Cinderella Couldn’t Keep Up With More Than One

…shoe, that is.

Recently I used the internet to track down two different types of shoes my little heart desired.  I have been longing for the perfect red ballet flat for over a year now.  I saw a pair on a model in a fashion magazine in the late fall of 2010, but they were listed as being somewhere in the range of $300.  For a ballet flat.  A ballet flat that if the manufacturers that work with Payless Shoe Source could get their acts together, would retail for $19.99–tops!  Nonetheless, the image of wearing rolled up dark denim with a soft cotton, long-john style red jersey and my hair in a high pony tail as I lightly jog on the balls of my feet from one al fresco bistro to the next was engrained in my mind.

JCrew put out a pair at the start of 2011, retailing at $125.  You can click on their name to see the sad ballet prototype they feel wins the heart of every wanna-be Parisian mademoiselle.  No, no, no, no!  This does NOT qualify as a ballet flat!  Even in Paris, they are hard to come by!  The famous company that actually makes authentic ballet dance & pointe shoes, as well as modern fashion collections for women, Repetto, has a gorgeous one, yet the bow is string, not leather.  If you click on the store’s name to see it for yourself and you’re wondering “How much is 170€  in U.S. dollars?”  the answer is roughly $220.  Yeah, never going to happen.

I searched high, I searched low…until I came across an American shoe website that had it!  Endless.com:

It was everything I wanted!  A black sole with a teeny-tiny square heel, a bow that matches the shoe’s leather material, a patent-leather look without being too shiny, a vamp that doesn’t cover too much or too little of the top of the foot, and most of all the color: red.  TRUE red.  Not “poppy”, or “burnt orange”, or “maroon”…Red.  Yes, they were a little expensive still ($113.95).  I’ve never spent above $80 for a pair of shoes in my life.  I had purchased tap shoes as high as $60 before, and running shoes as high as $70, but those were necessities that last for years, if treated properly.  But for daily wear, trends, and fashion?  I’m cheap!  Anything above $30 is a waste in my mind.  As a matter of fact, I purchased a pair of snake-skin high-heeled boots for a country music performance in Texas at Dillards…at 70% off…for $80 ten years ago.  And although I knew they were a quality shoe that I’d have for years, and I wouldn’t find a better shoe for the outfit I had planned for my show, I choked with guilt handing over that amount to the shoe clerk!  But after the year-long search I had been on for red ballet flats, I realized this style is too hard to come by.  They will be a staple in my closet until I’m 50 years old at least, so why not splurge on such a rare item?  I received my order just TWO DAYS after placing it.  So, imagine my disappointment when I slipped the sweet little apples on and realized despite the 7.5 size fitting like a glove, my feet were two wide to pull this particular look off.  I walked around in my house for two hours with them on, trying to convince myself they would work!  But every time I looked down, all I saw were my pudgy feet stretching this beautiful red Ferrari pair into boxy Hummers.  Flashes of always losing my balance in ballet class made me realize perhaps my lack of delicate dance skill wasn’t my fault.  It’s simply biology.  My feet are best for…I don’t know…squashing grapes at a vineyard in Italy.

The return process was just as easy as the ordering.  Just dump the box at your local UPS store, and within TWO days again, my credit card showed the full credit refund.    Endless.com says what they mean and they mean what they say!  What a huge change of pace…a company hellbent on perfecting customer service!  I didn’t realize such companies still existed.  I will turn to them before any department store or other online shopping portals for my future shoe needs.

Sadly, due to reality, my search for the perfect red ballet flat ended last week, as I realized my Hummer feet would do best in red patent-leather penny loafers instead.  So I’ll look good pretending to run errands around Cape Cod instead of Paris.  Target = $24.99.

In the meantime, I had another strange shoe order to fill:  pink sequined heels…preferably peek-a-boo.  I might have stubby feet, but I think I have cute toes.  I had purchased a pink sequined dress for an event and realized although I could go with the standard gold or silver glittered or rhinestone pump, I figured matching heels would make my ensemble that much more unique.  So I immediately found what I wanted on another website I had never used before: JenLinn.com.  Unfortunately, this experience wasn’t as hot as the shoes I found.  I paid for overnight express shipping.  They claim it takes 1-3 days to process an order.  I needed the shoes in five days.  So, logically, I was giving them an extra day to spare.  With my luck, I’ve learned to always give an extra day for any crisis to arise, because one undoubtedly will.  I did not receive an emailed receipt of the transaction.  However, my credit card was immediately charged for the full price the day I placed my order.  I waited, and waited, and by day 4 (and theoretically the day I should be receiving them in the mail) the status of “order pending” in my “account” on their website had not changed.  On day 5, the status had changed to “awaiting shipment”.  Big, giant, fail.  Gold, glittered heels found locally it is!

So, I tried to contact their “Live Help Desk”.  They (allegedly) use Google Talk 24-7, but this is the screen it takes you to: Jenlinn Staff is not currently available to chat.  I’m thinking Jenlinn Staff is never available to chat!  So I tried looking up a phone number to call to cancel my order.  No phone number listed anywhere.  So, I used their “contact us” page to send them a direct message asking for them to cancel my order altogether and to give me a complete refund as they did not hold up their side of the order-processing/shipping agreement.  It states that someone will contact you within 4-24 hours of receipt of the message.  2 days later, I checked, and nothing had changed.  No refund, no cancellation, and no reply to my message.  I tried again, thinking maybe the first time didn’t go through.  A couple of days later, still nothing.  So, I tried sending them an email to the only email they have listed: support@jenlinn.com. At least this way I’d have a copy of my message in my own sent file.   I, again, stated that I wanted my order cancelled and a full refund.  Still no response to my email, and no change to my “order status” or credit card statement.  Fed up, I decided today to do a little research on the company.

Although I couldn’t find any complaints against the company, I also couldn’t find any further legitimate information about the company either.  No phone number, even locally, is listed for them.  Their address (the only one listed on the website which is their “Returns” address) is a residential home in the heart of Rowland Heights outside of L.A.  A family of “Linns” seems to live there, but none of them have a personal phone number listed either.  So, what else can a pop culture menace do, but file them as a new and suspicious company with the Better Business Bureau?  I think three attempts to contact them, and twelve days after my package should have arrived is more than ample time for a legitimate company to acknowledge a customer they have already charged, right?

Not even a full three hours after filing their information with the Better Business Bureau in California, I received an email from them.  It simply states:

An order you recently placed on our website has had its status changed.  The status is now Cancelled.

That’s it.  No acknowledgement that I had sent them emails…no mention of when I should receive my refund.  Just, yo, you’ve been cancelled.

Hmph.

So, beware of Jenlinn.com!  Do NOT be seduced by their amazing variety of shoes!  I wish I had a fairy godmother to grant me my bipedal apparel…and to zap bad companies in the head!

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Tags: endless.com, Jenlinn.com, red ballet flats