Deal or No Deal! (clifford-james.co.uk)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	clifford-james.co.uk
Date:	12/03/06 (3796 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Big online manufacturer selling at bargain prices

Disadvantages: I've been let down on my first order!

***Introduction***
There’s nothing quite like a bargain is there? So when I saw an advert in the Sunday Times for 2 pairs of men’s leather shoes for £25, I thought long and hard and eventually decided to take the offer up. I'd seen the offer a few times over the months but I'm a cautious fish and if something looks to good to be true then generally it is in my book. Maybe I should have been born in Yorkshire. The deal was an offer by a company called Clifford James and by accessing their web site at http://www.clifford-james.co.uk, I could take advantage of the offer. Originally the brainchild of Keith James Russel and Ian Clifford Garbutt, their business idea of importing specialist North American Indian moccasins to the UK market in the early 70's spawned the present day business that has expanded into the areas mentioned below. As I’m sure you’ll be able to work out, the business takes its name from the duo’s middle names. Today Clifford James operates from a warehouse/office complex employing over 40 people.

***The site***
Clifford James proclaims to have been established since 1970 according to the main page. With an active link to The Times publication you would think that they are bona fide and above board. This is an online shopping forum that sells men’s and ladies shoes, men’s and ladies clothing, home wear, socks and hosiery, underwear, bags and hats. The unique selling point of the business is to be able to sell at below market cost and it claims to be able to do this with, for example, its shoes by buying in whole factory runs and re-selling them at knock down prices.

The main page is pretty functional with a quick search facility, plenty of icons to navigate around by and blends images with text that makes many of the offers stand out. At the moment you will see a "buy one, get one free" offer on shoes, a £15 off men’s shirts and a Footeze Range designed to cater for people with “difficult feet”. Assuming that we aren’t talking about folks with one foot missing or something, I should imagine that this is awkward shoe sizes and the like. The products on offer are very much middle-of-the-road fayre. Shoes like Oxfords and Brogues, men’s trainers and white, plain shirts are typical of what’s on offer. That’s OK if you are after what looks like good quality garments at a bargain price.

You can sign up to a special promotions e-mail that will keep you abreast of all the latest deals on offer from the company. Of special note is the "Clearance Sale" and "Free Items" options. There are some nice products available in the "Clearance Sale" section including a men’s Argyle Jacket for £14.99 and a ladies Montrose Jacket for the same price. The "Free Items" option shows products available for free assuming that the visitor has spent over £30 at least. The items appear good quality and a leather case, rubber-protected binoculars and a Quartz watch are all examples of the kind of things available. I liked the facility to increase/decrease the text size which would help folks with abnormal eye site although the “top sellers” listed below seemed rather pointless unless people really do get sucked into buying items simply because everyone else has one. I’d link to think that the "shopping sheep myth" really is just that – a myth.

***Ordering***
The customer is able to order by using the secure payment facility, which takes Delta, MasterCard, Maestro, Switch or Visa. You can also telephone an order through using the prominent telephone number available on the site. To order online you need to follow the usual shopping cart format which operates in stages i.e. Add item to your shopping cart > Check out > Order Form > Confirm order. The only information required apart from your payment details is your shipping address and although there’s no requirement to formally register as a member of the site, you also have to think of a password when ordering and log your year of birth and a valid e-mail address.

Alternatively, you can send a cheque or postal order, payable to:

Clifford James
Gladden Place
West Gillibrands
Skelmersdale
Lanc's
WN8 9SX

The company also has factory shops in Surrey and Ormskirk where customers can buy products and take advantage of discontinued lines at the appropriate prices.

***My experience***
As I said at the start, I was very keen on the 2 pairs of men’s leather shoes for £25 deal so I decided to place an order. I went through the “Newspaper Offers” icon at the top of the main page. The choice was fairly limited including the customary Brogues, Oxfords, Casual slip-ons and Casual lace-ups and I was happy to take a flier on not being able to try them on as shoe sizes went from 5 - 13 in 1/2 size installments. At that price, I was happy to take a risk. Ordering seemed relatively painless and I duly received an e-mail acknowledgement 24 hours later suggesting that I would get my shoes within 10-14 days. Mentally, I made to note to check how long it would take for the order to arrive for my own purposes. I needn’t have as, firstly, the 10 day mark passed and then the 14. As the time period headed North towards the 3-week mark I started to realise that there was a problem. Using the e-mail address on the acknowledgement, I e-mailed Clifford James to ask them what had happened to my order. Within 24 hours, I received a reply confirming that no order was present. The note suggested that there may have been a problem with uploading the order and so could I duplicate the order process again. Hmmmmmm...seeing as I’d already given my credit card details once, I wasn’t keen but I did anyway as I still wanted those shoes. Needless to say, nothing at all happened this time having placed the order; not even an acknowledgement was sent. By now I was pretty fed up and when my credit card bill arrived with a debit for the original order I was truly mortified. I e-mailed once more demanding to know what was going on. Another fairly prompt reply came back asking me to let the site know my credit card details so that they could investigate. At this point I have had enough and I am planning to re-claim the money via the credit card dispute procedure.

***Verdict***
Well as you can see from above, I am not impressed at all. My first order has gone pear-shaped and what I thought was a reputable company has turned out to be totally incompetent so far. At the moment, I absolutely cannot recommend the site and am looking forward to sorting out my refund. It’s all such a shame as the site looks so good on the face of it. Bah.

Thanks for reading

Marandina

***Afterword***
24/3/05 I did finally get my shoes after writing to the company and attaching a copy of my visa bill showing the payment made. If anyone is reading from Clifford-James then you really need to sort your Internet ordering process but I will elevate the rating to 3-stars as the shoes are a bargain!

Summary: Review of site