Cora just wanted to order eight pair of identical shoes from Steve Madden for her wedding. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of ordering those shoes directly from the company. Half of the shoes were on backorder. Upon receiving the shoes and discovering that they wouldn’t fit the respective bridesmaids they were ordered for, Cora learned that Steve Madden would charge a $7 restocking fee per pair.

She wrote about the shoe disaster on her wedding blog:

I ordered 8 pair of the Anjelica shoe from Steve Madden. After successfully placing my order, I got an email a few days later saying that four of the pairs of shoes were not available and that the remaining 4 would be sent in separate shipments.

Let’s back up here for a minute.

First of all, why would they sell me shoes that they don’t have available?

Second of all, why are they sending 4 pair of shoes in separate shipments?

When the four pair of shoes all arrived (at different times mind you), instead of being in brown shipping boxes, the shoeboxes were shipped in plastic bags.

Yes that’s right, the same bags you would send clothing in. Now, how Steve Madden determined that these flimsy plastic bags would be sturdy enough to ship cardboard shoeboxes is beyond me.

While trying to straighten this situation out, she learned that the reason her shoes were backordered is that Stevemadden.com updates its online inventory once per day. That’s right, a presumably busy e-commerce site can’t be bothered to keep its inventory current and prevent customers from having to wait for their backordered footwear to show up in a flimsy plastic bag.

After arguing with various company representatives about the situation, Cora has given up and is looking to the blogosphere for ideas. Personally, I think that some Steve Madden executives would love to hear about how these pricey shoes are being shipped. Fits in nicely with the brand image, don’t you think?

Barring that, any readers wear a women’s size 7.5 or 10 and need some cute, never-worn shoes?

Steve Madden Anjelica Shoes – FAIL [12k Wedding Blog]
Anjeiica [Steve Madden]

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