Shoes made in the USA and great customer service

I have been wearing New Balance running shoes for at least 7 years I think. I love the shoes as they are American Made and very high quality. Several years ago I started buying them at retail stores instead of online. I figured New Balance is still getting the business and the store would sell an American Made product.

Each pair last me about a year or so. According to my wife I should replace them sooner however I'm an old tightwad so that is hard for me to do! I pay a good amount for the shoes and I expect a long life for them.

So this last June I was over due for a new pair of New Balance running shoes. I went to Dick's Sporting goods and selected a nice pair of 993 in Grey. The retail price was $149.95 plus our local sales tax of course.  Loved my new shoes as I always do. Love they say Made in the USA on the back of the shoe. I was shocked two weeks ago to notice that one of the shoes had come apart. I was disappointed however being that they are from a fine American company and from a well known sporting good store where I spend a lot of money I was not concerned other then the hassle of taking time to do the return.

So first the bad part of the experience that just shocked me! I did not have a receipt as I had it emailed to me as part of the customer loyalty program at Dick's. Went into the store prepared to experience great customer service and leave with a pair of new shoes. The cashier was very nice and tried to help however this was above her pay grade. She asked the manager to help me since I did not have the box nor the receipt however we were talking about $150.00 shoes that were 6 weeks old. I asked the manager to please look at my customer number which he did. It clearly showed a large purchase on the day I told him I bought them. To my amazement he refused to help said the shoes were well worn and could have come from any store at any time. Now shocked and asking him to look at my account he would not! WOW poor and rude service as he was not even polite.

I went home and researched my customer account with Dick's and called their customer service and they helped me retrieve a report showing my spending there for the last 8 months. In the last 8 months I had spent $1047.00 in that store. I know my spending there since they opened several years ago was even more however they only keep one year. I appealed to the customer service again for help and all they did was offer platitudes and would never actually address the problem.

OK now the good part of the entire ordeal. I contacted the New Balance company customer service and explained what happened. They asked me to send them the shoes and if found to be defective they would replace them no questions asked!

I sent them and they immediately responded to me that they would take care of it and asked me to select a new pair of shoes and they would ship them out! Now that was great customer service from a great American company.

So yes even an American made company can make a mistake but they stood by the product, work quickly to resolve it and provided excellent customer service!

The retailer on the other hand has now lost any of my future business. I will be going to their competitor across the street! The manger showed he did not care and had no tact at all. He all but accused me of being a criminal!

Cheers to New Balance for keeping a customer and acting like a responsible company! I'll be buying many more shoes from them in the future!