Do better Brooks

Missed opportunity for a lifetime customer, and only resulted in a disappointed client who will now look to other running shoe brands.

I need some new trail running shoes and wanted to check out Brooks. On their website it says there are stores near me, so I went to no less than 4, and was unable to find any.

So, I decided to order shoes from Brooks Running SA store online, and the shoes were too small. I enquired about the exchange policy, and I was told that I need to courier it back to Cape Town from my home in Johannesburg at my own cost, and they would charge me a 10% admin fee on the refund. I was not offered an alternative solution by customer care. So, in effect, it cost me nearly R600 to try on a pair of shoes, and I am still without a new pair of running shoes.

Even if I had said “please send me a 9.5 and/ or a 10 to try”, I still would have had to pay for the shoes that didn’t fit to be sent back down to CT. Either way it was going to cost me more money, so I cut my losses and said I would send them and to please give me a refund.

The lost opportunity: someone at Customer Care could have called around to JHB based stores and found a size 9.5 and a 10 for me to try. They could have suggested an exchange there at a retail outlet. Or they could have offered to send a 9.5 and a 10 up with a courier for me to try on and told me I could send the other shoes back with the courier that didn’t fit. Something, anything! But all I got was an unhelpful person at customer care that wasn’t really interested in resolving my issue and keeping me as a customer, and this whole experience cost me money….

Truly disappointed in my entire experience. Do not recommend.