SAY NO TO SHOEMINT

Seriously, it's not worth it.

Forgive me, Internet, for I have sinned. Several months ago I began a Shoemint saga. I think that during my journey, I may have lead others to be deceived, and I want to right my wrongs, right now, right here. Let me tell you my story...

In May, while looking for a nice pair of heels for a friend's wedding, I came across this pair of shoes on Pinterest:

After searching around a little for this pretty pair of scarlet, suede sandals with big chunky, dark, wooden heels (swoon), I discovered they were from Shoemint.

Shoemint? Where had I heard that before? Oh yes! It was the shoe subscription site endorsed by Rachel Bilson that premiered in 2011. I had visited the site in the past. Subscribing for monthly charges to my bank account is really not my thing, but when I visited Shoemint back in April to check out these shoes (the Hellins in suede), I no longer saw anything about a subscription (or even Rachel Bilson, for that matter). 

"They've changed their ways!", I ignorantly thought. No longer were shoe prices listed in "credits", no longer was the word "subscription" printed anywhere on the site, and no longer did I have to fill out a style "profile" to determine which shoes I would like best every month.

Seemingly dealing with a normal shoe company, I went forward with my purchase of the Hellins. The checkout process was just the same as with any other website. I credit myself with being fairly familiar with the ways of the Interwebz, and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary - I assumed that I would make my purchase, acquire my shoes, and be done with Shoemint.

Turns out, this was not to be the case.

After receiving my shoes, I was in love, I was in love, and I didn't care who knew it. They were well worth the $90 I paid for them. The suede was nice, the wooden heels were sturdy, and I got so many compliments. I Insaglammed my Hellins, I talked about them, I recommended Shoemint - I even argued against someone's comment that Shoemint was a bad company. I was so blissfully ignorant.

Fast forward 3 months to today.

I log onto Shoemint to see what new stuff they have and notice a little box in the upper righthand corner...

Credits: 3?

After doing some digging, I learned that apparently Shoemint had been charging my credit card account (or rather, my mother's) for $80 each month for the past three months unbeknownst to anyone. When I scoured Shoemint's website, I discovered that they are still in fact a subscription service, and that the user must manually log in each month between the 1st and the 6th and choose to skip their monthly billing, otherwise they will automatically be billed $80. Also, there's basically no way to cancel your account.

What a shitty business practice.

Shoemint seemed to have it all. Great product. Moderate pricing. Even great customer service! I called about a sizing issue once and the girl I spoke with was fantastic - probably because, for once, she wasn't dealing with someone's complaints that they were duped into a subscription service.

I don't understand why such a quality company would engage in such a misleading way of gaining business, especially a company with great customer service and products. Sure, I would expect this type of deceptive non-theft from a shoddy, sketchy Internet business, but Shoemint has received great reviews and seemed so legit. With their solid product and (unworthy) renown, I would expect that they would receive great business if they nixed the whole subscription service and simply sold shoes by the pair.

But I guess they're just in the business to swindle customers and cheat money out of them via fine print.

Should Shoemint continue to conceal the most important billing information in the finest of fine print, I sincerely hope they go out of business sooner rather than later. In the free market, customer satisfaction is what keeps businesses alive, and Shoemint has set themselves up to fail from the get go.