Shoe fetish (US customers only)
I hate buying shoes. I may have mentioned that before. With the bad ankles and the orthotics and the walking and the needing support and rigidity in some places and flexibility in others.
I’ve been out again, trying on different pairs of shoes, buying them, taking them home and realising they don’t fit that well and/or they look crap.
The main frustration has been looking at shoes online, seeing stuff I really like, only to find that a) they don’t stock them in Australia or b) they won’t even ship them from the US. What kind of discrimination is that?
The perfect pair of shoes I have in my head are snappy dress shoes up top, but sturdy, walking shoes on the bottom. I’ve had my eye on a pair of Skechers, which seem to fit the bill so set about getting a pair. They were on the US site so I thought I’d look at the Australian site. I was disappointed: the US site had 299 styles of men’s shoes; the Australian site had but 27. Yes, that’s less than 10 %.
What’s worse, is that the US site won’t ship overseas. I’m not sure why, something about registered addresses or recognised credit cards or something. Last night I had a brainwave and thought ‘of course… Amazon!’ and got online to find they had the very pair in stock. I went through the ordering process only to get a message saying they wouldn’t deliver them either.
*** We’re sorry. This item can’t be shipped to your selected destination. You may either change the shipping address or delete the item from your order by changing its quantity to 0 and clicking the update button below.***
The last time this happened to me was when I was buying a CF card for my camera. I wasn’t sure why then either, I mean you could fit one of them in an envelope! How hard could it be?
Elsewhere on the site it mentions restrictions on sending things like phones, computer equipment, groceries (obv) and furniture.
But why not shoes? I know what size I want. I know what colour they are. Why can’t they send them? They’re the same materials as all the other made-in-China shoes you can buy here. Are there voltage issues I’m not aware of?
The other option is to have them sent to a friend’s address and reimburse them for postage. But I hate to impose. I just really want these shoes.
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[...] now I can’t actually afford the shoes. Probably not this [...]
Consider getting a group of your like-minded friends to chip in for a US mailbox service. Google list these three at the top:
http://www.MyUS.com
http://www.usamail1.com
http://www.usglobalmail.com
I hear good things!
I’ve been very happy using http://www.BongoUS.com
Very true! Sometimes sellers on Amazon won’t ship internationally is soo frustrating! I, myself have been an international buyer and have used another similar co called Shipito. I did use Bongo once but I they were a little too expensive for my taste. Found Shipito ships for much less, a bunch of people I know use them as well. Great blog! Thanks for sharing your thoughts :)
I should mention, seeing as how I’m still getting comments on this post, that I went through Shoebuy.com, which seems to have a great range and still ships overseas. I got my pair of Skechers, and another pair, and love them both. Best. Shoes. Ever! And the dollar is absolutely rocking against the USD, so I got 2 pairs for the price I would have paid for one pair here in Oz.