My new brogues

[artificer]

They charged you sales tax because they seem to have a physical presence in San Francisco, CA as stated by Walkerk in his above post.

As they get ever more desperate for revenue some states, Illinois is one, are mandating collection of sales tax merely on relationships the online vendor may have with someone with a physical presence in Illinois.

Enjoy the shoes, I have 2 pair of AE and they are great.

Plainfieldjeff is correct.
Any presence in a given state mandates that they collect sales tax. Try ordering from iTunes... You'll pay tax on that $1.29 song because Apple has stores EVERYWHERE now.

[longhuntr74]

The saga is nearly over.

After ordering the shoes last week, I checked my order status a couple of times. The A-E website listed my status as "Backordered", but everytime I logged in, it showed me a ship date of that day. I sent an email to the company last Friday asking what the real status was and how long it would be before they shipped my shoes if they were truly backordered. I received a response on Tuesday.

The response apologized for the confusion and confirmed that they were out of stock in my size and explained that my shoes should be coming off the assembly line on this coming Friday. I sent a response back thanking the customer service rep for clarifying and reiterated my feedback regarding their somewhat shifty and inconsistent status reporting. Recognizing that customer service likely did not have the ability to make website changes, I requested that she please forward my feedback to her manager or one of their IT people. She sent me a response almost immediately confirming that she would...and then I received a response from their eCommerce Manager several minutes later thanking me for my feedback and explaining that they are currently in the process of redesigning their entire website...and that the new system should better serve their customers. It seems as though they are truly a company that values their customers.

The best surprise of the week, however, was the email that I received yesterday afternoon telling me that my shoes had shipped...on Wednesday rather than Friday or Monday, as expected! So I did a little happy dance and am now anxiously, yet patiently, awaiting the arrival of my new shoes...hope there are no more issues.

[artificer]

what a slog! On the up-side, the shoes are WORTH the wait. They're my favorite brand of shoe. Beautiful, well built, and worth the money.

ith:

[Highlander31]

Congratulations. You've had a few detours on the road to ownership, and it looks like the end of the path is in sight.

[Calico]

The saga is nearly over.

The best surprise of the week, however, was the email that I received yesterday afternoon telling me that my shoes had shipped...on Wednesday rather than Friday or Monday, as expected! So I did a little happy dance and am now anxiously, yet patiently, awaiting the arrival of my new shoes...hope there are no more issues.

Come on, the suspense is killing us! Did they arrive? Do you like them? Did the delivery people make off with them?

[longhuntr74]

Come on, the suspense is killing us! Did they arrive? Do you like them? Did the delivery people make off with them?

They arrived yesterday and they are superb!!! The fit with thinner dress socks is just a touch roomy width wise, but the length is great. I tried them on wearing boot/hiking socks and they fit absolutely perfect...so I am presuming they will fit perfect with kilt hose. I wore them to work/school today and they are already broken in. I pulled a pair of thin insoles out of another pair of shoes and slipped them in...and that seemed to take up the little play that I felt with thin socks.

I know, I know...pics or it didn't happen...give me a few days. Had a project due today and then had to take my wife for her 6week post-op appointment...so things are a bit hectic. Maybe they'll do an appearance with a kilt tomorrow!

[Highlander31]

Congratulations. Those shoes will give you many years (decades) of service. Look forward to seeing the photos.