sorry in advance - this is a LONG post! please share with me your experiences with chanel...i am not sure how confident i feel about the quality / customer service after this experience:
i'm a relative newbie to chanel and recently purchased a jumbo classic flap from the boutique in south coast plaza (CA) from an SA named marie scott. my husband and i were in the store for literally less than 15 minutes - there wasn't much to the transaction - but i thought marie was friendly and helpful enough. i even told her i would continue to make my purchases through her, since i prefer to build one relationship rather than buy from just anyone. i didnt start using the bag until about two weeks later and within a week, i began to notice that the flap had a tendency to LEAN towards the left. at first i thought it might have something to do with the distribution of weight of the items i kept in it, so i kept moving my wallet around to balance it out, but then i took everything out and it was STILL veering/slumping towards the left! i've attached a picture of the right side of the bag so you get an idea of what i mean. has anyone else had this problem with their classics or other flaps? does it have anything to do with the "new" caviar leather that i've been reading about?
here's what i mean: (with NOTHING in the bag)
anyway, here's the second part of my story:
i had called the south coast store and asked for marie to give me advice on what i should do, but she was unavailable so another SA told me that i could just bring it in to any chanel and get an exchange. since i was going to be in vegas for the weekend, i decided to bring the bag, along with the original box, tags, etc., so i could take it into the wynn chanel boutique and see if there was anything they could do about it. when i went in, i told them i had misplaced my receipt, but that i had purchased it less than a month ago at the south coast boutique. they said no problem, asked for my full name, and went to look up my purchase history. after several failed attempts to find the transaction, the manager finally told me that there was nothing she could do and that my best bet would be to take it back to the store where i purchased it. i asked her to call the SA i had purchased it from because i was absolutely sure she would remember selling it to me. the manager came back with the same response, that there was nothing she could do.
at this point i was really frustrated but determined to get the situation fixed, so i thanked them, walked out of the store, and then proceeded to call marie myself. she remembered me afterall, and then finally found my purchase in her computer because she had listed it under my maiden last name hyphen my husband's last name! i then explained to her that i believed my bag had a defect and that i didn't want a refund, just an exchange of the same bag, which is what i had been told was standard procedure when i originally called in to find out what my options were. in what i found to be a slightly insulting tone, marie told me that i couldn't RETURN A USED BAG since it was past the two week time frame and that all they could do would be to send it in for service. i repeated that i wasn't trying to "return" the bag at all - just that i found it unacceptable that a bag i had used for less than two weeks was already starting to look mishapen, even when empty! long story short, marie was curt and unhelpful beyond telling me that it would need to be service, which could take anywhere up to several months. i said thanks and hung up, extremely frustrated. i figured i might as well process the 'service' at wynn since i was there anyway.
so i went back in and a very helpful SA named J.P. who had originally assisted me came over to help me again. i gave him the correct name the purchase was listed under, he found it in his system, and then with NO QUESTIONS ASKED, he pulled out a brand new jumbo flap, went over it with me so that we could look for any noticeable defects, and then promptly exchanged it for my slanted one! J.P. was SO HELPFUL and apologetic about the defect - it was the first time throughout the experience that i felt that someone from chanel actually cared that i was unhappy with my $2650 purchase! after processing the transaction, he showed me on the receipt that he had done a return and a re-purchase under my SA's ID# so that she could retain her commission - something he really did not have to do. having just dealt with marie's curtness, i was almost tempted to have him undo the transaction and take the credit for himself! (i did not.)
anyway, alls well that ends well, but this was really a frustrating experience for me. to be honest, this situation left me a little wary of both chanel's product and of their inconsistent service policies. have any of you ever had a problem similar to mine? what is chanel's official policy on defective products?
btw, THANK YOU if you have read all the way to the bottom of this post. thanks for letting me VENT!
Defective Jumbo - inconsistent customer service from SAs!!!
- Abraham-Hicks."
