Delmar Bootery

I notice as I get older I have a zero tolerance statute when it comes to poor customer service. I think it has to do with decades of being treated like my money, my business, my time isn’t as valuable as someone else’s. Regardless of the service or product, if you fail in this regard, I’m out the door. I’m a little more forgiving of larger companies because they can’t control their employees all the time. But if it is a mom and pop establishment, where I actually prefer to give my money, it is especially egregious in my opinion. Case in point Delmar Bootery. I walk in with some boots for repair and behind the counter is a woman (an owner) who is clearly in the middle of helping another customer. Cool. No problem. I don’t want to interrupt so I will wait. But as I stood there, about three feet away, I was looking at her because I just knew she would at least look up at some point and acknowledge my existence. And I was going to give her a warm smile that said «no worries, get to me when you can.» I got nothing. No greeting. No «someone will be right with you». No eye contact. No smile. Nothing. So I stood. And I waited. And I stood. And I waited. And as I stood quietly and waited I see the other owner in the back chatting about non-​work stuff with another person. I’m thinking, ok, this lady will tell the other one there is a customer. Nope. As I stood there I looked on my phone for another shoe place and finally just left. As I have said in many other reviews it is unacceptable not to acknowledge a customer. I can’t imagine a person walking up to me, or into my space, and I don’t greet them in some fashion. It is immensely rude and horrible business. It’s also dangerous to be so lacking of your surroundings. But she wasn’t oblivious. She saw me and ignored me completely. I cannot give my business to that company. And now my husband won’t. But they won’t care because too many people are okay with terrible service. Their business will survive without me but that doesn’t mean they are good. Onward and upward.

Disappointed by the service I received.
I brought in a pair of quality Alden boots to have new heels put on, as the only work to be performed. The shoes were brown leather boots with white contrast stitching. I supplied the correct heels, as provided by mail from Alden. Delmar Bootery did a fine job putting on the heels – they were nailed, trimmed, and tinted appropriately – but they changed the aesthetic of the boots by using a brown polish on the shoes that stained the white contrast stitching. A cobbler should know to use a neutral polish on shoes with contrasting stitching. Further, they were unwilling to make the problem right by providing a refund or a fix of the work. I only wanted heels put on and never asked for brown polish, and certainly did not expect the stitching to be stained. The desk staff was curt and unhelpful. This experience confirmed that good cobblers remain elusive.

I was really disappointed with my experience at Delmar Bootery. My husband has had them do work on shoes before and was very pleased with the work they did and they have some pretty good reviews here too. I’m also a big supporter of small businesses and was very pleased initially to find them. However, I was very disappointed with the quality of the work — and to be honest I’m not a particularly picky person either. I brought in 4 pairs of sandals and a purse to be repaired. 2 pairs of the sandals had a small tear on the insole on one of the sandals. They said they could fix them. Another had a strap that had torn and the last pair of shoes had the bottom of the heel that needed replacing. The shoes that needed the heel fixed were dirty and I asked her if they could get the shoes clean — because if they couldn’t I told the young woman that I didn’t want to spend money on fixing the heal. She said they could. The purse was missing a tack and I had the tack for them to size it. Another woman told me that they would have no problem matching it.
My husband and I picked up the items and we’re really surprised at the poor quality of the work done. Fortunately, I checked them before I left the store because they gave me the items and went to help someone else. The sandals that needed the strap repaired were fine so no complaints for those but the rest was not. The shoes that needed the heel repaired and to be cleaned were dirty but the heel was replaced. I do completely understand them not getting the shoes cleaned — heck, they didn’t get them dirty! But they should have called me to see if I still wanted the heels repaired — that was what I told her when I dropped them off. The purse came back with a completely different tack — the others are rounded this one is bigger and flat. Most people probably won’t notice it — so it isn’t as big a deal — but I would have appreciated a call first. I didn’t even bring it up to them because my bigger concern were the other 2 sandals. The 2 shoes that they were resoling were the worst. They were not the same size as the shoe, it was peeling up all around the sides of the shoe and you could see the foam all the way around the shoe. One pair is black and the other is brown so it was very obvious. They looked horrible! I pulled them out of the bag and pointed it out to the woman and she didn’t really say anything. The woman next to her started to explain how difficult it was to resole my sandals. She told me she worked very hard on them and that was the best she could do. I’m a big believer in communicating if there are problems — I can deal with anything if we talk about it. But to just send them out looking like they did disappointed me. And I was particularly upset because even though they each had a small tear when I brought them in — you couldn’t see them, my feet were on them and they were wearable. But looking like they did they weren’t wearable at all. I was not mean at all I just said these don’t look very good and asked what we could do. Eventually another woman came over, looked at them and said that she was not happy with the work that was done on them at all and they would take them back and redo them and they would call me when they were done. My husband who has had them repair shoes before was very surprised at how bad they looked.
They were redone a few weeks later and I will say they look better (the insole is the same size as the sandal), but they still don’t look very good. You could see the foam all the way around the shoes and it’s still peeling up around the shoe. I pointed it out to the woman working and she said nobody will ever see it but that she could touch up color on the foam so it isn’t as noticeable which I asked her to and she did. It’s better but I’m not that happy with the way they look. She was very nice and said if I didn’t like them I could bring them back and she would redo them herself so I appreciated that. But honestly I won’t go back because I just think the quality of the work I had done there just isn’t very good. As much as I hate to give a bad review I definitely wouldn’t have them do any major shoe work done there — insole replacements etc. I just didn’t see quality work or the communication when there were issues to help resolve them.

Do not get your Louboutins resoled here. They did a horrible job with mine. The sole they used were so thick and a dull red color (came out looking worse than when I brought it in). I had my louboutins done in NYC before and it looks a hundred times better. When I showed them the comparison– the lady told me it’s just a pair of shoe and not to get so upset over it! Obviously, they do not care and do not take pride in their work.

The staff was very busy when I arrived. Yet, they managed to immediately acknowledge and help me without, I believe, taking service away from the other customers. I had never purchased high end shoes before and have very wide feet. Even with the large numbers of customers in the shop, I never felt rushed, had all my questions answered, and received lots of information about Alden shoes. They luckily had the shoe I wanted in my size. They educated me on the care and maintenance of the shoe and I walked out a happy customer. I love the shoes and will gladly give them my business again.

Perfect. Really friendly and super accommodating. And affordable! Great job with Ugg cleaning and way expensive purses; all for $ 25 each. Cleaned everything beautifully and protected without even asking and did it all with a smile. Really lovely. Highly recommend.

Friendly, helpful service. Timely with promised date. Very reasonable rates. Highly recommended.

Definitely earns the previous positive reviews, resoled a pair of boots at about half the cost of the authorized online resoler. Boots looks great and I will be back.

I brought a pair of my husband’s boots here to be re-​heeled. I like the service, price, and the work they did. I just brought a pair of my own boots in and I appreciated the recommendations for work to begone, and that they give a discount if you pay in advance.

Brought my one good pair of leather soled oxfords to these people when the soles wore through after four years. These black Mezlan shoes I had taken care of and paid a pretty penny for, and I really didn’t want to buy another pair. I brought them to the bootery to have them resoled. About a week later I picked them up. Not the same quality as the high quality leather soles and wooden heels, but not terrible as the new sole was leather and the heel was good quality black rubber. Only problem was that after wearing them thrice, the stitching pulled out of the first later of sole. I was unhappy. I brought them back. They said they’d fix both shoes for free within 1 – 2 days. I went back and this time the stitching was clear through both layers of sole. My shoes are back, and they’ve saved a customer with their good service. Great mom and pop store, and proof that even established cobblers still learn new tricks along the way. They also sell shoes there, but their principal value is that they cobble. Only a couple places around do that now. Good way to save a couple hundred bucks instead of blowing it on new shoes.

My wife and I went in tonight. One salesperson in front and a repair guy in the back. We waited a while for one customer getting fitted for shoes. Other people came in for repairs. When the one customer was done, we were next. Saying nothing to us she waited on the repair customers. We left. Perhaps there’s more money in shoe repair than selling new shoes or getting new customers. Biz owner — Good luck paying your rent with that service.

I brought in a pair of fabric sandals with huge handpainted wedges and they did beautiful work sanding down some wood chips and gluing down the sole where it was peeling up. My shoes look as good as they are ever going to — and all for under $ 25. Well worth it for my favorite old shoes.
I brought in some old black leather pumps and they gave me an honest assessment of how they could repair the damage. They’re honest and very nice and don’t charge that much for really good quality work. I will only take my shoes here from now on!

Dropped off shoes to be re-​heeled here on a Saturday and they were ready the following Wednesday. They’re still charging $ 12.95 and it does still include a shoe shine. My shoes look fantastic, all nice and shined up — got all the scuffing out and everything.

Just picked up my shoes. Wow, what a great job! Compared to the other shop that did a so-​so job last year, I am very impressed with the quality at Delmar.

I took my well-​loved Dr. Marten mary janes here to get fixed when one of the straps broke, rendering them too loose to wear.
In a week, they’d put new soles/​heels on them, and added new straps on both shoes. Only one strap was broken and rather than attempt to fix that and have it likely break again, they installed new straps on both shoes. They also cleaned the shoes up for me a bit and polished them without me even asking.
Considering they were $ 90 shoes, I though the $ 29.50 fee was pretty fair for the work they did. I am thrilled to be able to wear my shoes again without having the strap flap around!