Garden District Shoe Repair

Repost of my Yelp review.



Where is the negative star option? Having to give 1 star seems to mean I even acknowledge them as a legitimate business.



Shoes beware! I took a pair of slingback heels in to have the back elastic replaced. Started out great, the guy was super nice and asked if the elastic pinched. Yep. No problem, we'll make it a bit longer. Fabulous! I dropped them off on a Tuesday and they were supposed to be ready the following Saturday. I wasn't able to pick them up until the following Wednesday. When I walked in, they weren't ready. He said he needed to measure it on my foot to make sure the length was correct. Cool, I'm down with that and appreciate the attention to detail. I then noticed the elastic was brown. My shoes were black patent. I asked why it was brown and the "cobbler" said, "Oh don't worry about it. I'll make it black."



That should have been my cue to take my shoes and run. I just returned from picking them up now. Not only was the workmanship so incredibly poor, they stuck a safety pin with the tag through the leather! There is now a hole in the side of my shoe. Mind you, and not that it matters because I would be furious no matter what shoes they were and how much they cost, but these were incredibly, incredibly expensive shoes. They were given to me as a gift and probably the only time in my entire life I will ever have shoes like these.



When I expressed my horror that there was now a hole in the side of my shoe, the response from the "cobbler" was, "Oh it's just a pin hole, nobody's going to see it on the side of your shoe. It doesn't matter."



Are you kidding me?? Did I mention these were slingbacks? They could have easily slid the safety pin over the back strap, not having to put a hole anywhere. The "cobbler" then literally waved his hand at me, turned around and walked away saying "whatever." When I asked to speak to the owner, her response was, "Well how are we supposed to keep the identification tags attached?" I don't really know, and I'm not a cobbler, but I would think the very last thing you'd want to do is poke a freaking hole through the side of the shoe!



Hole-in-the-side-of-the-shoe issue aside, the work done on the actual repair was horrible. The new elastic didn't stretch, it was very clearly just recolored with black leather coloring and the elastic was so thick, the shoe didn't even wrap around the new elastic. The elastic was clearly visible, along with the glue and the torn thread along the side. I took my shoes and ran across the street. The guy over there just shook his head and said he could fix it. Probably not the hole in the side. Here's hoping.



But if you love your shoes, no matter how cheap or expensive, DO NOT trust them to these people who very clearly don't care about their work or the satisfaction of their customers.



However, notwithstanding the hole in the side of the shoe, the beyond horrible work, the dismissiveness of both the owner and the "cobbler," and the lack of having it done when it was supposed to be, this experience was awesome. I got to experience a new level of rage I've never felt before and I got a snoball afterwards.