Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I loved these boots when they first showed up. They are surprisingly warm for being generic winter boots and seemed to be doing well keeping my feet warm and dry with all our snow and ice lately... Until this a.m. when I went to put them on and noticed the stitching and shoe coming undone from what (to me) seems like an awkward spot...it doesn't seem like there should be a lot of tension there and no reason for the shoe to be falling apart. This leaves me pretty upset at the money I paid for them, especially because I've worn these boots a grand total of 3 times. I'll need to research the return policy, but I'm afraid that if it is like a large number of shoe stores, they won't take them back or exchange them once they've been worn outside and now I'm stuck with shoes that certainly do not hold the quality I was expecting for the money I spent. I'm not unrealistic about the price of the boots and their overall quality. These are not Timberland or Sorel, I get that. But $40 and I wore them 3 times? That's insane.