A Pacific Beach man said he purchased a pair of UGG boots for a friend but when she tried to exchange them at the store the boots were bought from, the store said the boots were counterfeit.
Eddie Griffith said he was doing something nice for a friend when he took her to Boot World on Midway Drive to get her a new pair of UGG boots.
“I’ve purchased plenty of them from actually that store, I’ve probably purchased four or five pairs,” Eddie said.
This visit Eddie found a deal on some women’s sand-colored, classic tall boots. Eddie paid $167 and said the clerk told them they could not return the shoes but they could exchange them if there was a problem.
“She (his friend) preferred a different color,” Eddie said.
Two weeks later, Eddie said his friend decided she wanted a darker color so she took the box with the shoes and the receipt back to the Midway Drive Boot World store.
“They immediately started attacking her, saying these aren’t their boots, they didn’t come from our store,” Eddie said.
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With his friend unable to exchange the boots, Eddie went back to the store himself to make the exchange. The manager also told him the boots were fake and denied the store sold him the boots. Eddie said the manager told him to leave the store.
“I bought these here and they’re like no you didn’t, those shoes did not come from our store,” Eddie said.
Eddie said he felt humiliated and that he had no idea if the boots were counterfeit or not, all Eddie knew was that he bought the boots from that store.
“How am I supposed to know, I’m not a shoe expert,” Eddie said.
Not being able to get help from the store, Eddie turned to NBC 7 Responds. We met with Boot World President Ed Stone and after looking over the boots, Mr. Stone determined they were authentic UGG boots, just an older model with labels he had not seen before. Stone apologized to Eddie and his friend and offered them an exchange for a more expensive pair of boots.
In an email, Stone sent us this statement, “”Ugg does an excellent job keeping the market as clean of counterfeiters as possible. They have responded quickly and vigorously to the market and are constantly in effort to keep the market clean. My recommendation for the consumer is to only buy Uggs from a reputable authorized Ugg retailer. And to further reduce the risk of a possible counterfeit, strongly consider buying the product in person at a brick and mortar store and ask to see the anti-counterfeit measures that are built into every pair of Uggs and then, enjoy the comfort, style and absolute luxurious decadence of a genuine pair of Uggs.”
The UGG boot brand is one of the most counterfeited brands around the world, so how can you tell whether or not your boots are real? NBC 7 Responds created a video checklist so that you can determine whether or not your boots are authentic.
To watch the video, click here or watch below.