Why I Will Never Again Pay More Than $20 for Children's Shoes

I was lured into buying Sydney a pair of Skechers last weekend. This pair, in fact. For $35. Plus tax. I was drawn in by the general design -- the way the laces allow it to be opened up easily by a toddler, but then it really is a velcro kind of shoe (the velcro is on the other side), so no real tying involved. The sitter recommended them, and we all know if my sitter says something is good, it must be worth at least looking into.

My mistake.

Those laces, you see, are actually two laces glued into one of the pink straps, and after one day of wear, one of the laces came unglued. Since we had bought them because Sydney had outgrown her other shoes, we kept letting her wear them for the next two days knowing that we would still be returning them within a week with an obvious factory defect (or maybe you would call that a design flaw?).

Anyway, I went to return them (within a week, still), and they did have some wear (she is a toddler, you know), but I had the receipt etc. The clerk looked at me like I was crazy, trying to return worn shoes. I explained the whole, I paid $35 (plus tax) and expected that they would last more than a week. She said she would have to talk to her manager. I told her I would need to talk to a lot more than that if the answer came back "no."

After about five minutes, the clerk was still in the back negotiating with the manager, I presume, and I realize, not only did I buy this pair, but (with the buy one get one half off deal) I also bought the next size up, and if it was going to be a pain to return these, maybe I should just get my money back on those now.

The clerk returned, with a snotty sort of "the manager says you can exchange, but only for the same size and the same shoe." I said, fine, and by the way, I would like to return these other ones, too, since the company didn't believe in standing by its product and all.

In the end, the clerk tried to return the one pair, but when the supervisor came out and saw she wasn't doing the exchange, he butted in to see what was going on. (I explained, once again, that since these were a size larger and she wouldn't be wearing them for several months and since they might well break the day she wears them and since I certainly won't be able to return them at that point, I would just like my money back. So I can go to Payless.) He said fine, but let's do the exchange on the other pair at the same time. I told him he didn't have another pair like the one I bought in the right size and color. What would he like to do about it?

I got my money back. All of it.

In the end, I still don't hold all of this against Skechers. The shoes did look like they had been through a lot in the less than a week that we had them (because, you know, a toddler wore them) and that was the big problem. My Skechers have held up well, and I think they really do make pretty good shoes. But toddlers are hard on their shoes, and if I'm going to have to deal with broken shoes and shoe store managers, I'm only willing for $10, maybe $20 to be on the line. That's my limit.

So we're off to Payless tomorrow, where we shall buy cheap shoes that may still break after less than a week. But then at least, I can blame myself for buying cheap shoes.