Startrite Shoes Avis 

At the beginning of September I bought a pair of school shoes for my grandson. the style was "Learn, Black leather Simply by Start-Rite boys rip-tape school shoes". Before the first term was even finished, the sole had completely come away from the upper part of the shoe on the left foot, and the right shoe is now starting to do the same. This is NOT the standard I expect from Startrite. We have been buying their shoes for 60 years. Very disappointed.

I would give zero if I can.

The shoes are so painful to wear and resulting a huge lump on both side of my children (twins) feet, at the same position.

Despite e-mailing the customers services multiple times with images of the lumps, with the shoes on marking the rubbing of the lump position, photo of the children measurement using Startrite gauge. Louise continue to find excuses to refund or even admit the shoes is at fault.

Do not buy from them, shamed not them to have such a poor services for selling children shoes.

Have ordered a pair of shoes for my son who just started year 1 in primary. Ordered them on time so he can wear them at home for a little a few times to make sure the fit is right. Ordered the correct size based on a measurement taken at Clark's few days before I ordered the shoes. After all this I trusted they will be great for him.
He came out on his first day limping and crying, the hard leather rubbed his little feet, giving him bruises and a giant blister.
Messaged StartRite asking how to return, explaining what happened. Their advice was to keep the shoes as Clark's measurements are bigger than theirs and he will grow into them. And let him break the shoes in.
How could anyone advise to put a barely 6 year old into shoes that make him sore to "break a pair in"?
I get that the shoes are not faulty - although debatable that there are no manufacturing faults with this particular pair that makes the leather harder or badly aligned which is invisible to the naked eye, but his foot felt it - but they are certainly not fit for purpose. The fact they advising their customers to torture their children is ridiculous though.
They haven't responded to my emails in a while either. They point blank ignoring me. All I get is an out of office reply. Surely they don't just have one person manning their customer service?

I can completely agree with other reviews on here. Since I have had a similar experience of recieving sub par quality shoes, which seem to have been made with inferior materials looking shabby very quickly (within a month) and then developing a large hole within 3 months of regular wear. I don't believe any shoes should last less then 6 months with regular wear and tear. If a child's shoe wears this fast. There is something seriously wrong with the quality. It's not as if my 4 year old was kicking concrete repeatedly for a hole to develop. Just regular wear. The customer service was unhelpful, I sent shoes back for inspection and they decided that it was not a manufacturing fault. Having previously had very good quality of shoes from them, I am extremely disappointed and imagine that shrinkflation and cheap materials have something to do with this latest pair- Enigma. Avoid. Overpriced and poor quality.

Always have great service, feel like the selection is rather lacking of choice these days though

Would give zero stars if I could. Shocking
Customer service. Lady on the phone abrupt and unprofessional. Been buying my son start rite trainers since walking from John Lewis and never had a problem. Due to lack of stock had to order direct from start rite. My little boy has worn them once and the leather has started to crumble away and creases cracking all at the front, the stitching doesn’t look very neat and is fraying away! Look really scruffy like he’s had them months not a week. I assumed as this was the first pair we had received that didn’t seem the quality they should I emailed start rite to request a return and refund. As they don’t do exchanges I went ahead and re ordered a new pair thinking they would happily return the damaged pair to cover the cost of the new Ones. Wow was I wrong!! Email ignored! I rang and was greeted with they have seen my email and photos
But she personally doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with the trainers so won’t refund the cost! We only had them
Less than a week.She refused to do anything for me stating they don’t usually get complaints about trainers ( I think start rite need to review there online reviews! ) she spoke over me the entire time, I said trainers were poor quality and doesn’t reflect the price paid or reflected any of the same pairs we had previously bought from John Lewis! She said you can’t have a refund as she personally thinks it’s wear and tear! ( after wearing them
Once inside for 2 hours!!) I explained I had reordered a new pair as was fully expecting to send these back and she said oh nothing she can do about that even though I was out of pocket for 2 pairs at £68 and my son had no trainers to wear! Asked for a manager or supervisor and she stated they don’t have one or a complaints procedure or manager! Apparently they are a small company with only a couple of members of staff! She then refused to cancel my new order as I didn’t want to spend anymore money with them! Reading online reviews wish I had seen these first as looks like this is what they do. Once you get your order doesn’t matter the state or if it’s damaged you are stuck with it and blamed for any damage! The new pair arrived yesterday with a squashed box and one shoe out of the packaging in the delivery bag! Start rite need to train there small team on customer service and I have never known a company to run without any kind of structure in team management! Should have stuck with John Lewis as this problem would have been resolved instantly! Avoid buying online from
This company! Needless to say I’m still not happy and will be taking this futher! Shocking!

I would give it zero stars if possible.
My granddaughter just started wearing the leather shoes as they were too small to begin with. Straightaway the gold rubbed off from the Velcro straps onto one’s fingers when putting them on or taking the shoes off. Needless to say they scuffed extremely quickly and now the shoes look so scruffy they are unwearable after only 3 weeks.
Customer services are extremely unhelpful and insist that shoes should be complained about with 14 days of purchase.
They simply do not want to know these shoes are not fit for purpose - shocking attitude.
I will not buy any Startrite shoes again and take my custom elsewhere.
I urge anyone to do the same after my experience.

Awful customer service . Paid for express delivery didn’t get it only to be fobbed off with ordered after 4 pm so lose a day . Been shopping startrite for my children now they are all grown up I’m now buying for their children will be using Clark’s from now on .

Ordered a shoe gauge 24th Nov and haven't received it on 13th Dec despite chasing up customer service. Had to claim a refund via PayPal.

My little one has had 5 different pairs of shoes/boots from start right and we loved them all they fit well, comfortable, last well as are sturdy , plus they all look adorable on. I will not shop for shoes anywhere else now and would highly recommend them.

Dreadful customer service. Lady on the phone was completely uninterested. Needed shoes for daughter urgently. Don’t buy. A word of advice for management your staff need to go on training courses. I have bought shoes from you previously will not be doing again.

Appalling customer service

I ordered shoes and 10 days after I get a message that my delievery will be late. No info on delivery, no reply to my 3 wmails.
I ordered few times from them, luckily no issues. But this time I realised that they have no customer service, no staff to deal with issues.
It’s better to order through JoJo Maman website, you can even get better prive there.
This will be my last order with them, they should be ashamed for using our money and not deliver the service. No reply, no apologies. Stay away

Felt the need to leave a review on Start Rite. There was a mix up with my order and I was sent the correct box with wrong shoes inside. Called them up & their customer service agent was fantastic! So polite & helpful. She apologised profusely and said keep the wrong ones & find a use for them and I will arrange next day delivery to you for the pair you ordered. Cannot ask for much more than that. Exceptional Customer Service in correcting a very easy mistake.

I have previously bought 3 pairs of shoes from them and was very happy so when it came to choosing my daughter’s school shoes it was a no brainer. After her first week the leather on the toes was peeling off. This is not normal wear and tear as that happens over time and my daughter generally looks after her shoes and possessions. I contacted them and sent them pictures and they sent me an insulting email to buy their shoe polish to polish the ‘abrasions on the toes’. I would be polishing the fabric underneath that is how scuffed they are! They are taking no responsibility for this and saying the shoe is not faulty. This should not happen to good quality shoes which they say have been tried and tested. From now on I will just buy cheap supermarket school shoes and replace them instead of investing in what I thought was a good quality pair that would last at least the year or until she grew out of them. I will not be purchasing anything from this company again.

Refused to accept returns or replacement for faulty Velcro on one of their brand new toddler shoes. The Velcro kept coming off after a few minutes and posed a tripping risk. They kept asking for photos and I explained 5 times that stickiness cannot be captured on a photo and they'd have to inspect the shoes themselves. They refused to replace, refund or even inspect the shoes.

I escalated the case to PayPal who gave me my money back.

However, their disregard and disdain towards consumers and consumer law is truly shocking. I am going ahead with reporting them to the CMA.

Scamers do not use. If you subscribe they will pass your email to scammers and your inbox will flooded with scam emails. I have never shared email I subscribed with and starting from the same day I subscribed I have been receiving scam.
Shoes are terrible quality

Awful company to deal. They sent faulty kids shoes that made my daughter’s feet bloody and refused to accept the responsibility for it.

The customer service assistant asked useless and insulting questions and showed no knowledge of the consumer rights protection. I will never buy their shoes again!

had an amazing experience with startrite. all the staff were so welcoming and helpful.

I placed my order on 31 at 10.42 and accordingly their website my order should have been dispatched on same day (Orders placed before 4pm on a working day should be dispatched on the same day with our nominated courier, Royal Mail). But instead they have dispatched my order today 2 days after I placed it. My child started school and still no shoes. Their delivery information are misleading. I read them on purpose before placing the order as I wanted to be sure they will arrive before first day in school. It is a shame fist time I ordered from this company everything was perfect.

I bought my daughter a pair of size 2.5 shoes on sale (half price compared to high street retailer). They arrived on time (to Scotland) and in box fresh condition. The shoes themselves are superb and have helped my daughter take her first steps. I'll be buying again from startrite when she needs her next pair