Regarding my Dr Martens complaint, which I opened up about two weeks ago. So I’d opened a complaint against Dr Martens via Resolver, and I was getting nowhere fast. The original purchase was from Amazon, and Amazon were shunning responsibility. Dr Martens were saying that because I hadn’t purchased from them directly that I needed to liaise with where the boots were purchased, as my contract with with them. Wrote to the CEO of both Amazon (unhelpful), and also Dr Martens (no response).
To cut a long story short, I took a screen shot from the helpful website, Well Dressed Dad, which had a story of a man who had opened a Dr Martens complaint over a pair of shoes that were five years old. He compared them to the impeccable shoes of his partner, who had had her Dr Martens shoes for twenty years. He didn’t purchase the boots directly from the Dr Martens website either, so when Dr Martens tried to fob me off by saying that they couldn’t deal with my complaint because the boots hadn’t been purchased from them directly, I knew this was incorrect. He persisted with his Dr Martens complaint and eventually received a brand new pair of shoes.
I myself persisted with my Dr Martens complaint, and even joined Dr Martens Fails on Facebook. I also posted the pictures of my defected boots on the official Dr Martens Facebook page. Not long after posting these pictures and my ‘complaint’, they firstly offered to send me a brand new pair of youth boots costing £70 RRP, of which I rejected offer because these wouldn’t fit. The second option was either to receive a brand new black pair of 1460 boots, or a very light purple, which were £129 RRO. I already have black boots, and I wouldn’t wear the very light purple.
I told them I would pay the £10 difference if they would send me a Cherry Red pair of boots, and gave them my PayPal to which they could invoice me.
They accepted my offer and didn’t even say I needed to pay the difference. I returned the boots and yesterday received my brand new pair. They are sooo comfortable and I hope this pair last.
There are some real positives to using social media for injustices like this Dr Martens complaint where product purchases have not endured as they should. Dr Martens are a hugely wealthy company whose shoes are not cheap, and if their manufacturing quality is not what it used to be then people should be able to complain and receive a replacement, as I have. They called it a goodwill gesture.
I still remember the first pair of Dr Martens boots I bought for £10 in a charity shop and they lasted me over ten years without showing any signs of defects and I wore them all the time. Don’t despair if your Dr Martens boots have not the durability quality that they should have. Open up a Dr Martens complaint via Resolver, or through Facebook, and use the weapon of social media to make wealthy companies put things right where they have gone wrong.
