Great Customer Service from A Footwear Company

I’m going to start by saying that this story was not solicited by Jambu Footwear, I just love to experience great customer service and I think other people should also support companies who are customer-service oriented because good customer service seems to be in short supply these days.

Here’s the background story.  At the end of June, I made a visit to our local consignment store looking for a pair of sandals.  I outfit myself and my children almost entirely from this store; they vet their shoes and clothing very well and I’ve always found a great supply of mint or excellent condition footwear and a large variety of clothing including frequent Hanna Andersson finds.  In just the past month, we found a new pair of these Teva sandals (priced at $36) for the 13-year-old and matching Keens for the younger two (both purchased one week apart, an incredibly surprising find) for $8.80 and $11.20.  But I digress.  I found a nice pair of new condition vegan sandals, manufactured by J41, a subsidiary of Jambu Footwear.  They were priced at $40, which I considered a good deal since they didn’t appear to have been worn.

J41 Vegan Sandals

I bought them, took them home and wore them nearly every day.  They were comfortable.  About 2 1/2 weeks into owning them I noticed that at the seam where the strap meets the sole, the material that the uppers were made out of seemed to be stretching and I crossed my fingers that they would last.  At the end of July as I was walking home from picking up take out, I felt the strap break free and the material came undone at the seam.  I was really disappointed and at first I thought, that’s what you get for buying a brand of which you know nothing.  But then I decided that it wasn’t right.  Even if I didn’t know anything about the brand prior to purchasing them,  I should expect a pair of sandals to last longer than one month, whether I paid $40 for them new or $40 for like-new on consignment.

Where the material ripped/came undone

Unwearable sandals

I decided to email the company and let them know the situation and at the very least I would have felt better for complaining.  I was honest with them.  I let them know I purchased them at a consignment store and not new and that they probably didn’t owe me anything since any warranty would be void.  I sent the email on a Sunday night and was surprised to see a reply on Monday morning.  I was even more surprised that Micki, the customer service rep, told me that I was absolutely right, the sandals should have lasted longer and that they stand behind their products.  She told me that they couldn’t guarantee that I would get the same sandals as a replacement, since they may be out of season, but instructed me to browse their site and send them at least three styles and colors that I like and they would send a replacement set out to me right away.  After a week when I hadn’t heard a response or received a new set, I started worrying that maybe they weren’t going to follow through, so I emailed Micki again and she told me that they had sold more shoes that they anticipated and had to wait for more from the manufacturing plant, but that a pair would indeed be on the way soon.  A little more than two weeks after my original complaint, I came home and found a Fedex box on my porch containing my new sandals.  I hope that these will last longer and I feel that they will, because the problem seemed to be a material issue rather than a workmanship issue.  I think the synthetic vegan material was too stretchy and that’s why the seams came apart, because the stitching holes completely stretched out and eventually broke.  My new pair has a leather upper, because I’m not opposed to wearing leather, a vegan sandal was simply what was available at the consignment store.  I have high regard for Jambu’s customer service, because I still feel that they didn’t legally owe me anything and it’s a wonderful thing when companies do the right thing because they stand behind their product.

New Jambu Taurus sandals

About these ads