I was in need of a heel replacement for a pair of timberland boots and took a chance on this guy as he was close-by and had positive reviews, albeit, only 9. When I reached the door and peered inside, I saw someone behind the counter slumped over, holding their head in their hands. There was a part of me that just felt I should head back and find somewhere else to go but my hindsight is 20/20.
As it turns out, he was just watching something on his phone (Yay?). So I fork over the $25 for a double heel replacement and drop off the shoes on a Tuesday and I was told that by Monday it would be done. Even that seemed a little odd seeing as only moments prior I walked in to him doing practically nothing and as far as I could tell he was the only employee there.
Monday rolls around and I call, give him my ticket number and ask what the status of my boots are. I'm met with a, "Uhhhh, give me a moment" after a few minutes he asks me what the boots look like, a clear indication that he's completely forgotten about them altogether. I tell him and he goes, "Oh yes, of course. They'll be done tomorrow". I wasn't able to pick them up then but I came in on Wednesday. They looked fine so I took them and left.
Fast forward a week and now it's the first day I'm wearing the boots because we got about 6 inches of snow. I go to shovel out in front of my house and dig my car out- maybe an hour tops, and the one heel completely falls off and the other one is already starting to come apart at the seams on the side. WTF?!?
I go back to the shop and he tells me, "Oh, no, no, see it's the material on the sole of the shoe that's bad! My heel is good material, your sole is no good! I need to replace the whole thing, I'll do it for $70". Sorry, I know a scam when I see one. You honestly expect me to believe that a seasoned cobbler either.... A) Couldn't tell that simply replacing a heel on a pair of shoes would not fix my issue, B) Couldn't tell right off the bat that entire sole needed to be replaced, C) Didn't have the common sense to reach out and call to inform me of the poor state of the shoes/let me know that the entire sole would need to be replaced when going to fix the heel instead of charging me $25 for something you know isn't going to last or D) Genuinely did not know what the issue really was. None of these are good options but at least one would have be true.
And the $70 is not the issue- I would have paid that for the sole replacement if that was in fact what I had originally been told needed to be replaced. It's the fact that I was first charged $25 which, more-likely-than-not, was charged to me knowing that it would not work and that a more expensive treatment would need to be utilized. For $100 I can just buy a new pair of boots. I should have gone with my initial gut instinct and not gone to this establishment in the first place so that's on me. I just want to warn others about this shyster so they don't make the same mistake I have. read more