One people say”Ugg boots marked down”

[www.UGG2me.com]

One people say”Ugg boots marked down”,isn’t it?They were Bailey Button
UGGs, in black, with zippers up the back. I'd been looking at them on
the Internet since last season when I saw them on a cool-looking woman
on a First Friday. http://www.ugg2me.com They had a sophisticated-
sounding name, "Women's Knightsbridge," and seductive online marketing
paragraphs about bare feet and warm sheepskin and "fresh, fashion-
forward style." I had been wearing fashion-backward knockoffs from Old
Navy for years. http://www.ugg2me.com/ugg-nightfall-c-11.html I was
over 30 now. I wanted big-girl boots.
But they came at a big girl price. And it was not really in my budget.
Then, one Sunday in October, it struck me that surely in that vast sea
of online commerce, there had to be one pair of Knightsbridge boots,
in size 5, on sale. I eBayed and Googled. Same price. Same price. Same
price. Then, bingo.
"Discount UGG Boots!" the Web site beckoned,
http://www.ugg2me.com/ugg-classic-argyle-knit-c-3.html displaying the
official ugg bailey button logo and a Better Business Bureau
"accredited business" symbol. I scanned a testimonial from "Kimberly
in Fort Worth," gushing, "Your customer service is the BEST!" Did they
http://www.ugg2me.com/ugg-ultra-short-c-15.html have the
Knightsbridge? Yes, they did! In my size! At 40 percent off! Free 10-
day shipping! Incredible. I keyed in my credit card number.
No sooner had I pushed enter when my phone rang. A friendly female
robot voice was on the line: "This is your bank. Did you just make a
charge in ...," there was a pause, and then an unfriendly male robot
voice finished the sentence with a flat effect, "... LATVIA." I heard
clicking. A human operator came on.
"Did you just make a charge at www.sweatboots. com?" she asked.
"No. Or, yes. I guess," I said. It sounded ridiculous when I heard it
out loud. "I didn't know it was in Latvia. Should I cancel it?"
"I can't tell you that." She sounded uninterested and I
http://www.ugg2me.com/ugg-classic-cardy-c-4.html detected an Indian
accent. "If you authorized the charge, we can't reverse it."
I hung up. I decided not to worry. It was a great deal. The Ugg is
made of Australian sheepskin. Maybe they had a warehouse in Latvia, or
a factory, or even a satellite flock of Australian sheep. It was a
globalization thing. They just needed to unload some inventory in
their Eastern European division.
And so I waited. Ten days passed. Nothing. I went to the Web site and
called the customer service number. No one picked up.
http://www.ugg2me.com/ugg-classic-mini-c-6.html That's when I noticed
the site was a little funny.
"Do you know now it is an environment to buy UGG Classic Tall Boots
Knightsbridge Boots? Hope you can buy you satisfied products," it
read. "We dedicated to bring buyers the top grade ugg boot."
I found a customer service e-mail address and sent a message asking
about my order. I called my bank.
"And what did you purchase at sweatboots.com?" asked the banking
agent.
"Cheap UGG Boots," I said. "Forty percent off."
"Really?" she said. "Dang. That's a good deal."
Then she told me they couldn't do anything until a month passed
without delivery.
The next day, an e-mail appeared in my inbox. It read something like,
"Please do not worry about your order. Boots is still in factories. Do
not cancel your order. Sincerely, Dirk."
I went back to the Web site, where I noticed a tiny "About us" link at
the bottom of the page and found this: " 'Grey UGG Boots' is not a
brand name but an age old generic term for this style of Australian-
made sheepskin boot."
I was starting to understand what I was dealing with. It was age-old
and generic. A scam. High-priced, counterfeit UGG Nightfall Boots. I
wrote another e-mail, asking to cancel my order. But I doubted I would
see the money again.
Sometimes you have to pay money to learn an obvious lesson. I think of
it as tuition for the university of adulthood. In hindsight, this
lesson was so obvious it hurt. Pick your commerce cliche. If something
sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You get what you pay for.
Read the fine print. Caveat emptor.
And so I did what I should have done in the first place. I went to the
real UGG Classic Argyle Knit Web site and ordered real boots. Three
days later, they were on my porch. Exactly what I wanted.
As I was slipping my bare foot into fog-colored sheepskin, a reply to
my cancellation e-mail arrived from Latvia: "txs for your letter and
sorry for later reply. as hot sales, you order is out of stock after
your make the payment. we had strive to pick up from other factory,
sorry for that. b.rgds."
Dirk was still answering e-mails! Maybe I could get a refund. Perhaps
he didn't understand my English, so they didn't know to cancel my
order. My friend Erik actually speaks Latvian. He composed an e-mail
on my behalf.
"Uz kuram ta var attiekties (To whom it may concern), Ludzu atmaksa
manu naudu. (Please refund my money.) Mani zabaki nav ieradies, un
tagad vinus vairs negribu. (My boots have not arrived and I do not
want them.) Viens menesis is pagajis kops mana pasutijumu. (It has
been one month since my order was placed.) Paldies. (Thank you.)"
But then, later that day, I came home from work to find a pink slip
from the post office in my mailbox. The next morning at the downtown
post office, I was given a beat-up package. The mailing label said it
came from China.
I brought it to work and opened it at my desk. There was an authentic-
looking UGG Classic Cardy shoebox. Inside that, the UGG Ultra Short.
They were a dead-on match for the real ones, right down to the pattern
on the soles and the little metal tag on the heel. But inside them,
there was no fog-colored sheepskin. Instead, it was cream-colored fur
of indeterminate origin. UGG Classic MiniOne of the guys I worked with
picked them up and stroked the inside.<