Illinois woman baffled by mystery shoe delivery as senders try to return items to wrong address

Shoes and more shoes were mysteriously sent to a woman from Oak Park.

She was unable to get help from any of the parties involved in the strange deliveries until the I-Team tracked down the cause of the shoe problem.

They say if the shoe fits, wear it.

“They won’t bend. You can’t walk in them,” said Simone Boutet.

So she will refrain from wearing them.

“You should check out the others. They’re really funny,” said Boutet. “And they’re really, really, really cheesy.”

Unwanted shoes showed up on her doorstep last summer and received between 15 and 20 pairs of shoes.

“I can’t stop and it’s really funny because of the shoes themselves, they’re just hilariously not my style,” she said. “And it just doesn’t stop. It’s absurd. You know, it’s absurd.”

There are white go-go boots, velvet stilettos, pink combat boots and more.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if they shipped Birkenstocks in size 11, maybe I’d wear them,” laughed Boutet. “I’m frustrated with this situation because it keeps repeating itself. It’s also just frustrating on a customer service level when you’re dealing with huge companies that you’re not really getting the customer service you need to solve a problem.”

Why are these shoes sent to Boutet’s home? Customers are trying to return the shoes to an Amazon retailer outside of China. This supplier’s return address label says “RETURNS DEPARTMENT” and “Simone” on Elm Street in Chicago, which is also not a shoe return center.

UPS attempted to correct the address error and instead shipped the shoes to “Simone” in Oak Park.

“I was trying to tell UPS if they could just delete this entry altogether,” Boutet said.

She even tried returning a box to a UPS store.

“I explained the whole thing to her and she understood. And so she brought them back and then about four days later they came back to me in the mail,” she said.

UPS informed the I-Team: “…several of these package labels have been revised and sent to the correct destination…due to a clerical error, some of them have been addressed to Ms. Boutet.”

UPS also said it will contact the seller to put an end to the shoe shipping slip-up.

But what about that address Amazon gives to customers returning shoes? The address with the name “Simone”.

Boutet said she reached out to Amazon but still had questions.

“They just didn’t have an answer,” Boutet said.

So the I-Team contacted Amazon and a spokesperson told us, “…we were able to address this highly unusual situation and asked the shoe seller to make the appropriate corrections on their side.”

Boutet is thrilled that the I-Team helped tie loose ends. She hopes the strange shoe deliveries will stop.

“All my front stairs were like boxes and boxes of shoes, and they all have a height. A lot of them are really high heels, which amuses me a lot,” Boutet said.

Amazon also told us if you’re having a similar issue, select a “drop-down” menu request for customer service. Boutet said she tried that but it didn’t help her solve the unusual problem.