I ♥ Zappos.com!!

It was only after a rather lengthy search we found Charity the perfect pair of new school sneakers, well almost perfect. I first spotted them at Sears, but they we a little high in price. However, since I am not a sneaker-wearer and am known for purchasing Charity cute, but blister-causing shoes, I told Dave he was in charge of this task. He first statement, "They need to be comfortable." We also knew it didn't need to be something she would have to worry about coming untied at school. He agreed the Sketchers at Sears would do the trick, fitting both descriptions. And I liked them because they weren't white, though it matches better, these won't look so dingy at the end of the school year. Before making the final purchase at Sears, I looked online to be certain this is what we really wanted, then waited for a little sale at Sears and headed out to make our one-a-year sneaker purchase.

Charity currently wears an 11, so I figured we'd go with a 12. Tried the 12's on . . . too, too big. Okay so an 11.5. Nope. Sears doesn't care 0.5 sizes. From my online research I knew they came in an 11.5 and since those 12's were flopping all over the place, I knew we wouldn't be going home with those sneakers from Sears.

Back online, and I don't know how I missed it, but maybe assuming shipping would be additional, I found the same sneaks at Zappos.com for less!! And free shipping!! Whoo-hoo!! I have never ordered from Zappos.com, but everything I've read and heard has been awesome. And my experience was no difference.

I ordered the sneakers Sunday night . . . really late. Had the sneakers Tuesday afternoon! And I was stressing we wouldn't have them in time for school! I was amazed! But it gets better . . .

Charity wore her lovely new kix Friday 1/2 day, Monday all day, and Tuesday all day. When she got home on Tuesday her elastic lace had broken! How could this happen?! 2 1/2 days!?! Sketchers!?! You would think they would hold up better than that.

Stupid me thinking Zappos.com wouldn't take care of this issue, calls Sketchers directly. Oh yeah, that was production . . . NOT! Well, she did tell me I would have better luck if I contacted the merchant whom I purchased them from. But if they didn't help me, I would have to mail them to their warehouse, where they would evaluate them for defects. Whatever? 4-6 weeks without sneakers, right?!?!

Next call: Zappos.com. Whoowwww! What a difference! I just can't say enough good stuff about them! The phone message is even awesome. I didn't wait hardly a minute (forever on hold with Sketchers). Spoke with Stacey who was glad to exchange them, for anything of equal value without hardly any exclamation, however they were out of 11.5. I asked her if I could get a refund, since this was the pair we really wanted. So she did without hesitation. I figured I would need to mail back the sneakers, so I asked if I needed to go online to print a return label. Stacey said, "You can just throw them away." I couldn't thank her enough. I couldn't believe they would completely refund my money and let me keep the broken sneaker! Because for $38 I can't fix them, but for free, I'll figure out how!!

The moral of the story: Buy your shoes at http://www.zappos.com/!! They truly are "Powered by Service". It's not just a cute quote to sell more shoes. They really rock!!!