Nice Twice

Great women’s consignment shop — a wide assortment of top designer handbags, clothes, shoes and accessories. I had to hunt a bit to find the shop but it was well worth my efforts. Nice Twice is adjacent to the Key Biscayne Post Office. In fact, I’ll tell you that the new owner Carolyn is working hard to upgrade. She is also working to get the correct telephone listed on her website — 305−733−5065. As a frequent NYC and DC consignment shopper, I was delighted to find two well-​priced treasures. I highly recommend.

Dear Nice Twice (Direct from business card: Alterations, Tayloring, Cushion Covers, Boat Canvas),
You are not nice — not once, not twice.
I am still in shock over my experience here, which is why I gave myself the weekend to cool off before attempting to sit and write you.
Have you ever had a gut feeling and decided to ignore it? Don’t. Bad move. The gut is always right. Yet another confirming testimonial…
I guess I should start from the beginning… I had 3 pairs of heels that I had been needing to get fixed. They needed the new heel thingie and new soles. One pair even needed new insoles. Having grown up down the street from a shoe repair store, I had taken many shoes for the makeovers and 2^nd chances. I know how this works.
Working in Key Biscayne makes many things difficult due to the distance. So when I realized there was a shoe repair store next to the Post Office, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Finally, a place I could actually make it to on a lunch break that would actually be open.
It was a Friday when I dropped them off. I came in after lunchtime and found there to be 3 people working in the store. The ladies seemed to have a good attitude and were laughing and joking. There was one gentlemen who seemed very preoccupied with something he was doing. In Spanish, I asked about the shoe repair person, and was greeted with some giggles, which made me kind of uncomfortable, almost as if they were mocking my Spanish, which I know is not the best, but I grew up speaking it, so I know I can speak it well enough.
I should have walked out, but I wanted to get my shoes fixed and decided to just continue on my mission. The preoccupied gentlemen turned out to be Alex, the shoe repair guy. His attitude was less than welcoming and it was a strain to explain what I needed. In the end, he wrote up a work order slip and handed me a yellow copy. He said I could come get them the following Thursday. As I made it halfway to my car, I realized as I checked over the receipt that there were no prices on any of the items he listed for the work order. I turned around and walked into the store and back to the guy, Alex. I asked him to please explain the prices to me, as I didn’t want to drop something off and not know what I was paying for. He started doing some mental, half-​verbal, calculations and said it would be around $ 50. Knowing I was on Key Biscayne, I decided not to argue the price for the convenience of having this done right next door to my office.
When I returned this past Friday (just a day after I was told they would be ready), I was eager to pick up my heels that had long been out of commission. I saw a pair sitting on the work station and immediately started getting disappointed. I had asked him to please touch up my shoes with some kind of polish where they were scuffed, and immediately noticed this was NOT done. At all. The shoes looked exactly the same. When I pointed this out to Alex he became very angry and insulting. To boot, he tells me it’s going to be $ 65 with tax. WTF? Excuse me?!
I was not trying to insult him and was not being loud or rude. On the contrary, I kept telling him that I had no problem paying him for his work and for what it was worth, but that he needed to give me a detailed itemization of what he did and how it equaled $ 65, when I was told it was going to be $ 50. He became irate and told me he was not going to argue with me that I could pay him just $ 50. I explained that wasn’t what I was looking for, that I wanted him to explain how he arrived at that price (am I on crazy pills???) and would be happy to pay it.
Realizing I wasn’t getting anywhere, I just took out my card and told him to charge me the $ 50. He looked at me and told me he wouldn’t take my card, that they only take cash. I could have sworn there was a Visa machine at the entrance but maybe I was hallucinating. I explained I would have to go to the Bank of America at the beginning of the Key and would be back shorty.
I returned with the $ 50 cash and without a word we exchanged the cash for the shoes. To top it all off, the shoes weren’t even done well. On the pair that needed the insoles, he didn’t put them in right, there are lumps where my foot is supposed to rest on. Another pair isn’t glued down properly. None of them were cleaned. None of them were touched up with shoe polish to try and make the scuffs disappear.
I am still in shock am and extremely disappointed. I not only feel disrespected and insulted, but also taken. I work on the island, I do not live here. I am not an idiot, and have experienced other shoe repair places in the past. For that man to treat me and speak to me in the manner that he did is just ghastly.
I hope this guy gets a serious attitude adjustment, and quick.
With all honesty,
SabrinaAnna*