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Archibald London Hand Welted Shoes - preorder issues, discussion,and resolution.

taxgenius

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Just received 'The Email' from AoL. Options are as follows;

1. Keep the shoes and they will give me a 30% refund
2. Return the shoes and they will give me a full refund

They are not going to do a remake.

I mentioned that I had other out of pocket expenses which I would like them to cover (for toe taps etc), but they weren't interested. In effect, they didn't give a ****.

I have also asked them what they intend to do with the returned shoes? If they turn up on Cappi's website, I will know the answer to that question.

I suppose my frank evaluation is that the outcome is rather disappointing. With all the lofty claims of 'building a community', 'looking after those affected', and 'making it right', in the end, they haven't done any more (or less) than what most other businesses would do. I thought that they would just let us keep the shoes (mine are several months old and have been worn) and give us a full refund. Maybe I was naive, or its part of the agreement with the Cappi's.

Ultimately this thread has highlighted that there are some pretty big holes in the AoL business model, or at least the way that it is positioned and marketed. They had an opportunity to rectify some of their past mistakes, draw a line in the sand, and move forward positively. This email feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
As much as I dislike the shoes and everything about AoL, I have to disagree with you. I think this is a fair outcome and quite frankly way better than I imagined.
 
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JFWR

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As much as I dislike the shoes and everything about AoL, I have to disagree with you. I think this a fair outcome and quite frankly way better than I imagined.

I imagine part of the "send the shoes back" is so they can see how deep the problem really went. They probably are gathering evidence of when this happened to hit the maker with some serious reprecussions.

But yeah, I'd consider this a relatively fair outcome. Though if anyone isn't happy, I'd ask for a third option and see what they offer.
 

dieworkwear

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Are you paying for international shipping back?
 

JohnMRobie

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Just received 'The Email' from AoL. Options are as follows;

1. Keep the shoes and they will give me a 30% refund
2. Return the shoes and they will give me a full refund

They are not going to do a remake.

I mentioned that I had other out of pocket expenses which I would like them to cover (for toe taps etc), but they weren't interested. In effect, they didn't give a ****.

I have also asked them what they intend to do with the returned shoes? If they turn up on Cappi's website, I will know the answer to that question.

I suppose my frank evaluation is that the outcome is rather disappointing. With all the lofty claims of 'building a community', 'looking after those affected', and 'making it right', in the end, they haven't done any more (or less) than what most other businesses would do. I thought that they would just let us keep the shoes (mine are several months old and have been worn) and give us a full refund. Maybe I was naive, or its part of the agreement with the Cappi's.

Ultimately this thread has highlighted that there are some pretty big holes in the AoL business model, or at least the way that it is positioned and marketed. They had an opportunity to rectify some of their past mistakes, draw a line in the sand, and move forward positively. This email feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
To be honest this seems like a fair middle ground. It leaves some room for any customers who had expressed they were happy with their shoes and for whom hand welting was probably more of an intrigue than anything and may not really care about it to be compensated because it wasn’t what they’d thought they were buying while also allowing guys who are upset by it to return their shoes and wash their hands of it and move on if that’s the route they want to go.

Not sure which bucket you fall in but if you’d been wearing them for several months and enjoyed them and how they look then getting some money back and keeping enjoying them may make sense.

With regards to the toe plates it’s hard for me to see them being on the hook for an after market add on and I’m struggling to think of a product I’d expect the added compensation back on. If it were a suit and I’d taken it to my tailor and gotten surgeons cuffs and needed to have some more extensive alterations done I’d acknowledge that I’m probably out on those.
 

Potatoe

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Just received 'The Email' from AoL. Options are as follows;

1. Keep the shoes and they will give me a 30% refund
2. Return the shoes and they will give me a full refund

They are not going to do a remake.

I mentioned that I had other out of pocket expenses which I would like them to cover (for toe taps etc), but they weren't interested. In effect, they didn't give a ****.

I have also asked them what they intend to do with the returned shoes? If they turn up on Cappi's website, I will know the answer to that question.

I suppose my frank evaluation is that the outcome is rather disappointing. With all the lofty claims of 'building a community', 'looking after those affected', and 'making it right', in the end, they haven't done any more (or less) than what most other businesses would do. I thought that they would just let us keep the shoes (mine are several months old and have been worn) and give us a full refund. Maybe I was naive, or its part of the agreement with the Cappi's.

Ultimately this thread has highlighted that there are some pretty big holes in the AoL business model, or at least the way that it is positioned and marketed. They had an opportunity to rectify some of their past mistakes, draw a line in the sand, and move forward positively. This email feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.
This would be why "the customer is not always right".
They offer you a deal that more than fair and you go online to criticize them...

This isn't Starbucks, you don't get 10 free coffee's because your wip cream had an undesirable slope.
 

JFWR

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They cover shipping - I am in the UK anyway, don't know about overseas.

So it would cost you 0 dollars to send the shoes back and get all your money? That doesn't seem so bad.

The third party alteration sucks that you can't get back, but that seems pretty standard.
 

JohnMRobie

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So it would cost you 0 dollars to send the shoes back and get all your money? That doesn't seem so bad.

The third party alteration sucks that you can't get back, but that seems pretty standard.
If I bought a tin of shoe cream just to match whatever color I bought from them I wouldn’t expect that back either. They are on the hook for the product they delivered (or failed to deliver) and it seems like they’ve covered that with this. Better outcome than I think many who were on this thread expected and warned people about.
 

Cheshire symposium

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This would be why "the customer is not always right".
They offer you a deal that more than fair and you go online to criticize them...

This isn't Starbucks, you don't get 10 free coffee's because your wip cream had an undesirable slope.
I don't know about that. My 'criticisms' are more constructive than harsh. There has been a hell of lot worse stated by others in the last 78 pages.
 

yshin10

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I have two of their pairs and will be sending one and keeping one just to see how one stands the test of time. If they're gonna give me some $$ to keep it, I'm taking that. The one I'm sending back, there's been problems from day one so I'm more than willing to give that back. Although you are correct.... IT is weird asking for the pairs back... I don't know what they can or will do with these old worn pairs with terrible creases in em...
 

JFWR

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If I bought a tin of shoe cream just to match whatever color I bought from them I wouldn’t expect that back either. They are on the hook for the product they delivered (or failed to deliver) and it seems like they’ve covered that with this. Better outcome than I think many who were on this thread expected and warned people about.

Yeah, that is the comparison I was thinking, too.
 

Potatoe

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I don't know about that. My 'criticisms' are more constructive than harsh. There has been a hell of lot worse stated by others in the last 78 pages.
Yes lots of trolls in this thread. As you know almost all of the posts are by people who aren't even customers.

And you're not being constructive. You are deliberately slamming the company to get a little extra for yourself.

You want to keep the shoes (which you obviously like) and get a full refund.
 

wklq76a

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This would be why "the customer is not always right".
They offer you a deal that more than fair and you go online to criticize them...

This isn't Starbucks, you don't get 10 free coffee's because your wip cream had an undesirable slope.

Not for nothing, but AOL did quite a bit worse than the equivalent of misshapen whipped cream...more like subbing in decaf without letting the customer know.
 

Potatoe

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Not for nothing, but AOL did quite a bit worse than the equivalent of misshapen whipped cream...more like subbing in decaf without letting the customer know.
To be clear, they let ever single customer know what happened as soon as they found out.
This includes people who didn't even buy shoes from them and probably would never have known .
They then offered a full refund
 

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