrived I was immediately shocked at the shoddy workmanship and even the box was cheap with bad graphics. This is not how New Balance traditionally does business.
Shape Yourself had charged me $55.00 for shipping and the label displayed that they only paid 39.00 for the shipping. I applied for a return and mentioned this, but they were pretty aloof about covering the return cost from France, but I was so disappointed with the product that I decided to wind up covering nearly the total cost of the shoes in shipping fees (to me and back) just to be rid of them.
The more I thought about this, and the fact that the New Balance shoes were made in China and not the US, I began to suspect that they were either factory seconds or knock offs. New Balance does make some of their shoes in China now, but these would have never passed a New Balance quality control inspection, unless the company has really gone to the dogs.
Three weeks after sending them back, Shape Yourself had not acknowledged the return or credited my Amazon account, so I emailed them an inquiry. They shot back a reply, fishing to see if I had a tracking number. To which I fired back, "Has the package arrived or not?" Within 4 hours I had the refund. I feel that if I had said no to their tracking number question, they would have said "Sorry, we didn't get it. No return, no refund." They had been that weaselly throughout the entire transaction, and I had sent the return via the least expensive La Poste shipping method, which had no tracking number. I think they know how to play this game and retain their status with Amazon.
Last week I read an article about Chinese knock offs of name brand vitamins being sold through Amazon. When analyzed they contained nowhere near the label ingredients claims, and some were discovered to have some dangerous ingredients, contamination... and none of the vitamins. I guess its time to go back to ordering only books through Amazon. The psychopaths have infested the sellers. Caveat emptor.
Amazon Seller, Shape Yourself, located in Sherman Oaks, CA, is definitely not to be trusted. When I boxed the shoes for return, way up in the toe of each shoe I placed a small note stating that I had returned the shoes since they were obviously seconds or knockoffs. I then replaced the tissue paper stuffing and arranged them just as they had arrived. At least the next person to buy them will be alerted, as if just looking at the shoes isn't enough. I will be reporting this company to the links that Laura has posted. They really should be widely known for what they are.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the fit was bad. They were not true to size, and not consistent fit from right to left.
Shape Yourself had charged me $55.00 for shipping and the label displayed that they only paid 39.00 for the shipping. I applied for a return and mentioned this, but they were pretty aloof about covering the return cost from France, but I was so disappointed with the product that I decided to wind up covering nearly the total cost of the shoes in shipping fees (to me and back) just to be rid of them.
The more I thought about this, and the fact that the New Balance shoes were made in China and not the US, I began to suspect that they were either factory seconds or knock offs. New Balance does make some of their shoes in China now, but these would have never passed a New Balance quality control inspection, unless the company has really gone to the dogs.
Three weeks after sending them back, Shape Yourself had not acknowledged the return or credited my Amazon account, so I emailed them an inquiry. They shot back a reply, fishing to see if I had a tracking number. To which I fired back, "Has the package arrived or not?" Within 4 hours I had the refund. I feel that if I had said no to their tracking number question, they would have said "Sorry, we didn't get it. No return, no refund." They had been that weaselly throughout the entire transaction, and I had sent the return via the least expensive La Poste shipping method, which had no tracking number. I think they know how to play this game and retain their status with Amazon.
Last week I read an article about Chinese knock offs of name brand vitamins being sold through Amazon. When analyzed they contained nowhere near the label ingredients claims, and some were discovered to have some dangerous ingredients, contamination... and none of the vitamins. I guess its time to go back to ordering only books through Amazon. The psychopaths have infested the sellers. Caveat emptor.
Amazon Seller, Shape Yourself, located in Sherman Oaks, CA, is definitely not to be trusted. When I boxed the shoes for return, way up in the toe of each shoe I placed a small note stating that I had returned the shoes since they were obviously seconds or knockoffs. I then replaced the tissue paper stuffing and arranged them just as they had arrived. At least the next person to buy them will be alerted, as if just looking at the shoes isn't enough. I will be reporting this company to the links that Laura has posted. They really should be widely known for what they are.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the fit was bad. They were not true to size, and not consistent fit from right to left.
