Saltwater sandals are they worth it?

Saltwater sandals are a bit of a cult hit on the gram, etc.
They are now also available in Europe. Because a lot of people online seemed very pleased with them (incidentally I’m pretty sure most of these people got theirs for free) and most importantly: I liked the look of them, I figured I’d invest in a pair. 

Now are they worth it? 
If you don’t feel like reading an entire post, let me get straight to it: very much NO.


 

Whilst they are fairly easy to break in, just wear them around the house with socks, you don’t even need thick socks either, for about 2 weeks, and are very comfortable around your foot after that. Well, that's how I did it at least.

 

These are sandals literally made for outfit shots, footwear shots and promenading on the beach and over flat roads. 
And not that long either, because the soles are so inflexible that if you walk on concrete for too long, you WILL feel it. 
Heaven forbid that you walk over a lot of uneven road such as cobble stones, because you will definitely feel it. 
Now, I’m used to going barefoot and wearing stuff like flip flops, so I can absolutely take this for say, a full day. But multiple days in a row, yeah that’s not going to happen (whereas I'm the kind of person that will amble around in Disney parks for days on end on Puma flip flops). Because the soles simply do NOT offer you the support you need. 
I will still wear mine, but only under circumstances where I know I won’t have to wear them for a lot of walking. 
If I need to walk, I will put on my TEVA or Palladium sandals, which are granted, a lot less pretty and classy, but they at least offer proper support and comfort, no matter the terrain I’m stomping around on.

 

The buckles seem rather fragile, I feel they aren’t quite attached well enough. So I’m always super, super careful so they don’t come off. 
Give a sandal like that to a kid, and they’ll be wrecked in no time, however. 
I definitely would NOT recommend these for children. 

If you want something that looks pretty, with a certain vintage flair to it because you're only going to wear it for photos and no actual walking around, and you don’t mind the price, heck, go for a pair of Salties. I’m sure you can find something better mind, on places like Top Vintage and assorted vintage reproduction stores. If you want actual comfort and support for your feet: get another brand (I personally like TEVA and Palladium).

 

Anyway, issues with the sole aside, their European customer service is also rubbish (be warned, this is a pretty long story). 
I ordered mine about a week before I went on a trip back in February, which wasn’t an issue because there’s always someone home (Bert’s nan or his granddad) to accept a parcel. 
When I got back UPS had just put a slip in the mail to pick up a mystery parcel in a shop 2 towns over (too far to go there by bike). No other info what so ever. Now, Bert’s brother and our sister in law tend to also have packages sent to our house, so we didn’t even know who it was for. 
Meaning I had to go chase after information myself. 
Which, at this point, is of course NOT the fault of Saltwater. 
However, seeing they were the only ones I was expecting a parcel from I sent them an email. 
Initially, I got a sort of automated response saying had to register (which I had refused to do and I just ordered as a guest) to be able to see the open case. 
I registered, and the case was… empty. Just a copy of my email and that was it. So I mailed them again, explaining that I just wanted an answer to my question, not this entire spiel (politely mind). 
It took forever for them to respond, and the manner of responding was all but ok and extremely vague. 
Basically I had to ask for the tracking code, because they didn’t even provide that initially. So that was a stress and a half and took way too much time. 
UPS was also a pile of bollox (and I haven’t ordered anything from a company that ships via UPS since, and that was February, nor am I unlikely to do so ever again), basically making empty promises and trolling me (they would redeliver, but then refused to actually pick up the parcel at the store it was at to make the redelivery). 
In the end, Bert had to drive out to the store to pick up the parcel (luckily the people from the store had been super friendly and helpful), which was under serious threat of getting returned to sender thanks to the fuckmuppetry of UPS and the utter lack of help from Saltwater (they could have contacted UPS, demanded a redelivery, etc etc but they just sat on their arse and left me to sort out the mess. And again, yes, I know that it’s not their fault that UPS cocked up, but I’m just saying that some assistance would have been nice because UPS tends to not respond, at all, ‘till the sender gets involved, which they are full well aware off. If you choose to ship with UPS, you need to be ready to deal with their crap. And many companies WILL). 
Basically, I ended up emailing Saltwater, explaining the situation, because Bert basically had to take an afternoon off work to be able to get the package in time (thanks to a strike he had one, but otherwise it would have been even WORSE), it took us an hour in total just to pick it up because it was left that far away (rather than at the pick-up point at the train station which would have cost me half an hour tops, by bike) and basically, I paid through the nose (it was nearly 18 pounds!) for shipping whilst the package wasn’t even delivered to my house and no confirmation nor tracking info were provided ‘till I chased after them. 
It took days, again, so many in fact that I thought I was never even going to get a response, ‘till I got this super fake sorry not sorry email that really rubbed me the wrong way, where a customer service rep was making empty excuses and pretending she was super infuriated by the situation and that customer service was so important to them. 
But hey no, they weren’t going to refund my shipping because hey, UPS service may be shit and we had to seriously do all that effort to even make sure to have the package but I still got it so whatever. 
Proving right then and there they give zero fucks about customer service. 
I tried reasoning with them, but in the end I told them point blank that I could not in good faith recommend their product, would not support it and that if I could (I had started breaking them in at that point) I would have sent them back because I was so disgusted by their attitude. 
And I demanded to have all my information erased from their database as per GDPR. To which they confirmed that they had in fact done so. 
Mind you, in between mails going back and forth, they kept sending me passive aggressive “case closed” mails. 
Because clearly, actually discussing an issue with a customer is also not on the agenda. 
But hey, they value customer care! 

So no, even if their sandals were the best in the world, which sadly they aren’t, I wouldn’t order from them again. 
I had really hoped that at least the quality would have been there to make it worth the money (€80+ in total, shipping included) and drama, but again: sadly not.