I like shoes and buy them on the internet.
Australian shops, both physical and online don't stock the range or size that I want (I have feet that for which I usually need a US size often between 12-14 depending on the shoe).
So the internet and predominately US sites is where I often order from.
CCS and Eastbay are both owned by Foot Locker and neither I will be buying from again.
On 28th December 2013 I bought a pair of shoes from CCS.com’s site.
CCS sent me a shipping confirmation to me on the 4th January 2014, with a shipping date of 2nd January 2014.
There was however no tracking information just a T/A where the tracking number and link would usually be.
This is despite their site stating that things sent to Australia are sent via UPS.
I’ve had stuff sent by UPS before and they have tracking data. Everything aside from the cheapest of shipping from the US has tracking data.
On the 9th January 2014 I received an email from CCS’s customer service email confirming that CCS had received my item as a return.
We have received your return merchandise. Upon receipt of your return, your PayPal account has been credited. Please contact our Customer Service at 1-800-875-1800 for assistance. Thank you.
It is impossible for the item to have made it to Australia, me to have received it and then sent it back to the US to be returned in 7 days.
The fastest shipping I’ve had (and paid a premium for) is 5 days. Admittedly it did get to Australia itself in less than that time, but then it had to be transferred from the logistics company’s facility out to be transported to me and that adds time.
Then we’re looking at the return.
I have almost never returned something I’ve bought from the US, the shipping costs involved aren’t worth it as it costs as much if not more to get the damn thing back to the US as it costs to get it here.
Additionally, if I had decided to return it, I’d have opted for the cheapest postage. In order to get the theoretical item from Australia back to the US in that time frame I’d have to go for the most expensive shipping available.
As for the refund itself, they did, to their credit inform me of the return on the 9th January 2014 and PayPal emailed me on the 10th January 2014 to inform me CCS had paid me a partial refund.
The partial part is because they didn’t refund shipping.
I wanted a refund on shipping because, as I’ve said there is no way the item could have gone from the US to Australia and back again.
The first thing I did was to reply to CCS’s email alerting me to the return, but then I realised that it was early enough in the day to still be business hours in the US. CCS has online chat help so I got on that to try and get some answers.
Aside from the guy on the chat using 2013 instead of 2014 he said “Perhaps their was a mixup in regards to the processing and shipping and due to this error you were refunded.” I did note the mis-used ‘their’ instead of ‘there’, but didn’t think I should pull him up on that. I wanted answers not to give a spelling lesson.
If there was a mixup with regard to processing and shipping surely they’d refund shipping as well. As I paid by PayPal and my address was grabbed from my PayPal account, which I have used for many things, so it’s not my error.
He then said “If your credit card is not refunded within the next 5-7 business days please contact us back as soon as possible.”.
Again I said my issue was that while they would refund the item they wouldn’t refund shipping. At this point I thought this seemed familiar and then remembered my previous transaction with Eastbay (more on that in a bit).
He followed that up by saying “I will send a request for you to receive a refund for your shipping costs. Please allow 5-7 business days for a refund to your credit card.”
I allowed 6 days days because they managed to process my refund in a day I thought that was enough time, and, well I was pissed off with them. So I opened a dispute on PayPal stating basically what I’ve said here about the shipping and the impossibility of it getting from the US to Australia and back again.
Two days after I opened the dispute with PayPal CCS refunded the shipping. Whether that was because I opened a dispute or that it had run the full 7 days to get the refund on shipping I’m not sure.
With Eastbay I went through a practically the same process. I had to have a look through my email history to find the previous emails, but it was there. Basically the same thing had happened with them. Ordered an item (it was shoes) and the same thing happened. They sent a shipping confirmation and then a few days later a refund. Like this time I had to go through chat and email in order to get a refund. Though unlike this time with CCS they actually gave me the refund on the shipping.
What I don’t understand, are CCS and Eastbay just incompetent? Or is there something really amiss with their shipping protocols.
On the occasion where I went through that process with Eastbay I actually tried again and managed to successfully order something from them and they shipped it. So they’re not completely incompetent.
But, having had more unsuccessful orders with them than successful ones they’ve hit my blacklist of sites.
EDIT: Since I published this Footlocker the US company that owned CCS and also owns Eastbay shifted its skate-focused products from CCS to Eastbay. Then in 2014 Footlocker was going to close CCS completely. Instead it was bought by an investor who’d bought a Portland, Oregon-based skate business Daddies Boardshop. [1] [2] [3]