C'mon Adidas, surely you are better than this !

I was gifted a pair of Adidas golf shoes. I have always been a Footjoy user so this was a first for me. I must say that these shoes were excellent and I really enjoyed the comfort. A few months after wearing them, I noticed some rust coloured stains appearing (shoes are white) which simply could not be removed. I must just add that these shoes were not worn under challenging conditions as our course is pretty soft underfoot. Several weeks after these stains appearing, I decided to contact Adidas vis their customer service address, to make them aware of this (perhaps a material or manufacturing issue which could be corrected) and asked if there was anything that could be done. I mailed through on 01 September 2024. This is where the challenge began. Instead of engaging with a dissatisfied customer, the first response rolled out the Consumer Protection Act to me and indicated their warranties were only six months. In addition, to send through original invoice, photos plus enquiring about cleaning and type of use. At that stage I could not recall specifically when the product had been given to me. I managed to get the invoice from the person who gave me the gift and it transpired that these were bought online on 25 February 2024. I duly comp**** with sending through the invoice, shoe photos plus the other info that was required. The unexpected response I received was that this beyond the warranty date (all of 5 days :-) ) and that they were thankful I had raised this with them but as was beyond the warranty period, there was nothing that could be done. After pointing out that these stains did not miraculously just appear but had been there for many weeks, plus indicating that would not be a good advert for their product if I continued to wear them at one of the busiest golf courses in the country, there was a quick retraction of the rejection mail. I was given a return order number, asked to box the shoes and told someone would collect these. Despite a number of enquiries, I am unable to get a lucid response as to where these will be collected from, whom will collect these and specifically when. Clearly all of this is handled in an offs**** call centre as a different person responds with a standard type e-mail each time. I am somewhat doubtful that this will be resolved after such a run around on what should have been a very simple matter. Hard to believe that a company like Adidas does not have better ways of engaging with dissatisfied customers to ultimately prevent them becoming detractors which is poison for a brand. Lesson for me is to remain with my trusted Footjoy golf brand and steer clear of any Adidas golf footwear product, white in particular !