to think shoe shop staff were vv unprofessional?

[CocktailQueen]

Took 12yo dd shoe shopping to Clarks the other day. She needed new school shoes.

I'd ordered two pairs on t'internet for delivery to store - got a 6 as that's what her current ones were. DD hasn't had her feet measured in a while. Got there and they measured her feet - 7.5. Oops. So the shoes I'd ordered were no good.

One of the sales assistants picked up dd's school shoe and felt inside it in the toes and started laughing - dd's toes had left indents in there (Oops - bad mum bit.)

Because she's 12 and had said they fit, I'd believed her. But they were obviously too small.

Anyway, the sales assistant called over two other assistants and said to them: 'Look at this - I've never seen this as bad - look at the indentations in these shoes!' then they all laughed. DD was standing on the feet measuring thing at the time and looked a bit

Then one assistant asked dd to take off her sock to see if she had ingrowing toenails from wearing ill-fitting shoes. She doesn't.

I was a bit taken aback tbh and didn't know what to say. After we had bought shoes, the first assistant apologised for laughing and said she hadn't mean to upset dd, she was just amazed at the indents her toes had left in the shoes.

Sorry this is so long! AIBU? They were being crap and unprofessional, weren't they? But if I complain I can never go in there again, can I?

I'm not getting this. You're offended after they noticed indents because shoes were too small?

YANBU that is terribly unprofessional, rude and horrible behaviour. Complain in writing to head office.

No she's offended because they laughed ands courage others colleagues to see and laugh also.

Op yanbu, they weren't being nice at all.

She apologised if she offended you. NBD.

Were they not visible from the outside as well?

*encouraged.

She offended you and then she apologised. I think that's the end of it tbh

Sounds like the staff need to get out more.

Go and see some comedy or something...

Going into a shop has become a very odd experience.

I didn't say anywhere in my post that I was offended I said I didn't know how to react and was taken aback.

It just struck me afterwards how craply she'd handled it!

Molly - no, shoes looked fine from the outside!

Getting a group of adults to laugh at a preteen girl about the damage that stuffing her big feet into small shoes has done is downright nasty.
As a female with bigger than average feet (size 8) I imagine your DD told you they fit as she didnt want to be seen as having massive size 7.5 feet. Shes probably already embarrased and they certainly havent helped!

She sounds a bit obnoxious, and it was certainly unprofessional. The fact that she apologised suggests that she realised she had behaved badly, and hopefully she'll think twice before acting like that again. I probably wouldn't bother taking it any further myself.

We're all human, we all put our foot in it (haaaaaa!) sometimes. She apologised.

Nasty B's, what about going to Brantano, they do Clarks and use the measure yourself, much more relaxed, think the Clarks peeps are on commission, not that they'll be getting much, well hopefully anyway.

Do they even do school shoes in a size 7.5 ?

Did it upset your DD OP? Did she say anything when you left?
I would be upset by shop assistants stood aroind and laughing myself and I'm a 36 yo man.

Getting your DD to take her socks off to check her toenails was absurd.

If her nails were ingrown you'd need a podiatrist/chiropodist not a shoe seller.

Maybe she'd been put in charge for the day and the power went to her head?

Yes, dd looked at me in a 'help' sort of way when she was standing there and they were laughing at her. She mentioned it afterwards but hasn't since - but then she wouldn't, necessarily; she can internalise things.

Yes, I wouldn't want to see her doing that again to someone else - I feel bad as dd's mum because I should have checked that her shoes did fit, but I thought she'd say when they were too small. Oh well. No harm done to her feet. DD is self-conscious about her feet.

Andnowitsseven - only two kinds - ballet pumps and a horrible clumpy brogue that looks like a man's shoe. (But Start Rite do, so will go there next time.)

A Clarks employee dissuaded my DS from getting lace up shoes as, "you won't be able to tie them quickly and you don't want to get picked in do you?"

Perhaps their training manual needs an updated customer service section...

Dr Martens do beautiful shoes for girls/women.

Just saying...

(Favourite shoes. Won't buy anything else.)

What a group of bitches!

Pre-teen children have growth spurts. Parents don't realise their kids shoes don't fit properly. These things happen. Horrible horrible people to behave like that anyway, but more especially so in front of a child.

For what it's worth, Clarks are crap at measuring feet. I have had my kids measured by 2 different people in the same shop on the same machine, and they differed by a full shoe size. Depending on the make, my DD wears a 13.5 or a 1. According to the last time I let Clarks measure her, she's a 2.5. They have also on numerous occasions tried to sell me shoes for my children that were too wide for them, simply because they didn't come in 'D' width, so 'G' would have to do.

Your experience is yet another example of the terrible customer service from Clarks.

'Then one assistant asked dd to take off her sock to see if she had ingrowing toenails from wearing ill-fitting shoes. She doesn't'.

WTF? Shes a podiatrist as well?

I would have let rip on them OP.

YANBU. They were unprofessional, at best.