A shoe is a lovely thing to waste

I bought these pair of Calvin Klein black pumps back in December 2008 from Bloomingdale's (same as the photo, only without the peep-toes).

That was the Christmas I thought buying myself designer shoes was the correct route to go. We are a big girl now so let's buy big girl shoes. I ended up buying a pair of Stuart Weitzmann red pumps that were a disaster. Hurt too much, and look too pretty to sell. A pair of Kate Spade patent leather platform shoes. They are good, not great, but good. I can actually wear them to work and they are not too dressy. A pair of Coach Platforms that are just gorgeous. These ones are 4 inch high platforms with a peep toe. I get compliments on them all the time. They have that "doo-wop" thing about them. Love you Coach. Then, the Calvin Klein pumps, which are regular looking black pumps I thought I could use to smarten up my work suits.

The first time I wore them to a function back in December 2008, as soon as I stepped out of the vehicle and started to walk, they started to pull from my feet. You know that feeling when you're walking but your shoes would rather stay behind. And if you don't watch your step they just may stay behind. And since this was me on my somewhere, it was uber embarrassing. I managed it that day and thought, it's probably me and my big in-step. No, it wasn't. After that I tried them again, to a place that involved little walking but a lot of show and tell. Yes, but I had to walk in there, right? As I walked in there, I almost tripped because the beautiful shoes wanted to stay back on the road.

I sent it to the shoemaker a couple of times to have it fixed. They put pads in the in-step and asked me to test it out. That did not work. Then, they reinforced the ankle grip to tighten its hold on me. That didn't work. Then, I bought these new pads that you can use for your shoes so your feet don't slip forward. This made it worse. It made the front part of it so tight that my toes were gasping for air. This is now 2010 and I've worn the supposedly everyday pumps about 4 times. At this point I was utterly upset, Comon this is Calvin Klein, you're supposed to know what you're doing not put out badly made shoes.

I decided to write to them on their website. I needed to alert them of their error in putting out this poorly made shoe. And let's just say they were not amused.

To: customerservice@calvinklein.com

Name: Anita

Wrote: I bought this pair of shoes from one of your retailers - Style #E0172, Name: Shana Kidskin.

Ever since I bought these shoes, they've been defective. The shoes slip out from your feet and are very uncomfortable. They are not well-made. I've spent quite a bit of money trying to correct this error but to no avail. I just wanted to bring this product defect to your attention.

The retailer was Bloomingdale's.

See how nice and composed the tone of my email was considering how much agony and additional reparation funds the shoes had cost me. Well, take a load of their response.

From: Customer Service at www.calvinklein.com

Dear Anita,

Thank you for contacting calvinklein.com.

We apologize for the difficulties you have experienced with your purchase.

At this time, the calvinklein.com webstore can only accept returns on purchases made from our online store. Please return your item(s) to the store where the purchase was made. If your purchase was made at a department store, you may request a review of your merchandise by a member of the Store Sales Management Team. A personal assessment of your item is necessary, as each situation is unique. Bring your original receipt as proof of purchase, if it is available. Once a manager is able to see the product, they will be more equipped to assist you with recommendations, and possible solutions.

If you made your Calvin Klein purchase at a Calvin Klein Retail Store, then please contact our retail store division directly at 866-214-6694, via email at calvinkleincustomerservice@pvh.com, or visit www.pvh.com.

Please let us know if you have any additional inquiries.

You'll find we're always adding new products and offers, so please stop by calvinklein.com again soon. We appreciate your patronage.

Sincerely,

Heather S. customerservice@calvinklein.com

866-513-0513

I think Heather thought I gave a shit. I really don't give a shit where I bought it from, you, Calvin Klein are the manufacturer of the badly made shoes. I could have bought them from Wal-mart for all I care but if you made them, then we have a problem. At this point, I was fuming, and I thought, let's respond to "Heather" and give her a piece of our mind.

Dear Heather,

Thanks for your email.

Unfortunately, you missed the point of my email.

I was not writing to return the item. I was writing to inform the good folks at Calvin Klein of their defective product.

If I wanted to return it I would have gone straight to the retailer I got it from but I didn't. I went straight to the manufacturer, Calvin Klein.

I bought the product based on the brand name which I thought would be synonymous with quality. And instead of superior quality what I received was defective. I thought you'd be more concerned that the product you, Calvin Klein, produced is not up to par. And to inquire as to how certain changes can be made. But you don't seem to be at all. I would have been better off buying a JC Penney or Wal-Mart shoe.

So tell the people at production or marketing who care about the image of Calvin Klein that a certain customer is dissatisfied with the product. And if I were you I would investigate the cause of the defect, do some quality assessment, quality control, etc, so more people don't buy the product. Not shoosh them away.

Thank you for your utter concern.

I'll be sure to spread the word on Facebook, Blogger and Twitter.

Fortunately for them, I don't have Facebook or Twitter accounts to use to alert the media of their wrongdoing.

At this point I forgot about it. I had told nameless, faceless "Heather" about the bad shoes her well-known company is perpetrating into our marketplace. I thought, okay, so she may or may not do anything about it. I was on vacation when I received a phone call from some possibly blonde, obnoxiously perky marketing executive from New York. She wanted to apologize to me personally for the email and the badly made shoe and to inform me that their product department has been alerted. I was on vacation at that point, I really didn't want to hear from the real world unless you are offering me a job. I took her call but said little else. If she really cared, she would have asked some pertinent questions like, "What exactly is wrong with the shoe?" Or, "How can we make amends and get you to fall back in love with the CK brand name?" She didn't say any of these things, she just rambled on her perky executive spiel and I was really not in the mood to hear that shit. However, I decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

I have the shoes they are poorly made. I know for a fact that I will never ever buy Calvin Klein shoes again. I don't care how pretty the design of the shoes look. They are not good at making shoes. Some folks are good at it and strive to be very good at it - Coach, Stuart W. DVF, even Nine West makes the best fitting shoes all for a low, low price. But Calvin Klein should just stick to making jeans and T-shirts with fake ads of the people who wear them, and remove those shoes from any department store shelf. Coming to think of it, I have bought a pair of their jeans and they were not too hot either, I ended up chucking it to Goodwill. How do these company's stay in business?

You have all been warned. Do not buy Calvin Klein Shoes.