- Hi, I'm Parris and I have done something
I swore I would never do.
I have ordered shoes online.
Now I was one of the naysayers back 15 years ago,
who said people will never buy clothes or shoes online,
that's just crazy.
But then it must have been about seven, eight years ago,
I wanted to buy some clothes from a company
called Lands End.
They do a lot of catalog sales.
They have some of their clothes in Sears stores,
but nothing around here.
So I took the plunge and ordered some shirts.
Now they offer tall, which is the size I prefer
and they're hard to find in stores, so when I got them
and they fit it was great.
And I thought well now I can order the same shirts
but in a different color.
So I was an online clothes shopping roll from there.
I have not bought pants online yet
but just about everything else.
But shoes I swore it just did not make sense
because how can you buy a pair of shoes
without trying them on.
Shirts can be a little lose or a little tight,
you can make do with it.
But shoes have to fit you
or you can't stand wearing them all day long.
And it's not just all day, it's day after day.
Because most men, I think different from most women,
will wear the same shoes day after day.
I have a pair of shoes that I will wear
most days of the year, and when they're finally worn out
and soles cracked and so forth,
then I'll go back to the store
to buy another of the very same pair.
Now the last time I went they no longer had that style
so I had to start searching for different shoes.
It's a painful process, but what I wanted this time
was something that I could do light hiking in
and didn't have laces.
So researched, researched,
found what I thought would be the perfect pair of shoes,
only problem is none of the stores around here in Austin
carried them.
The only way I could get to try these shoes
was to order them online, so I broke down and did it.
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Now maybe everyone's been shopping at Zappos
for the past decade, and I'm the last one
to figure this out, but just in case there's anyone
else here that has not bought shoes online,
I thought I would share my first time
shoe buying experience with you.
And I did see these shoes at Zappos,
but I ended up buying them from the company that makes them,
Merrell, on their website because the shipping was less.
They were the exact same price and they both say
free returns if they don't fit right,
which is my concern with a completely new type of shoe,
is that my size 10 in this pair, may be a 10 and a half.
It's a regular box of shoes
stuck into a brown box.
Okay, so this is the return label.
So I guess I'd better take care of this box,
because I think I need to put it back in there,
slap the label on it if I need to return it.
Ah, if you return it, then you tell them why.
Too big, too small, not as expected,
color not as expected.
Says on here, I have 45 days to return the shoes
from the time of purchase but they have to be unworn.
Well I mean it makes sense,
they don't want you to wear them around,
but I can't understand having shoes 45 days
and not wearing them.
Maybe that's another men, women's different thing.
I'm gonna open it the day the box arrives and try them on.
Also, I would think that making an exchange would be
perhaps more common than returning them.
Because I'm already pretty sure I'm gonna like these shoes,
it's just a matter of the size.
To make an exchange you have to go to their website
and fill out a form, then you send them these back
and then they'll send you another pair.
Let me make sure it's correct,
U.S. size 10, tan color.
Oh I like the color.
Seems like they're packaged just like they would be
at a shoe store.
They got wrapped in paper and they got the paper wads
in here so they'll hold their shape.
Looks pretty good.
Let's see how the size is.
Okay.
Boy they're snug on the top.
The back's pretty firm though, it's not collapsing too much
with sliding my foot in.
Alright, where's my toe?
Right there.
I think these are okay.
But yeah, it's a pretty close call.
This or the 10 and a half.
Gotta walk around with them a little.
Well after walking around with them
I do like them as shoes, sitting they're fine,
standing they're fine,
even walking just down the hallway they're fine,
when I went outside though, and walked down the driveway
so that my feet push up against the front of the shoe,
as happens when you go downhill,
that's when it wasn't comfortable,
that's when I wished there were another quarter inch
of space in the front.
And so I think I need the 10 and a half.
So I went to their website for exchanges.
And they want the order number,
the name, the zipcode.
Says again you have 45 days to return them.
Put 'em in the original box.
They talk about having to print out
a PDF of the return label,
but they gave me a return label in there.
You won't be charged for the shipping and you'll be refunded
the amount of the shoes.
I don't see an exchange thing right here,
but let me get to the next screen.
On the next screen here I have the option
to return this item or exchange this item.
Let's see what happens when I choose exchange.
Why would you like to exchange it?
So this must be what size would I like instead.
So I chose I would like a 10 and a half medium
and that I found it was too small.
Do I just send it to a different place
than the return place?
Now there is a PDF.
Okay, return to them.
Order date, order number, delivery number.
Reason 102.
So I will print this out.
They're not saying anything
about sending me the others though.
I assume I have to wait 'til they get these back.
Is this gonna take a week, a month?
No information telling me what's gonna happen
about them getting me a size 10 and a half pair of shoes.
Hmm.
I'd like to find out when I will be receiving
my size 10 and a half shoes.
So I've decided to try their live chat.
And see if someone there can help me.
And I'm talking with Renee here
to find out when I might get the other pair of shoes.
I'm kinda wishing at this point I'd gone with Zappos.
Okay, here we go.
"I'm sorry we can't send out the new product
"'til we get the old one back.
"Ship them to us for an exchange.
"When they're processed through returns
"you'll receive a return confirmation e-mail.
"At that time your exchange order gets released
"down to the warehouse for shipping.
"You won't get a new shipping confirmation
"e-mail on it though, due to system limitations."
Yeah, Merrell sells lots of shoes in stores
and I'm thinking their internet sales is a secondary thing.
Whereas Zappos, all they do are internet sales of shoes
and I imagine they have this down to a T,
they give you all the information
so you know what to expect,
I don't know if they have system limitations over there.
Since I don't think the shipping label they gave me
is for speedy shipping to send the shoes back,
this could take a while
and that could be a couple three weeks
before I would get my new shoes
in the right size, I'm thinking.
So I suggested to the agent,
then how 'bout if I just return 'em
and they'll credit me the money for them
when they get around to that.
And in the meantime I'll have to spend the money again
to buy another pair in the size I think I need.
And it appears that Renee agrees with me
that the exchange thing,
unless you're worried about the money,
so long as you can afford to order a 2nd pair
before you've had the 1st pair credited,
it's gonna be a lot faster just to return 'em
and order another pair.
So I think that's what I'll do.
So I'm thinking I'll just return these
and then put in an order today for the 10 and a halfs
and by early next week I should have them.
But then I'm thinking, what if the 10 and a half
isn't quite long enough in front
and the toe is still getting jammed up there
walking on the downhill?
Why doesn't somebody carry these locally
so I could try them out?
The DSW, they have something similar to this.
This is the Rover Moccasin.
They have the Jungle Moccasin,
the difference being the sole.
This has the Vibram sole, rubber sole
that's nonslip.
Much better for when you're hiking.
And that's what I really wanted.
So I'm racking my brain,
isn't there any other place that has these?
And I looked, it occurs to me there's an REI
not far from here.
And I look and I put in the size
and I don't know that I'll get
the color exactly that I want,
but at least size wise they have the 10 and a half
at the local REI store.
So I'm going, well I'm still gonna return these.
But I'm going to go over there,
try them on, walk around with them.
The 10 and a half isn't big enough, maybe try an 11.
If that's too loose, it's just not gonna work,
I'll need a different style.
At least I can try out all the options right there
and leave the store with a pair of shoes that fit me
and I know are going to work.
And if this isn't quite the color that I want
that they have at REI, but I try them on
and the 10 and a halfs do fit and are gonna work for me,
I can go back online to the Merrell website
and order this color in a 10 and a half,
knowing when it arrives it will fit.
So in a way my experiment with buying shoes online
was a failure, or rather it went sort of
how I was always afraid it would go,
that the shoes wouldn't fit and it's gonna be a pain.
You gotta return 'em, try 'em in a different size.
The time that I think shopping online for shoes,
for me, would work, is if I do find
a model that I like in a size that fits me,
I would feel comfortable ordering that exact same thing
in that exact same size online again.
But for trying out shoes that I've never tried on before,
I'm not liking the system so well.
I'd be curious to know whether you buy your shoes online.
We have a poll going with the little i up in the corner.
If you click on that you can answer the poll
whether you've bought shoes online or not.
And in the comments down below if you'd like to comment
what your experience has been if you've given it a try,
I'd be really curious to know.
And I may be putting my off road shoes to the test here
pretty quickly.
A company contacted us that was on Shark Tank,
that has designed a new way of gold mining
and panning for gold,
and they're gonna be sending us that kit to try out.
Very excited about it.
So you can keep checking back for that video
or you can click that subscribe button down below.
You'll get notified when our videos go up.
See you on the next review.
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