Tag bad business

A Shoe Company To Avoid

drstaceynaito Leave a comment

Although I am very careful to research a company from which I have never ordered previously, I can still get snagged by a less than reputable business. This post details the horrible experience I had with a custom shoemaker, Girotti, and why it should be avoided. I had read some halfway decent reviews about the establishment, and because I was keenly interested in a certain color and boot style, I decided to take a chance and order from them.

The other appealing characteristic about this shoe house was that it was based in Milan, Italy, and exclusively sold custom, handmade shoes. Since Italy is known for its fine shoemaking and leather crafts, I figured I would be safe ordering from Girotti. I placed the order for a pair of custom over-the-knee suede boots and hoped for the best. When I emailed them regarding a question I had about the order, it took an entire week for someone to respond.

I received the boots on December 16th (over a month after I had placed my order), and was immediately annoyed by the fact that they had placed the boot box inside a soft, plastic mailer, and had also adhered part of the mailer to the side of the box. The box was partially crushed, and there was no way to separate the mailer from the box without lifting off part of the black coating on the box. Since I store the majority of my footwear in their original boxes, I was completely disgusted by how lackadaisical the company was about packing an shipping the order.

When I took the boots from the box, I noticed that there were multiple scuff marks on the suede which could not be brushed out with a suede brush. This is absolutely unacceptable for a brand-new pair of handmade boots. Then I attempted to try them on, but was unable to because the zipper on the right boot DID NOT BUDGE from one spot at the ankle area. Consequently, I was unable to try on both boots, and when I slipped the left boot onto my foot, it was extremely uncomfortable, despite the fact that the size of the boots was a full size LARGER than my shoe size.

I contacted the company in numerous ways beginning on December 16th (straight email, contact form on their website, return request on their website, and phone call), only to be COMPLETELY ignored by them. By New Year’s Eve, I had filed a dispute with my credit card company, and also took WD-40 and carefully applied it to the broken zipper in an effort to salvage the boots. The WD-40 lubricated the teeth on the zipper enough for me to zip the boot up and down, but not without a struggle each time. It feels like the teeth are about to break on the zipper, a fact which I find completely unacceptable for a pair of boots I spent $240 on.

Girotti had the nerve to send me a generic email asking me to post a review, so I did, giving them a scathing rating. I also sent another email informing them that I had a credit card dispute against them. I received an email from someone on January 2nd, asking me to send a video showing the zipper issue. I sent a detailed video, only to be completely ignored once again. I honestly doubt that the boots they sent will be replaced by a pair which exhibits workmanship which is befitting that of a respectable Italian shoemaker.

DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY!

Why I Don’t Trust Web Designers

drstaceynaito Leave a comment

I have yet to find a web designer who isn’t flaky. Over the last eight years, I have dealt with a number of so-called web designers, and every single one of them delivered their own brand of craziness which dissolved our business relationship and left me hanging. Seriously, they can’t ALL be like this, right?

There was the gal who wouldn’t load up information for months on end, but had no problem billing me when the yearly hosting renewal approached. Never mind that I asked her to complete the work which she had neglected to do, before I would sign up for another year. When she refused, I refused. Then she charged my credit card anyway, changed all my passwords to MY website, and told me I had to pay a cancellation fee on top of the yearly renewal, and that I would never get the passwords. So I fired her.

Then there was the exuberant guy who seemed so excited to revamp my website. He begged me to let him work on revamping it. He ended up dismantling my site, literally sat in front of my during a meeting at a coffeehouse and said, “Oh shit, this isn’t good”, then completely bailed on me and wouldn’t respond to voicemail messages or texts. Fired.

Then there was the guy who generously offered to set up a landing page for me. I was so happy with his work that I inquired about his services for my medical website. He gave me his rate, and I agreed to it. As a courtesy, I informed him of when I would get paid (payday was eight days away, and I was planning to send him payment in full at that time). He flipped out, said that I needed to pay him RIGHT NOW, then wrote me a four page essay on how his best friend had suddenly died, how much he hated life, and how he no longer felt that life was worth living. Fired.

The next guy did a bang up job of consolidating sites and using an eye-catching template, but then he sat on work which he promised to do, left things unfinished. I kept getting a different story as to why he was dragging his feet. it was always, “so sorry, I’ll get to it tomorrow.” Tomorrow would come, and nothing would be done. Then he pulled a bait and switch and said that if I wanted him to finish the work which he had promised to do for over a month, he said he would have to charge me extra. He actually got nasty about it. Fired.

The last web guy I dealt with promised to give me an outline of all the things he was planning to fix on one of my sites, and insisted that I wait to pay him. Days turned into weeks, and when I realized I might have to prompt him a bit, I sent him an email inquiring about the status of my website. I got a response in which he apologized and said he was overwhelmed and simply lacked the time to work on my site (so why the f&#% did he take on the assignment in the first place?). Technically he quit.

I am sick and tired of web designers. They do whatever they want with your site, and if you don’t like the way they have done it, they’ll argue with you about why their vision is so much better than what YOU want. They sit on work, and how dare you even ask them about the status of the work. Some will even hold your site hostage and prevent you from accessing what is rightfully yours.

I am back at the helm with my websites, with FULL CONTROL over them. If I want to add something, I know I can rely on myself to do it. I have experienced major learning curves to master all the different interfaces, platforms and mapping, and am damned proud of myself for figuring it out.