One less shopper at Payless Shoe Source

Full Review
I received a coupon the other day at the grocery store for two dollars off at Payless Shoesource that could be utilized at the website www.payless.com as well by entering the coupon code.

I have a Payless ShoeSource store within walking distance but taking my two autistic children there is a shoppers nightmare in trying to locate the right size, measure their feet for the correct size and then get them to sit long enough to try the shoes on. It is even harder when there are items attached to the shoe that make it uncomfortable for the average shopper.

I had read a review months ago that mentioned you could waive the shipping fee if you picked up the shoes at the store. This sounded great to me so I went to the site earlier this evening armed with the sizes of the current sneakers my kids wear to find the next size.

A window popped up for win cash or shoes! What's to lose? so I entered my email address thinking that was the end, only to discover a new pop up asking for my name and address and then questions pertaining to how often I buy shoes and if I had used the website before and did I shop at the store.

Finally that was done and I moved on to the home page. They currently have a deal to buy three pairs of shoes to get free shipping. I really do not like the way the site is layed out either. The arrows to scroll are located to the far right with the window closer to the left. There is no interest in learning more from their supposed diva of shoes, Star Jones so I bypassed that quickly.

The options for shoes are women, men's girls', boys' infants and specialty. There are colored links above that for store finder, search and shoe finder. It is also mentioned that the current sale ends August 20, 2002. There is a display of sandals to click on for that sale and the fall fashions and uniform shoes.

Down below is the option for wide widths that I did not see until after I placed one pair of shoes in the shopping bag and that was for the child that needs wide width! Further down in another shade is the customer service and site map.

I was able to find the first shoe rather easily since I wanted velcro tabs and not laces so I picked the first white pair I saw and when the price came up for $7.99 that was good enough for me. The shoes are broken down into categories, dress casuals, casual play, sneakers, boots, backpacks, socks. I did notice roller skates as an option and thought I would check that later.

They show four shoes to a row where you click on and then there is a rotating red button to see the shoe rotate. This is another pop up that took a bit longer than I had intended to wait for something that really was not necessary but I was curious. The picture shows the shoe turning around and also stands up the shoe so you can see the bottom portion of it.

I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing for shoe sizes so while looking at one shoe there are links for measurement tips and shoe sizer. It just figured that the tips involved printing something out to have your child stand on it to get an accurate size. There is no way my son would do that, as it would be easier to just pick a shoe one half size larger than currently wearing and judge from there. Also at this section is a converter to show what a shoe size would be in other parts of the country as they are different.

I did not like the fact that in order to find these links you have to go many steps to get there and it is not listed on the main page. I think this should be a first step to get the size.

During my search on the site I came across signing up for an account so I opted to do that after placing one shoe in the shopping bag. They only asked me for a password and not an id, but a secret to remember. I input my email address and then I got a screen that said done with errors on page. The only options were to go to my order, edit my profile or account.

Since I had placed something in the shopping bag I tried the order, that did not work and there was no way to get back to the main page. I closed the window and started over, very frustrating at this point.

When I got back to the site it said welcome back Bonnie with the yellow bar at the bottom of the screen showing what size I had just been shopping at and if I wanted to change sizes and a notation that I had one item in the shopping bag.

I continued on and found a shoe for my older son. I wanted to find out more at this point about how to get this to my local store. I clicked on the site map and scrolled all the way down to the shipping information. There was no mention of having this sent to a store and it looked like you needed a credit card to make purchases.

I was very irritated at this point and proceeded to the check out to see what other options there would be. I did not get to input my coupon because the two dollars was already taken off. Both shoes were on sale from $9.99 to $7.99 but one was now offered at $5.99. There was a shipping fee and the next line had a handling fee with a sales tax bringing my total to over twenty dollars.

WOW how did it get from thirteen to twenty bucks! I did go back and find the free online store delivery and they stated this has no tracking feature. The deliveries take 7 to 10 days, which seems very long to me. If you do not pick up the order they will contact you.

I went back to complete my order and checked marked the in store delivery option. Another window opened that had my state and zip listed. I clicked to get the nearest location and clicked to select that store. This took a long time waiting and then the window closed. I clicked submit order and a pop up told me to select the store. This happened three times and I was so frustrated that I composed an email to their customer service complaining about it.

Of course once you complain and try again it works! This time the screen had imprinted near the spot the location of the store I selected and made it my chosen store. I was set to go but got some paper that I had printed and turned it over to print this screen off, just in case!

Once the printing was done, I got the error page from Microsoft telling me I was going to lose my page. Behind that was a screen telling me I had to input my billing details. Well it seems I have no option to pay cash or use ATM once I get to the store to pick up my delivery so my order is in limbo.

I came back to the page after starting the computer again and it welcomed me back, must have been an error because they did not read my complaining email yet! I had to click on my shopping bag and all data was saved except that nasty billing part. The only options are credit card payment.

I sent off another email to the customer service office informing them that I was not happy with their site, how bad it was in navigating and how there was no option to pay if one has no credit card.

This concludes my business with Payless ShoeSource Online Store.

I will just go to the store with my coupon and paper showing what my selections were for my kids and hope they have them in stock.

The site stinks! Why pay a handling fee? I included within my second email to customer service the link to this section, informing them I would be sharing my experience. I have checked my email account and the only one received was thanking me for entering the sweepstakes. There was no confirmation of opening an account or that I sent two emails.