Disappointing customer 'care' from Tifosi sports

A pair of R3,000 OC ‘Cloud Surfer’ shoes developed a squeak after 4 months light wear. (these are running shoes that were never used for running ). I 'lived' with the annoyance thinking that with wear it would disappear. When I eventually asked about this at the store from whom I bought the item, they considered it definitely a manufacturing flaw and asked that I return the pair.

A week later on I returned the item with all packaging and the invoice. Two weeks later I stopped by to check and found that the item had not yet been returned from the distributor, Tifosi Sports.

Another week passed, and on 8 December I returned and was told that the return was one month out of the warranty period –– no other explanation or comment on the condition of the shoe. In other words, the quality and reputation of an expensive product is left to rest entirely on a simple technicality (disregarding the time it took to return the item, have it sent to Tifosi Sports, and to have it returned to the On Air Store in Sandton City).

A previous complaint about an OC shoe that lost its heel fit and returned after only one week’s wear only received a 15% discount on future purchase.

I would like to make customers aware of the not-so-reliable quality of OC sports shoes (despite their high marketing profile) and specifically warn buyers be fully aware of the distributor, Tifosi Sports’ apparent disregard for individual customer incidences. Peter Thuynsma, Johannesburg