Have you ever...?

Have you ever bought something online as it seemed to be a great bargain...but then you started to wonder if you had done the right thing. Remember the saying, 'if it's too good to be true...it probably is!'

Well this happened to me a little while back. A former student of mine is a physiotherapist and last year she recommended the Frankie 4 brand footwear. I checked out the website here after that recommendation and liked what I saw. Much of the business operates online but there are a few retailers who stock a limited range. The website's list of stockists showed a podiatry practice in a nearby suburb. But in March this year when I decided to look at buying a pair of shoes, they had obviously moved and the website needed updating. Now the range of these shoes is small and most retail at over $200...so it's a big investment in my view. My now battered Homyped Mary Janes, which have been my comfortable shoes since 2011 need 'retiring'; they had cost $130 and have been 'brilliant'. Regular readers would have seen them on my feet in most of our travel photos. 

I regularly get the Frankie4 newsletter and so it was, that one day an email arrived saying there was a sale. A small number of shoes in the range were selling for $59 instead of $209. What a great way to try out this brand I thought...so quick as a wink, I went to the website, a few clicks, and I had bought a pair.

It was next day I started wondering about the huge discount...was it a scam? I really thought that I'd been a bit stupid. This was the weekend...on the Monday a 'parcel man' delivered a package...

This box was inside the satchel...not just any old shoe box though...it slides like a drawer!

I tried on the shoes straight away...but they were a bit tight. But that's no problem with the Frankie 4 brand. Each pair of shoes comes with a series of inserts of different sizes and thickness (functional footbeds). The shoes had come with the full length insert already in place. I took the full inner soles out...

And I put the half inner soles in the shoes instead...still not quite right, so in goes the 'front' half inner soles in...one shoe needed 2 and the other shoe only needed 1 to be comfortable...

I decided not to use the ankle straps...

And then I walked around the house getting used to my new shoes...I loved them straight away...the instep support was just right for me and the rounded toe of the shoe meant my toes weren't squashed. 

Phew! So the bargain was for real and I got a very good deal. 

Today I went to Big W ( part of the Woolworth's chain but a department style of store) to buy a pair of slippers...I came home with 2 pairs...cheap and cheerful...and I love them too :-)