Hi, I did not post many things here but I always search this forum whenever I would like to know something and got a lot of useful information so I think I would give back to this community 
I bought a Balenciaga bag from the UK and got it shipped to the US months ago. I found it difficult to find updated information on how it works so I think I will share my experience here. English is not my native language so sorry if it’s confusing. Warning: it is long as I want to provide as much as information I could recall. Feel free to ask me any questions
I started with finding contact info of Balenciaga boutiques in Europe which can easily be done by looking on the Balenciaga website. On the store locator page, select a country you would like to order from and you will be able to find an email address of each boutique by clicking on “store details”. I tried sending to several boutiques but mostly got no response. I’m listing all of them here:
- Madrid, Spain - they said the product I asked was available but they could not ship it to the US
- Paris, France - no response
- PARIS SAINT HONORÉ, France - I got a failed delivery attempt email like the email address was not valid
- Cannes, France - they replied to my first email within a few hours saying they could ship it to the US, however, they did not reply to any of my emails after that. I’m not sure what happened
- GALERIES LAFAYETTE HAUSSMANN, France - no response
- LE BON MARCHÉ, France - their email address is Balenciaga France customer service email. They did not state clearly whether they could ship it to the US but they would like me to visit their boutiques so I did not reply.
- Florence, Italy - no response
- Milan, Italy - no response
- Venice, Italy - no response
- Munich, Germany - no response
- Hamburg, Germany - no response
- Berlin, Germany - no response
- Harrods, UK - no response
- Doverstreet, London, UK - no response
- Sloane Street, London, UK - their email address is of Balenciaga UK customer service. They said the product was available online and in their boutiques and they were able to ship to the US but I need to call them. However, the number they gave me is their US customer service number so I thought the price would be the same as their US price so I did not call.
- Selfridges, London, UK - this was where I got my bag. If you are not familiar with Selfridges, it’s a reputable department store like Harrods or Neiman Marcus.
I got a reply from Balenciaga Selfridges within a few hours after I sent an email but it seemed like the SA replied me using his personal email address on his phone which I found strange but after I replied to his email, he replied me back using the Balenciaga Selfridges email address so I thought he might be a store manager? He asked for my phone number to discuss further. After giving him my phone number, he contacted me through Whatsapp. He told me the total cost would be the UK price less UK Vat (20%) plus 2% insurance and £25 shipping.
You can easily estimate the final price before contacting them. UK price shown on their website already includes Vat. Beware when you’re doing the math, don’t deduct 20% from the UK price because for example, if an item’s value without vat is 100, the vat would be 20 so the final price after vat would be 120 but 20% off 120 is not equal to 100. So basically, you should deduct 16.67% from the price you see on their website and you will get the price without vat. 2% insurance was calculated from the price without vat but I later found on my receipt that it was actually an “admin charge”.
I asked him for some pictures of the real bag I would receive. The pictures he sent me seemed like they were taken inside Balenciaga boutique in Selfridges and the tag was still on. He said they were a concession so their stock was not the same with Selfridges website which I found it true as the bag I wanted was already sold out on Selfridges website long time ago
After I agreed to buy, he forwarded my contact to another associate which I later found that she was not a Balenciaga SA but she was like a personal shopper of Selfridges and she could find you an item from any brands sold at Selfridges. I asked her for some kind of proof (I am a paranoid kind of person) and she sent me a photo of her employee tag. She also sent me a photo of my receipt which looked like a real receipt that I would get when buying an item from Selfridges with the details of all the charges on it.
For the payment, you can sent her a photo of your credit card which I won’t recommend. Alternatively, you can give her your credit card number on the phone. She will make an appointment to call you.
My item got shipped via DHL 2-3 days after the payment as it was her day-off. It arrived the US 5-6 days after shipped. I got tracking updates via text messages from DHL. Once it arrived the US, i got a message from DHL that I needed to pay the duty before they could deliver my package so make sure that you give the right phone number when you order. They provided me the detailed receipt. I was charged 9 percent of the total cost of the bag (excluding admin charge & shipping fee). The price of the bag was converted to USD before calculating the duty. The exchange rate was fair. Beware that there would be an advance payment surcharge from DHL which is currently $15.
The bag I received was in a Balenciaga dust bag along with tag and receipt. There was no box. Both the parcel box and packing paper had Selfridges logo on them. I used Authenticate4u service to confirm that the bag is authentic and that was the end of the story
I bought a Balenciaga bag from the UK and got it shipped to the US months ago. I found it difficult to find updated information on how it works so I think I will share my experience here. English is not my native language so sorry if it’s confusing. Warning: it is long as I want to provide as much as information I could recall. Feel free to ask me any questions
I started with finding contact info of Balenciaga boutiques in Europe which can easily be done by looking on the Balenciaga website. On the store locator page, select a country you would like to order from and you will be able to find an email address of each boutique by clicking on “store details”. I tried sending to several boutiques but mostly got no response. I’m listing all of them here:
- Madrid, Spain - they said the product I asked was available but they could not ship it to the US
- Paris, France - no response
- PARIS SAINT HONORÉ, France - I got a failed delivery attempt email like the email address was not valid
- Cannes, France - they replied to my first email within a few hours saying they could ship it to the US, however, they did not reply to any of my emails after that. I’m not sure what happened
- GALERIES LAFAYETTE HAUSSMANN, France - no response
- LE BON MARCHÉ, France - their email address is Balenciaga France customer service email. They did not state clearly whether they could ship it to the US but they would like me to visit their boutiques so I did not reply.
- Florence, Italy - no response
- Milan, Italy - no response
- Venice, Italy - no response
- Munich, Germany - no response
- Hamburg, Germany - no response
- Berlin, Germany - no response
- Harrods, UK - no response
- Doverstreet, London, UK - no response
- Sloane Street, London, UK - their email address is of Balenciaga UK customer service. They said the product was available online and in their boutiques and they were able to ship to the US but I need to call them. However, the number they gave me is their US customer service number so I thought the price would be the same as their US price so I did not call.
- Selfridges, London, UK - this was where I got my bag. If you are not familiar with Selfridges, it’s a reputable department store like Harrods or Neiman Marcus.
I got a reply from Balenciaga Selfridges within a few hours after I sent an email but it seemed like the SA replied me using his personal email address on his phone which I found strange but after I replied to his email, he replied me back using the Balenciaga Selfridges email address so I thought he might be a store manager? He asked for my phone number to discuss further. After giving him my phone number, he contacted me through Whatsapp. He told me the total cost would be the UK price less UK Vat (20%) plus 2% insurance and £25 shipping.
You can easily estimate the final price before contacting them. UK price shown on their website already includes Vat. Beware when you’re doing the math, don’t deduct 20% from the UK price because for example, if an item’s value without vat is 100, the vat would be 20 so the final price after vat would be 120 but 20% off 120 is not equal to 100. So basically, you should deduct 16.67% from the price you see on their website and you will get the price without vat. 2% insurance was calculated from the price without vat but I later found on my receipt that it was actually an “admin charge”.
I asked him for some pictures of the real bag I would receive. The pictures he sent me seemed like they were taken inside Balenciaga boutique in Selfridges and the tag was still on. He said they were a concession so their stock was not the same with Selfridges website which I found it true as the bag I wanted was already sold out on Selfridges website long time ago
After I agreed to buy, he forwarded my contact to another associate which I later found that she was not a Balenciaga SA but she was like a personal shopper of Selfridges and she could find you an item from any brands sold at Selfridges. I asked her for some kind of proof (I am a paranoid kind of person) and she sent me a photo of her employee tag. She also sent me a photo of my receipt which looked like a real receipt that I would get when buying an item from Selfridges with the details of all the charges on it.
For the payment, you can sent her a photo of your credit card which I won’t recommend. Alternatively, you can give her your credit card number on the phone. She will make an appointment to call you.
My item got shipped via DHL 2-3 days after the payment as it was her day-off. It arrived the US 5-6 days after shipped. I got tracking updates via text messages from DHL. Once it arrived the US, i got a message from DHL that I needed to pay the duty before they could deliver my package so make sure that you give the right phone number when you order. They provided me the detailed receipt. I was charged 9 percent of the total cost of the bag (excluding admin charge & shipping fee). The price of the bag was converted to USD before calculating the duty. The exchange rate was fair. Beware that there would be an advance payment surcharge from DHL which is currently $15.
The bag I received was in a Balenciaga dust bag along with tag and receipt. There was no box. Both the parcel box and packing paper had Selfridges logo on them. I used Authenticate4u service to confirm that the bag is authentic and that was the end of the story
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