Sunday, July 25, 2010

I Have Shoes!

I'm not dead!  I know you were all wondering if I had died.  There has been a severe lack of blogging.  Sorry about that.  You see, my life is just pretty boring.  I work, I don't enjoy my work, I go home, I flirt with Hod, I sleep, I try not to be ornery, but sometimes I fail, then I start it all over the next day.  Oh, and I'm planning my wedding.  That's cool.  I'm getting married!!!  Good gravy!  Wedding plans have been pretty smooth, though there has been one big snag.  My shoes.

Now, just so you know, it did all work out.  I am actually wearing my shoes as we speak... uh read... as I type.  Though it is very probable that by the time you read this, I will no longer be wearing my shoes.  Either way, let me tell you of the journey to get these shoes.

Once upon a time, L5 and L7 and I traveled across the mountains to a cute little bridal store to try on wedding dresses.  It was here that I found my dress.  I am very happy about my dress.  They of course, wanted to sell me some of their super expensive shoes.  I tried some on, but they weren't my size, nor were they comfortable.  The thought I had was, "If I'm going to wear uncomfortable shoes, I really don't want to pay $70 for them."  It was agreed upon that they would order in the correct size, I would see if I wanted them and then if I did, I would pay for them.  I was also informed that if I bought my shoes there they would be dyed for free.  That was quite a selling point.  I paid for my dress, (Ok, let's be honest, my mother paid for it) signed my receipt, made an appointment to meed with the alterations lady and try on the shoes and left.  When we got to the car, L5 noticed that I had been charged for the shoes and that all over the receipt it said "No refunds, No exeptions".  LAME!  I didn't really even want the shoes.  I was totally tricked.  But I did sign everything.

I was a little unhappy, but to make up for it, I decided that I would pay for $70 worth of wedding things.  Two weeks later I went down to meet with the alterations lady and try on my shoes.  And my shoes weren't in.  Really?  I just drove all the way down here to try on my shoes.  That is so dumb!

I had to pick up the things for the alterations and bring them back to the alterations lady.  So I did.  I drove back down to the shop a week later, knowing it would only take me a minute to drop off my stuff and try on the shoes so they could be dyed.  Once again, the shoes had not yet arrived.  Really??  Are we really playing this game again?  So dumb.

An appointment was set to pick up my dress.  I was told that I could try on my shoes that day and then they could quickly dye them.  I would be taking them home wet, but that's ok.  I picked a color to dye my shoes (#71 a dark navy) and thought everything was ready.

The day to pick up my dress arrived.  Woo hoo!  I went to get my dress, and tried on my shoes that had finally arrived.  They fit, so I told them to dye them.  "BUT." said the alteration lady, "your dress doesn't actually have any navy on it, so you don't want that color."  "Uh... Yes, I do" I replied.  "No, you really don't. And it's only $10 to have them re-dyed after the wedding"  This seemed reasonable to me.  So we picked a color that did match my dress exactly. I asked if I could come back and pick up my shoes in about 30 min.  I was told no, because no one working that day knew how to dye shoes.  My cute future sister in law offered to pick up the shoes for me because she lives in the same city as the shop.  Ok fine.  So I went to leave.  Then I was stopped.  "I'm sorry ma'am, but it will be $10 to dye your shoes."  What?  I had been told that it would be free.  Turns out, the day I did all of this the woman helping me was "developmentally disabled".  She often makes people promises and they can't honor them.  Um... Hello!!  Not my fault you have someone making false promises to people.  Dye my shoes!  But they wouldn't.  I begrudgingly paid my $10 and left with my dress.

A week later, I was down visiting my future sister in law.  She had my shoes!  Yeah!  So I looked at them... they were the ugliest shade of blue I had ever seen in my life.  Seriously.  And the color wasn't staying on the shoes.  As in my hands were all blue because I had been touching them.  I can't wear something like that under my dress!  This is SO not ok!  And they are ugly!  AAAHHHHH!!!  It was after hours, my sister in law offered to take them back, and I went home knowing I had to call the dress shop on Monday.

Monday came.  I called the shop, and was told that the color was coming off because the shop had been out of Scotch Guard for about a month.  But I could go buy some at Wal*mart and I should be fine.  I don't think so!  I'm not going to go buy myself a whole can of scotch guard.  What in the world would I do with it after??  And besides, they were ugly!  I didn't want them!  The woman I was speaking to was a little confused, and she asked me if she could talk to a coworker and call me back.  I said ok, she took my name and number and I hung up.  And she never called back.  GRR!!

Wednesday came.  I called again.  By now I'm pretty darn ticked.  I was ready to fight about this one.  Armed with some really good arguments I called.  The phone was answered by a very nice reasonable woman.  When I told her my problems, she said, "Oh, no, you can't wear ugly shoes for your wedding, and we can't let you have shoes that are leaving blue everywhere.  Bring them back in and we will re-dye them the navy color you first wanted and spray them with extra scotch guard so the color stays."  I asked how much it would cost, she told me it was free cause it was their mistake.  That's some customer service!  Whoop Whoop!

My sister in law took the shoes back in.  A week later (this last Thursday) she went to pick them up.  "That will be $10 ma'am."  You have GOT to be KIDDING me!  She didn't take them and called my fiancée' to tell him the problem.  He was in town, and I was driving down to join him later that day.  Hod, being the good man he was told me he would take care of it.  I had tried being nice and they were being difficult.  He was sick of them ticking me off, and he was going to give them a piece of his mind and get me my shoes.  So Hod went, ready to fight to the death to make his cute fiancée happy.  I sure do love a man who will stand up for you.  He walked into the store, told someone he was there to get my shoes, they walked to the back, picked them up, came back to Hod, pulled off the note saying that they were being re-dyed for free and handed them to Hod without any questions.  I swear this company is bi-polar.

So, I have my shoes.  Let's be honest, they aren't actually navy.  They are more of a deep royal.  But that's ok, cause it matches my dress.  And I will not be going back there to try again.  But the color is staying on the shoes.  Alright, some of the color that got on the inside comes off on my feet, but it won't be dying the inside of my dress blue.  I have shoes!  I think getting these shoes has been the hardest part of my wedding.  It's so lame!

So... the moral of the story is... well I don't have one.  But man, I better get a lot of use out of these shoes, cause they were a pain to get!