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.