this is very long...

i am beyond furious with Bal LV. i started buying from bal lv from the same sales lady months ago. i have purchased about 4 or 5 bags from her already and very recently i purchased 3 mini pompons from her within a week. 2 out the of 3 mini pompons had minor flaws but i let it go. the last purchase i made was a gsh mini pompon and a coquelicot city. the bags are always mailed so i let her know what i am looking for and the kind of leather.

anyways, she told me coquelicot city in rg hardware needs to be sent from another store so I said thats fine as long as it is sent to me before the price increase. on friday i received the coquelicot package and was super excited to see my new bag and OMG was i surprised. she sent me a coquelicot RGH!! i wasn't mad at first, i thought it was an honest mistake so i texted her immediately and her reply was "oh im sorry, i am off today. i will fix it tomorrow."

i text and emailed her saying "it's okay (thinking it was just a simple mistake). let me know if you have the coquelicot city in rg hardware in stock and if you will be crediting my account or exchanging it based upon the old city price."

i know bal does not credit accounts, they only issue store credit. the only reason why i asked about crediting my account was because it was their mistake not because "i don't like my bag"

Saturday (the day after i received the package)
so i waited till the next day (saturday) and still no reply. i decided to email her again. i asked her what the story was and if she had any coquelicot city in rg? and also if she had my on the way gsh mini pompon tracking number that she promised to text me. she replied my email skipping crucial questions regarding exchanging or crediting and answered
"i have a coquelicot city in rg on hold for you. my manager will be in at 4pm and i will talk to her and get back to you."

i waited and waited and finally she sends me an email with a return postage for me to print out. in that email she still did not address what will happen after they receive my returned bag!! i text her and no reply. i called her and they said she was with a client. i waited some more and sent her another email. still no reply about what they will do. she did however email me the tracking number i had asked for earlier and that was it! later in the evening i sent her another email asking her AGAIN if they will credit my account, exchange it for the old price and credit the difference.

Sunday
along comes sunday and still no email from her. i was getting very angry. back then she was very good with emails and text, always reply immediately or same day as long as she was working. but not this time, not when they made a mistake, i can feel that she was hiding from me. i couldn't sit around anymore so i called her and her coworker said she won't be in till later. i waited until it was her shift and i called back AGAIN. and boy am i not surprised that i get "she is with a client." i thought fine, i'll call back then. waited 20min, blocked my number and called her back. she answered the phone!

i said "i sent you emails, maybe you didn't check it yet but i need to know what is going on, what will be done, issue a refund or exchange based on old price. i can't just send a bag back to you without knowing what you are going to do"

she was pausing sorta like she was being told what to say and finally...

she said "i text you, you didn't get it (which by the way sounded like a big fat lie!)? well...my manager said because you have purchased bags from us that we will issue you a credit."

when i heard that i was holding back my anger and my laughter. she thought i didn't know that bal only issue store credit to anyone!

i said "WHAT? you sent me an item i did not order and it was someone's mistake and definitely not mine and you want to issue a store credit? i know bal issue store credits to anyone not because i purchased from you. i am upset you are asking me to accept store credit. i have purchased several bags from you and this is what you are telling me"she said "well, my manager said that because they want customers to keep coming back so they are issuing a store credit. my manager is not in so let me call her and i will call you back." i said "so you'll call me back in 5 min?" she said "no, about 30min."

i said "fine"

she calls me back in less than 5 min!!

she said "my manager said to give you an answer tomorrow. my manager won't be in tomorrow but i will call her."

i said "did you even tell her i ordered rg not rgh? obviously the boutique that placed the order misunderstood you."

she said "yes i told her. i will talk to her and try to tell her that is it the right thing to do because it was our mistake. i wrote rg so they must've thought it was rose gold."

i said "rg is regular hardware and rose gold is rgh, not the same. fine i will wait until tomorrow."

she said "i will call her in the morning tomorrow even though i wont be in until the afternoon and i will call you. also, there is a slip i will email you for ups to sign when you send your package out. don't send it out yet until i call you."

she never sent me the email of the slip she said ups needs to sign. and i am doubting that she will call me. i am so mad. not only did i miss out on the old price but i was charged more for an item i did not want! i don't know what to do if they won't issue me a refund. i'm afraid i will be screaming at the sales or the manager. any advice??

Oh I'm so sorry that has happened to you. You must be so disappointed. She must have misunderstood you when you have said 'rg hardware' because it could be mistaken as rose gold hardware. She may have understood better if you had said RH hardware. I do hope you get the right bag though at least.

Yes, RH is regular hardware. In email and text communications it is understandable that your s/a misunderstood.

Honestly, your s/a is at the mercy of her manager, who is HORRIFIC! The reason she is stalling you is because her manager does not plan to accommodate you. If she refuses, then file a dispute with your credit card company, explaining they shipped you a bag in error at the incorrect price and you want to override their store credit policy for a refund.

I wrote an email to Bal corporate about the manager at Bal LV, and was basically dismissed. I once had a bag on hold with my s/a who was waiting for my credit card authorization form to fax. The manager snatched it away and sold it to a customer who had her credit card "ready and available". We exchanged many back and forth emails and she was rude and unapologetic.

You will expend more energy and stress trying to rectify this with your s/a because she has no control over the outcome. The final decision lies with management. If they continue to stall you, contact your credit card company to find out if you have any recourse.

I will be taking my Bal business to other retailers and away from Bal LV.

Yes, I also got confused with your abbreviations because RH is indeed regular hardware and RGH is rosé gold hardware. ( in tPf, it is RH and RGGH for rose gold giant hardware).
Despite this, I hope you get this settled sooner and that you get a refund instead of store credit.

My sales lady understood I wanted regular hardware. Where it went wrong was her communication with the other boutique that had coquelicot in stock.

She email me the slip ups needs to sign. I still haven't received any calls from her even though she said she will call in the morning.

I am still so angry. The transaction was on 10/31. It feels as if they were trying to make the month end quota and sent me a bag that cost a few hundred more than what I was asking for. What makes me even more angry is my sales lady avoiding me.

I have a feeling that she is trying to stall past the 10 day exchange period. she told me not to send the bag back until I hear back from her and so far she never attempted to contact me.

I am done waiting for her to get back to me which I know she probably won't do. I called my cc company and explained what had happened. A dispute will be filed and my cc company will issue a conditional credit to me and they will deal with bal lv. I asked about when I should send the item back and was advised to send it back when I can even if the dispute is not resolved yet. I am taking pictures of the bag, scanning receipts, and sending it back. Hopefully it will be resolved soon.

Make sure to send it back with signature confirmation as proof for your cc company!

This is so typical of them! Are you referring to the Bal in ceasars? I've had many problems with them before and they are part of the reason I dun buy anymore. They lie n hide n avoid you. I hope this works out for you. I really do.

Wow - what rotten customer service - since Bal LV fired two of the sales associates I dealt with and liked - I , too will not buy from them again. I hope your credit card company gets this resolved.

What they are doing is disgusting. Her manager actually saying only store credit so she can keep customers from coming back to the store is ridiculous. After being through this and treated like it was my fault is making me wanting to stop buying bal and sell my bal collection. What sucks is I still have a mini pompon from bal lv arriving this wk, it was supposedly charged the same day as coquelicot. I'm crossing my fingers hoping there is nothing wrong with mini pompon.

I have dealt with a few bal stores and so far they are all pretty awful. They commmunicate with you when you want to buy and after item is charged they end all communication. Why I've decided to buy from my current sales lady is because she actually is willing to communicate even after a transaction. But after this incident, she's no better.

I'm hoping there wouldn't be any issues after I return the bag, such as cc can't resolve it and I am still stuck with the bill and no bag.

thanks, my cc company also advised to get signature confirmation as well. Bal lv email me ups return label to print out, can I add shipping confirmation if I use their return label?

Sorry to hear about your experience. When you spend that much money on a luxury good, you'd think you should get the best experience out of the transaction. After listening to all this staff, in no way I am going to order anything directly from the Bal boutique. What a shame!

How frustrating! I've also had several lousy experiences with Bal LV once my SA "sold" me a bag. A week later I never received the bag so I emailed her because I usually get it with in a few days. Apparently the bag they had was "on hold" for another customer and she had to find another bag with in the company. She was having one shipped from the NY store but instead of shipping it to me it goes to their store and then they ship it to me. So another week goes buy and they are still waiting for it from the other store. Finally after 3 weeks I told her to cancel it and they just packed it up for shipping the day before. So I got screwed into a store credit which I ended up using at another store because I was done with that store. Before that experience I also ordered some bracelets that they didn't have in stock they got them shipped from another store but they sent the wrong item so I had to send it back, that time they did refund me because it was their error. So it can be done they just don't want to do it.

Bal policy is no refund but thats for ppl that changed their minds about the item, it shouldnt be applied when the store makes a mistake. I even said it to the sales, it's not because I do not like the bag, it's because you sent me the wrong one. I know for sure they can issue a refund especially when it was their error but they are refusing to. Most of the time I'm pretty easy and I must say if they were apologetic about the whole situation I would probably have kept the bag even though it wasn't what I wanted. But because of their attitudes and actions I will not allow them to screw me over and bully me into accepting their lousy store credit. Bal does not treat their clients with respect and if we don't speak up, it will only get worse. I hope my cc company can get this resolved.

The whole day went by and my prediction was 100% accurate, the sales never called me today. Absolutely horrible that this is how they choose to conduct business.

My anger is growing as time goes by, I can't stand the thought of my bal bags being in my closets! It's sad how one incident can make me change how I feel about my bals.

The Bal people have no loyalty whatsoever. A sale is a sale to them, no matter who you are or how many bals you already bought from them. They're that obnoxious.
I suggest if you still want to buy Bal that you only get them from the stores that sell Bals and not from boutiques.
I have always bought from Balenciaga boutiques but too many issues so now I buy only from reputable online boutiques that even give free shipping and sometimes a special discount for special customers. These online stores take care of their online clients much better than these snooty Balenciaga SA's.