Oscar Thompson Shoes, Comfort Feet Shop: BUYER BEWARE Company of thieves - took my money, no shoes, no customer service response Internet Internet

I placed an online order for shoes, something I've never done before, with Oscar Thompson Shoes. I ordered a pair of Noat shoes because that brand was recommended to me and I could not find a local source. My order was handled promptly and a confirmation with UPS tracking number sent. My shoes arrived quickly and they are with a doubt the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. I plan to visit their store the next time I travel to Atlanta. I am so thankful that I discovered this company and plan to do business with them again.

I have worked for Oscar Thompson Shoes, an busy upscale shoe boutique mostly for women, in Mt. Pleasant ,SC for almost eight years. We are a relatively small chain of stores in the southeast with a good reputation. Most stores have one or two employees (our big store has four). We are not a giant warehouse or a call center with a hundred people in cubicles.

At the beginning of this year, our owner decided to integrate our retail stores with our online business: www.comfortfeetshop.com. We had always been completely separate entities until January of '08. The salespeople and managers in our stores are very pleasant and knowledgeable, but not necessarily tech-savvy. The transition for most of us has been quite hard, and not without a lot of mistakes.

I would like to explain how we handle our orders: all orders go into a central mailbox, and they are then emailed to our retail stores to handle with regards to fulfillment and any customer service. Customer service calls are taken by an answering service that emails us, again to a central mailbox, that one lady checks (and responds to anything she can) and forwards the email to the store assigned to that particular order.

This process takes time sometimes, but we usually can return a call within 24 hours, if not the same day. Also, we do not charge the client until goods are shipped. When an order is placed a temporary authorization checks and reserves the funds for the order, but doesn't finalize until we ship. If no shipment is made, the authorization disappears on it's own. Julie had a temporary authorization on her card, but was never charged.

With regard to this specific order, Julie sent two emails to our service mailbox. Both were responded to with in the hour by the one lady manning it, telling her the person assigned to her order would be contacting her shortly. The second email sent to our service mailbox was 2 hours after the first, asking for the order to be canceled because she no longer trusted our company.

She tried calling our store for hours: we unfortunately only have one phone line. The woman on staff that day (by herself), handles all miscellaneous questions about products taken by our answering service, and also takes orders over the phone, however she does not receive previously placed internet orders.

She is not privy to all of the details of our internet clients orders, and could not help Julie. I was the person assigned to Julie's order, and I was out of town, so I can take responsibility for my part in not responding to her emails until I returned.

My company is reputable,and I am an honest person. We are a small company experiencing growing pains, but we absolutely are not thieves.