Reader Dan was hoping Aldo would sell him just one shoe after his roommate’s dog ate one, but they ended up sending him a whole new pair for free. Regular customer service told Dan that they don’t sell shoes in singles but after sending his note to the folks at the top of Aldo, his story starting making the rounds internally and they shined down on him with rays of benevolence.

Dan writes:

About 2 weeks back I awoke and found the remains of of half eaten shoe laying on my couch along side one guilty looking puppy. My roommates dog has always had a thing for taking the soles out of my shoes which had never been an issue except apparently she wasn’t able to easily extract it from my newest pair of Aldos without first performing some surgery on the shoe, leaving it in shambles.

I had only had the shoes for 2 months and really liked them so I thought I’d at least make an attempt to cut some costs by seeing if the company would be willing to sell me a single shoe. I reached out to their CS department via email and quickly received a standard “we apologize but we cannot help you in this situation” type of letter.

Being a longtime reader of your site, I knew it was worth a shot to reach out to exectuives. I did a quick google search (tip for others, if you do a google search for “site:linkedin.com “company name””, you can easily find names an job titles of executives for most companies). Some further searching lead me to the emails of two of the executive VPs, Norman and David. I sent them both the following email:

“Hello ,my name is Daniel and I have been a long time user of your products. In fact I believe my last 4 shoe purchases have been from your store for both work, dress, and casual shoes. I’ve always enjoyed both the comfort and durability of your product. Unfortunately, my roommate’s dog recently decided to put the durability aspect to the test.

What I am left with is one perfectly fine size 44 Broxterman (Black Miscellaneous), and one new chew toy for the dog (the right shoe was the one that did not survive).
I was wondering if there is any way for me to purchase a replacement shoe for the set? The pair was about 2 months old and I would definitely be willing to pay for the replacement shoe if necessary. My hope is to not have to pay for an entire pair.

I appreciate any help you can offer me in regards to this, and I will definitely continue to do business with your company either way.”

The very same morning I sent the email to David, he reached out to via email and informed me that they had been sharing my email around the office and were going to send me a whole new pair of shoes for free because, “We all enjoyed reading it and felt that we’d be happy to help, if only to keep the good vibes going with your story.”

A few days later I had my new pair of shoes with a letter attached that read: “Dear Dan, We hope these are the right pair. Please keep them away from that crazy dog. Enjoy, David and Nathan”

The executives of Aldo were fast to respond and to get me a replacement pair, and truly showed that they believe in keeping their customers happy.

Thanks,

Daniel

P.S. Attached is a picture of Strummer sleeping with her favorite chew toy.

Once again, taking it to the top with your true story gets happy customer service action you wouldn’t otherwise get. Dan was non-confrontational and he emphasized how he had bought several products from the company and would still be a customer either way their response to his letter went. That coupled with the fact that people love dogs served him well.

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