Allen Edmonds Appreciation Thread - Page 387

I first tried calling customer service the day they arrived, and hung up after being on hold for nearly ten minutes. I emailed them shortly after hanging up, and have never received a reply. I finally tried calling again on Friday and got through this time. I politely described my concerns with the CS representative - that the shoes arrived with a very poor finish on them, that there were scratches in them, and the left shoe has an indentation in the upper above the heel. She replied that the issue with the finish is that the cordovan is "blooming". However, the condition of the finish on these shoes appeared to me as though they came right off of the assembly line, went into bags and the box and onto the shipping truck without so much as a cursory quality inspection, much less any attempt to buff or polish them for appearance.
The CS rep recommended that I give them a treatment with the cordovan care cream that I ordered with the shoes, to see if the finish would look better. I explained that the care cream was probably not going to address the scratches or the groove in the heel, so I would prefer just to send them back. I also asked if it would be possible for the factory to start on another pair to minimize my wait for a replacement, and she politely informed me that they couldn't - and it would be another five weeks for a new pair to be made after they receive the pair I'm returning.
I decided I didn't want to wait that long if I could avoid it, so I thanked her for her advice and opted to try the cream and see if I could live with the results.
I worked on them this weekend, and after two treatments of care cream and extensive brushing they certainly looked better, but nowhere near as nice as my shell Aldens or C&Js. The quality just doesn't seem to be there. To make matters worse, after getting the shoes cleaned up and inspecting them more carefully I noticed two small punctures in the upper of the left shoe. It looks as though this may have happened when they were stitching the welt, because the punctures are about the size of a needle and they are very close to the welt. Also, the distance between the two holes matches the stitching pattern. When I discovered these holes I really got pissed off about going to the trouble of trying to make them look better instead of just sending them back in the first place. Now they are definitely going back to AE, and I'm annoyed that I have to wait another month. I'll give them one chance to send me a better pair of shoes, and if the next pair has issues I'll send them back for a refund and will probably never try AE shell cordovan again.
I typically don't post negative reviews online without giving the business an opportunity to resolve the issue, but I feel in this case that I gave them opportunities to resolve this to my satisfaction (calling, emailing, calling again) and they failed. I'll include pics so you can see what I'm talking about.




I mentioned above that this is the second frustrating experience. They recently botched a re-heel on my Drydens, and when I sent them back to be done correctly they still came back with the heel base detaching from the shoe - which is why I sent them to AE in the first place. I've subsequently noticed that the heel on one of my Strands is starting to detach as well.
I really, really want to like Allen Edmonds because they are an American company that makes great-looking shoes; I've purchased eight pairs of their shoes and a couple of their belts over the past several years. However, they are making it difficult to get excited about doing business with them when I have to work through issues like this on their "first quality" products.
I sincerely hope that this ends well, and I will definitely post an update after the next pair arrives.