Charles Shoes

My feet were hurting very badly today, so I went in to Charle’s to see what they could offer in comfortable support. The first pair I had tried I’m is what I walked out with. The sales guy was very patient and supportive with me. I must’ve tried on ten pair. He was patient with me all the way. Nice selection.
Bought the Clarks I first tried on.
I would go back for sure and happy I did get good service.

I’ve gone to this place twice now and both times were bad (maybe even terrible).
When you first walk in, everyone working there just looks at you and doesn’t say anything. It’s like they are all waiting for the other attendants to take you so they don’t have to deal with you.
From the unprofessional start, it got pretty awkward. I chose the pair of shoes I wanted and the attendant brought out the two pairs of shoes he thought would be the closest fit. After that, he INSISTED on putting the shoes on for me AND tying them. I get it, it makes it seem all fancy, but I’m a grown man and I can put my own shoes on.
After that, the shoes fit perfectly. No space at the toes, no wiggle, everything was perfect. Bought the shoes with cash and went home happy.
When I got home and put the shoes on again, for some reason they no longer fit properly. They had space at the toe, the swede seemed to even be a slightly different color, and they no longer had that ‘perfect fit’ feel to them. In trying to figure out what had happened, the only thing I could think was that I had tried on one pair of shoes and the attendant had somehow sold me the other pair he had brought out with him.
While this is an easy mistake to make, it added another layer of unprofessionalism to this store, which seemed to try to uphold itself as ‘fancy’ or ‘high-​class’.
When I went back in to exchange them, I got the same, cold, greeting. So I decided I would just return them for my money and buy the shoes off the internet. Even if they send me the wrong size, it couldn’t be worse than this place.
This is a good shoe comparison sight! I hope you end up using Charles Shoes as a place to measure your size, not buy shoes!

Great shoe selection, but the customer service is horrible. Wanted to buy a pair of sale shoes and it clearly made the salesman mad. If business is slow, it’s because of the creepy, pushy, rude old salesmen.

I was at first disappointed that Charles didn’t have Black Friday deals. What they DO have are great quality shoes, excellent selection, and attentive customer service. Dunnia is very helpful. I will be back.

I gave this place a second chance, and wish I didn’t. I understand I’m young and I probably don’t look like can can even afford to walk into a place like that. But I was going to purchase shoes! I do not appreciate be watched like im going to steal something. And having to actually walk around (so I don’t run into the sales man) do you really think I’m going to take one shoe and run?
Just a thought… don’t stand to close to your customers and when we walk in and you say let me know if I can help you with anything… don’t follow us around with creepy old stareing eyes!
Never going back!

Update: They finally called me yesterday to tell me the shoes came in. I explained the situation and that I bought them online because I needed for a business trip. The man’s response you may ask? «oh, well OK then.» Click… dial tone! They officially got demoted to one star!

Came into the store needing dress shoes. The employee who helped us, Jason, showed us all our options, tailoring his advice to the style appropriate for the event (a wedding on the East Coast), without being old-​fashioned. We weren’t sure what color would work, so we came back a week later with the suit pants I’d be wearing. Jason remembered everything about our previous conversation and immediately zeroed in on the set of shoes that would work best, explaining the difference in soles and styles. He even guessed a better shoe size when the first pair turned out to be too large. The eventual cost was a pleasant surprise, too.
I’ll definitely be back to learn everything there is to know about shoe-​shining!

They have a large selection but the customer service is terrible. Let me rephrase that horrendous. I understand that as a nicer shoe store your target audience isn’t college aged kids but c’mon there is no reason to ogive be the death glare the whole time I’m in the store. The were short and snappy with me. I wrote it off the first time I went but this happened again went I went back. I’m done with them. I don’t enjoy being talked down while trying to buy some shoes. Take your business down the road to Takken.

I love Charles Shoes — a downtown SLO institution that offers quality shoes with great service.

A real old fashioned shoe store! You know where people with families work and they sell quality shoes, just like Al Bundy did. I needed shoes for my 90 year old grandfather who is quite particular about his dapper appearance. The salesman was friendly and informative.

I love Charles shoes my new favorite shoe store! Jason helped me he went above and beyond the call of duty for me. He really knows his shoes he made sure to measure my feet first then went to the back for a lot of different options to make sure I got the right shoe. I had gotten bad service and left with a shoe that ended up to be horrible from another shoe store in slo. So glad I went into Charles shoes and met Jason because I will shop there for now on love it!!! Thanks so much Jason for all your help and patience!!!

A real old fashioned shoe store! You know where people with families work, and they sell quality shoes. I LOVE IT. While I normally get shoes at REI, Nordstrom, or DSW … I saw a beautiful pair of shoes that I had to try on. Low and behold, I didn’t like them when I wore them and decided to try on several. I got a pair of «sexy» non mommy shoes from Dansko that are SO comfortable.
Thank you for talking me through that! I can’t remember your name today, but you were a lovely older gentleman who knew a thing or two about shoes! Thank you.

Thanks to their rudeness (the tall old guy)…I went home, found what I needed on the mfgr. website, ordered what I wanted & for half the price. When he told me that they didn’t carry this particular brand I was looking for, he also went into a rant about how that mfg. does business & he refuses to carry their brand. When I said that he must have something similar, he continued on with his rant, then walked over to someone else to help them. Guess what old dude… I refuse to do business with people that do business like you do! And your shoes are way overpriced! You don’t even deserve one star. There’s plenty of other places to get a pair of shoes & be treated better!

Hey there Charles Shoes,
Your customer service sucks. You all clearly have diarrhea of the mouth. The last 2 times I’ve gone in, you 1.) insulted my choice in brown shoes, telling me that the leather looked like «poop» and 2.) told my boyfriend that he has «tiny» feet. RUDE. He’d rather have tiny feet than your giant Sasquatch feet.
Oh and if you’re looking to blame somebody, it was the older woman that «helped» us both times.

Looking for SAS work-​shoes and found that the store was having a sale. Just like the old days. Good salesman and pricing. Recommend. Also found that a Chipolte restaurant was next door.

I purchased a pair of Dansko shoes from this shop. After a couple months, I noticed that the sole of the shoe had worn thin much sooner than it should have.
So I took the shoes into Charles Shoes to ask them about the unusual wear. They indicated that the wear had occurred too long after their in-​store warranty but that they’d be happy to ship the shoes back to the manufacturer for repair or examination. I agreed and gave them the shoes to ship.
Well, about a month passed and I went in to inquire about the shoes. An employee indicated that the manufacturer was still examining them. A second month passed and still no word about the status of these shoes.
The same employee indicated that it was the manufacturer who was taking so long.
So I decided to call the manufacturer to inquire about the situation. Someone there told me that my shoes had never been shipped to them from Charles Shoes.
Upon learning this, I contacted Charles Shoes again to inquire about the shoes. I did not tell them that I had contacted the manufacturer, so they just continued to lie to me about the delay.
At this point, I let on that I contacted the manufacturer and had been told that my shoes had never been shipped. They refused to acknowledge they hadn’t shipped them. When I threatened to file a complaint, their attitude was «yeah, go ahead and try» and they hung up on me.
So I decided to contact the BBB to get a resolution to this matter. After about a week I was contacted and offered a resolution. Charles Shoes had to give me a full refund but wouldn’t admit to never having shipped the shoes to the manufacturer. They just said that the shoes had sat on their back shelf the entire time.
They just blew it off and acted like it was no big deal.
Sorry, but for two months they LIED to me and lead me to believe the manufacturer was to blame.
I will never shop at Charles shoes again and I definitely tell anyone I know not to shop at Charles Shoes.
In spite of them issuing a refund, I got the impression they did that more to get the BBB off their back (and avoid potential legal action) rather than to satisfy a customer.
I give them 1 star because there is no option for zero stars. One star is far better than they deserve.
You have to wonder about any merchant that will stand there and lie to you and then refuse to accept responsibility for their own screw up.