Birkenstocks - narrow fittings Alert!

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Tweez

Registered Shopper
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
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Southend, Essex
I was so excited to receive a pair of Birkenstocks today - only to be miffed by the fact they are narrow fit. :doh: Even more miffed, because QVC do state that some of their Birkenstocks are narrow in the decriptions...but not on this pair! I have "normal" feet and have already accumulated a few pairs of birkenstocks over the years, so know what they're like.
So I rang CS....I wouldn't normally, but I felt that I was betrayed!
The woman at CS didn't believe me when I told her that Birkenstocks come in two widths! She said she'd been working in CS for 15 years and all the birkenstocks are normal width and they don't offer different width fittings!
Aaaargh!! "oh but you do!" I said "we don't!" she said. It was getting a bit like a pantomime. I told her I was very careful to make sure that the pair I ordered weren't narrow as there were narrow ones advertised. I can usually multi-task and wanted to find a shoe item number where they describe a narrow fit on the internet at the same time as talking to her, but I couldn't do both!:wonder:
She said as a gesture of goodwill, they will send me a pre-paid label to send them back, but in future, to be aware of what I was ordering!!!! :ninja:
 
As a rough rule of thumb (or big toe) The toe-post styles are the Birkenstock standard fit (too wide for me) and the slip-on without toe-post styles are the narrow fit. There's a symbol printed inside the shoe to indicate which fitting it is. CS lady was talking out of her @rse!

Jude xx
 
I have a couple of pairs of Birkenstocks that I bought in a shop, they are the Gizeh toe post style. I often watch the Birkenstock hours but have never bought anything because a) I only like the Gizeh style really and b) the postage is too much and I can can buy them here (Italy) for about the same price anyway.

It was only whilst watching Debbie Flint presenting the show recently that I realised that the little symbol on the footbed indicated whether they were a narrow or a wider fit. Debbie made a big point of clearly explaining that the foot symbol was solid in the case of a narrow fit and an outline in the wider fit. I ask myself why nobody had ever mentioned that before! I have been watching for years and it was news to me. THIS is the sort of information they should be repeating to the viewer and not endless stuff about family, divorce, hamsters and bulldogs. I could have quiet easily purchased a random pair of Birkenstocks and found that they were too narrow for me.
 
The narrow ones come as 'standard'. Personally I don't find them too narrow, they still look a bit big on me but then again, I've probably got narrow feet anyway.

I do think they should make it more clear that the standard is a narrow fit and if you've got wide feet then you might have a problem with them AND I think each style should be available to purchase in each fit.

Voila, no more problems, seems simple to me. Will QVC adopt this? Nope!

I might also be tempted to put in writing that CS are saying there's only one fit as that is incorrect.
 
lilylurknomore said:
The narrow ones come as 'standard'. Personally I don't find them too narrow, they still look a bit big on me but then again, I've probably got narrow feet anyway.
I do think they should make it more clear that the standard is a narrow fit and if you've got wide feet then you might have a problem with them AND I think each style should be available to purchase in each fit.

Voila, no more problems, seems simple to me. Will QVC adopt this? Nope!

I might also be tempted to put in writing that CS are saying there's only one fit as that is incorrect.
Click to expand...

Lucky you, I have feet like Fred Flintstone! :giggle:
 
Tweez said:
ISo I rang CS....I wouldn't normally, but I felt that I was betrayed!
The woman at CS didn't believe me when I told her that Birkenstocks come in two widths! She said she'd been working in CS for 15 years and all the birkenstocks are normal width and they don't offer different width fittings!
Aaaargh!! "oh but you do!" I said "we don't!" she said.
Click to expand...

Did you get the silly woman's name?

Email customer services and point them in the direction to this page on the QVC website which clearly says about the two different width fittings and that QVC do do both, when available:

http://www.qvcuk.com/ukqic/qvcapp.aspx/app.html/params.file.|ukhtml|U058_birkenstock_sizeguide,html/walk.yah.UKFA~U058

Excerpt:


Sizing

Birkenstocks offer the choice of Regular and Narrow footbeds. At QVC we offer one size option per style, with the majority being offered in the Narrow option, which is actually a generous regular UK fit. The Birkenstock Regular option is a wider-fit footbed, and is generally only offered in our toe-post sandals.
 
I have narrow feet, and when I bought my birkis years ago (from their store), I bought the wider fit even though the sales assistant said the narrow fit would look better given htat I have skinny feet. I found with the narrow fit that the toe grip/arch support didn't seem to sit in the right place and felt uncomfy. Also, when it gets super hot you may need the wider ones cos my feet do swell in the heat. So I guess what I am saying is, even if you do have slim feet, you may want to try the wider fit. I've only got Madris btw.
 
Blow me down - I just checked my 3 pairs and two are narrow fit and one wide. I'd never noticed any difference!
 
Tweez said:
I was so excited to receive a pair of Birkenstocks today - only to be miffed by the fact they are narrow fit. :doh: Even more miffed, because QVC do state that some of their Birkenstocks are narrow in the decriptions...but not on this pair! I have "normal" feet and have already accumulated a few pairs of birkenstocks over the years, so know what they're like.
So I rang CS....I wouldn't normally, but I felt that I was betrayed!
The woman at CS didn't believe me when I told her that Birkenstocks come in two widths! She said she'd been working in CS for 15 years and all the birkenstocks are normal width and they don't offer different width fittings!
Aaaargh!! "oh but you do!" I said "we don't!" she said. It was getting a bit like a pantomime. I told her I was very careful to make sure that the pair I ordered weren't narrow as there were narrow ones advertised. I can usually multi-task and wanted to find a shoe item number where they describe a narrow fit on the internet at the same time as talking to her, but I couldn't do both!:wonder:
She said as a gesture of goodwill, they will send me a pre-paid label to send them back, but in future, to be aware of what I was ordering!!!! :ninja:
Click to expand...




do they fit you though?
 
Well thank you for all the information! Just looked at the pair I bought from Warrington last week and am totally staggered to see a solid foot print!!! I bought a pair of size 8, bright pink two buckle style......the staggering part is I usually wear a size nine and have a very very wide foot that rarely gets into any shoe.

On the other hand, there are probably an awful lot of ladies out there cursing that they are tooooo big for them!!!

Now I know what to look for, I might be lucky enough to find another pair to fit there...won't take the chance of buying on line though.
 
Birkenstock

I have also queried the sizing with QVC last year and did ask them to either mention on air that the shoes were narrow or put it on the website. When ordering from a German website, which incidentally is much cheaper (www.baumhouse.com) you have the option to choose regular or narrow. I have regular and narrow, the regular are just a bit too wide.
 
I used to import Birkenstocks from Germany and sell them on ebay. I discovered just how expensive QVC were (and how plain many of their styles that they chose to sell were) and I ended up buying abroad instead of QVC for that reason.

I sold them for a fair bit cheaper than QVC and I used to get styles which were quite unusual - at least a season before QVC got them. QVCs always struck me as a little run of the mill. Baumhouse were one place which used to supply me :grin:
 
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